Formula 1®
DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award: 2016 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX
Speed, precision, perfect teamwork: all three criteria need to come together within a few seconds for the execution of a flawless and fast pit stop. The Williams pit crew have certainly got it down to a fine art this season. The Blues were again unbeatable in the 2016 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX. This time, it was the first stop for Brazil's Felipe Massa which clinched it for Williams.
Of the 44 pit stops in the race, more than half (namely 24) came in under the three-second mark. Williams gave yet another impressive display of their consistency in the pit lane, performing three of the four fastest stops in the race. Only Max Verstappen's Red Bull pit crew stopped Williams making a clean sweep by posting a time of 2.14 seconds.
The DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award for 2016 was actually wrapped up a long time ago, Williams having established an unassailable lead of twelve fastest pit stops in 16 races. The only two outfits that have managed to beat the illustrious racing team this season in this particular discipline are Mercedes (three times) and Red Bull Racing (once).
Strategy: Risk pays off for Red Bull
The Sepang International Circuit presented the teams with a number of new challenges this year. For a start, the entire track course has been resurfaced for the new season. Some curbs have been replaced and corners redesigned. This has had a knock-on effect for the choice of tires, with the hard, the medium and the soft compounds coming into contention for this year's grand prix at Sepang. The first of the three was obligatory for at least one of the stints in the race.
The two Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen engaged in a particularly lively encounter. Following the retirement of race leader Lewis Hamilton, this developed into a fight for victory. Red Bull put their two drivers on different strategies. Ricciardo stopped twice, Verstappen three times. the reason for this being that the team wanted to try a more adventurous strategy for the car running second.
"After the first Virtual Safety Car we decided to take a little bit of a risk with an early stop for Max which put him out of sequence with the other cars," said Team Principal Christian Horner. "Daniel was going well and by the time they got through the first stop on to the hard tyre it looked like a one-stop might be feasible. Then unfortunately for Lewis his engine let go causing the next virtual safety car, and we took the opportunity to ensure that both drivers could get to the end of the race on a new set of soft tyres. Then it was a straight fight between the two of them to get to the chequered flag, and Daniel had just enough in hand to maintain a margin and complete a one-two finish."
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