Formula 1®
DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award: 2016 FORMULA 1 RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX
Felipe Massa' s crew turned him around quick as a flash on the first of two pit stops. The white-clad mechanics sent their man back out into the race in just 2.23 seconds. None of the other teams in the pit lane were able to work any faster this Sunday afternoon!
There were a total of 24 pit stops during the 53 laps, which is five more than last year and more than in the debut year of the Russian Grand Prix in the 2014 season. In six of these 24 stops, pit crews beat the magical 3 second benchmark figure. This feat was achieved in Sochi only by Williams, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari. All of the three stops performed by the Williams team were under three seconds.
Clear advantage for one-stop strategy
The best strategy for the Russian Grand Prix was a one-stopper, just like last year. The strategists had to take into account the length of the pit lane at 419 meters with its speed limit of 80 km/h and allow 18.9 seconds to cover the distance.
2015 winner Lewis Hamilton stopped on Lap 32. This year, his teammate and leader in the standings Nico Rosberg pitted on Lap 21. Rosberg had started on the super soft tires and subsequently completed 32 laps of the 5.848-kilometer circuit on the soft tire compound.
Only a few drivers deviated from the norm by making two stops. Some, because they were forced to make an early first stop after an incident on the first lap, while two had to come in because of tire degradation. They were Pascal Wehrlein and, by chance, Felipe Massa. After his stop on Lap 18, which was to become the fastest of the race, the Brazilian came in again to change tires on Lap 46.
"Felipe' s tires were degrading a bit towards the end so we made a precautionary stop and let him run on the super softs again, as we had enough of a margin to easily stop him and retain fifth," said Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering. That would also have given him an additional advantage over the final laps had there been a safety car deployment.
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