With a swathe of power unit penalties sending both RB11s to the rear of the grid at Monza, Red Bull had to get creative to get both their drivers into the points.
With strategic options very limited at Monza where a one-stop strategy is the norm, Red Bull had little choice other than to run the opposite to everyone else by starting both their drivers on the medium compound tyre.
Daniel Ricciardo was the last of the drivers to make his first pit stop – staying out until lap 30 by which time he’d risen from the back row to seventh place.
The other RB11 of Daniil Kvyat had already pitted three laps earlier and been treated to the fastest stop of the race by the Red Bull pit crew. Ricciardo’s visit to the pits took 0.375s longer, but was still quick than any other team managed.
He came back out in tenth and gained one place thanks to Nico Rosberg’s retirement. On the last lap Ricciardo took advantage of Marcus Ericsson, who’d been stuck behind the struggling Nico Hulkenberg for several laps, and passed the Sauber driver for eighth.
“It was sweet,” said Ricciard afterwards. “I am very happy with the chassis, the car was handling really well, and we were able to fight with a Ferrari and a Mercedes-powered car on a track where we lost out a lot on the straights.”
2015 Italian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | Soft (26) | Medium (27) | |
Sebastian Vettel | Soft (25) | Medium (28) | |
Felipe Massa | Soft (19) | Medium (34) | |
Valtteri Bottas | Soft (22) | Medium (31) | |
Kimi Raikkonen | Soft (28) | Medium (25) | |
Sergio Perez | Soft (23) | Medium (30) | |
Nico Hulkenberg | Soft (18) | Medium (34) | |
Daniel Ricciardo | Medium (30) | Soft (22) | |
Marcus Ericsson | Soft (20) | Medium (32) | |
Daniil Kvyat | Medium (27) | Soft (25) | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | Medium (10) | Soft (20) | Soft (22) |
Max Verstappen | Soft (19) | Medium (14) | Soft (19) |
Felipe Nasr | Soft (1) | Medium (23) | Medium (28) |
Jenson Button | Soft (25) | Medium (27) | |
Will Stevens | Soft (26) | Medium (25) | |
Roberto Merhi | Soft (27) | Medium (24) | |
Nico Rosberg | Soft (18) | Medium (32) | |
Fernando Alonso | Medium (28) | Soft (19) | |
Romain Grosjean | Soft (1) | ||
Pastor Maldonado | Soft (1) |
2015 Italian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 23.884 | 27 | |
2 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 24.259 | 0.375 | 30 |
3 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 24.281 | 0.397 | 23 |
4 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 24.286 | 0.402 | 18 |
5 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 24.310 | 0.426 | 25 |
6 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 24.330 | 0.446 | 28 |
7 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 24.340 | 0.456 | 25 |
8 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 24.368 | 0.484 | 26 |
9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 24.442 | 0.558 | 28 |
10 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 24.657 | 0.773 | 18 |
11 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 24.736 | 0.852 | 30 |
12 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 24.842 | 0.958 | 20 |
13 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 24.938 | 1.054 | 33 |
14 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 25.207 | 1.323 | 19 |
15 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 25.282 | 1.398 | 24 |
16 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 25.318 | 1.434 | 19 |
17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 25.536 | 1.652 | 22 |
18 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 25.761 | 1.877 | 1 |
19 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | 26.435 | 2.551 | 27 |
20 | Will Stevens | Manor | 29.382 | 5.498 | 26 |
21 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 30.358 | 6.474 | 10 |
2015 Italian Grand Prix
- Perfect Hamilton wins Driver of the Weekend
- Little action in 2015 but Monza remains a favourite
- Mercedes investigation a “misunderstanding” – Pirelli
- 2015 Italian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Top ten pictures from the 2015 Italian Grand Prix
DaveW (@dmw)
7th September 2015, 1:24
I didn’t do the math but I was expecting Ferrari to put kimi on a two stop and try to blaze up behind the pack just as they were taking their one stop and then gap them before his second stop. He was going to burn up his tires trying to pass people in the first stint anyway.
frood19 (@frood19)
7th September 2015, 9:02
i don’t think the performance difference would have been enough to warrant the extra (very long) pit stop. i’m glad this was a highlights race for the bbc; i don’t think i would have stayed awake throughout the live one.
Andy Johnson
10th September 2015, 8:58
oh dear, pretty much sums up the sorry state of F1 when comments like that are made about Monza!!! Oh, and you’re not wrong. It only got exciting those few last laps and the subsequent 2-3 hours or so due to the type pressure fiasco. That’s one good thing about Sky’s F1 coverage, they can carry on after the race cos they’ve got sod all else to put on the channel…
pastaman (@)
7th September 2015, 14:05
Maybe at a different track, but pit stops at Monza under a green flag are way too costly.
ColdFly F1 (@)
7th September 2015, 10:42
TR tried that, but it did not really work. Their speed seemed OK for some points, but they could’t bridge the time lost during the extra stop (plus drive-through for VES). @dmw