2016 Hungarian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix

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There was little variation in strategy between the front runners at the Hungaroring. One stint on super-soft tyres followed by two on softs was the preferred route to the end of the race for all the points-scorers, with a single exception.

That was Kimi Raikkonen, who had a strong incentive to explore an alternative strategy having qualified only 14th. His early ejection from the rain-hit qualifying session gave him the benefit of more sets of fresh super-soft tyres compared to the other front-runners.

Raikkonen therefore started on the soft tyres, made his first pit stop much later than the others, and went to the end with two stints on the super-softs. However it wasn’t enough to help him overtake Max Verstappen,despite the Red Bull driver having a 12-lap-older set of the harder soft compound tyres.

Mercedes performed the fastest complete pit stop of the race for Nico Rosberg when he pitted for the first time.

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Lewis HamiltonSuper soft (16)Soft (25)Soft (29)
Nico RosbergSuper soft (17)Soft (25)Soft (28)
Daniel RicciardoSuper soft (15)Soft (18)Soft (37)
Sebastian VettelSuper soft (14)Soft (27)Soft (29)
Max VerstappenSuper soft (16)Soft (22)Soft (32)
Kimi RaikkonenSoft (29)Super soft (21)Super soft (20)
Fernando AlonsoSuper soft (15)Soft (29)Soft (25)
Carlos Sainz JnrSuper soft (16)Soft (26)Soft (27)
Valtteri BottasSuper soft (16)Soft (27)Soft (26)
Nico HulkenbergSuper soft (14)Soft (25)Soft (30)
Sergio PerezSoft (27)Medium (13)Soft (29)
Esteban GutierrezSuper soft (15)Soft (22)Soft (32)
Jolyon PalmerSoft (26)Super soft (13)Soft (30)
Romain GrosjeanSuper soft (14)Soft (22)Soft (33)
Kevin MagnussenSuper soft (24)Super soft (12)Soft (33)
Daniil KvyatSoft (24)Super soft (22)Super soft (23)
Felipe NasrSuper soft (11)Soft (28)Soft (30)
Felipe MassaSoft (25)Medium (40)Super soft (3)
Pascal WehrleinSuper soft (9)Soft (26)Soft (33)
Marcus EricssonSoft (17)Soft (28)Super soft (17)Super soft (6)
Rio HaryantoSoft (29)Medium (39)
Jenson ButtonSuper soft (7)Soft (21)Medium (32)

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2016 Hungarian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Nico RosbergMercedes21.23317
2Valtteri BottasWilliams21.4050.17243
3Lewis HamiltonMercedes21.4410.20816
4Sebastian VettelFerrari21.5350.30241
5Sebastian VettelFerrari21.6400.40714
6Jolyon PalmerRenault21.6650.43239
7Max VerstappenRed Bull21.6870.45438
8Valtteri BottasWilliams21.7040.47116
9Lewis HamiltonMercedes21.7730.54041
10Felipe MassaWilliams21.7930.56025
11Kimi RaikkonenFerrari21.8570.62450
12Jolyon PalmerRenault21.8920.65926
13Fernando AlonsoMcLaren21.8970.66444
14Kimi RaikkonenFerrari21.9510.71829
15Kevin MagnussenRenault21.9900.75724
16Daniel RicciardoRed Bull22.0060.77333
17Nico HulkenbergForce India22.0140.78114
18Kevin MagnussenRenault22.0510.81836
19Fernando AlonsoMcLaren22.0990.86615
20Daniil KvyatToro Rosso22.1050.87224
21Jenson ButtonMcLaren22.2290.9967
22Daniel RicciardoRed Bull22.2411.00815
23Romain GrosjeanHaas22.3031.07036
24Nico RosbergMercedes22.3511.11842
25Felipe MassaWilliams22.3661.13365
26Max VerstappenRed Bull22.3891.15616
27Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso22.4171.18442
28Romain GrosjeanHaas22.4271.19414
29Esteban GutierrezHaas22.5201.28737
30Sergio PerezForce India22.6891.45627
31Jenson ButtonMcLaren22.7181.48528
32Pascal WehrleinManor22.7651.53235
33Felipe NasrSauber22.7781.54511
34Esteban GutierrezHaas22.8281.59515
35Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso22.9601.72716
36Felipe NasrSauber22.9651.73239
37Marcus EricssonSauber23.1981.96545
38Marcus EricssonSauber23.3082.07562
39Nico HulkenbergForce India23.3502.11739
40Pascal WehrleinManor23.4862.2539
41Marcus EricssonSauber23.8732.64017
42Rio HaryantoManor24.2543.02129
43Daniil KvyatToro Rosso27.9516.71846
44Sergio PerezForce India29.9418.70840

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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3 comments on “2016 Hungarian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. It was a bit of a weird race. Drivers were saving their tires until the pitstops. For example, Räikkönen was even faster on worn tires than Vettel and Ricciardo on fresh tires and Ricciardo’s Mercedes undercut failed completely. So in the end the usual tire chaos just wasn’t there. Perhaps Pirelli was right to bring the soft and medium tires up until this year, as these softer tires only led to tire saving.

  2. Was it just me, or maybe a rule I’m unfamiliar with, or did it occur to anyone else that Kimi could have conceivably put on medium tires at his pit stop on lap 29 and made it to the end of the race with a one stop strategy? Maybe they didn’t think the gamble was worth it.

    1. Massa and Perez tried it and the car was sliding everywhere and the pace was bad and they had to abort it

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