Mercedes enjoyed one of their most straightforward victories of the season so far thanks to the strategic advantage afforded to them by the rules.
As the only team which were quick enuogh on the harder soft tyre to be able to use it to get into Q3, Mercedes were the only points-scoring team who could complete the race distance with a single pit stop.
That also helped Lewis Hamilton recover second place after slipping to sixth following a poor start as he was spared from having to overtake the two Ferraris on the track.
Hamilton’s single pit stop was the fastest of the race in terms of the complete time from pit entry to pit exit. However Daniel Ricciardo enjoyed an equally quick pit stop when the Red Bull driver came in for his second visit.
2016 Italian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nico Rosberg | Soft (24) | Medium (29) | ||
| Lewis Hamilton | Soft (25) | Medium (28) | ||
| Sebastian Vettel | Super soft (16) | Super soft (17) | Soft (20) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Super soft (15) | Super soft (19) | Soft (19) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (16) | Soft (21) | Super soft (16) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (13) | Soft (17) | Soft (23) | |
| Max Verstappen | Super soft (13) | Soft (22) | Soft (18) | |
| Sergio Perez | Super soft (15) | Soft (13) | Soft (25) | |
| Felipe Massa | Soft (16) | Soft (20) | Super soft (17) | |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Super soft (14) | Soft (19) | Soft (20) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Soft (28) | Super soft (24) | ||
| Jenson Button | Super soft (15) | Soft (23) | Super soft (14) | |
| Esteban Gutierrez | Super soft (16) | Soft (18) | Super soft (18) | |
| Fernando Alonso | Super soft (13) | Soft (20) | Soft (16) | Super soft (3) |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Soft (23) | Super soft (16) | Super soft (13) | |
| Marcus Ericsson | Soft (23) | Medium (29) | ||
| Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (14) | Soft (16) | Super soft (22) | |
| Esteban Ocon | Medium (32) | Soft (19) | ||
| Daniil Kvyat | Super soft (13) | Soft (20) | Super soft (3) | |
| Pascal Wehrlein | Soft (16) | Medium (10) | ||
| Jolyon Palmer | Soft (2) | Medium (5) | ||
| Felipe Nasr | Soft (2) | Medium (2) | Soft (1) | Soft (1) |
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2016 Italian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 23.633 | 25 | |
| 2 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 23.633 | 0.000 | 37 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 23.694 | 0.061 | 33 |
| 4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 23.745 | 0.112 | 16 |
| 5 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 23.757 | 0.124 | 30 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 23.822 | 0.189 | 36 |
| 7 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 23.827 | 0.194 | 35 |
| 8 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 23.899 | 0.266 | 30 |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 23.940 | 0.307 | 16 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 24.033 | 0.400 | 28 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 24.043 | 0.410 | 14 |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 24.082 | 0.449 | 49 |
| 13 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 24.116 | 0.483 | 15 |
| 14 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 24.161 | 0.528 | 13 |
| 15 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 24.279 | 0.646 | 34 |
| 16 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 24.341 | 0.708 | 39 |
| 17 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 24.363 | 0.730 | 33 |
| 18 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 24.418 | 0.785 | 38 |
| 19 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 24.505 | 0.872 | 14 |
| 20 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 24.537 | 0.904 | 15 |
| 21 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 24.553 | 0.920 | 33 |
| 22 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 24.610 | 0.977 | 13 |
| 23 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 25.033 | 1.400 | 33 |
| 24 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 25.145 | 1.512 | 23 |
| 25 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 25.150 | 1.517 | 16 |
| 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 25.183 | 1.550 | 13 |
| 27 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 25.301 | 1.668 | 23 |
| 28 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 25.340 | 1.707 | 28 |
| 29 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 25.472 | 1.839 | 16 |
| 30 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 25.515 | 1.882 | 34 |
| 31 | Esteban Ocon | Manor | 25.539 | 1.906 | 32 |
| 32 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 25.550 | 1.917 | 24 |
| 33 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 25.962 | 2.329 | 16 |
| 34 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 26.427 | 2.794 | 15 |
| 35 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 26.843 | 3.210 | 13 |
| 36 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 27.786 | 4.153 | 2 |
| 37 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 33.275 | 9.642 | 2 |
| 38 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 36.594 | 12.961 | 5 |
| 39 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 810.454 | 786.821 | 4 |
2016 Italian Grand Prix
- 2016 Italian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Fourth Driver of the Weekend win for Ricciardo
- Second-lowest rating this year for Italian GP
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 Italian GP
- 2016 Italian Grand Prix driver ratings
charliex (@photogcw)
4th September 2016, 16:22
No doubt Mercedes-Benz/AMG is building the superior car in the sport. I just wish Pirelli either made tires with more dissimilar characteristics among adjacent formulations or choose a wider selection of tires for the races.
Strontium (@strontium)
4th September 2016, 23:41
@photogcw It would be nice to see Pirelli do that, I agree, however there would be a large risk in one tyre proving completely favourable above the others, or one tyre perhaps being unfavourable, thus making different tyres useless. Having similar characteristics limits the chance of this.
@HoHum (@hohum)
4th September 2016, 23:59
How I long for the day that this subject will once more not exist in F1. Sorry Keith.
@HoHum (@hohum)
5th September 2016, 0:03
That is I long for the day when the strategy is get to the front and stay there by driving faster than the others.