2016 Singapore Grand Prix

2016 Singapore Grand Prix
Previous←	2016 Italian Grand Prix
Round	15 of 2016
Next→	2016 Malaysian Grand Prix
Marina Bay Street Circuit (2015 layout)
Race Details
Date	September 18, 2016
Official Name	2016 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix
Location	Marina Bay Street Circuit Marina Bay, Singapore
Course	Temporary street circuit 5.065 km (3.147 mi)
Distance	61 laps, 308.965 km (191.982 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Nico Rosberg Mercedes
Time	1:42.584
Fastest Lap
Driver	Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-TAG Heuer
Time	1:47.187 on lap 49
Podium
First	Nico Rosberg
Second	Daniel Ricciardo
Third	Lewis Hamilton
Lap Leaders

The 2016 Singapore Grand Prix (officially the 2016 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix) was the fifteenth round of the 2016 Formula One season, and the ninth time the Singapore Grand Prix was held. It was held between 16 September and 18 September 2016.

Background

Weather Conditions
Practice 1	Cloudy
Practice 2	Cloudy
Practice 3	Cloudy
Qualifying	Cloudy
Race	Cloudy

Available Tyres
Softest	Ultrasoft
Mid	Supersoft
Hardest	Soft
Inters	Intermediate
Wets	Wet

At the previous race in Italy, Nico Rosberg took victory after polesitter and teammate Lewis Hamilton had a poor start and only recovered to finish second, which closed the gap between Hamilton and Rosberg in the Drivers' Championship to just two points, though Hamilton still led the championship. Daniel Ricciardo's fifth-place finish kept him third, eighty-seven points behind Rosberg, while Sebastian Vettel's podium finish kept him ahead of teammate Kimi Räikkönen. Mercedes' 1-2 finish resulted in them getting 498 points in total, while already leading the Constructors' Championship 208 points ahead of Red Bull. Despite getting both their drivers to finish third and fourth in Italy, Ferrari were still eleven points behind Red Bull. Williams' better performance in Italy put them back ahead of Force India, with a three-point gap.

Williams soon confirmed that Ferrari's former Head of Tyre Performance Group, Antonio Spagnolo, was added to their team in order to make them more competitive than Force India, while Vettel was featured at Ferrari's Racing Days of Hockenheim show at the Hockenheimring. Additionally, Mercedes got their first try of the wider tyres that were being made for 2017, while Ricciardo felt confident that he could have a better race than Monaco depending on what would happen to the teams.

Soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyres were selected for use in the Grand Prix, being the fourth time ultrasofts have been used in a Grand Prix. Championship leader Hamilton chose seven ultrasoft sets, and three sets of supersofts and softs each. Rosberg, the Red Bulls and Renaults were the remaining ones to choose seven ultrasoft tyres, while Ferrari, Haas and Marcus Ericsson chose nine sets of ultrasofts.

With Felipe Massa already confirmed to retire from Formula One at the end of the season, Valtteri Bottas was confident that Williams could search for a new driver to race for them in 2017, although Williams did not yet confirm their 2017 driver lineup at the time of his interview.

Several teams, including McLaren, Sauber and Manor, mentioned about that they would be pushing hard to have great results in the Grand Prix, with McLaren aiming to finish in the points once again. Meanwhile, Mercedes were determined to do better than the previous Singapore Grand Prix, when their tyre performance prevented them from qualifying on the front row and finishing on the podium.

Entry list

No.	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model	Tyre
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	W07 Hybrid	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	W07 Hybrid	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
5	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	SF16-H	Ferrari	059/5	P
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	SF16-H	Ferrari	059/5	P
19	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing	Williams	FW38	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing	Williams	FW38	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB12	TAG Heuer	TAG Heuer	P
33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB12	TAG Heuer	TAG Heuer	P
27	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India F1 Team	Force India	VJM09	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
11	Sergio Pérez	Sahara Force India F1 Team	Force India	VJM09	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault Sport F1 Team	Renault	RS16	Renault	RE16	P
30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault Sport F1 Team	Renault	RS16	Renault	RE16	P
26	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso	STR11	Ferrari	059/4	P
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso	STR11	Ferrari	059/4	P
9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber	C35	Ferrari	059/5	P
12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber	C35	Ferrari	059/5	P
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	McLaren	MP4-31	Honda	RA616H	P
22	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	McLaren	MP4-31	Honda	RA616H	P
94	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing MRT	Manor	MRT05	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
31	Esteban Ocon	Manor Racing MRT	Manor	MRT05	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	Haas	VF-16	Ferrari	059/5	P
21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas F1 Team	Haas	VF-16	Ferrari	059/5	P
source

Practice Overview

FP1

As FP1 started, Rosberg and Hamilton went out on ultrasofts, with Hamilton also testing out the halo cockpit protection system. Hamilton and Rosberg improved on their first times, where Hamilton was ahead of Rosberg with times of 1:47.743s and 1:47.369 respectively. However, Vettel soon split the two Mercedes drivers with a time of 1:47.731, and soon improved alongside Verstappen and Ricciardo, despite Vettel's car scraping a wall. Verstappen was the fastest of all the drivers, with a time of 1:45.823, and kept it as day turned to night. Rosberg was able to improve with a set of softs, the hardest available, putting him into fifth, while Hamilton also improved on softs to be fourth fastest. Button's car, meanwhile, screeched to a halt, but it started working again once it was taken back to the pits, while Grosjean could only do a bit of the session thanks to an ERS issue. With twelve minutes to go, Rosberg and the other drivers were doing their final runs, but Rosberg locked up and went into the barrier at Turn 18, losing his front wing and puncturing his front-left tyre. By the end of the session, Verstappen was quickest.

Practice Results

The full practice results for the 2016 Singapore Grand Prix are outlined below:

No	Driver	Team	FP1		FP2		FP3
			Time	Pos	Time	Pos	Time	Pos
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1:45.872	2	1:44.557	4	1:44.903	4
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:46.287	3	1:45.161	5	1:45.104	5
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:46.513	5	1:44.152	1	1:44.352	1
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:46.890	6	1:44.427	2	1:44.860	3
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	No Time	22	1:48.391	19	1:47.411	18
9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1:51.479	20	1:48.487	20	1:47.956	19
11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:48.214	12	1:46.063	11	1:46.112	11
12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	1:49.595	15	1:47.531	18	1:47.293	17
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	1:48.202	11	1:45.779	9	1:46.164	12
19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:48.044	9	1:46.856	14	1:46.529	14
20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:50.263	18	1:47.161	16	1:47.116	15
21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas-Ferrari	1:48.109	10	1:46.727	13	1:46.316	13
22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	1:49.615	16	1:46.574	12	1:47.277	16
26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:47.683	8	1:46.029	10	1:45.503	7
27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:48.359	13	1:45.182	6	1:45.316	6
30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:49.794	17	1:47.166	17	1:48.689	20
31	Esteban Ocon	Manor-Mercedes	1:52.379	21	1:48.823	22	1:49.565	22
33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1:45.823	1	1:44.532	3	1:44.411	2
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:46.426	5	1:45.275	7	1:45.806	8
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:46.936	7	1:45.507	8	1:45.879	9
77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:48.453	14	1:46.960	15	1:45.947	10
94	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor-Mercedes	1:51.112	19	1:48.505	21	1:49.201	21
Source:

Qualifying

Qualifying Results

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos	Time		Pos	Time		Pos	Time
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes		8	1:45.316		1	1:43.020		1	1:42.584	1
2	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer		1	1:44.255		3	1:43.933		2	1:43.115	2
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		4	1:45.167		2	1:43.471		3	1:43.288	3
4	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-TAG Heuer		3	1:45.036		4	1:44.112		4	1:43.328	4
5	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari		2	1:44.964		5	1:44.159		5	1:43.540	5
6	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		11	1:45.499		7	1:44.493		6	1:44.197	6
7	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		7	1:45.291		6	1:44.475		7	1:44.469	7
8	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes		14	1:46.081		10	1:44.737		8	1:44.479	8
9	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda		9	1:45.373		8	1:44.653		9	1:44.553	9
10	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes		5	1:45.204		9	1:44.703		10	1:44.582	17*
11	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes		15	1:46.086		11	1:44.740				10
12	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes		13	1:46.056		12	1:44.991				11
13	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda		6	1:45.262		13	1:45.144				12
14	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas-Ferrari		10	1:45.465		14	1:45.593				13
15	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari		12	1:45.609		15	1:45.723				20†
16	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		16	1:46.427		16	1:47.827				14
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault		17	1:46.825							15
18	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari		18	1:46.860							16
19	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault		19	1:46.960							18
20	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor-Mercedes		20	1:47.667							19
21	31	Esteban Ocon	Manor-Mercedes		21	1:48.296							21
22	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari		22	1:49.116							22‡
107% time: 1:51.552
Source:

• * Pérez was given an eight-place grid penalty for disallowed actions under double yellow flags.
• ^† Grosjean was given a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
• ^‡ Vettel was given a 25-place grid penalty for numerous internal part changes. However, his grid position was not affected, since he failed to qualify higher than last place due to technical issues.

Grid

The starting grid of the 2016 Singapore Grand Prix is as below:

Show Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
		______________
Row 1	______________	1
	2	Nico Rosberg
	Daniel Ricciardo	______________
Row 2	______________	3
	4	Lewis Hamilton
	Max Verstappen	______________
Row 3	______________	5
	6	Kimi Räikkönen
	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	______________
Row 4	______________	7
	8	Daniil Kvyat
	Nico Hülkenberg	______________
Row 5	______________	9
	10	Fernando Alonso
	Valtteri Bottas	______________
Row 6	______________	11
	12	Felipe Massa
	Jenson Button	______________
Row 7	______________	13
	14	Esteban Gutiérrez
	Marcus Ericsson	______________
Row 8	______________	15
	16	Kevin Magnussen
	Felipe Nasr	______________
Row 9	______________	17
	18	Sergio Pérez*
	Jolyon Palmer	______________
Row 10	______________	19
	20	Pascal Wehrlein
	Romain Grosjean†	______________
Row 11	______________	21
	22	Esteban Ocon
	Sebastian Vettel‡	______________

• * Pérez was given an eight-place grid penalty for disallowed actions under double yellow flags.
• ^† Grosjean was given a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. He later failed to start the race due to brake issues.
• ^‡ Vettel was given a 25-place grid penalty for numerous internal part changes. However, his grid position was not affected, since he failed to qualify higher than last place due to technical issues.

Race

Report

Mark Ellis Mercedes team joined on the podium to receive the winning manufacturer’s award.

Post-race

During the post-race press conference, Rosberg declared that he is only focused on the win: "No, I'm not focused on points. As I always say, I'm just happy with the win today." To add to that, he admitted that the sight of a marshal near the track as the race was restarted was "pretty hairy". Ricciardo also seemed to regret having took his third pit stop, saying that "At the time our pace on the soft for that last stint was quite good. I was catching Rosberg slowly. At first I was a bit hesitant when they said we were going to do a three stop, but obviously now I see it. It was good to put a bit of pressure on them." However, he did think that he would not have been able to overtake Rosberg for the win anyway: "I knew my pace would drop off a bit because I was getting into the tyres pretty aggressively. But I knew it was going to be close. I wasn't really thinking about what happens when I catch him, I was just just focusing on trying to catch him and put some pressure on him because I knew his engineer would be on the radio saying 'Ricciardo's catching you, two seconds a lap'. It's not a nice feeling when you hear that. I was just trying to keep pushing, force him into a bit of an error or something. But I knew once I caught him it was going to be tricky to overtake." With his brakes having been in danger of overheating during much of the race, Hamilton stated he could not close the gap: "The first stop we extended the tyres, we were supposed to go to lap 11 and we ended up, I was at 14 and they pitted me the same lap as they pit Daniel [Ricciardo], which didn't make sense to me. So that was a bit of a missed opportunity. But anyway as I say I had such problems with my brakes I wouldn't have been able to beat Daniel anyway. I feel like I did everything I could. Obviously when you have a mistake that's not a great thing but it wouldn't have made really much difference. A very trying weekend. These ones come along sometimes, you just need to take it on the chin. I've been exactly in this point in the season in this position before but I've definitely been in a lot worse." However, despite losing the championship lead to Rosberg, Hamilton did not rule out any hopes of fighting back in Malaysia and the other following races: "...in all in all, with everything that's gone on this year, I'm still in the fight, there's still a long way to go and I'm going to give it everything I've got."

Alonso had also been confident that he could have been in the top three after Hülkenberg's crash, but was okay with the result he received in the end: "Seventh was the maximum we could achieve today, the best of the rest after the two Mercedes, the two Red Bulls and the two Ferraris. We weren't perhaps quite the fourth-fastest team here this weekend, so it's thanks to good strategy and a good start that we were able to bring home this result. I chose to go on the outside at the start, and the crash didn't affect me as I was already up into sixth at that point. Then I braked very late for the first corner and got past Daniil [Kvyat] and Kimi [Raikkonen]. Everything went fine – sometimes you just need to get lucky. For a time, I was even hoping for a podium finish – if something had happened ahead of me it could have worked out that way – but in fact it was one of those races in which nothing happened at the front. But, overall, we did the best we could today." Verstappen also thought his race was somewhat ruined by Hülkenberg's crash: "It wasn't as bad as Monza, but it wasn't good. I had a lot of wheel spin and then with [Nico] Hulkenberg spinning in front of me, I had to brake even more which compromised my whole start." Meanwhile, Hülkenberg explained about his start: "I had made such a good start – probably my best getaway off the line this year. I went for the gap between the two Toro Rossos, which was there, but obviously things got very tight. I had Daniil [Kvyat] on my right and Carlos on my left, and Carlos hit my left rear, which sent me into the wall."

Results

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	61	1h 55m 48.950s	1	25
2	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	61	+0.488	2	18
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	61	+8.038	3	15
4	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	61	+10.219	5	12
5	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	61	+27.694	22	10
6	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	61	+71.197	4	8
7	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	61	+89.198	9	6
8	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	61	+111.062	17	4
9	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	61	+111.557	7	2
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	61	+119.952	15	1
11	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas-Ferrari	60	+1 Lap	13
12	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	60	+1 Lap	11
13	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	60	+1 Lap	16
14	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	60	+1 Lap	6
15	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	60	+1 Lap	18
16	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor-Mercedes	60	+1 Lap	19
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	60	+1 Lap	14
18	31	Esteban Ocon	Manor-Mercedes	59	+2 Laps	21
Ret	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	43	Brakes	12
Ret	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	35	Overheating	10
Ret	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	0	Collision	8
DNS	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	—	Brakes	20
Source:

Milestones

• Nico Rosberg's 200th entry and start.
• Marcus Ericsson's 50th entry and start.

Standings after race

Drivers' World Championship Pos. Driver Pts +/- 1 Nico Rosberg 273 ▲ 1 2 Lewis Hamilton 265 ▼ 1 3 Daniel Ricciardo 179 — 4 Sebastian Vettel 153 — 5 Kimi Räikkönen 148 — 6 Max Verstappen 129 — 7 Valtteri Bottas 70 — 8 Sergio Pérez 66 — 9 Nico Hülkenberg 46 — 10 Felipe Massa 41 — 11 Fernando Alonso 36 — 12 Carlos Sainz, Jr. 30 — 13 Romain Grosjean 28 — 14 Daniil Kvyat 25 — 15 Jenson Button 17 — 16 Kevin Magnussen 7 — 17 Pascal Wehrlein 1 — 18 Stoffel Vandoorne 1 — 19 Esteban Gutiérrez 0 — 20 Jolyon Palmer 0 — 21 Marcus Ericsson 0 — 22 Felipe Nasr 0 — 23 Rio Haryanto 0 — 24 Esteban Ocon 0 — Source:

Constructors' World Championship Pos. Team Pts +/- 1 Mercedes 538 — 2 Red Bull-TAG Heuer 316 — 3 Ferrari 301 — 4 Force India-Mercedes 112 ▲ 1 5 Williams-Mercedes 111 ▼ 1 6 McLaren-Honda 54 — 7 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 47 — 8 Haas-Ferrari 28 — 9 Renault 7 — 10 Manor-Mercedes 1 — 11 Sauber-Ferrari 0 — Source:

Notes

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