Japanese Grand Prix strategy report

With overtaking at the track proving to be tricky, strategy played a very important role in deciding the final finishing order. Here are some of the main strategy stories from the race:

Rosberg goes for the undercut

After Friday’s wet running, Mercedes stamped down its authority on the race weekend in Saturday’s dry practice and followed that up with a dominant qualifying display. So, we knew the team was back to its best and it would take a big problem or a huge twist for a non-Silver Arrows win.

Lewis Hamilton’s strong start – particularly the second part of it – helped him draw alongside pole position man Nico Rosberg and with the championship leader having the racing line into the first two corners, he pushed him wide and caused his rival to drop to fourth.

We knew that Rosberg had far superior pace to both Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas ahead, but because of the Williams car’s straight line speed being a good match for the Mercedes, it was tough to pass him initially. However, he did so just after his first pit stop.

Bottas pitted early on lap 11 and went onto the medium tyre, putting in some positive lap times. This enabled him to remain ahead of Rosberg when the Mercedes pitted on lap 15 and switched to the prime Pirelli compound. However, Williams has previously struggled more with the medium tyre and even on the slower compound, Rosberg was able to catch and pass Bottas at the final chicane a few laps later.

His next target was Vettel and he soon caught up to the Ferrari, pitting one lap earlier on the 29th tour and passing his countryman using the undercut. It was a near perfect example of how the strategy decision works, with Rosberg using his fresh tyres and – quite clearly – superior pace to make the jump. He eventually finished second, 19 seconds behind Hamilton.

Raikkonen moves ahead

Williams looked strong on the limited longer runs the team did in FP3 but the FW37 was not as quick as expected on the medium tyre, losing considerable amount of time in the second stint compared to its nearest rivals.

Previously the team has struggled with graining on the mediums and the car is renowned for being quick in a straight line but not having as much downforce as others. Couple that with the warmer temperatures in Japan during the race and that could have contributed to Bottas not putting in a particularly fast second stint.

This all helped Kimi Raikkonen close in on the Williams and unlike with Vettel, Ferrari opted to make the move first and pit him on lap 29. Bottas was in on the next tour but it was too late and Raikkonen was up to fourth. It was a shame for Williams after making such a good early pit call at the first stops.

Hard the preferred tyre

Many expected the medium Pirelli compound to be the best race tyre but that was not the case. The hard was more consistent for the majority of the field and some quite a few drivers spent the final two stints on the compound.

This is likely to do with the track temperatures being quite high and because of the lack of Friday running, there were still plenty of unknowns when it came to tyre wear and degradation for the race, so expectations were clearly going to be different.

Two stop rules the day

Most of the field pitted just twice, which was what Pirelli anticipated. Sergio Perez, Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo stopped three times but that was because they were caught up in accidents on the opening lap, picked up punctures and had to pit for new tyres, putting them off sequence.

The same can be said for Will Stevens too but he had to pit again following a big spin at 130R in the closing stages, which destroyed his tyres and meant he had to stop again. Fortunately he didn’t hit anything, although he came very close to contact with his team-mate Alexander Rossi, who had to take evasive action.

Jack Leslie @JackLeslieF1

Longest Stints

Medium: Button (25 laps)
Hard: Ricciardo (28 laps)

Most Stops

Kvyat, Massa, Perez, Stevens (3 – including drivethroughs)