2016 Singapore Grand Prix

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.
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==Background==
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. ' 1-2 finish resulted in them getting 498 points in total, while already leading the Constructors' Championship 208 points ahead of . Despite getting both their drivers to finish third and fourth in Italy, were still eleven points behind Red Bull. ' better performance in Italy put them back ahead of , 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 , while Ricciardo felt confident that he could have a better race than Monaco depending on what would happen to the teams.
Driver tyre choices
Team		Driver 	 	 	 		Driver 	 	 	
 		Hamilton 	7	3	3		Rosberg 	7	2	4
 		Vettel 	9	2	2		Räikkönen 	9	3	1
 		Bottas 	8	3	2		Massa 	8	4	1
 		Ricciardo 	7	4	2		Verstappen	7	4	2
 		Magnussen 	7	5	1		Palmer 	7	5	1
 		Hülkenberg	6	3	4		Pérez 	6	3	4
 		Kvyat 	8	4	1		Sainz 	8	4	1
 		Alonso 	8	3	2		Button 	8	3	2
 		Ericsson 	9	3	1		Nasr 	8	4	1
 		Wehrlein 	6	4	3		Ocon 	6	4	3
 		Grosjean 	9	2	2		Gutiérrez 	9	3	1
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 s were the remaining ones to choose seven ultrasoft tyres, while Ferrari, 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 , and , 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	 	W07 Hybrid	 	PU106C Hybrid	
6 	Nico Rosberg 	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	 	W07 Hybrid	 	PU106C Hybrid	
5 	Sebastian Vettel 	Scuderia Ferrari 	 	SF16-H 	 	059/5 	
7 	Kimi Räikkönen 	Scuderia Ferrari 	 	SF16-H 	 	059/5 	
19 	Felipe Massa 	Williams Martini Racing 	 	FW38 	 	PU106C Hybrid	
77 	Valtteri Bottas 	Williams Martini Racing 	 	FW38 	 	PU106C Hybrid	
3 	Daniel Ricciardo 	Red Bull Racing 	 	RB12 	 	TAG Heuer 	
33 	Max Verstappen 	Red Bull Racing 	 	RB12 	 	TAG Heuer 	
27 	Nico Hülkenberg 	Sahara Force India F1 Team 	 	VJM09 	 	PU106C Hybrid	
11 	Sergio Pérez 	Sahara Force India F1 Team 	 	VJM09 	 	PU106C Hybrid	
20 	Kevin Magnussen 	Renault Sport F1 Team 	 	RS16 	 	RE16 	
30 	Jolyon Palmer 	Renault Sport F1 Team 	 	RS16 	 	RE16 	
26 	Daniil Kvyat 	Scuderia Toro Rosso 	 	STR11 	 	059/4 	
55 	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Scuderia Toro Rosso 	 	STR11 	 	059/4 	
9 	Marcus Ericsson 	Sauber F1 Team 	 	C35 	 	059/5 	
12 	Felipe Nasr 	Sauber F1 Team 	 	C35 	 	059/5 	
14 	Fernando Alonso 	McLaren Honda 	 	MP4-31 	 	RA616H 	
22 	Jenson Button 	McLaren Honda 	 	MP4-31 	 	RA616H 	
94 	Pascal Wehrlein 	Manor Racing MRT 	 	MRT05 	 	PU106C Hybrid	
31 	Esteban Ocon 	Manor Racing MRT 	 	MRT05 	 	PU106C Hybrid	
8 	Romain Grosjean 	Haas F1 Team 	 	VF-16 	 	059/5 	
21 	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas F1 Team 	 	VF-16 	 	059/5 	
source	source 	source 	source 	source 	source	source 	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.
===FP2===
===FP3===
===Practice Results===
The full practice results for the are outlined below:
No 	Driver 	Team 	FP1 	 	FP2 	 	FP3 	 	 	 	 	 	
No 	Driver 	Team 	Time 	Pos 	Time 	Pos 	Time 	Pos 	 	 	 	 	
3 	Daniel Ricciardo 	 	1:45.872	2 	1:44.557	4 	1:44.903	4 	 	 	 	 	
5 	Sebastian Vettel 	 	1:46.287	3 	1:45.161	5 	1:45.104	5 	 	 	 	 	
6 	Nico Rosberg 	 	1:46.513	5 	1:44.152	1 	1:44.352	1 	 	 	 	 	
7 	Kimi Räikkönen 	 	1:46.890	6 	1:44.427	2 	1:44.860	3 	 	 	 	 	
8 	Romain Grosjean 	 	No Time 	22 	1:48.391	19 	1:47.411	18 	 	 	 	 	
9 	Marcus Ericsson 	 	1:51.479	20 	1:48.487	20 	1:47.956	19 	 	 	 	 	
11 	Sergio Pérez 	 	1:48.214	12 	1:46.063	11 	1:46.112	11 	 	 	 	 	
12 	Felipe Nasr 	 	1:49.595	15 	1:47.531	18 	1:47.293	17 	 	 	 	 	
14 	Fernando Alonso 	 	1:48.202	11 	1:45.779	9 	1:46.164	12 	 	 	 	 	
19 	Felipe Massa 	 	1:48.044	9 	1:46.856	14 	1:46.529	14 	 	 	 	 	
20 	Kevin Magnussen 	 	1:50.263	18 	1:47.161	16 	1:47.116	15 	 	 	 	 	
21 	Esteban Gutiérrez	 	1:48.109	10 	1:46.727	13 	1:46.316	13 	 	 	 	 	
22 	Jenson Button 	 	1:49.615	16 	1:46.574	12 	1:47.277	16 	 	 	 	 	
26 	Daniil Kvyat 	 	1:47.683	8 	1:46.029	10 	1:45.503	7 	 	 	 	 	
27 	Nico Hülkenberg 	 	1:48.359	13 	1:45.182	6 	1:45.316	6 	 	 	 	 	
30 	Jolyon Palmer 	 	1:49.794	17 	1:47.166	17 	1:48.689	20 	 	 	 	 	
31 	Esteban Ocon 	 	1:52.379	21 	1:48.823	22 	1:49.565	22 	 	 	 	 	
33 	Max Verstappen 	 	1:45.823	1 	1:44.532	3 	1:44.411	2 	 	 	 	 	
44 	Lewis Hamilton 	 	1:46.426	5 	1:45.275	7 	1:45.806	8 	 	 	 	 	
55 	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	 	1:46.936	7 	1:45.507	8 	1:45.879	9 	 	 	 	 	
77 	Valtteri Bottas 	 	1:48.453	14 	1:46.960	15 	1:45.947	10 	 	 	 	 	
94 	Pascal Wehrlein 	 	1:51.112	19 	1:48.505	21 	1:49.201	21 	 	 	 	 	
Source:	Source: 	Source:	Source: 	Source:	Source: 	Source:	Source: 	Source:	Source:	Source:	Source:	Source:	Source:
==Qualifying==
===Qualifying Results===
Pos. 	No. 	Driver 	Team 	 	Q1 	Q1 	 	Q2 	Q2 	 	Q3 	Q3 	Grid
Pos. 	No. 	Driver 	Team 	 	Pos 	Time 	 	Pos 	Time 	 	Pos 	Time 	Grid
1 	6 	Nico Rosberg 	 	 	8 	1:45.316 	 	1 	1:43.020 	 	1 	1:42.584 	1
2 	3 	Daniel Ricciardo 	 	 	1 	1:44.255 	 	3 	1:43.933 	 	2 	1:43.115 	2
3 	44 	Lewis Hamilton 	 	 	4 	1:45.167 	 	2 	1:43.471 	 	3 	1:43.288 	3
4 	33 	Max Verstappen 	 	 	3 	1:45.036 	 	4 	1:44.112 	 	4 	1:43.328 	4
5 	7 	Kimi Räikkönen 	 	 	2 	1:44.964 	 	5 	1:44.159 	 	5 	1:43.540 	5
6 	55 	Carlos Sainz, Jr. 	 	 	11 	1:45.499 	 	7 	1:44.493 	 	6 	1:44.197 	6
7 	26 	Daniil Kvyat 	 	 	7 	1:45.291 	 	6 	1:44.475 	 	7 	1:44.469 	7
8 	27 	Nico Hülkenberg 	 	 	14 	1:46.081 	 	10 	1:44.737 	 	8 	1:44.479 	8
9 	14 	Fernando Alonso 	 	 	9 	1:45.373 	 	8 	1:44.653 	 	9 	1:44.553 	9
10 	11 	Sergio Pérez 	 	 	5 	1:45.204 	 	9 	1:44.703 	 	10 	1:44.582 	17*
11 	77 	Valtteri Bottas 	 	 	15 	1:46.086 	 	11 	1:44.740 	 	 	 	10
12 	19 	Felipe Massa 	 	 	13 	1:46.056 	 	12 	1:44.991 	 	 	 	11
13 	22 	Jenson Button 	 	 	6 	1:45.262 	 	13 	1:45.144 	 	 	 	12
14 	21 	Esteban Gutiérrez 	 	 	10 	1:45.465 	 	14 	1:45.593 	 	 	 	13
15 	8 	Romain Grosjean 	 	 	12 	1:45.609 	 	15 	1:45.723 	 	 	 	20†
16 	9 	Marcus Ericsson 	 	 	16 	1:46.427 	 	16 	1:47.827 	 	 	 	14
17 	20 	Kevin Magnussen 	 	 	17 	1:46.825 	 	 	 	 	 	 	15
18 	12 	Felipe Nasr 	 	 	18 	1:46.860 	 	 	 	 	 	 	16
19 	30 	Jolyon Palmer 	 	 	19 	1:46.960 	 	 	 	 	 	 	18
20 	94 	Pascal Wehrlein 	 	 	20 	1:47.667 	 	 	 	 	 	 	19
21 	31 	Esteban Ocon 	 	 	21 	1:48.296 	 	 	 	 	 	 	21
22 	5 	Sebastian Vettel 	 	 	22 	1:49.116 	 	 	 	 	 	 	22‡
107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552	107% time: 1:51.552
Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	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 is as below:
Show Grid
** 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 	 	61 	1h 55m 48.950s	1 	25
2 	3 	Daniel Ricciardo 	 	61 	+0.488 	2 	18
3 	44 	Lewis Hamilton 	 	61 	+8.038 	3 	15
4 	7 	Kimi Räikkönen 	 	61 	+10.219 	5 	12
5 	5 	Sebastian Vettel 	 	61 	+27.694 	22 	10
6 	33 	Max Verstappen 	 	61 	+71.197 	4 	8
7 	14 	Fernando Alonso 	 	61 	+89.198 	9 	6
8 	11 	Sergio Pérez 	 	61 	+111.062 	17 	4
9 	26 	Daniil Kvyat 	 	61 	+111.557 	7 	2
10 	20 	Kevin Magnussen 	 	61 	+119.952 	15 	1
11 	21 	Esteban Gutiérrez	 	60 	+1 Lap 	13 	
12 	19 	Felipe Massa 	 	60 	+1 Lap 	11 	
13 	12 	Felipe Nasr 	 	60 	+1 Lap 	16 	
14 	55 	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	 	60 	+1 Lap 	6 	
15 	30 	Jolyon Palmer 	 	60 	+1 Lap 	18 	
16 	94 	Pascal Wehrlein 	 	60 	+1 Lap 	19 	
17 	9 	Marcus Ericsson 	 	60 	+1 Lap 	14 	
18 	31 	Esteban Ocon 	 	59 	+2 Laps 	21 	
Ret 	22 	Jenson Button 	 	43 	Brakes 	12 	
Ret 	77 	Valtteri Bottas 	 	35 	Overheating 	10 	
Ret 	27 	Nico Hülkenberg 	 	0 	Collision 	8 	
DNS 	8 	Romain Grosjean 	 	— 	Brakes 	20 	
Source:	Source:	Source: 	Source: 	Source:	Source: 	Source:	Source:
==Milestones==
*Nico Rosberg's 200th entry and start.
*Marcus Ericsson's 50th entry and start.
==Standings after race==
Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship	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: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source:
Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship	
Pos. 	Team 	Pts 	+/- 	
1 	 	538 	 	
2 	 	316 	 	
3 	 	301 	 	
4 	 	112 	1 	
5 	 	111 	1 	
6 	 	54 	 	
7 	 	47 	 	
8 	 	28 	 	
9 	 	7 	 	
10 	 	1 	 	
11 	 	0 	 	
Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source: 	Source:
==Notes==
Category:Grand Prix articles
Category:2016 Grands Prix
Category:Singapore Grand Prix
Category:Grand Prix articles
Category:Formula One races in Singapore