2016 Japanese Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps

2016 Japanese Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel set the fastest lap of the race as he tried to regain the place he lost to Lewis Hamilton.

2016 Japanese Grand Prix in pictures
But Vettel’s lap time on soft tyres was only a few hundredths quicker than Hamilton was able to go on the harder compound. The Ferrari driver’s lap times dropped off significantly towards the end of the race as his tyres faded.

The extent to which race winner Nico Rosberg was able to cruise home is shown by the fact his fastest race lap was almost a second off the race’s best.

Haas also enjoyed one of their most competitive weekends of the year, qualifying in the top ten and setting the eighth-fastest lap. However both cars finished out of the points. Romain Grosjean reckoned they definitely could have added to their tally.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been as frustrated as today at the end of a race,” he said. “I thought we deserved much more.”

“With the pace of the car, I was much faster than the Williams’. We just got the life on the hard tyres wrong. We could have pitted earlier for the last stint, but overall the pace was amazing. It shows a lot of promise for the future.”

2016 Japanese Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2016 Japanese Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

RankDriverCarFastest lapGapOn lap
1Sebastian VettelFerrari1’35.11836
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’35.1520.03436
3Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’35.5110.39336
4Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’35.9900.87233
5Nico RosbergMercedes1’36.0490.93131
6Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’36.3861.26843
7Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’36.7561.63831
8Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’37.0201.90232
9Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’37.1772.05939
10Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’37.3512.23339
11Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Ferrari1’37.5972.47925
12Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Ferrari1’37.7232.60541
13Esteban GutierrezHaas-Ferrari1’37.7752.65730
14Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’37.7852.66735
15Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’37.8442.72633
16Jolyon PalmerRenault1’37.9782.86043
17Pascal WehrleinManor-Mercedes1’38.0002.88239
18Kevin MagnussenRenault1’38.0362.91827
19Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’38.2083.09029
20Esteban OconManor-Mercedes1’38.3803.26233
21Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’38.4963.37828
22Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’38.5443.42628

2016 Japanese 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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2 comments on “2016 Japanese Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps”

  1. Grosjean was very fast indeed, but I don’t see how an earlier final stop could have helped him. His pace was still very good at the end of the second stint and he was behind both Williams’ before their final stop, so probably the best thing to do was to stay out as long as possible to get a big enough tire advantage at the end of the race. Williams played the strategic game very well I think. Their pace wasn’t much better than that of the cars behind them and they were much slower than the guys that finished ahead.

  2. I love playing with these charts you provide Keith! :thumbup: There is so much information to be gleaned from them such as:

    First, delete every driver except Nico R and Kimi R. It’s immediately apparent that there is no great difference in race pace but that where the Ferrari loses out is in traffic; The first stint and immediately after pit stops when back in traffic. Conclusions: Ferrari really do need to improve their qualifying pace to eliminate this difference and, if possible, plan their pit stops so that they come out in clean air.

    Delete Nico and add Marcus Eriksson! Same engine, different chassis and it shows with the Sauber substantially slower. Isn’t it blatantly obvious why Sauber have chosen to stick with the 2016 spec Ferrari engine for 2017!

    Now delete Kimi and add Felipe Massa who had an almost identical strategy to Eriksson! Oops!!! The Williams is only marginally quicker than the Sauber! The chassis of the Williams is to all intents and purposes just as poor (relatively speaking, of course!) as the Sauber!

    There are of course loads of other interesting observations to make here. :-)

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