2016 European Grand Prix

2016 European Grand Prix
Race 8 of 21 in the 2016 Formula One World Championship
Layout of the Baku City Circuit
Race details
Date	19 June 2016
Official name	2016 Formula One Grand Prix of Europe
Location	Baku City Circuit Baku, Azerbaijan
Course	Temporary street circuit
Course length	6.003 km (3.73 miles)
Distance	51 laps, 306.049 km (190.170 miles)
Pole position
Driver	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Time	1:42.758

The 2016 European Grand Prix (formally known as the 2016 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe) is a Formula One motor race that will be held on 19 June 2016 at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan. The race will be the eighth round of the 2016 season, and marks the twenty-third running of the European Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship. It will be the first time that the race has been held at the circuit and the first time that a Grand Prix has been held in Azerbaijan.

Nico Rosberg enters the round holding a nine-point lead in the World Drivers' Championship ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Their team, Mercedes, lead Ferrari by seventy-six points in the World Constructors' Championship.

Report

A series of postage stamps commissioned by Azermarka to celebrate the race.

Background

Going into the weekend, Nico Rosberg led the Drivers' Championship on 116 points, nine ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel followed in third on 78 points, six clear of Daniel Ricciardo, followed by Kimi Räikkönen with 69. In the constructors' standings, Mercedes led the field on 223 points, ahead of Ferrari with 147. Third was Red Bull Racing on 130 points with Williams a further 49 points behind.

Preparations

Following the 2012 event in Valencia, the European Grand Prix was discontinued. With the Korean Grand Prix being held in breach of contract, Bernie Ecclestone—the sport's commercial rights holder—sought a replacement event. After exploring the possibility of reviving the European Grand Prix in 2015, the race was included on the 2016 calendar.

The circuit passed its final inspection in May 2016 with FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting declaring his satisfaction that the circuit would be ready in time for the race. The circuit attracted some criticism from drivers who highlighted a lack of run-off in some corners and the tight pit entry positioned at one of the fastest points on the circuit. Following problems with loose kerbs in free practice, changes were made in Turns 6 and 12, where the kerbs were replaced by markings on the track.

Tyres

After providing teams with the ultrasoft compound for the Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli made the supersoft, soft and medium compounds available for the race despite the ultrasoft compound being specifically designed for street circuits. Pirelli explained the decision not to provide the ultrasoft tyres as being a result of a lack of available performance data on the circuit, while most teams opted for a full complement of soft and supersoft tyres and taking only the minimum number of medium compound tyres dictated by the rules. In preparing for the race, Pirelli acknowledged concerns about the circuit's high speed straights and direction changes causing "standing waves" over longer runs, a phenomenon whereby the energy passing through the wheel is strong enough to shift the build of the tyre, compromising its rigidity and increasing the likelihood of tyre failures. Further concerns were raised about the impact of the temporary surface used to protect the cobblestones through the Old City section on the tyres, amid fears that predicted high temperatures throughout the weekend would cause this surface to break up. Following the first free practice session, it was found that the metal bolts used to anchor segments of kerbing to the roadway had started working loose and had been cutting into the rubber of the tyres, necessitating minor modifications to the circuit in order to correct the issue.

Drag reduction system

The race saw the use of two drag reduction system (DRS) zones, with the first positioned along the main straight and the second located on the parallel back straight between Turns 2 and 3.

Support events

The circuit will also host the third round of the 2016 GP2 Series championship as a supporting event.

Controversy

Following the initial announcement of its revival, the race was subject to criticism in light of Azerbaijan's human rights record as the race was established with the financial support of the Azerbaijani government. The criticisms were made in the build-up to the 2014 Russian Grand Prix—which was also established with government support—and accusations of Russian involvement in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. In response, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes team principals Christian Horner and Toto Wolff sought to distance the sport from political issues. On 7 June 2016, the organisation Sport for Rights called for Bernie Ecclestone to speak out about the human rights situation in the country, having written an open letter to him to which Ecclestone had not replied. Sport for Rights made it clear that they did not call for a cancellation of the race, but instead urged the sport to use the race to promote these issues in public.

With the race scheduled for 19 June, the event conflicted with the conclusion of the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans. Force India driver Nico Hülkenberg, who won the 2015 race with Porsche would not be able to return and defend his title, leading to accusations that Formula One Management had deliberately scheduled the race to conflict with Le Mans and prevent Formula One drivers from participating. In May 2016, the Azerbaijan government decided to abandon the use of daylight saving time, prompting event organisers to change the start time of the race. The revised start time negated the clash between the start of the Grand Prix and the race in Le Mans.

Free practice

Per the regulations for the 2016 season, two 90-minute practice sessions were held on Friday and another 60-minute session was held before qualifying on Saturday. In the first ever session on the new track on Friday morning, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time at 1:46.435. He was followed by his Mercedes teammate Rosberg almost four-tenths of a second back, with Valtteri Bottas third for Williams, also within one second of Hamilton. Fernando Alonso was an encouraging fourth for McLaren. Both Bottas and Alonso set their fastest times on the soft rather than the supersoft tyre compound used by the Mercedes drivers. Several drivers got caught out on the new track, the first being Esteban Gutiérrez, who was forced into the run-off area at Turn 15. Hamilton also had an incident, touching the barrier at Turn 3 and flat-spotting his tyres later on the lap. The biggest incident occurred when Daniel Ricciardo crashed his Red Bull RB12 at the exit of Turn 15, losing one of his rear wheels and causing an eleven-minute red flag period.

Hamilton was again fastest in the second session on Saturday afternoon, edging out Rosberg by almost seven-tenths of a second. Rosberg's running was limited as he coasted to a halt on track with twenty minutes of the session left to go due to losing drive. Ferrari was not competitive in eighth and thirteenth place for Vettel and Räikkönen respectively, with both cars suffering from problems with their energy recovery unit. The top five cars were powered by Mercedes, as Sergio Pérez led the charge behind Mercedes in third, ahead of Bottas and Nico Hülkenberg. Fernando Alonso managed only eleventh place as he spent considerable time in the garage while his team worked on his car. Marcus Ericsson also had limited track time as a problem with his exhaust pipe forced him to miss the early part of the session. With loose kerbs detected during the GP2 qualifying session, drivers were instructed to stay clear of the kerbs at Turn 6. Once more, many drivers had minor incidents on track, with some having to take to the run-off area at Turn 3, while Gutiérrez touched the barrier at Turn 8. Carlos Sainz, Jr. spun at the first corner, but nevertheless finished the session in sixth, the fastest runner without a Mercedes power unit.

In the third session on Saturday morning, Hamilton topped the timesheets once again, setting a time of 1:44.352, a quarter of a second clear of teammate Rosberg. Hülkenberg was third for Force India ahead of Ricciardo and Vettel. The session saw several incidents: Bottas damaged the floor of his car when he ran over a drain cover on his installation lap and was forced to miss the rest of the session; Felipe Massa made contact with the wall, but was later able to rejoin practice; Räikkönen's track time was limited as well due to a loss of power; and a red flag period occurred right after the chequered flag fell as Pérez crashed at Turn 15.

Qualifying

The first period of qualifying ran for eighteen minutes and set positions seventeen to twenty-two on the grid. With the circuit being six kilometers long, the narrow roads creating an increased risk of encountering slow traffic and the high probability of a yellow flag—owing to limited run-off and the difficulty drivers faced extracting themselves from escape roads—forcing those on the circuit to abort flying laps, drivers were under increased pressure to set a flying lap early in the session. Nico Rosberg was the fastest at the end of the session, which saw MRT drivers Rio Haryanto and Pascal Wehrlein eliminated in seventeenth and eighteenth place, their best qualifying performance of the season. Jenson Button qualified nineteenth, after running wide at Turn 15 on his first flying lap and aborting his second after encountering traffic. Marcus Ericsson finished twentieth overall, ahead of the Renaults of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer, who struggled with a lack of power on the circuit's long straights.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:43.685	1:42.520	1:42.758	1
2	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:44.462	1:43.939	1:43.515	71
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	1:44.570	1:44.141	1:43.9662	2
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:45.062	1:44.461	1:43.9662	3
5	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:44.936	1:44.533	1:44.269	4
6	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:45.494	1:44.696	1:44.483	5
7	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:44.694	1:44.687	1:44.717	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:44.706	1:44.477	1:45.246	8
9	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	1:44.939	1:44.387	1:45.570	9
10	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:44.259	1:43.526	2:01.954	10
11	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1:45.507	1:44.755		11
12	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:44.860	1:44.824		12
13	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:44.827	1:45.000		13
14	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	1:45.525	1:45.270		14
15	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas-Ferrari	1:45.300	1:45.349		15
16	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	1:45.549	1:46.048		16
17	88	Rio Haryanto	MRT-Mercedes	1:45.665			17
18	94	Pascal Wehrlein	MRT-Mercedes	1:45.750			18
19	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	1:45.804			19
20	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1:46.231			20
21	20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:46.348			21
22	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:46.394			22
107% time: 1:50.942
Source:

Notes

• ^1  — Sergio Pérez received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
• ^2  — Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel set identical lap times in Q3. As Ricciardo was the first to set his time, he was considered to have qualified ahead of Vettel.