Spain 2009: Pitstop & Tyre Strategies

The pitstops and tyre strategies proved interesting for the Spanish Grand Prix, with eventual race winner Jenson Button being switched to a two-stopper despite the team’s simulations indicating that three stops was the faster option. Rubens Barrichello remained on a three-stopper and finished the race in second. All drivers started on the soft compound apart from Giancarlo Fisichella and Sebastian Bourdais, who tallied four stops during the race. Most teams opted for a two-stop race, although Kazuki Nakajima joined Barrichello with three visits to his team.

Spain 2009 Pitstop Strategies	Stint 1 (Start Tyre)	Stint 2 (Lap)	Stint 3 (Lap)	Stint 4 (Lap)	Stint 5 (Lap)
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton	Soft	Soft (30)	Hard (48)
Heikki Kovalainen	Soft	DNF (7)
Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen	Soft	DNF (19)
Felipe Massa	Soft	Soft (21)	Hard (43)
BMW
Nick Heidfeld	Soft	Soft (30)	Hard (50)
Robert Kubica	Soft	Soft (23)	Hard (46)
Renault
Fernando Alonso	Soft	Soft (19)	Hard (44)
Nelson Piquet Jr.	Soft	Soft (?)	Hard (46)
Toyota
Jarno Trulli	Soft	DNF (1)
Timo Glock	Soft	Soft (18)	Hard (47)
Scuderia Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi	Soft	DNF (1)
Sebastien Bourdais	Hard	DNF (1)
Red Bull Racing
Sebastian Vettel	Soft	Soft (21)	Hard (43)
Mark Webber	Soft	Soft (20)	Hard (49)
Williams
Nico Rosberg	Soft	Soft (25)	Hard (49)
Kazuki Nakajima	Soft	Soft (1)	Soft (37)	Hard (51)
Force India
Giancarlo Fisichella	Hard	Soft (1)	Soft (29)	Soft (53)	Soft (55)
Adrian Sutil	Soft	DNF (1)
Brawn
Jenson Button	Soft	Soft (19)	Hard (48)
Rubens Barrichello	Soft	Soft (20)	Soft (30)	Hard (49)