Mercedes crew set the pace in the pit lane at Singapore GP

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo exit pit lane during the Singapore Grand Prix — © XPB

Andrew Lewin 21/09/2017 at 14:5121/09/2017 at 16:24

Mercedes were not only fastest on track at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Sunday, they were also the quickest team on pit lane as well.

The Silver Arrows pit crew were able to speed Lewis Hamilton on his way with a rapid pit stop timed at just 2.27 seconds in Singapore.

Hamilton made only one stop in the night race, on lap 29. He was able to change from intermediate tyres from the wet conditions at the start of the race, to a set of ultrasofts that lastest for the rest of the 58-lap event.

One lap earlier, the Mercedes crew had services Hamilton's team mate Valtteri Bottas in 2.40 seconds. That was the second-best stop of any team in the race.

"This is a brilliant result," said Mercedes' technical director James Allison. "Of course, we leave Singapore with a spring in our step."

Hamilton went on to win the race, with Bottas picking up third place. Runner-up Daniel Ricciardo had the third-fastest pit stop of the day, the Red Bull crew being timed at 2.54 seconds.

A total of 32 pit stops were completed on the night, 16 of which were undertaken in less than three seconds.

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The figures don't include the three tours made down pit lane by the entire field behind the safety car. The diversion was needed after the accident at turn 1 involving Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen.

Five drivers - Hamilton, Bottas, Lance Stroll, Romain Grosjean and Carlos Sainz - stopped only once. Five drivers - Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Jolyon Palmer, Nico Hulkenberg and Stoffel Vandoorne - all made two pit stops.

Felipe Massa, Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon made four visits to pit lane for a change of tyres. And the two Saubers of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson made four stops during the race. Ericsson's third stop was the longest of anyone, timed at 23.24 seconds.

"I lost a lot of time due to an incident in one of the pitstops," the Swede said afterwards. "I was pushing hard to make up for lost time, and went a bit over the limit. Unfortunately, that caused me to spin out of the race."

Mercedes' pit crew were also fastest in the previous Grand Prix at Monza. On that occasion, Bottas had the fastest stop timed at 2.15 seconds with race winner Hamilton next best on 2.33 seconds.