[spuz]

How much of the 1 solar mass of detectable gravitational energy is released before the moment of collision and how much is released at the moment of collision? Is the mechanism for release of this energy the same in both cases? If 1 solar mass of energy was released in total, and the mass of the combined black hole is less than the two before the merger, how is it possible that none of the mass of the black holes has escaped their respective event horizons?

[improbable22]

There isn't exactly one moment of collision like snooker balls, the two spiral and merge and then settle down to look like one bigger black hole. But the time during which most of the energy is radiated is quite short, like 0.1s.

The missing mass is precisely the amount of energy that was radiated away.

We should not think of the mass of the black hole as being the amount of matter stored inside, which may escape... regardless of how it was created, the black hole is just a ball of pure gravity. Its mass is defined by its effect on things far away. You can measure the mass of Jupiter by watching how fast a satellite orbits, and a black hole whose satellites had the same orbits would be said to have the same mass.