Mercedes did the fastest pit stop of the day in Monaco while trying to get Nico Rosberg into the lead. Here’s all the data.
Monaco Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
| Mark Webber | Super soft (29) | Soft (49) | |
| Nico Rosberg | Super soft (27) | Soft (51) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (29) | Soft (49) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Super soft | ||
| Fernando Alonso | Super soft (30) | Soft (48) | |
| Michael Schumacher | Super soft (34) | Soft (29) | |
| Felipe Massa | Super soft (31) | Soft (47) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Super soft (29) | Soft (49) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Soft (46) | Super soft (32) | |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Super soft (29) | Soft (49) | |
| Kamui Kobayashi | Super soft (1) | Soft (4) | |
| Jenson Button | Soft (38) | Super soft (32) | |
| Bruno Senna | Super soft (29) | Soft (49) | |
| Paul di Resta | Soft (35) | Super soft (43) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (40) | Soft (25) | |
| Jean-Eric Vergne | Super soft (17) | Soft (53) | Intermediate (7) |
| Heikki Kovalainen | Super soft (30) | Soft (43) | Super soft (4) |
| Vitaly Petrov | Soft (3) | Soft (12) | |
| Timo Glock | Super soft (30) | Soft (24) | Soft (23) |
| Pedro de la Rosa | Soft | ||
| Charles Pic | Super soft (33) | Soft (31) | |
| Narain Karthikeyan | Super soft (29) | Super soft (45) | Soft (2) |
| Sergio Perez | Super soft (34) | Soft (43) | |
| Pastor Maldonado | Super soft |
Vettel’s strategy was counter to that used by most of the front runners, beginning with a long stint on the soft tyres.
Early in his stint on soft tyres Hamilton expressed concern at how long he had to make them last. When told Vettel had run for 45 laps on his Hamilton replied, “he had a little more grip than me, guys.”
Monaco Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 24.874 | 27 | |
| 2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 24.993 | 0.119 | 31 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 25.079 | 0.205 | 46 |
| 4 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 25.117 | 0.243 | 34 |
| 5 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 25.219 | 0.345 | 38 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 25.220 | 0.346 | 30 |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 25.335 | 0.461 | 40 |
| 8 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 25.566 | 0.692 | 29 |
| 9 | Timo Glock | Marussia | 25.567 | 0.693 | 30 |
| 10 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 25.642 | 0.768 | 35 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Sauber | 25.666 | 0.792 | 34 |
| 12 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 25.748 | 0.874 | 29 |
| 13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 26.063 | 1.189 | 17 |
| 14 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | 26.066 | 1.192 | 30 |
| 15 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 26.157 | 1.283 | 70 |
| 16 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 26.380 | 1.506 | 29 |
| 17 | Bruno Senna | Williams | 26.410 | 1.536 | 29 |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 26.447 | 1.573 | 29 |
| 19 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT | 26.973 | 2.099 | 74 |
| 20 | Charles Pic | Marussia | 27.186 | 2.312 | 33 |
| 21 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT | 27.306 | 2.432 | 29 |
| 22 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | 28.390 | 3.516 | 1 |
| 23 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | 31.293 | 6.419 | 73 |
| 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia | 36.503 | 11.629 | 54 |
| 25 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham | 39.391 | 14.517 | 3 |
When Mercedes brought Nico Rosberg in after 27 laps, trying to wrest the lead from Mark Webber, they turned around the quickest pit stop of the day.
But despite their best efforts Rosberg had to settle for second.
2012 Monaco Grand Prix
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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei
Solo (@solo)
27th May 2012, 22:27
Another race and another mess by Mclaren.
Hamilton after a clutch setting change in the formation lap – “I took the team’s advice — I have to rely on them — and let the clutch out and it just didn’t go. There was no torque, no drive. I said to them afterwards ‘we can’t have everyone else making great starts and us not’. I was lucky not to lose third.”
Hamilton on Vettel getting ahead and his message to the team about no being informed – “I was conserving my tyres,” Hamilton explained. “I could easily have pushed.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/9293321/Monaco-Grand-Prix-2012-Lewis-Hamilton-left-to-rue-McLaren-errors-as-Mark-Webber-wins-from-pole.html
It’s getting ridiculous really. Not to mention they failed to manage to get Button ahead of Kovalanien after the pits.
DaveW (@dmw)
28th May 2012, 0:00
You failed to mention the loss of time to Alonso in the pits. .5s matters now and for mclaren it might as well be a day. Its out of reach under their current methods.
Solo (@solo)
28th May 2012, 0:23
Yeah i don’t count that. Alonso would have jumped him even if they made the same pit stop time. Ferrari had more tyre than everybody in-frond and could have made comfortably fast laps. New tyres needed quite a few laps to get temperature too because of how kindly Monaco treats them.
Enigma (@enigma)
27th May 2012, 23:32
Only 25 pit stops! That’s been a rarity of late…
@HoHum (@hohum)
28th May 2012, 2:06
Just 25 to many in my opinion.
Cornflakes (@cornflakes)
28th May 2012, 19:36
@HoHum – I thought the Monaco GP was a good example of why people should cut the tyres some slack. Reminds us a little of what processional racing is like and why the new way of doing things is great.
OOliver
28th May 2012, 20:22
Monaco has a very low average speed. You can’t overtake. Take Kimi for example, his tyres were completely gone but he could still manage to hold other drivers behind him for several laps.
In monaco, given the option, drivers will not change tyres.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
28th May 2012, 23:38
Just like Bridgestone. Drivers would never change the tyres if they were given the option too. Hamilton and Webber did in Australia, and they couldn’t get passed Alonso who was on tyres some 30 laps older. The Monaco GP was a perfect example of why people should cut the tyres bashing. With 2010 regulations, nearly every dry race would be like Monaco, with drivers driving on the edge, but as boring as watching paint dry.
@HoHum (@hohum)
29th May 2012, 5:19
Hi @cornflakes, I see it differently, I understand what you mean but I think you are misunderstanding what is happening, the cars are very even in performance this year and while it is difficult to pass at Monaco it has been done before if the drivers did not have to nurse their tyres they could have run much closer and tried to force the car in front into error, this was the traditional method of passing on tight tracks in the days when tyres lasted from start to finish.
My comment, was flippant but has a basis in past eras of F1.
Kimi4WC
28th May 2012, 0:13
Another strategy blunder by Lotus, whats new….
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
28th May 2012, 17:54
Yeah, looked like a hopeless “ooh-it-might-rain” strategy, leaving him out there on knackered tyres – I was surprised to see it was still way before the leaders came in.
He looked like James Hunt…in 1979!
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
28th May 2012, 3:02
Fernando could have pipped Mark and Nico if he’d stayed out a few more laps..I was surprised they brought him when he was posting healthy 1:19’s on the Super Softs while Nico had already shown that he was struggling with the softs out of the box.
Like he said in the Press Conference…it was too hard to predict.
Ean (@ean)
28th May 2012, 6:21
Blaming your team sounds lame Why are the other drivers not doing the same
nmsi (@nmsi)
28th May 2012, 10:10
Maybe because other teams are not screwing races up? Not telling to push for one lap when Vettel pitted and losing place beacuse of that sounds like a fair reason to me. He should congratulate team for NOT screwing any pitstops up today – 3 last GP’s there has been blunder with Button or Hami.
sumedh
28th May 2012, 13:56
To be fair to Hamilton, it is Hamilton fans who are criticizing Mclaren, not Hamilton.
And drivers do not blame their team, because F1 is a team sport. You win together, lose together.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
28th May 2012, 19:09
Knowing how long the tyres lasted, and how long it took to get heat into a new set; Mercedes should’ve waited to pit Nico after Webber if they wanted to jump him.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
28th May 2012, 23:49
Pretty strange this race really. Weird seeing Vettel go to 46 laps on a set of tyres but really impressive as well. Plus, being able to set faster times while doing so. It was a great display of the sort of winning characteristics he displayed last year, just not in the right place.