For the fifth time in six races, McLaren were the quickest team in the pits.
Italian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
| Lewis Hamilton | Medium (23) | Hard (30) | |
| Jenson Button | Medium (22) | Hard (10) | |
| Felipe Massa | Medium (19) | Hard (34) | |
| Michael Schumacher | Medium (15) | Hard (22) | Hard (16) |
| Sebastian Vettel | Medium (20) | Hard (27) | |
| Nico Rosberg | Medium (14) | Hard (24) | Hard (15) |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Medium (17) | Hard (36) | |
| Kamui Kobayashi | Medium (20) | Hard (33) | |
| Paul di Resta | Medium (21) | Hard (32) | |
| Fernando Alonso | Medium (20) | Hard (33) | |
| Mark Webber | Medium (21) | Hard (30) | |
| Sergio Perez | Hard (29) | Medium (24) | |
| Bruno Senna | Medium (24) | Hard (29) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Medium (24) | Hard (29) | |
| Jerome d’Ambrosio | Hard (27) | Medium (26) | |
| Jean-Eric Vergne | Medium (8) | ||
| Heikki Kovalainen | Medium (17) | Hard (22) | Medium (13) |
| Vitaly Petrov | Medium (19) | Hard (21) | Medium (12) |
| Timo Glock | Medium (7) | Hard (25) | Hard (20) |
| Charles Pic | Medium (18) | Hard (17) | Hard (17) |
| Narain Karthikeyan | Medium (23) | Hard (29) | |
| Pastor Maldonado | Hard (13) | Medium (22) | Medium (18) |
| Pedro de la Rosa | Medium (22) | Hard (30) | |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Hard (27) | Medium (23) |
One-stop strategies were the order of the day for most teams. Mercedes ran two-stop strategies for both their drivers, who were the quickest cars on the track at the end of the race.
Only two other drivers mimicked Sergio Perez’s successful strategy of starting on the hard tyres and making a single stop for mediums.
Nico Hulkenberg did and ran as high as eighth at one stage. He was in contention for a point but retired when his brake pedal went long.
The other driver to do so was Lotus substitute Jerome D’Ambrosio, who was the last of the midfielders.
Italian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 20.736 | 23 | |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 21.515 | 0.779 | 20 |
| 3 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 21.556 | 0.820 | 21 |
| 4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 21.720 | 0.984 | 24 |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 21.730 | 0.994 | 17 |
| 6 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 21.814 | 1.078 | 35 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 21.854 | 1.118 | 38 |
| 8 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | 21.910 | 1.174 | 39 |
| 9 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Lotus | 21.962 | 1.226 | 27 |
| 10 | Charles Pic | Marussia | 22.046 | 1.310 | 35 |
| 11 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 22.161 | 1.425 | 19 |
| 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham | 22.182 | 1.446 | 19 |
| 13 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 22.190 | 1.454 | 21 |
| 14 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 22.247 | 1.511 | 15 |
| 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 22.303 | 1.567 | 20 |
| 16 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 22.310 | 1.574 | 37 |
| 17 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 22.346 | 1.610 | 14 |
| 18 | Sergio Perez | Sauber | 22.472 | 1.736 | 29 |
| 19 | Timo Glock | Marussia | 22.581 | 1.845 | 32 |
| 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | 22.737 | 2.001 | 17 |
| 21 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 22.746 | 2.010 | 27 |
| 22 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham | 22.811 | 2.075 | 40 |
| 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | 22.874 | 2.138 | 20 |
| 24 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 22.970 | 2.234 | 13 |
| 25 | Bruno Senna | Williams | 22.985 | 2.249 | 24 |
| 26 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 23.375 | 2.639 | 22 |
| 27 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT | 23.488 | 2.752 | 22 |
| 28 | Charles Pic | Marussia | 24.039 | 3.303 | 18 |
| 29 | Timo Glock | Marussia | 28.747 | 8.011 | 7 |
| 30 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT | 31.745 | 11.009 | 23 |
Although Lewis Hamilton’s pit stop was the quickest of the weekend, Jenson Button’s did not go anything like as well. A problem at the front-right kept him in the pits for 2.6s more than his team mate.
2012 Italian Grand Prix
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sato113 (@sato113)
10th September 2012, 0:59
Mclaren’s first half of 2012 included some awful pitstops. recently they have consistently been sub 3 seconds.
I wonder in hindsight whether it would have been better if all their stops were 4 seconds exactly. maybe they’d have more points right now…
MurphyOAlexander (@paddy)
10th September 2012, 8:37
If perez had gotten into Q3 in qualifying then he WOULD`NT have finished second !!
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
10th September 2012, 13:36
With lots of hindsight, I wonder if Ferrari considered sending Alonso out on hard tyres in Q3, once they knew he had the roll-bar problem? Plenty of reasons not to (tyre wear, getting stuck in traffic early on etc) but he might have done better on the same strategy as Perez.
Not sending him out at all (to give him a choice of tyres at the start) was never an option – not on Saturday at Monza…
Tango (@tango)
10th September 2012, 20:55
When Mc Laren has a problem, they don’t half try to solve it !
James (@jamesf1)
10th September 2012, 21:09
A shame that the FIA dont publish the stationairy times of the pit stops, although I guess that is then opened to debate. An FOM graphic claimed that a stop was 2.6 in Silverstone, Sam Michael of Mclaren reckoned the boys got it done in 2.1 seconds (is that even possible!? o.O)
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
11th September 2012, 13:50
@jamesf1 I guess so. The only way FOM can measure it is by how long the car is stationary. If you allow for a few tenths for the pit guys to react to Hamilton being parked and a tenth or two for him to react to the lollipop man it is perfectly feasible.