2013 Monaco Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2013 Monaco Grand Prix

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Red Bull were the fastest team in the pits for the fourth time this year.

However that only played a small role in both their drivers getting ahead of Lewis Hamilton during their only pit stop of the race. Hamilton backed off too much on his way to the pits behind the safety car, which cost him the chance of holding onto second place.

Lotus made a timely improvement in their pit stops, setting the third quickest time for Kimi Raikkonen. That allowed him to stay ahead of Fernando Alonso, who came close to taking Raikkonen’s position.

Unfortunately for Raikkonen it proved academic as he picked up a puncture in a collision with Sergio Perez later in the race and had to make a late return to the pits which dropped him behind Alonso.

Every driver took advantage of the opportunity to change their tyres during the suspension of the race. There is no rule forbidding this as race suspensions can occur due to severe weather such as heavy rain, when drivers need to be allowed to change.

Monaco Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4Stint 5
Nico RosbergSuper soft (31)Soft (16)Super soft (31)
Sebastian VettelSuper soft (30)Soft (17)Super soft (31)
Mark WebberSuper soft (25)Soft (22)Super soft (31)
Lewis HamiltonSuper soft (31)Soft (16)Super soft (31)
Adrian SutilSuper soft (30)Soft (17)Super soft (31)
Jenson ButtonSuper soft (26)Soft (21)Super soft (31)
Fernando AlonsoSuper soft (28)Soft (19)Super soft (31)
Jean-Eric VergneSuper soft (29)Soft (18)Super soft (31)
Paul di RestaSuper soft (9)Soft (38)Super soft (31)
Kimi RaikkonenSuper soft (26)Soft (21)Soft (23)Super soft (8)
Nico HulkenbergSuper soft (27)Soft (20)Soft (31)
Valtteri BottasSuper soft (30)Soft (17)Super soft (31)
Esteban GutierrezSoft (28)Super soft (19)Super soft (16)Super soft (15)
Max ChiltonSuper soft (23)Soft (24)Soft (16)Super soft (15)
Giedo van der GardeSuper soft (1)Super soft (23)Soft (11)Soft (12)Soft (31)
Sergio PerezSuper soft (29)Soft (18)Super soft (25)
Romain GrosjeanSoft (30)Super soft (17)Super soft (15)Super soft (1)
Daniel RicciardoSoft (22)Super soft (25)Super soft (14)
Jules BianchiSuper soft (22)Soft (13)Soft (23)
Pastor MaldonadoSuper soft (1)Super soft (29)Soft (14)
Felipe MassaSoft (26)Super soft (2)
Charles PicSuper soft (7)

Monaco Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Mark WebberRed Bull24.31625
3Sebastian VettelRed Bull24.3750.05930
5Kimi RaikkonenLotus24.4200.10426
7Fernando AlonsoFerrari24.4890.17328
9Romain GrosjeanLotus24.5650.24930
11Jenson ButtonMcLaren24.5850.26926
13Sergio PerezMcLaren24.6720.35629
15Lewis HamiltonMercedes24.8010.48531
17Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso24.8270.51129
19Nico HulkenbergSauber24.9740.65827
21Jules BianchiMarussia25.0980.78222
22Kimi RaikkonenLotus25.1250.80970
23Nico RosbergMercedes25.2000.88431
25Jules BianchiMarussia25.2150.89935
26Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso25.2250.90922
28Adrian SutilForce India25.2740.95830
30Felipe MassaFerrari25.3311.01526
31Max ChiltonMarussia25.3371.02123
33Esteban GutierrezSauber25.3641.04828
35Paul di RestaForce India25.6431.3279
37Giedo van der GardeCaterham25.6761.36024
38Giedo van der GardeCaterham25.8621.54635
40Esteban GutierrezSauber25.9261.61063
41Pastor MaldonadoWilliams26.1461.83030
42Max ChiltonMarussia26.1981.88263
43Valtteri BottasWilliams29.0634.74730
45Giedo van der GardeCaterham35.10010.7841
46Romain GrosjeanLotus39.98015.66462
47Pastor MaldonadoWilliams40.50716.1911

2013 Monaco Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “2013 Monaco Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. Unfortunately Nicole rosberg was robbed of the fastest lap in the race and hence he missed out on the Grand Chelm. That would have been an incredible feat for him.

    1. If not for the finger, the fastest lap would have been Kimi’s, not Nico’s. But I agree, it would have sealed a perfect weekend.

    2. Why robbed? Rosberg could have done the same as Vettel and do a fast lap at the end…

      1. It seems one needs a nerve for steel and the intense competitive thirst to set the fastest lap of the race in the last lap in monaco when you know that you are winning.

        BTW vettel set the fastest lap in the penultimate lap. The pit radioed him to slow down and not to go for it again as he has enough points in championship. But then vet tel being vet tel did it again in the last lap.

        1. No, he only did it in the penultimate lap – Vettel’s last lap was a lot slower. I am pretty sure Roquelin saw that Vettel was letting himself fall back in the third lap from the end to create some space and knew what Vettel was going to do in the penultimate lap.

          The radio calls are always delayed, so they played it when he was doing his fastest lap.

          @tmax

  2. Keith, could you do a post on Safety Car strategy? From the live commentary a lot of people were confused about what was happening. I know I was. I still can’t understand how Hamilton went from P2 to P4 but others were unaffected.

    1. HAM screwed up. Basically, once the SC comes out, you are supposed to drive slower but keep the gap to the car in front the same (I don’t know the precise rule, but this is it basically for the first lap of the SC at least). Hamilton dropped back, presumably to make smooth double stop for Mercedes, but he overdid it, and fell too far behind.

      1. Some (NBC commentary team) say it was the payback to Rosberg for Malaysia. Though I did not quite understand how that helped. It seems his slowing down helped Nico make a clean pit and exit before vettel and Webber could overtake him.

        It seems he was supposed to leave a cushion of 6 seconds but he gave a 10 seconds cushion which screwed his position.

      2. He pulled into the box a few seconds at most after Rosberg but Vettel and Webber were long gone by the time he came out. So I’m not sure what he could have done. In fact, if the SC didn’t hold up the RBRs until Mirabeau then both MBs would have been jumped. It seemed to me that MB passed the pit entrance at least once after Massa hit the wall and I was really baffled that they didn’t pit, even if it meant stacking, given that several other cars had started to pit already. They really got lucky to win with that gaffe.

        1. Yes, it’s true, I was really surprised that Rosberg stayed in front. As to Hamilton – I think by staying closer to Rosberg, he would have come out close to Webber, but probably not much he could do about Vettel.

          I timed it just – I think Hamilton lost around 6 seconds by not being directly behind Rosberg, and he came out maybe 5 to 7 seconds behind Webber – this is hard to time though because of the strange pit exit.

  3. There are two things I don’t understand:

    1) Why Mercedes waited a lap to stop; and
    2) Why they didn’t just do a “traditional” stacked pit stop with Lewis and Nico (i.e. bring them in at the same time and have Hamilton queue behind)? It seems to me that if they did Hamilton would have got out ahead of the Red bulls. Is it because the Monaco pit lane isn’t big enough to stack the cars?

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