2012 Italian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2012 Italian Grand Prix

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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 1Stint 2Stint 3
Lewis HamiltonMedium (23)Hard (30)
Jenson ButtonMedium (22)Hard (10)
Felipe MassaMedium (19)Hard (34)
Michael SchumacherMedium (15)Hard (22)Hard (16)
Sebastian VettelMedium (20)Hard (27)
Nico RosbergMedium (14)Hard (24)Hard (15)
Kimi RaikkonenMedium (17)Hard (36)
Kamui KobayashiMedium (20)Hard (33)
Paul di RestaMedium (21)Hard (32)
Fernando AlonsoMedium (20)Hard (33)
Mark WebberMedium (21)Hard (30)
Sergio PerezHard (29)Medium (24)
Bruno SennaMedium (24)Hard (29)
Daniel RicciardoMedium (24)Hard (29)
Jerome d’AmbrosioHard (27)Medium (26)
Jean-Eric VergneMedium (8)
Heikki KovalainenMedium (17)Hard (22)Medium (13)
Vitaly PetrovMedium (19)Hard (21)Medium (12)
Timo GlockMedium (7)Hard (25)Hard (20)
Charles PicMedium (18)Hard (17)Hard (17)
Narain KarthikeyanMedium (23)Hard (29)
Pastor MaldonadoHard (13)Medium (22)Medium (18)
Pedro de la RosaMedium (22)Hard (30)
Nico HulkenbergHard (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:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Lewis HamiltonMcLaren20.73623
2Fernando AlonsoFerrari21.5150.77920
3Mark WebberRed Bull21.5560.82021
4Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso21.7200.98424
5Kimi RaikkonenLotus21.7300.99417
6Pastor MaldonadoWilliams21.8141.07835
7Nico RosbergMercedes21.8541.11838
8Heikki KovalainenCaterham21.9101.17439
9Jerome d’AmbrosioLotus21.9621.22627
10Charles PicMarussia22.0461.31035
11Felipe MassaFerrari22.1611.42519
12Vitaly PetrovCaterham22.1821.44619
13Paul di RestaForce India22.1901.45421
14Michael SchumacherMercedes22.2471.51115
15Sebastian VettelRed Bull22.3031.56720
16Michael SchumacherMercedes22.3101.57437
17Nico RosbergMercedes22.3461.61014
18Sergio PerezSauber22.4721.73629
19Timo GlockMarussia22.5811.84532
20Heikki KovalainenCaterham22.7372.00117
21Nico HulkenbergForce India22.7462.01027
22Vitaly PetrovCaterham22.8112.07540
23Kamui KobayashiSauber22.8742.13820
24Pastor MaldonadoWilliams22.9702.23413
25Bruno SennaWilliams22.9852.24924
26Jenson ButtonMcLaren23.3752.63922
27Pedro de la RosaHRT23.4882.75222
28Charles PicMarussia24.0393.30318
29Timo GlockMarussia28.7478.0117
30Narain KarthikeyanHRT31.74511.00923

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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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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6 comments on “2012 Italian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. 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…

  2. If perez had gotten into Q3 in qualifying then he WOULD`NT have finished second !!

  3. 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…

  4. When Mc Laren has a problem, they don’t half try to solve it !

  5. 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)

    1. @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.

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