Pirelli: only one pit stop planned in the event of a dry race

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, took his sixth career pole position (one more than his father Keke), the first for this season, with supersoft Pirelli P Zero Red tyres, which debut this year on the Monegasque circuit.

The German, also on pole in Monaco last year, used the P Zero Yellow soft in Q1 and the P Zero supersoft in both Q2 and Q3.
In reality, with very low wear and degradation rates, a one-stop race is expected for many drivers, so saving tires was not a priority today.

The tires were designed to give rise to close races, but historically in Monaco the possibility of the safety car coming in is very high, almost 80% (the GP2 race was even suspended yesterday). As a result, you need a flexible strategy to be able to react immediately to any situation.

Given the importance of the data collected for the purposes of developing strategies, this morning's free practice session was also particularly important.

After the partially wet tests on Thursday, the drivers used FP3 today to determine the race pace on dry surfaces, with different tires and fuel loads. Hamilton was the fastest.

Pirelli Motorsport Director, Paul Hembery, commented: “We saw a difference of about a second between the supersoft and soft compounds; both are slightly harder than last year (even for the supersoft, the best times are achieved on the second flying lap).

The drivers in the top positions are very close together, so the race strategy, and above all the timing of the pit stops, will be fundamental.

As expected, there was a high degree of track evolution: the fastest time was set at the very end of each session.

We expect this trend to continue for the rest of the weekend, with good weather forecast for tomorrow.”

Pirelli strategy forecasts:

The 78 laps of the Monaco Grand Prix can be tackled with either one or two stops, depending on the speed of the cars and the race circumstances.

A pit stop is possible, while a two-stop strategy can work if the car is fast enough and has overtaking opportunities.

In Monaco, however, it is known that it is difficult to overtake and the risk of the safety car coming in is very high. So you will need to be flexible.

According to our calculations, a one-stop strategy might be the fastest. However, with only a few rides on the supersoft, it's difficult to be completely confident. Prediction: start with the supersofts, pit stop on lap 30 to change to the softs.