The Monaco Grand Prix 2018 was the 6th round of the 2018 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte-Carlo, Monaco, on May 27th.
Daniel Ricciardo won the race from the pole, followed by Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 26 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 12-17: 11 stops
- Laps 19-21: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Lewis Hamilton's, stopping the clock at 23.739 seconds during his pit stop on lap 12, while the slowest one was was Lance Stroll's, who stopped the clock at 33.887 seconds, 10.148 seconds slower than Hamilton, during his pit stop on lap 9.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 1 stop. Only 2 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 2 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Daniel Ricciardo, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
4Brendon Hartley
-
4Charles Leclerc
-
-Sebastian Vettel
-
2Carlos Sainz
-
-Daniel Ricciardo
-
-Kimi Räikkönen
-
-Valtteri Bottas
-
5Marcus Ericsson
-
6Kevin Magnussen
-
13Fernando Alonso
-
3Sergio Pérez
-
-Esteban Ocon
-
3Pierre Gasly
-
11Max Verstappen
-
3Nico Hülkenberg
2 stops
-
3Romain Grosjean
-
2Stoffel Vandoorne
3 stops
-
3Sergey Sirotkin
-
-Lance Stroll
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 1.77 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.5 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1.5 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit de Monaco, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 3 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Charles Leclerc, and Brendon Hartley, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, and Fernando Alonso, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 52.
Collision
-
Charles LeclercLap 70
-
Brendon HartleyLap 70
Gearbox
-
Fernando AlonsoLap 52
Qualifying
Daniel Ricciardo dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.229 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:10.810. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sebastian Vettel.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.