Pirelli reveals why Imola qualifying could repeat itself at Monte Carlo

Following the opening day at the Monaco Grand Prix, Formula One's tyre supplier Pirelli has revealed that several drivers might elect to use mediums in qualifying instead of the softest compound.

On the first day of track action for the Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc made the most of being on home turf. The Ferrari driver, who was born in the Principality and won last year at this track was surprisingly quickest in both free practice sessions: 1m11.964s in the first one and 1m11.355s in the second.

Ferrari's seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton looked very competitive as well as he ended up third in the second session in 1m11.460s. However, the McLarens were up there too, with Oscar Piastri second just 38 thousandths slower than Leclerc, while Lando Norris is fourth in 1m11.677s.

As for the tyres, Pirelli brought an identical tyre selection to Monaco that was available for the drivers at last weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The C4 serves as the hard, the C5 as the medium and the brand-new C6 as the soft compound on the narrow and twisty streets of the Principality.

During the opening day of the weekend, all three compounds were used over the 120 minutes of practice. The soft did the most work (574 laps in total), followed by the Medium (427) and then the Hard (221).

Last weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix saw the brand-new C6 compound make its debut. Although it had been expected that the new rubber will definitely offer a performance gain over a single lap, several drivers - including the Ferrari racers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc - found it extremely difficult to extract its peak performance.

This difficulty of "switching on" the C6 rubber saw Aston Martin send their drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll out onto the Imola track on mediums in Q2 and Q3 which turned out a masterstroke as the Spaniard and the Canadian delivered the Silverstone-based team's best qualifying result of the season.

Expanding on the practice day at the Monaco Grand Prix, Pirelli's Simone Berra has revealed that several rivers might apply this unusual tactics in qualifying again and use the medium tyres instead of the softs due to its "sensitivity".

"Quite a busy day with lots of laps and plenty of data gathered. It was important for us to see how the C6 performed after it made its debut in Imola and we can say that, here too, the indications we saw last week were also confirmed today. The softest tyre in the 2025 range is slightly faster than the C5 and, with one or two cool-down laps, recovers much of its performance.

"It was also clear that, given that it exhibits the traits of an extremely soft compound, the drivers might feel a little less confident with it when trying to push for a time right from the first flying lap. This could potentially open the door to the Medium also being used in one or more segments of qualifying.

13 drivers have already used a set of C4 and will therefore only have one available for Sunday’s race when, as per the modified Sporting Regulations, two tyre changes will be obligatory.

“Furthermore, with the special sporting regulation in place for this weekend, the choice of tyres for the grid-deciding session will have a significant knock-on effect for the race.

"For example, today 13 drivers from seven teams chose to already use a set of Hards, thus having just one left for Sunday. Five drivers, (Piastri, Norris, Hamilton, Hadjar and Lawson), used one set of Mediums in each of the two sessions.

"As is often the case in Monaco, the lap times came down bit by bit with every passing lap, partly because the track is rubbering-in, with a new surface from turn 12 to 3, but mainly because the drivers grow in confidence. However, the times have been slightly slower than in the same session last year, when once again Leclerc was fastest, in 1’11”278.

“From a tyre wear perspective, we saw some graining on the Mediums at the end of the long runs, something which is totally predictable at this track and in these conditions," concluded Berra.