Copyright Renate Jungert
The GP2 family moves to one of the most famous venues on the calendar this weekend: The legendary Circuit de Monte Carlo in Monaco. Championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne has managed to increase his advantage in the previous rounds to 37 points ahead of Rio Haryanto (49 points) and Alexander Rossi (46 points), and it does not look like the Belgian will falter soon. However, anything can happen on this narrow street circuit, and everyone is ready to attack and claim the honour of winning this prestigious race.
Circuit de Monaco Track & Race Info:
Length: 3.340km
Turns: 19
Direction: Clockwise
Race 1: N/A
Race 2: N/A
Tyres: Soft (Yellow) & Supersoft (Red)
Key Factors:
Qualifying performance. There is slightly more overtaking in GP2 than in its big brother F1, but the fact remains that it is a very narrow street circuit with little opportunities for overtaking and therefore it is best to be as close to the front row as possible from the beginning.
Pit stop strategy. The opportunities for passing people on track are limited, and a fast pit stop in the right moment can help you gain positions.
On the track itself the trickiest things, apart from making it through the first chicane after the start without getting involved in a pile-up, are the tunnel and the following chicane: The kink in the tunnel is the quickest turn in the current calendar, and because of the rapid change from light to darkness to light it’s very difficult for the eyes of the drivers to adjust in time to brake for the chicane right after the tunnel exit. It’s easy to get it wrong, which makes it both one of the few overtaking opportunities as well as a site of major crashes.
Timetable:
Thursday: Practice at 12:00 CEST, Qualifying 16:15 CEST. The qualifying session will be split in two parts of 15 minutes each.
Friday: Feature Race at 11:15 CEST
Saturday: Sprint Race at 16:10 CEST
