TYRE DEBRIEF: Leclerc reveals how he kept his tyre alive in Monza

Having secured his second victory at the Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has revealed that his main focus at last Sunday's 53-lap Monza race was to manage the front tyres.

Ferrari looked strong all through the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix, but Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz only qualified fourth and fifth on the grid, having missed the crucial final tenth of a second to be in contention for pole position.

Although Leclerc had a masterful start and executed an ambitious move on McLaren's Lando Norris on the first lap to move himself up into second place, Oscar Piastri initially looked in control of the victory. But McLaren made an unexpected decision to call the Australian in for a second stop while Ferrari elected to pursue an aggressive one-stop strategy with both its drivers.

McLaren's strategy sent Leclerc into the lead, and with the Monégasque having mastered his tyres during an extremely long stint, the Ferrari driver took an emotional victory in front of the Scuderia's passionate Tifosi.

The Monegasque secured his seventh career win in Formula 1 while it was Ferrari’s 20th win in this event, its 246th in total.

Reflecting on the Italian Grand Prix, Pirelli's Motorsport Director Mario Isola said: “A really exciting race followed by an amazing show from the fans.

"The enthusiasm of the Monza crowd is incredible and contagious, and really gives one goosebumps. Congratulations to Charles Leclerc and Ferrari, as winning this Grand Prix must be an incredible feeling for them.

At the start, the majority (14) of the drivers went with the Medium. The Hards were chosen by the two Red Bulls, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) and Valtteri Bottas (Sauber).

Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver not to make it to the chequered flag. Ahead of the race, Pirelli had predicted that the one-stop strategy might emerge as the fastest way to complete the race distance given the lengthy pit lane, but with the new, darker tarmac, the Milan-based tyre supplier had not ruled out the possibility of a two-stop race.

And indeed, that was the case, with the drivers divided in their choice. Of the 19 driver who completed the Italian Grand Prix, nine pitted once, while nine racers went for a two-stop strategy. Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll visited the pit lane three times.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc did not look in contention for a race victory initially, but he managed to nurse his hard tyres for 38 laps which was 72 per cent of the race distance. While this has not been completely unusual at Monza in recent years, the resurfaced track led to a significant degree of graining.

Reflecting on the strategy, the seven-time F1 race winner stated that his only focus was to nurse his front tyres during the second stint.

"The only thing I was focusing on really was my front left. I could see there was a little bit of graining, and I really didn't want it to get worse. Otherwise, I knew that this was what will make me lose this race.

"So that was my only focus for the last… Actually, from when I put the Hard on the car. Yeah, that was my only focus. I knew that it was critical to not open this graining too much. And we did a really good job.

"Again, as soon as I had free air, I could change a little bit the balance of the car and put more stress on the rear tyres, which was exactly what I wanted to do. And as soon as that balance changed, I felt like the pace was coming back," Leclerc noted.

Visa Cash RB driver Daniel Ricciardo ran the longest stint of all, completing 42 laps on the Hard. Esteban Ocon led the way on the Medium, running a 21 lap second stint on the C4.

Pushed on to explain the key differences between the various strategies, Isola insisted that several teams had been aware of the need of stopping twice, that is why they had kept two fresh sets of hards for the race.

“On the technical front, this was a Grand Prix that had it all: battles on track between the drivers with some spectacular overtaking moves, such as Piastri’s on Norris and a strategic confrontation between those who had opted to stop twice and those on a one-stop.

“We said prior to the event that the one-stop would be the quickest and that proved to be correct. The fact that nearly all the teams had kept two sets of Hards for the race gave them the flexibility to go with different scenarios if necessary. One should keep in mind that no one had sufficient data to fully evaluate the C3 performance on the completely new track surface.

“Management of graining was key and it was probably affected by the track evolution. Initial analysis of the data and the visual checks of the tyres at the end of each stint showed that graining was very significant in the first part of the race, especially on the front left, but less so on the left rear, with both the Hard and Medium, while in the following stints the phenomenon was less present.

"A vital factor therefore was the drivers’ feeling during the race and their ability to manage the tyres, especially for those who stuck with the strategy they had opted for at the start, namely the one-stop.”