The Australian Grand Prix 2022 was the 3rd round of the 2022 F1 season, and took place at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia, during the weekend of the 8th to the 10th of April.
Charles Leclerc won the race from the pole, followed by Sergio Pérez, and George Russell completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 22 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 20-23: 11 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sergio Pérez's, stopping the clock at 17.434 seconds during his pit stop on lap 20, while the slowest one was was Lance Stroll's, who stopped the clock at 20.402 seconds, 2.968 seconds slower than Pérez, during his pit stop on lap 23.
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 1 driver tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Charles Leclerc, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
2Mick Schumacher
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1Esteban Ocon
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16Max Verstappen
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2Yuki Tsunoda
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1Sergio Pérez
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1Lando Norris
-
1Daniel Ricciardo
-
2Pierre Gasly
-
3Guanyu Zhou
-
1Lewis Hamilton
-
4Valtteri Bottas
-
-Charles Leclerc
-
3George Russell
-
2Kevin Magnussen
-
10Alexander Albon
2 stops
-
2Nicholas Latifi
-
7Fernando Alonso
3 stops
-
7Lance Stroll
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 1.93 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 2.5 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 7 positions on average.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 1 stop strategy as the optimal for this race.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, 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, Max Verstappen, who had a fuel leak on lap 38, Sebastian Vettel, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 22, and Carlos Sainz, who lost control and spun off the track on lap 1.
Fuel leak
-
Max VerstappenLap 38
Accident
-
Sebastian VettelLap 22
Spun off
-
Carlos SainzLap 1
Qualifying
Charles Leclerc managed to get the pole position by 0.286 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:17.868. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Max Verstappen.
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 11 out of the 15 drivers that took place in Q2 were able to improve their times.
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 8 out of the 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.