The Austrian Grand Prix 2022 was the 11th round of the 2022 F1 season, and took place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, during the weekend of the 8th to the 10th of July.
Charles Leclerc won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Max Verstappen, who originally had the pole position, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 42 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 11-16: 10 stops
- Laps 26-29: 6 stops
- Laps 39-41: 5 stops
- Laps 43-44: 5 stops
- Laps 48-51: 4 stops
- Laps 57-58: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Nicholas Latifi's, stopping the clock at 21.206 seconds during his pit stop on lap 35, while the slowest one was was George Russell's, who stopped the clock at 38.201 seconds, 16.995 seconds slower than Latifi, during his pit stop on lap 11.
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 2 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, and 3 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Charles Leclerc, was on a 3 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
15Sergio Pérez
2 stops
-
11Valtteri Bottas
-
-George Russell
-
3Alexander Albon
-
2Daniel Ricciardo
-
1Pierre Gasly
-
2Nicholas Latifi
-
3Lando Norris
-
1Kevin Magnussen
-
1Esteban Ocon
-
3Mick Schumacher
-
1Sebastian Vettel
-
1Guanyu Zhou
-
-Yuki Tsunoda
-
15Carlos Sainz
-
5Lewis Hamilton
-
1Lance Stroll
3 stops
-
1Max Verstappen
-
1Charles Leclerc
-
9Fernando Alonso
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.21 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 3 positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 3 stops strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Red Bull Ring, 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, Carlos Sainz, who had a power unit failure on lap 56, Nicholas Latifi, who had a problem with the undertray on lap 48, and Sergio Pérez, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 24.
Power Unit
-
Carlos SainzLap 56
Undertray
-
Nicholas LatifiLap 48
Collision damage
-
Sergio PérezLap 24
Qualifying
Max Verstappen managed to get the pole position by 0.029 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:04.984. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Charles Leclerc.
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 7 out of the 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.