The Belgian Grand Prix 2022 was the 14th round of the 2022 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium, during the weekend of the 26th to the 28th of August.
Max Verstappen won the race with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 14th position of the grid, followed by Sergio Pérez, and Carlos Sainz, who originally had the pole position, completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 38 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-15: 16 stops
- Laps 25-30: 13 stops
- Laps 32-34: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Max Verstappen's, stopping the clock at 22.322 seconds during his pit stop on lap 30, while the slowest one was was Nicholas Latifi's, who stopped the clock at 35.825 seconds, 13.503 seconds slower than Verstappen, during his pit stop on lap 3.
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 Charles Leclerc and Nicholas Latifi decided to try something different with a 3 stops strategy.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
2 stops
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9Pierre Gasly
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4Alexander Albon
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2Fernando Alonso
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4Kevin Magnussen
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2Carlos Sainz
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8Daniel Ricciardo
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9Esteban Ocon
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5Lando Norris
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1George Russell
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2Sebastian Vettel
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-Sergio Pérez
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2Mick Schumacher
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4Guanyu Zhou
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13Max Verstappen
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2Lance Stroll
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13Yuki Tsunoda
3 stops
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9Charles Leclerc
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7Nicholas Latifi
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.5 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1 positions.
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, even if Max Verstappen managed to win the race making 2 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, 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 2 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Valtteri Bottas, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 1, and Lewis Hamilton, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 0.
Accident
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Valtteri BottasLap 1
Collision damage
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Lewis HamiltonLap 0
Qualifying
Max Verstappen managed to get the pole position by 0.632 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:43.665. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Carlos Sainz.
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 10 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 5 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.