The Canadian Grand Prix 2022 was the 9th round of the 2022 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada, during the weekend of the 17th to the 19th of June.
Max Verstappen won the race from the pole, followed by Carlos Sainz, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 32 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 9-9: 4 stops
- Laps 18-20: 8 stops
- Laps 41-45: 5 stops
- Laps 47-49: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Yuki Tsunoda's, stopping the clock at 23.248 seconds during his pit stop on lap 9, while the slowest one was was Lando Norris's, who stopped the clock at 43.032 seconds, 19.784 seconds slower than Tsunoda, during his pit stop on lap 19.
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 Kevin Magnussen, Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas decided to try something different with a 1 stop strategy.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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12Kevin Magnussen
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14Charles Leclerc
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7Lance Stroll
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4Valtteri Bottas
2 stops
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4Sebastian Vettel
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1Pierre Gasly
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1Lewis Hamilton
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-Max Verstappen
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2Nicholas Latifi
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2Yuki Tsunoda
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1Alexander Albon
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2Daniel Ricciardo
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1Esteban Ocon
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1Lando Norris
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4George Russell
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2Guanyu Zhou
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1Carlos Sainz
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7Fernando Alonso
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 3.25 positions on average, while those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.38 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop 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 Gilles Villeneuve, 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, Yuki Tsunoda, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 47, Mick Schumacher, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 18, and Sergio Pérez, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 7.
Accident
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Yuki TsunodaLap 47
Engine
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Mick SchumacherLap 18
Gearbox
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Sergio PérezLap 7
Qualifying
Max Verstappen dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.645 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:21.299. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Fernando Alonso.
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 12 out of the 13 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.