The Hungarian Grand Prix 2022 was the 13th round of the 2022 F1 season, and took place at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary, during the weekend of the 29th to the 31st of July.
Max Verstappen won the race after starting in the 10th position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and George Russell, who originally had the pole position, 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 13-19: 12 stops
- Laps 21-21: 4 stops
- Laps 38-42: 8 stops
- Laps 46-47: 5 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sergio Pérez's, stopping the clock at 21.118 seconds during his pit stop on lap 18, while the slowest one was was Alexander Albon's, who stopped the clock at 31.224 seconds, 10.106 seconds slower than Pérez, during his pit stop on lap 2.
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 3 drivers tried a 1 stop, and 5 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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2Fernando Alonso
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4Esteban Ocon
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12Valtteri Bottas
2 stops
-
3Lance Stroll
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3Lando Norris
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8Sebastian Vettel
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6Daniel Ricciardo
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9Max Verstappen
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12Pierre Gasly
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2George Russell
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2Carlos Sainz
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6Sergio Pérez
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5Lewis Hamilton
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1Mick Schumacher
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1Guanyu Zhou
3 stops
-
-Alexander Albon
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3Kevin Magnussen
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3Yuki Tsunoda
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1Nicholas Latifi
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3Charles Leclerc
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 3 positions, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.5 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1.6 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 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 Hungaroring, 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 1 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, .
Power Unit
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Valtteri BottasLap 65
Qualifying
George Russell managed to get the pole position by 0.044 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:17.377. 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 14 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 6 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.