The Japanese Grand Prix 2022 was the 18th round of the 2022 F1 season, and took place at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Japan, during the weekend of the 7th to the 9th of October.
Max Verstappen won the race from the pole, followed by Sergio Pérez, and Charles Leclerc completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 42 pit stops during the race, although only 24 which can be considered "normal". A red flag on lap 2 caused all drivers to pit on that lap.
The most popular pit stop windows, considering that these were affected by the red flag, were:
- Laps 5-9: 17 stops
- Laps 18-20: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Yuki Tsunoda's, stopping the clock at 23.756 seconds during his pit stop on lap 20, while the slowest one was was Pierre Gasly's, who stopped the clock at 41.319 seconds, 17.563 seconds slower than Tsunoda, during his pit stop on lap 1.
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 4 drivers tried a 3 stops, and 1 driver tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
2 stops
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1Lewis Hamilton
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3Sebastian Vettel
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2Sergio Pérez
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-Daniel Ricciardo
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3Valtteri Bottas
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4Kevin Magnussen
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-Max Verstappen
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1Esteban Ocon
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1Charles Leclerc
-
-Lando Norris
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-George Russell
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11Nicholas Latifi
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2Mick Schumacher
3 stops
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-Fernando Alonso
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7Lance Stroll
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-Yuki Tsunoda
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2Guanyu Zhou
4 stops
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1Pierre Gasly
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.23 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 1.25 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 1 positions.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 2 stops strategy as the optimal for this race.
That is for this particular race, with all its unique circumstances, amongst which, let's not forget was the red flag on lap 2, so it is very likely that this would have not been the ideal strategy under normal circumstances.
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, Carlos Sainz, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 0, and Alexander Albon, who experienced an hydraulic malfunction on lap 0.
Accident
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Carlos SainzLap 0
Hydraulics
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Alexander AlbonLap 0
Qualifying
Max Verstappen managed to get the pole position by 0.01 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:29.304. 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 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 9 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.