The Mexico City Grand Prix 2022 was the 20th round of the 2022 F1 season, and took place at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Mexico, during the weekend of the 28th to the 30th of October.
Max Verstappen won the race from the pole, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and Sergio Pérez completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 23 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 23-25: 4 stops
- Laps 28-29: 4 stops
- Laps 38-40: 7 stops
The fastest pit stop was Charles Leclerc's, stopping the clock at 22.193 seconds during his pit stop on lap 28, while the slowest one was was Pierre Gasly's, who stopped the clock at 29.168 seconds, 6.975 seconds slower than Leclerc, during his pit stop on lap 40.
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 1 stop. Only Lance Stroll, Nicholas Latifi and George Russell decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
1Sergio Pérez
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1Mick Schumacher
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-Max Verstappen
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1Charles Leclerc
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1Lewis Hamilton
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-Carlos Sainz
-
7Yuki Tsunoda
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1Lando Norris
-
2Esteban Ocon
-
2Sebastian Vettel
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2Kevin Magnussen
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5Alexander Albon
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4Valtteri Bottas
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10Fernando Alonso
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3Pierre Gasly
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4Daniel Ricciardo
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1Guanyu Zhou
2 stops
-
5Lance Stroll
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-Nicholas Latifi
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2George Russell
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 0.93 positions, while those on a 2 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 1 stop strategy as the optimal for this race.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, 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, Fernando Alonso, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 63, and Yuki Tsunoda, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 50.
Engine
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Fernando AlonsoLap 63
Collision damage
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Yuki TsunodaLap 50
Qualifying
Max Verstappen managed to get the pole position by 0.304 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:17.775. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was George Russell.
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 all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
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.