The Spanish Grand Prix 2022 was the 6th round of the 2022 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain, during the weekend of the 20th to the 22nd of May.
Max Verstappen won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Sergio Pérez, and George Russell completing the podium.
Charles Leclerc started from the pole position, but didn't manage to cross the finish line, as he had a turbo failure, and had to retire on lap 27th.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 53 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-14: 15 stops
- Laps 25-37: 16 stops
- Laps 44-46: 5 stops
- Laps 50-54: 8 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sergio Pérez's, stopping the clock at 21.619 seconds during his pit stop on lap 37, while the slowest one was was Lewis Hamilton's, who stopped the clock at 31.054 seconds, 9.435 seconds slower than Pérez, 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 3 stops. Only 2 drivers tried a 1 stop, 4 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 1 driver tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 3 stops strategy.
1 stop
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4Guanyu Zhou
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19Charles Leclerc
2 stops
-
9Kevin Magnussen
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4Mick Schumacher
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1Valtteri Bottas
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5Sebastian Vettel
3 stops
-
1Lewis Hamilton
-
11Fernando Alonso
-
1Carlos Sainz
-
1Pierre Gasly
-
3Daniel Ricciardo
-
3Yuki Tsunoda
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3Lando Norris
-
3Nicholas Latifi
-
1Max Verstappen
-
5Esteban Ocon
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1George Russell
-
2Lance Stroll
-
3Sergio Pérez
4 stops
-
-Alexander Albon
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 1.75 positions, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 2.31 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy didn't gain or lose any positions on average.
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.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 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, Guanyu Zhou, who suffered a power loss on lap 28, and Charles Leclerc, who had a turbo failure on lap 27.
Power loss
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Guanyu ZhouLap 28
Turbo
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Charles LeclercLap 27
Qualifying
Charles Leclerc managed to get the pole position by 0.323 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:18.750. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Max Verstappen.
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 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.