| 2022 Austrian Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 11 of 22 in the2022 Formula One World Championship
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 Layout of the Red Bull Ring | |||||
| Race details | |||||
| Date | 10 July 2022 | ||||
| Official name | Formula 1 RolexGroßer Preis von Österreich 2022 | ||||
| Location | Red Bull Ring Spielberg,Styria, Austria | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 4.318 km (2.683 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 71 laps, 306.452 km (190.420 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Partly cloudy | ||||
| Attendance | 303,000[1] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | ||||
| Time | 1:04.984 | ||||
| Grid positions set by results of sprint | |||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | |||
| Time | 1:07.275 on lap 62 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Ferrari | ||||
| Second | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | ||||
| Third | Mercedes | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2022 Austrian Grand Prix (officially known as theFormula 1 Rolex Großer Preis von Österreich 2022) was aFormula One motor race held on 10 July 2022 at theRed Bull Ring inSpielberg,Austria. It was the second Grand Prix weekend of the2022 season to utilise theFormula One sprint format.[4]
Max Verstappen qualified on pole position and retained the first grid spot by winning the sprint race.Charles Leclerc won the race in spite of late issues with his car, retaking second place in the standings fromSergio Pérez. This race marked Leclerc's third and final win of the 2022 season, his last until the2024 Monaco Grand Prix, Ferrari's first win in Austria sinceMichael Schumacher won there for the team in2003 and Leclerc's first win in his career without starting from pole. Verstappen finished second, andLewis Hamilton came in third. The entire race weekend was marred by accusations of poor fan behavior.
The event was held across the weekend of the 8–10 July. It was the eleventh round of the2022 Formula One World Championship, and the 35th running of theAustrian Grand Prix in a World Championship season.[5]
Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship by 34 points from teammateSergio Pérez, withCharles Leclerc third, a further 9 points behind.Red Bull Racing led the Constructors' Championship, leadingFerrari by 63 points andMercedes by 124 points.[6]
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.[7]
Tyre supplierPirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.[8]
During the event, some spectators accused other fans of harassment. Formula 1 teams and drivers have moved to condemn such behaviour with lifetime bans from attending F1 races in the future thought to be a possible punishment for offenders.[9] The reported harassment received condemnation from many drivers, includingLewis Hamilton,Sebastian Vettel, andMax Verstappen. Hamilton called the abuse "disgusting" while Verstappen stated the harassment was "shocking" and should never happen.[10] Vettel has calledFormula One to ban spectators who harass other fans from attending races for life.[11]
There were two practice sessions, each lasted one hour. The first practice session took place on 8 July 2022, 13:30 local time (UTC+02:00). The second session took place on 9 July, at 12:30 local time.[12]
Qualifying took place on 8 July and determined the starting order for the sprint.[12]
The first part of qualifying (Q1) saw the bottom five drivers eliminated from the rest of the session.[13]Sebastian Vettel had his last lap time deleted, dropping him from 17th down to 20th.Daniel Ricciardo,Lance Stroll,Zhou Guanyu,Nicholas Latifi and Vettel were eliminated.[13]
The second part of qualifying (Q2) saw the bottom five drivers eliminated from the rest of the session.[13]Lando Norris ran wide in every attempt and did not set a representative lap time. He later explained his car was suffering from a brake problem.[14]Pierre Gasly,Valtteri Bottas,Alexander Albon,Yuki Tsunoda and Norris were eliminated.[13]Sergio Pérez ran wide on his last lap, with the FIA deleting his lap time after the session (as opposed to during the session, as was the practice for the other time deletions, since they failed to confirm their readings until after Q3 had already started). Despite setting times in Q3, he was reverted to his best legal Q2 lap time, demoting him to 13th.[15]
The third part of qualifying (Q3) was a ten-car shoot-out for pole position.[13]Lewis Hamilton spun on a fast lap, bounced across the gravel and hit the barrier. Thered flag was waved and the session timer was paused as Hamilton's car was cleared. Once the session restarted, the secondMercedes ofGeorge Russell spun at turn 10 and hit the barrier, causing another red flag.[16]Max Verstappen qualified first, withCharles Leclerc second andCarlos Sainz Jr. third. Pérez initially qualified fourth, but after his lap times were deleted, Russell was promoted into fourth andEsteban Ocon into fifth.[17] This also meant that despitePierre Gasly's elimination in Q2, he was promoted to tenth.[18]
Following the qualifying sessionMcLaren team managerAndreas Seidl admitted his team had not done a good job in qualifying after bothLando Norris andDaniel Ricciardo had their qualifying sessions affected by reliability problems.[19] Seidl also stated that the team must also shoulder some of the blame for Ricciardo's difficulties in the season overall thus far.[20]Mercedes bossToto Wolff was unhappy when some fans cheered atLewis Hamilton's crash and said the sport needed to "educate" fans on how to behave in such circumstances.[21] Hamilton said he had no answer for what may have caused his Q3 crash and believed a top three finish in qualifying had been possible.[22]Charles Leclerc stated after the session just wanted "a clean race" following his difficult run of results in the previous races.[23]Christian Horner thoughtSergio Pérez's punishment in regards to track limits were "very harsh,"[24] whileMax Verstappen admitted he was on the edge with track limits himself in on his pole lap.[25]
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Qualifying times | Sprint grid | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | |||||
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | 1:05.852 | 1:05.374 | 1:04.984 | 1 |
| 2 | 16 |  Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:05.419 | 1:05.287 | 1:05.013 | 2 |
| 3 | 55 |  Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 1:05.660 | 1:05.576 | 1:05.066 | 3 |
| 4 | 63 |  George Russell | Mercedes | 1:06.235 | 1:05.697 | 1:05.431 | 4 |
| 5 | 31 |  Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1:06.468 | 1:05.993 | 1:05.726 | 5 |
| 6 | 20 |  Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1:06.366 | 1:05.894 | 1:05.879 | 6 |
| 7 | 47 |  Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1:06.405 | 1:06.151 | 1:06.011 | 7 |
| 8 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1:06.016 | 1:06.082 | 1:06.103 | 8 |
| 9 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:06.079 | 1:05.475 | 1:13.151 | 9 |
| 10 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-RBPT | 1:06.589 | 1:06.160 | N/A | 10 |
| 11 | 23 |  Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 1:06.516 | 1:06.230 | N/A | 11 |
| 12 | 77 |  Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1:06.442 | 1:06.319 | N/A | 12 |
| 13 | 11 |  Sergio Pérez | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | 1:06.143 | 1:06.458 | No time | 13a |
| 14 | 22 |  Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-RBPT | 1:06.463 | 1:06.851 | N/A | 14 |
| 15 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:06.330 | 1:25.847 | N/A | 15 |
| 16 | 3 |  Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:06.613 | N/A | N/A | 16 |
| 17 | 18 |  Lance Stroll | Aston MartinAramco-Mercedes | 1:06.847 | N/A | N/A | 17 |
| 18 | 24 |  Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1:06.901 | N/A | N/A | 18 |
| 19 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1:07.003 | N/A | N/A | 19 |
| 20 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston MartinAramco-Mercedes | 1:07.083 | N/A | N/A | 20 |
| 107% time: 1:09.998 | |||||||
| Source:[17][26] | |||||||
Notes
The sprint took place on 9 July, and was scheduled to run for 24 laps,[27] though this was shortened by one lap due to an aborted start procedure resulting from a stopped car.[28]
Fernando Alonso was left on the grid with his wheel blankets on before the formation lap. He was wheeled back into the pit lane, but due to an electrical issue, he did not start.[29]Zhou Guanyu had an engine issue at the end of the formation lap, this meant another formation lap was required to move Zhou's car. He managed to restart his car, completed the second formation lap and was required to start from the pit lane.Mick Schumacher,Daniel Ricciardo,George Russell,Esteban Ocon,Sergio Pérez,Lance Stroll andSebastian Vettel were summoned to the stewards after the sprint after radio messages on the formation lap were alleged to have breach the regulation that "[drivers] must drive the car alone and unaided".[28] All drivers were cleared as the messages were deemed to be permitted.[30]
Max Verstappen retained his lead into turn one.Carlos Sainz Jr. overtook hisFerrari teammate,Charles Leclerc into turn one and subsequently attempted to overtake Verstappen into turn three, where Sainz went wide. Further back,Lewis Hamilton made contact withPierre Gasly at turn one, sending the latter into a spin. Both cars carried on.[31] Leclerc reovertook Sainz for second but was unable to catch Verstappen for the rest of the race.[32]
Lando Norris attempted to overtakeAlexander Albon at turn three, where Albon forced him off track, for which the FIA punished Albon with a five-second penalty.[33] Albon was later involved in an incident withSebastian Vettel, which saw Vettel end up in the gravel. He reversed out of the gravel and carried on but retired on lap 21 due to the collision.[34]
Verstappen won the race, with Leclerc and Sainz in second and third.George Russell was fourth andSergio Pérez fifth.Esteban Ocon finished sixth andKevin Magnussen was seventh. Hamilton overtookMick Schumacher with two laps to go for eighth, as Schumacher finished ninth.Valtteri Bottas finished tenth.[35]
Notes
The race was held on 10 July for 71 laps.[12]Max Verstappen held position into turn one, as didCharles Leclerc.Carlos Sainz Jr. was challenged into turn one byGeorge Russell, Sainz went wide, rejoined and pulled ahead of Russell before turn three.Sergio Pérez then attempted to go round the outside of Russell out of turn three.[39] The two went side by side into turn four, where Russell's front left tyre touched Pérez's rear right tyre, spinning Pérez into the gravel. Pérez was demoted to the back, had to pit and later retired as a result of the damage. Thestewards deemed that Russell was at fault and gave him a five-second penalty.[40] He pitted to serve his penalty and change his wing, which left him in 19th, only ahead of Pérez.[41]
Leclerc kept up with Verstappen and withDRS assistance, he passed Verstappen for the lead on lap 12. Verstappen pitted a lap later. Leclerc waited until lap 27 before he pitted, coming out behind Verstappen. By lap 33, Leclerc had caught up and passed Verstappen again. Verstappen then pitted on lap 37, but Leclerc waited until lap 49 before pitting. Like before, Leclerc had caught up to and passed Verstappen by lap 53. Sainz, who was on a similar strategy to Leclerc, was in the DRS range of Verstappen. Before Sainz could complete a move on Verstappen, Sainz's power unit failed and he was forced to retire on lap 57. Avirtual safety car was deployed and both Leclerc and Verstappen pitted for new medium tyres to take them to the end.[39]
Despite Leclerc struggling with issues with his car, he held off Verstappen and won the race. It was Leclerc's first win without starting onpole. Verstappen was second and picked up an extra point for thefastest lap.[42]Lewis Hamilton was in third and hisMercedes teammate Russell recovered to fourth ahead ofEsteban Ocon andMick Schumacher, the latter having improved his highest Formula One finish.[43]Lando Norris was seventh,Kevin Magnussen was eighth, andDaniel Ricciardo was ninth.Fernando Alonso finished tenth, after a last lap overtake onValtteri Bottas.[44] Throughout the race,Pierre Gasly,Lando Norris andZhou Guanyu were given five-second time penalties for track limits. Gasly was given another five-second penalty after he made contact withSebastian Vettel at turn four.[39]
Notes
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| Previous race: 2022 British Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2022 season | Next race: 2022 French Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2021 Austrian Grand Prix | Austrian Grand Prix | Next race: 2023 Austrian Grand Prix |
