| 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 8 of 22 in the2022 Formula One World Championship
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 Layout of the Baku City Circuit | |||||
| Race details | |||||
| Date | 12 June 2022 | ||||
| Official name | Formula 1Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2022 | ||||
| Location | Baku City Circuit Baku,Azerbaijan | ||||
| Course | Street circuit | ||||
| Course length | 6.003 km (3.730 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 51 laps, 306.049 km (190.170 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Sunny | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Ferrari | ||||
| Time | 1:41.359 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Sergio Pérez | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | |||
| Time | 1:46.046 on lap 36 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | ||||
| Second | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | ||||
| Third | Mercedes | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix (officially known as theFormula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2022) was the eighth round of the2022 Formula One World Championship at theBaku City Circuit inBaku on 12 June 2022. The 51-lap race was won byMax Verstappen.[1]Charles Leclerc, who was second in the championship standings prior to the race, retired on lap 21 due to power unit issues, and fell to third in the standings behindSergio Pérez. With the win, Verstappen extended his lead to 21 points.
In the Drivers' Championship,Max Verstappen led with 125 points, nine points ahead ofCharles Leclerc in second, and fifteen points ahead ofSergio Pérez in third position.Red Bull Racing ledFerrari by 36 points, andMercedes by 101 points in the Constructors' Championship.[2]
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.[3]
Tyre supplierPirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.[4]
The first two free practices took place on 10 June 2022, at 15:00–16:00 and 18:00–19:00 local time (UTC+04:00) respectively and the third practice was initially scheduled to take place on 11 June 2022, at 15:00 local time, but was postponed to 15:15 local time, to allow for barrier repairs following a crash in theFormula 2 support race that had taken place around 13:30.[5][6]
Qualifying was due to start at 18:00 local time on 11 June, but the session start was delayed to 18:15 as a consequence of delaying the final practice session.[6]
With about four minutes to go in the first segment of qualifying,Lance Stroll locked up and hit the barrier, at low speed, at turn 7. He reversed and carried on, and hit the barrier again, this time at turn 2 and with a lot more speed. He broke his front wing and front right suspension and was forced to leave his car on track.[7] This resulted in ared flag. Once the session restarted, all the drivers who wanted to set another lap managed to get to the start line on time, but on his last flying lap,Fernando Alonso went straight on at turn 15 and caused yellow flags, meaning the drivers behind could not complete their laps at full speed.Alexander Albon accused Alonso of going off on purpose,[8] Alonso later denied the claims.[9]Kevin Magnussen, Albon,Nicholas Latifi, Stroll andMick Schumacher were all knocked out from qualifying after the first session.[10]
With just under seven and a half minutes to go in the second qualifying session,Sebastian Vettel locked up at turn 15 and hit the barrier at low speed. His car was undamaged, so he reversed and carried on.[11] Similarly to Vettel,Lando Norris also went straight on at turn 15, however he was able to avoid the barriers. Norris spun his car around and carried on, but ultimately, the mistake cost him his lap and he was eliminated. Norris,Daniel Ricciardo,Esteban Ocon,Zhou Guanyu andValtteri Bottas were all knocked out from qualifying in the second session.[10]
As everyone completed their first laps in the top-10 shootout for pole,Carlos Sainz Jr. took provisional pole, with hisFerrari teammate,Charles Leclerc, just 4 hundredths off of Sainz's time. As everyone completed their final laps, Leclerc,Sergio Pérez andMax Verstappen all improved above Sainz, who finished his qualifying in fourth. Leclerc took pole by three tenths from Perez, Verstappen, Sainz,George Russell,Pierre Gasly,Lewis Hamilton,Yuki Tsunoda, Vettel and Alonso.[10]
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Qualifying times | Final grid | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | |||||
| 1 | 16 |  Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:42.865 | 1:42.046 | 1:41.359 | 1 |
| 2 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | 1:42.733 | 1:41.955 | 1:41.641 | 2 |
| 3 | 1 |  Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | 1:42.722 | 1:42.227 | 1:41.706 | 3 |
| 4 | 55 |  Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 1:42.957 | 1:42.088 | 1:41.814 | 4 |
| 5 | 63 |  George Russell | Mercedes | 1:43.754 | 1:43.281 | 1:42.712 | 5 |
| 6 | 10 |  Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-RBPT | 1:43.268 | 1:43.129 | 1:42.845 | 6 |
| 7 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:43.939 | 1:43.182 | 1:42.924 | 7 |
| 8 | 22 |  Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-RBPT | 1:43.595 | 1:43.376 | 1:43.056 | 8 |
| 9 | 5 |  Sebastian Vettel | Aston MartinAramco-Mercedes | 1:43.279 | 1:43.268 | 1:43.091 | 9 |
| 10 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1:44.083 | 1:43.360 | 1:43.173 | 10 |
| 11 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:44.237 | 1:43.398 | N/A | 11 |
| 12 | 3 |  Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:44.437 | 1:43.574 | N/A | 12 |
| 13 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1:43.903 | 1:43.585 | N/A | 13 |
| 14 | 24 |  Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1:43.777 | 1:43.790 | N/A | 14 |
| 15 | 77 |  Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1:44.478 | 1:44.444 | N/A | 15 |
| 16 | 20 |  Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1:44.643 | N/A | N/A | 16 |
| 17 | 23 |  Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 1:44.719 | N/A | N/A | 17 |
| 18 | 6 |  Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1:45.367 | N/A | N/A | 18 |
| 19 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston MartinAramco-Mercedes | 1:45.371 | N/A | N/A | 19 |
| 20 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1:45.775 | N/A | N/A | 20 |
| 107% time: 1:49.912 | |||||||
| Source:[12][13] | |||||||
The race started at 15:00 local time on 12 June.[6]Sergio Pérez took the lead heading into turn 1 on lap 1, after polesitterCharles Leclerc locked up his front left tyre.[14] On Lap 9,Carlos Sainz Jr. pulled over in the run-off area of turn 4 after suffering a hydraulics issue with his car.[15] This resulted in thevirtual safety car, in which most of the grid, including Leclerc, chose to pit with theRed Bulls ofMax Verstappen and Pérez choosing not to. On lap 15, Verstappen overtook Pérez into turn 1. Pérez pitted on lap 17 for new hards, a slow stop meant that when he exited the pits, Leclerc had passed him, and Verstappen, who pitted two laps later, was able toovercut his team-mate. On lap 21, Leclerc's car started billowing smoke with an engine problem on the main straight causing his retirement,[16] withZhou Guanyu retiring on lap 23 with a hydraulics issue.[17] On lap 31,Kevin Magnussen's car also had an engine issue resulting in smoke.[18] He pulled over just before turn 15 off the racing line, but it still resulted in a second virtual safety car. Most of the grid chose to pit for fresher tyres. Tsunoda was shown theblack-and-orange flag for aDRS failure, which was fixed withspeed tape, and him dropped to 13th.[19] Williams's Latifi received a ten-second stop and go penalty after for a grid infringement and was later given a five-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags.[20] On lap 45,Lewis Hamilton overtookPierre Gasly for fourth. On lap 48,Lance Stroll was called in to retire due to high oscillations.[21][22] Verstappen won the race, and Pérez finished second.George Russell finished third forMercedes, with Hamilton in fourth, and Gasly fifth.Sebastian Vettel,Fernando Alonso,Daniel Ricciardo,Lando Norris andEsteban Ocon completed the top 10.[21]
Notes
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| Previous race: 2022 Monaco Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2022 season | Next race: 2022 Canadian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix | Azerbaijan Grand Prix | Next race: 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix |
