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2022 F1 Grand Prix of Japan — Results & aftermath

Verstappen clinches second consecutive title at sodden Suzuka with win and last lap penalty to Leclerc in rain-shortened race; Perez promoted to P2 to aid Red Bull team & teammate’s cause

On a day where the rains returned in force to the Suzuka International Circuit and prompted an epically long Red Flag delay awaiting raceable weather, Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen still found a way to prevail when Sunday’s eventful Japanese Grand Prix resumed. With the entire field restarting on full Wet weather Pirelli tires, Verstappen and team Red Bull changed for Intermediates a few laps after the restart with approximately 30-minutes remaining along with all the main contenders. But once that switch had been made, Max was simply superior in getting his tires to work on the drenched circuit to greater effect than his few mathematical championship rivals, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and his own teammate Sergio Perez. By the time the checkers flew to end this rain shortened 28-lap contest Verstappen’s lead had ballooned to over 26-seconds to the P2 Prancing Horse of Leclerc, earning him the full 25 Championship points since the race had exceeded the halfway mark of the originally scheduled 53-laps. Better still for the Dutch Master, his teammate Perez hounded Leclerc to the bitter end, forcing the Monegasque into an error on the final lap that saw the P2 Ferrari go off track and then rejoin in front of Perez awkwardly. While Leclerc crossed the line in P2 he was docked five-seconds by the stewards for gaining an advantage and when the points were all recalculated that made Verstappen the winner of the 2022 F1 title, his second in succession. This season, unlike last year’s controversial last race nail-biter, was essentially a runaway, Ferrari’s and Leclerc’s early competitiveness giving way to unforced errors by the Scuderia team and drover and, frankly, the sheer superiority of the Red Bull RB 18 in Verstappen’s masterful hands. While Red Bull as a team will have to wait at least one more race to clinch the all-important Constructors’ title, that, too, is certainly a fait accompli. There may be four more rounds remaining in this year’s F1 season but it’s now all over but the shouting.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Outside that consequential top three, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was able to skillfully fend off the multiple-lap charge of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, besting the seven-time champ to the line, P4 to P5. Likewise, the second Alpine of Fernando Alonso pitted late for a fresh set of Inters and was then able to pip Hamilton’s teammate George Russell for P7. Splitting that two-team quartet was the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel, who was one of the first to switch to Inters off of full Wets and road that brave decision to finish P6 in a brilliant drive at his final Japanese GP. Williams’ Nicholas Latifi did well to keep his car intact and come home P9, while McLaren’s Lando Norris took the last point in P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Japanese GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 28 3:01:44.004 25
2 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 28 +27.066s 18
3 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 28 +31.763s 15
4 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 28 +39.685s 12
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 28 +40.326s 10
6 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 28 +46.358s 8
7 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 28 +46.369s 6
8 63 George Russell MERCEDES 28 +47.661s 4
9 6 Nicholas Latifi WILLIAMS MERCEDES 28 +70.143s 2
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 28 +70.782s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks time and halfway round the globe — the always enjoyable United States Grand Prix from the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. We’ll hope for drier conditions and you can be sure the newly crowned two time King Max will still be gunning for victory in the Lone Star State. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Japan — Qualifying results

Verstappen survives stewards after contretemps with Norris to keep pole at Suzuka; Leclerc P2 & Sainz P3 for Ferrari

Inching ever closer to his second consecutive Formula 1 World Championship, Red Bull’s Dutch master Max Verstappen set the fastest lap during Saturday qualifying for the return of the Japanese Grand Prix after a two year hiatus. Verstappen held off not only the hard charging Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz but also survived a stewards inquiry into his leisurely weaving through 130R during Q3, forcing McLaren’s Lando Norris to take evasive action at full chat to avoid the out of shape Red Bull. While Verstappen received a reprimand, he was not penalized and so will start from pole for tomorrow’s race, where he will have the best possible chance of clinching the title with both a win and the bonus point for fastest lap no matter where his rivals finish. Ferrari’s Leclerc, starting alongside Max on the front row in P2, and Sainz in P3, as well as his Red Bull teammate and last race’s winner in Singapore, Sergio Perez, lining up in P4, will all surely give their best efforts to deny the Dutchman that most coveted motorsport prize, if only for one more race.

Outside that elite top four, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon out-qualified his more heralded teammate, Fernando Alonso, P5 to P7 respectively, while Lewis Hamilton got the better of his Mercedes teammate George Russell, P6 to P8. Sebastian Vettel willed his Aston Martin into Q3 and P9 on the grid in the last F1 qualifying effort of his illustrious career at his favorite Suzuka Circuit. And Norris could do no better than P10, perhaps due to the limitations of his McLaren chassis and perhaps as a result of being thrown off rhythm from his earlier hairy encounter with Verstappen.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Japanese GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:30.224 1:30.346 1:29.304 13
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:30.402 1:30.486 1:29.314 13
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:30.336 1:30.444 1:29.361 13
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:30.622 1:29.925 1:29.709 15
5 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:30.696 1:30.357 1:30.165 18
6 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:30.906 1:30.443 1:30.261 20
7 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:30.603 1:30.343 1:30.322 15
8 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:30.865 1:30.465 1:30.389 19
9 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:31.256 1:30.656 1:30.554 15
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:30.881 1:30.473 1:31.003 18

Complete qualifying results available via Fomrula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 1AM Estern here in the States. So set your DVR or brew that extra pot of coffee to find out of Verstappen can clinch the title in Japan or if Leclerc, Sainz or Perez can spoil his day!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Singapore — Results & aftermath

Perez delivers masterclass on slippery streets of Singapore, survives Safety Car infraction to take victory; Leclerc a game P2, Sainz a distant P3, as Verstappen rallies to P7 in incident-filled race

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez bookended his magnificent Monaco win in late May with an even more impressive drive to victory on the slick and slippery streets of Singapore on Sunday. With the entire field starting on Intermediate wet weather Pirelli tires after a late afternoon downpour dampened the streets of the ultra-tight Marina Bay Street Circuit, Perez started from P2 but made quick work of the pole-sitting Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to take the lead on the opening lap. Meanwhile, Leclerc’s Scuderia teammate Carlos Sainz pushed his way past Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to take P3, while the second Red Bull of Max Verstappen, starting from P8 after the team botched his fuel calculations during qualifying, bogged down at the start and dropped even further to P12. By Lap 3, the Dutch points leader had recovered somewhat to P10 but he had his work cut out for him on a track that is more than a little difficult to overtake on.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The first of many incidents that would complicate this intriguing contest throughout the day occurred on Lap 7 when the Williams of Nicholas Latifi banged into the Alfa Romeo of Zhou  Guanyu, damaging both cars and necessitating the deployment of a Safety Car in order to safely retrieve the stricken Alfa. With the track not drying quickly in the sultry tropical conditions, nobody chose to risk changing to the slick tires at that juncture. The field had another opportunity to gamble when Fernando Alonso’s Alpine came to an abrupt stop with engine failure on Lap 21 of this ostensible 61-lap GP. This time, Mercedes’ George Russell, mired in the rear of the pack after a poor quali and subsequently taking engine change penalties, rolled the dice and dove into the pits under Virtual Safety Car conditions for a swap off of Inters and onto Medium slick tires. When Russell emerged and began tiptoeing around the circuit as if driving on ice it became apparent that for those with a real shot at winning on the day it was still far too soon to risk taking off the wet weather rubber.

After two more brief VSC periods due to a crash by Williams Alex Albon on Lap 26 and the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon also suffering an engine failure on Lap 28 during which no one else opted to make the switch to slicks, Hamilton had a crash of his own Lap 33 that, though it did not end his race, damaged his front wing and severely compromised the remainder of it when he was forced to pit for the requisite lengthy nose change. Simultaneous to that, Russell finally began setting the fastest sector times, signaling that the crossover point had been achieved and the time was now for dry weather tires. One by one, drivers dove to the pits for slicks, with the P2 Leclerc coming in on Lap 35 and suffering a slow-ish 5.3 seconds stationary stop, while the race -leading Perez came in a lap later and benefitted from a typically spiffy 2.8-second effort by the Red Bull crew. Between the difference between their respective time in the pits and the difficult nature of getting the tires up to temp on the out lap, Perez came out comfortably ahead of Leclerc, the undercut not paying off for Ferrari on this day. No sooner had that all cycled out than Yuki Tsunoda promptly crashed his AlphaTauri, leading to yet another Safety Car and also meaning that the race would now be timed to two hours total upon the restart due to all the delays,

When the race finally got underway again with 34:40 remaining, Leclerc took advantage of the compressed gap to Perez under the Safety Car to mount a fierce challenge. The Ferrari man harried the veteran Mexican for several laps, their cars both squirming around at the edge of adhesion when they put the power downcoding out of the still-wet corners. When DRS was finally enabled by race control with just 27-minutes remaining it seemed the Prancing Horse might have a shot. But with passing so difficult in the slow speed corners and Leclerc forced to run so closely behind to even have a chance of an overtake, the Monegasque seemed to take the life out of his tires and his car lost its fine edge in handling. As Leclerc sawed away at his wheel and Perez began disappearing up the road, Ferrari were now left hoping that a race control investigation into Perez for getting too far behind that final Safety Car would lead to a results-altering penalty at the end. The Red Bull pit wall urged Checo to push and build a penalty-proof gap and he obliged, with Leclerc fading to an over seven-second deficit to the P1 Perez when the checkers finally flew in this enthralling tilt. Such was Perez’s excellence on the day and particularly in that final push that he was able to cling to the victory even after being assessed a 5-second penalty for that Safety Car infringement. That drive in the return of the Singapore Grand Prix after a two-year Covid-induced hiatus will go down as one the best in F1 history and proves that Red Bull not only have the best car this year but also, in Verstappen and Perez, the two best drivers in 2022.

Top 10 finishers of the Singapore GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 59 2:02:20.238 25
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 59 +2.595s 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 59 +10.305s 15
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 59 +21.133s 12
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 59 +53.282s 10
6 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 59 +56.330s 8
7 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 59 +58.825s 6
8 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 59 +60.032s 4
9 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 59 +61.515s 2
10 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 59 +69.576s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

After the first race in three weeks, the F1 hustle is back on and the next race is in but a week’s time — the Japanese Grand Prix from venerable Suzuka. Hope to see you then to find out if the second Far East GP in-a-row can rival the thrills from Singapore!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Singapore — Qualifying results

Leclerc seizes pole on damp Marina Bay streets as Verstappen undone by Red Bull’s faulty fuel calculations; Perez salvages P2, Hamilton excels in P3

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was able to master the tricky conditions of a damp and barely drying Marina Bay Street Circuit during an exciting Saturday qualifying to grab pole for tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix. With a downpour prior to quali and highly humid conditions for this night session under the lights of this beautiful Southeast Asian city-state, the street course stubbornly refused to dry and the main contenders were forced onto Intermediate wet weather Pirellis for the first two rounds before finally making the move to slick tires for Q3. But the streets remained treacherously wet in certain areas and the drivers had to make the most of their skill and bravery to extract the maximum pace from their cars. After a lot of swapping of fast times between Leclerc and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton it was the Monegasque who took the fastest time when the checkers flew. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez ended up pipping Hamilton for P2 and the English seven-time world champion had to settle for a still-impressive P3 spot on the grid, especially in light of his teammate George Russell getting bounced in Q2 with only the eleventh fastest time. The other Red Bull of points leader Max Verstappen appeared to be on a very competitive final flying lap but had to abort when he was abruptly called in to the pits before being able to complet it. It turned out that the team feared he would not have the FIA-required amount of fuel remaining in his tanks for a sample if he had gone full gas to the end. The infuriated Dutchman will have to start from back in P8 on the grid, and while Verstappen isa master of the comeback, this tight and twisty circuit is essentially as difficult to overtake on as Monaco and he will surely have his work cut out for him on race day. Perhaps the Red Bull braintrust will make amends for their fuel miscalculation and come up with a strategic plan to move Max closer to the front and closer yet to his second consecutive Championship.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Singapore GP:

OS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:54.129 1:52.343 1:49.412 20
2 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:54.404 1:52.818 1:49.434 20
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:53.161 1:52.691 1:49.466 24
4 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:54.559 1:53.219 1:49.583 22
5 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:55.360 1:53.127 1:49.966 23
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:55.914 1:53.942 1:50.584 24
7 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:55.606 1:53.546 1:51.211 24
8 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:53.057 1:52.723 1:51.395 20
9 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:55.103 1:54.006 1:51.573 23
10 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:55.314 1:53.848 1:51.983 23

Complete qualifying results available via Fomrula1.com.

Tomorrow’s night race airs live at 8AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. Can Verstappen make up for his team’s strategy error and work his way to the front somehow? Or will Leclerc covert his pole position into his first victory in five races? And just whom will the walls of Marina Bay bite? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Results & aftermath

Red Bull’s Verstappen recovers from P7 start to take victory at Safety Car-shortened Italian GP; Ferrari’s Leclerc P2, Mercedes’ Russell P3

Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen continued his relentless march to a second consecutive World Championship on Sunday, recovering from a penalty-influenced P7 start on the grid to surge to victory at the Italian Grand Prix, relegating the pole-sitting Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to runner-up status in the process. In somewhat anticlimactic fashion, the tifosi at the jam-packed Autodromo Nazionale Monza were denied a potential late race shootout when the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo came to a stop between the Lesmo curves on Lap 47 of this 53-lap contest. Hoping for a potential Red Flag to compress Verstappen’s large lead over  Leclerc, the race officials instead allowed the race to peter out behind the Safety Car in non-competitive fashion, despite the fact that extracting the McLaren its parking place required the use of a crane on the track while the cars were circulating behind the SC Nevertheless, Verstappen was clearly the class of the field on this day, as he has been for the majority of the season, and there was little reason to believe that Leclerc could have matched the Red Bull’s pace in a three or four-lap shootout. For Verstappen, it was his first career victory at Monza but his fifth win in a row and astonishing eleventh victory in the 16 rounds of the F1 season so far. Now with a seemingly unassailable 116-point lead over Leclerc in the Drivers’ standings it looks like all but a formality that the Dutch master will wear his second Formula 1 crown when the twenty-second and final round is run at Abu Dhabi in late November.

While Ferrari tried to give Leclerc every strategic advantage, pitting the Monegasque early and cheaply during a brief Virtual Safety Car on L13 to try and gain time on Verstappen in the pits, the on-track pace of the Red Bull was simply too much for the Prancing Horses to handle. Before that final Safety Car, Verstappen’s advantage to Leclerc was some eighteen seconds with only the six laps remaining, an impossible deficit for the P2 Ferrari to overcome under green flag conditions. The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz did well to haul himself up to a P4 finish after being forced to start from P18 due to engine component penalties, a major issue for not only Verstappen and Sainz but many contenders throughout the field. Mercedes’ George Russell was able to better Sainz for the last spot on the podium in P3 despite running a long stint on the rather poorly performing Hard tires, while Lewis Hamilton drove an outstanding race to recover from a penalty-induced P19 start to a solid P5 finish. Hamilton ran an exceptionally long 34-lap first stint on Medium Pirellis before switching to the faster Soft tires and then carved his way through the midfield and back up to that impressive P5.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez started P13 and finished P6, although he might have done better had the team not been concerned about possible tire failure and called the Mexican in for a late change on Lap 43. Still, Perez was able to nick the point for fastest lap of the race due to that fast and fresh rubber. With Riccardo out after looking like scoring good points, the sole remaining McLaren of Lando Norris salvaged P7 for the team on a day where their closest rivals in the Constructors’ standings, Alpine, scored zero points. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly had a positive P8 finish in what has been a nightmare season for the team that has the talented young Frenchman eyeing a move to the more competitive Alpine team for next season. Rookie Nyck De Vries not only made his F1 debut in the Williams, subbing on short notice for the ailing Alexander Albon who was stricken with appendicitis overnight on Saturday, but the young Dutch Mercedes reserve driver scored points in his first F1 GP by coming home in P9. He showed enough talent and poise to warrant another race start sometime soon and skillfully kept the Alfa Romeo of Zho Guanyu behind him and relegating the Chinese rookie to P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Italian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 53 1:20:27.511 25
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 53 +2.446s 18
3 63 George Russell MERCEDES 53 +3.405s 15
4 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 53 +5.061s 12
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +5.380s 10
6 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 53 +6.091s 9
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +6.207s 6
8 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 53 +6.396s 4
9 45 Nyck De Vries WILLIAMS MERCEDES 53 +7.122s 2
10 24 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 53 +7.910s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

After a grueling stretch of three races in a row coming out of the summer break, the next tilt is in three weeks’ time — the return of the dazzling nocturnal Singapore Grand Prix street race after a two-year Covid-induced absence. While nobody seems able to stop Verstappen these days, the tricky and ultra-tight Marina Bay Street Circuit always throws up it’s fair share of surprises. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Italy — Qualifying results

Pole for Ferrari & Leclerc at Monza, rest of grid scrambled due to raft of engine & parts penalties for multiple drivers

We’re now at the point of the Formula 1 season where qualifying pace gets negated by the necessity of changing engine and transmission components resulting in grid penalties for the drivers and teams who have burned through allowable parts. This silly system was at its most disruptive after Saturday’s qualifying for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix, which is Round 16 of the championship. While Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc delighted the scarlet-clad tifosi in the stands by hooking up a perfect final lap to claim pole for the GP at super fast Monza, he will be one of the very few competitors starting in the position in which they actually qualified. While the provisional grid for the top ten is included below, as far as true pace it was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who was second quickest, coming home over a tenth ahead of the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. While Verstappen was demoted down to P7 on the grid for his own power unit penalties, Sainz will have to start from way back in P18 due to the magnitude of changes made to his engine and gearbox. Likewise, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was demoted from P4 to P13. Mercedes Lewis Hamilton out-qualified his teammate George Russell but, while Russell gets elevated to P2 for tomorrow’s start as a beneficiary of not taking any engine component penalties, the seven-time Champion is relegated to the penultimate place on the grid, P19. For all the out of place runners, strategy will be key come the race, so look for teams so effected to be aggressive with either early stops for Hard Pirellis or starting on Hards and running them as long as possible to try to eliminate one pit stop during the Grand Prix.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Italian GP via Formula1.com:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:21.280 1:21.208 1:20.161 14
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:20.922 1:21.265 1:20.306 16
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:21.348 1:20.878 1:20.429 13
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:21.495 1:21.358 1:21.206 15
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:22.048 1:21.708 1:21.524 17
6 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:21.785 1:21.747 1:21.542 17
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:22.130 1:21.831 1:21.584 19
8 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:22.139 1:21.855 1:21.925 20
9 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:22.010 1:22.062 1:22.648 18
10 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:22.089 1:21.861 17

Provisional grid after penalties are factored in via Autosport.com:

Cla Driver Chassis Engine Time Gap
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari Ferrari 1’20.161
2 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes Mercedes 1’21.542 1.381
3 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 1’21.584 1.423
4 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren Mercedes 1’21.925 1.764
5 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri Red Bull 1’22.648 2.487
6 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine Renault
7 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Red Bull 1’20.306 0.145
8 Netherlands Nyck de Vries Williams Mercedes 1’22.471 2.310
9 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1’22.577 2.416
10 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 1’22.587 2.426
11 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin Mercedes 1’22.636 2.475
12 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin Mercedes 1’22.748 2.587
13 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull Red Bull 1’21.206 1.045
14 France Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 1’22.130 1.969
15 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1’22.235 2.074
16 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1’22.908 2.747
17 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas Ferrari 1’23.005 2.844
18 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari Ferrari 1’20.429 0.268
19 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Mercedes 1’21.524 1.363
20 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri Red Bull

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. With so many drivers once again out of position and determined to speed to the front, it should be a wild and wooly affair — hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Results & aftermath

Verstappen holds off surprise Mercedes threat, excels to win incident-filled Dutch GP; Russell surges to P2, Hamilton falls to P4 after Safety Cars upend strategy; Leclerc salvages P3 for fading Ferrari

Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix was a wild and unpredictable affair with as many plot twists as a Raymond Chandler novel. But the ending of this crazy story from the Netherlands still circled back to the place it so often has this Formula1 season —  yet another resounding victory for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. With the throngs of his orange-clad countrymen in the stands expecting a virtual coronation for the pole-sitting points leader, the race turned out to be anything but a procedural, as once mighty Mercedes showed excellent pace and, for a while at least, quite a bit of cleverness at the short and twisty beachfront Zandvoort Circuit. For a time it looked like the Silver Arrows’ seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton might be on for his first win of the season, as the team rode a theoretical one-stop pit strategy to try and elevate Hamilton into the lead and put Verstappen and Red Bull on the back foot. But in the end, as so often happens in F1, the uneven playing field of cheap pit stops under Virtual Safety Car and Safety Car conditions doomed the ostensible leader of the race, who invariably tries to maintain his track position by doing nothing while those chasing him get the benefit of a stop for fresh rubber under full-course yellow flag conditions. Hamilton was victimized by this quirk not once but twice on the day, and it cost him a legitimate shot at hard-to-come by victory and even a podium when all was said and done. Conversely, Verstappen once again got all the breaks as he earned his tenth win of 2022, aiming his sights not only on a second consecutive championship but also potentially setting the record for most victories in an F1 season. That single season record currently stands at 13 wins, held jointly by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. But it’s not outside the realm of possibility that, with his current run of form and seven more rounds remaining, the Dutch master might just eclipse that by season’s end.

The keys to Mercedes’ potential upset aspirations began when they chose to run both Hamilton (starting in P4) and George Russell (starting P6) on Medium Pierreli tires to begin the race, while pole-sitting Verstappen, teammate Sergio Perez in P5 and the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc (P3) and Carlos Sainz (P3) all started on the less durable Soft tires. While Russell lost a position to McLaren’s Lando Norris on the opening lap, he regained it by Lap 5 and so the top 6 held station until the first round of pit stops would be attempted. The strategic wheels began to really turn when the Alpine of Fernando Alonso pitted on Lap 10 to doff his Soft tires for new Hard compound tires. Alonso’s subsequent solid lap times convinced Mercedes that they could extend their first stint on Mediums and then swap to the Hards for the remainder of the race, thus obviating the need for the second pit stop that the other runners would almost certainly have to make since they would be pitting much earlier on their degraded Softs. And that’s how it began to play out. First, Ferrari’s Sainz came in on Lap 15 for what wound up being an awful stop for the Spaniard, as the team did not seem ready for him and he sat for an interminable 12.7 seconds waiting for service. (Worse still, the team left one of their their tire change guns in the path of Sergio Perez, who was just exiting after his own stop and promptly ran over it.)

With his Scuderai stablemate demoted down the order to P11 after the slow stop, Leclerc dove in on Lap 17 and his stop for Mediums was a flawless 2.5 seconds. Verstappen followed suit two laps after, which elevated the Mercedes duo of Hamilton to the lead and  Russell to P2 when Verstappen emerged in third. Now the game was on and Mercedes had both the lead and the strategic advantage… or so it seemed at the time. Hamilton ran his first stint all the way to Lap 30, doffing his used Mediums for new Hard tires and returning to the track in P5. Russell came in for the same switch on Lap 32 and then found himself in P5, as Hamilton had made up a position in the interim and was now hounding the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Perez made his car as wide as he could for as long as he could but had to give in to the quicker Merc, with Hamilton executing the overtake on Lap 37. Crucially, however, Hamilton’s forward progress was significantly balked by the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel, who inexplicably came out of the pits right in front of Hamilton and into his racing line going into Turn 1. Vettel would later be assessed a 5-second penalty for ignoring blue flags but it was an omen that things were about go sideways for Lewis and his quest for that elusive first 2022 win.

Things really got weird on Lap 44 when AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda stopped on the side of the track stating that he felt one of his wheels was not on correctly. The team disagreed, calling on the young Japanese driver to limp back to the pits, which he did successfully, thereby keeping the track green. The AlphaTauri mechanics then not only changed his tires again but spent an interminable amount of time fiddling with his seatbelts, which Tsunoda had presumably loosened when he thought he might retire by the side of the road. After all that, and with zero chance remaining of a competitive finish, AlphaTauri still sent Tsunoda back into the race, where he promptly broke down again on the side of the road on Lap 47 of this 72-lap contest. That brought out a Virtual Safety Car and changed Hamilton and Verstappen’s luck completely around. Verstappen was able to dive into the pits on the following lap and get rid of his knackered Mediums for a fresh set of Hards, while Hamilton dove in on Lap 49 for a switch back to what he hoped might be the better performing Mediums. But the VSC stop by Verstappen had neutralized Hamilton’s tire advantage and ruined the potential of the one-stopper to leapfrog Verstappen in the pits. The Red Bull man maintained his lead but under VSC conditions it ballooned from a few seconds to more than 12-seconds over P2 Hamilton. But worse was yet to come for the seven-time champ.

Hamilton’s former teammate Valtteri Bottas brought out the full Safety Car on Lap 56 when his Alfa Romeo lost power and had to be retrieved from a dangerous position on the start-finish straight. With the Safety Car leading the field through the pits while the Alfa was rescued, Verstappen again made a tire swap, this time for fresh Softs. Mercedes split their strategy, keeping Hamilton, who now inherited the lead, on his older Mediums, while acquiescing to Russell’s desire for fresh Softs to finish out the race. Leclerc also opted to make the switch to new Softs and so, while Hamilton would lead the race when the Safety Car ended, he would be a sitting duck on old Mediums while Verstappen, Russell and Leclerc were all on the better performing fresh Softs behind him. As the Safety Car ducked into the pits at the end of Lap 60 it didn’t take long for Verstsappen to pounce — he easily nabbed the top spot away from Lewis with a decisive pass right at the timing line of the front straight. While Verstappen ran away to a lead he was never again to relinquish, Hamilton was easy meat, first for his teammate Russell and then for Leclerc’s blood red Ferrari. An irate Hamilton could do nothing but curse his team and his fate as he went from potential victor to not even on the podium in P4. Russell maintained his excellent P2 and Leclerc salvaged little something for Ferrari and his waning title hopes in P3 (Sainz would be relegated to P8 after yet another pit lane fiasco led to a 5-second penalty for an unsafe release on that final frantic round of stops). But for Verstappen it was the sweet taste of not only a lucky victory but a victory in front of his adoring home fans, who sensed what everyone in Formula 1 seems to now: that another world title is looking like a fait accompli

Top 10 finishers of the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 72 1:36:42.773 26
2 63 George Russell MERCEDES 72 +4.071s 18
3 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 72 +10.929s 15
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 72 +13.016s 12
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 72 +18.168s 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 72 +18.754s 8
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 72 +19.306s 6
8 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 72 +20.916s 4
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 72 +21.117s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 72 +22.459s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is again in but a week’s time — the Italian Grand Prix from the Temple of Speed, Monza. With the races coming fast and thick as we barrel towards the end of the season, his competitors have little time to adjust to Verstappen’s continued dominance. Hope o see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Qualifying results

Verstappen snatches pole from Leclerc at Zandvoort, Sainz P3

Hometown hero Max Verstappen left it late but managed to wrest away pole position for tomorrow’s Dutch Grand Prix from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc during Saturday qualifying at the short, twisty and rolling  Zandvoort Circuit. The surging Red Bull ace pipped Leclerc’s very solid best effort by a mere .021 seconds in front of the adoring, orange-clad throng of his countrymen in the stands, locking in the fastest lap of Q3 before his teammate Sergio Perez spun out at the penultimate corner to bring the final quali session to a slightly premature end. Leclerc was not overly displeased to have missed out on the pole by such a small margin and, along with Carlos Sainz setting the third fastest time, Ferrari are feeling good about their chances to match Verstappen come race day. However, it must still be in the back of the Scuderia’s collective mind that their Prancing Horses’ fine one lap pace often evaporates under race conditions in the face of Verstappen’s supreme talent and the Red Bull’s so far superior long-run performance. With the 2022 season entering its final third, Leclerc and Ferrari have got to start beating Verstappen in the remaining eight races while also hoping the points leader has few unlucky DNFs along the way.

With Perez’s spin freezing him in P5 on the grid, Mercedes Lewis Hamilton was able to cross the line just ahead of the Mexican’s incident with a time good enough for P4. Along with George Russell’s P6 quali effort, the Silver Arrows felt they had more potentially to give in qualifying and will hope to convert that into a good race tomorrow, perhaps being able to mix it up with Ferrari for the podium positions on a short, twisty track that seems to suit the enigmatic Merc much better than long and flowing Spa did a week ago. The remainder of the top ten qualifiers featured sole representatives of their respective teams: Lando Norris P7 for McLaren, Mick Schumacher earning a much needed P8 start for Haas, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in P9 and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in P10. Stroll was very quick on the day but could not take part in Q3 due to a technical issue on his car. If the team can get that cleaned up by tomorrow, look for Lance to fight right up to Norris’s gearbox within the first ten laps, such has been the pace of the Mercedes-powered Aston so far.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:11.317 1:10.927 1:10.342 12
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:11.443 1:10.988 1:10.363 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:11.767 1:10.814 1:10.434 18
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:11.331 1:11.075 1:10.648 18
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:11.641 1:11.314 1:11.077 19
6 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:11.561 1:10.824 1:11.147 18
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:11.556 1:11.116 1:11.174 18
8 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 1:11.741 1:11.420 1:11.442 21
9 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:11.427 1:11.428 1:12.556 21
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:11.568 1:11.416 14

Complete qualifying results viable via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. With Verstappen looking to tighten his stranglehold on the championship at his home race and Leclerc desperate to thwart Max’s recent unstoppable momentum on a very tight track, it could be an incident filled affair. Hope to see you then to find put how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium — Results & aftermath

DUTCH TREAT — Verstappen surges from P14 start to take dominating win at Spa, Perez P2 for maximum Red Bull points; Ferrari’s Sainz P3 but luckless Leclerc demoted to P6 after late pit stop penalty

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen may well have just sealed the deal on his second consecutive Drivers’ Championship. Despite starting Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix from P14 on the grid after being penalized for voluntary engine changes, the Dutch points leader proved an irresistible force as he relentlessly pushed his way to the front. By Lap 12 of this 44-lap contest at the fabled Spa-Francorchamps circuit here in the Ardennes forest, Verstappen had carved his way through the field and executed a pass on his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, to take the lead of the race, a progression as astonishing as it was seemingly predictable. Meanwhile, the pole-sitting Ferrari of Carlos Sainz had pitted a lap earlier than Verstappen and emerged in P6 but rapidly sliced his forwards the front so that by the time Mercedes’ George Russell made his first stop for fresh Pirellis on Lap 14, with Perez and Verstappen both coming in following Lap, the Spaniard had recaptured the lead. However, it soon became apparent that Sainz’s Prancing Horse did not have the legs for Verstappen’s Red Bull on this day, perhaps because of too much downforce put on the Ferrari or perhaps just because the RB18 is simply superior to the F1-75. On Lap 18, Verstappen made easy work of Sainz and then pulled away, eventually extending to such an advantage that by Lap 30, when he made his second and final pit stop, he easily retained the lead when he reemerged onto the track. It then became a formality, as Verstappen swanned away for the remaining final third of the race to take his eighth victory in fourteen rounds and extend his Drivers’ Championship lead to a whopping 93 points over his teammate Sergio Perez, who leapfrogged Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the day as a result of his own strong second place finish. It was not only Verstappen’s third win on the trot, having prevailed in France and Hungary before the summer break, but he also pulled off the rare feat of making it to the top step of the podium in back-to-back races despite starting from P10 or lower at both the Hungaroring and here at Spa.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

That Leclerc ended up losing out in his increasingly long shot quest to stay close to Verstappen was not entirely the Monegasque’s fault. While finding himself similarly disadvantaged as his Dutch rival due to engine component changes that saw him start from P15 on the grid, Leclerc had the misfortune of sucking up a stray visor tear-off into his right front brake duct on the opening laps. That forced an early pit stop, which fortunately was under a Safety Car caused by Valterri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo being beached in a contretemps with the Williams of Nicholas Latifi. Nevertheless, it threw Ferrari’s strategic plans for Leclerc for a loop and the team exchanged Medium Pirellis for his opening set of Softs during that premature stop under yellow on only Lap 4. Form then on, it was primarily damage control. Leclerc rejoined way back in P17 and there was no way that set of Medium tires could possibly go to the end and save another stop on a very warm day where tire deg was significantly higher than expected. The ups and downs of the next forty some odd laps culminated in a questionable call for a late switch to Soft tires on Lap 43 in an attempt to set the fastest lap. This backfired in more than one way, as Leclerc first ended up losing P5 to Alpine’s Fernando Alonso upon exiting the pits. With some effort, Leclerc was able to catch and pass Alonso to regain the position on the final lap but Verstappen not only retained the extra point for fastest lap but the stewards also dinged Leclerc for speeding in the pit lane on that final stop and penalized him 5 seconds, which handed P5 back to Alonso after the race. So, at the end of a frustrating day, Ferrari had to settle for Sainz’s decent podium in P3, while Leclerc dropped not only a position in the race due to that late penalty but also ceded P2 in the points to Red Bull’s Perez. With only eight more rounds remaining in the 2022 campaign, Leclerc’s dreams of a championship are fading just as fast as Verstappen continues to disappear down the road.

Mercedes had a decidedly mixed day at the races. While young George Russell acquitted himself well and came home a valuable P4, if never quite having the pace to really challenge Sainz for the podium, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton crashed out on the opening lap after a poorly judged overtaking maneuver led to a collision with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso. While Hamilton’s Silver Arrow suffered terminal damage after being launched by Alonso’s front tire coming into contact with Hamilton’s rear, Alonso somehow survived and thrived, taking that unexpected, penalty-induced P5 for a very satisfying day for the Spaniard. Even better for the team and their mission to take fourth in the Constructors’ title, the second alpine of Esteban Ocon did very well to finish in P7, the Frenchman showing his determination by making several stunning two-car overtakes during the course of the race. Sebastian Vettel drove a savvy race and finished P8 for Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly got a rare positive result for struggling AlphaTauri in P9. Williams’ Alexander Albon also performed well on the day to take the last point in P10.

Top 10 finishers for the Belgian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 44 1:25:52.894 26
2 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 44 +17.841s 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 44 +26.886s 15
4 63 George Russell MERCEDES 44 +29.140s 12
5 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 44 +73.256s 10
6 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 44 +74.936s 8
7 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 44 +75.640s 6
8 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 44 +78.107s 4
9 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 44 +92.181s 2
10 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 44 +101.900s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time and will be in Verstappen’s home sandbox — the Dutch Grand Prix form the beachfront Zandvoort Circuit. Hope to see you then to find out if anyone can slow Max’s relentless march to what now seems like an inevitable second F1 crown!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Belgium — Qualifying results

Verstappen quickest at Spa but Sainz inherits pole after engine penalties effect slew of top drivers; mixed up grid should lead to wild Belgian GP

Formula 1 returns from the long summer break with one of the oldest and most prestigious events on the calendar, the Belgian Grand Prix from fabled Spa-Francorchamps. And Saturday Qualifying for tomorrow’s race saw Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen miss not a beat coming back from his holiday, as the Dutchman easily set the fastest time on the series’ longest circuit. However, Verstappen will not be starting from pole because even though he gapped the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz by over six-tenths he and the team decided to make engine changes and so Max will be pushed towards the back despite setting the fastest lap. He wasn’t the only competitor to take the pain of power unit component changes this weekend either. Not only his main rival, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, bit that particular bullet, but Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, McLaren’s Lando Norris, Haas’s Mick Schumacher and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas also followed suit. While one might need a degree from MIT to figure out all these penalty permutations, it looks like the key takeaway is that Verstappen will start P15 and Leclerc P16 tomorrow. Along with all the other out-of-position cars it could make for a chaotic run into Eau Rouge on the opening lap when Verstappen and Leclerc try to fight their way through slower traffic in an effort to get to their respective teammates at the front, the pole-sitting Sainz and the P2 Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

The biggest beneficiaries of all those penalties are Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who gets promoted to P3 on the grid, and the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who look to be starting in P4 and P5 despite not even being the third fastest team in quali.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Belgian Grand Prix:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:44.581 1:44.723 1:43.665 9
2 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:45.050 1:45.418 1:44.297 14
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:45.377 1:44.794 1:44.462 12
4 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:45.572 1:44.551 1:44.553 14
5 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:46.039 1:45.475 1:45.180 15
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:46.075 1:45.552 1:45.368 16
7 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:45.736 1:45.420 1:45.503 20
8 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:45.650 1:45.461 1:45.776 20
9 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:45.672 1:45.675 1:45.837 18
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:45.745 1:45.603 1:46.178 14

The provisional grid after all the penalties looks like this, however: Continue reading →