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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 →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Hungary — Results & aftermath

Red Bull’s Verstappen rallies from P10 start to take victory in Hungary; P2 Hamilton & P3 Russell pounce for Mercedes as Ferrari fumble strategy yet again

Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the last race before the long August break, began with a scrambled grid that promised big swings and did not disappoint once the lights went out to start the race. Starting from an unaccustomed P10 after engine issues ruined his qualifying pace, the points-leading Red Bull of Max Verstappen gave his typically superlative effort behind the wheel to eventually take a stunning victory at the end of this 70-lap contest at the short, tight and twisty Hugaroring. He was benefitted first by his team’s clever use of the undercut and then by yet another inexplicable strategy call by Ferrari that doomed the race of his key rival, Charles Leclerc. Taking advantage of that Ferrari fumble, the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had an excellent run to take their second consecutive double-podium finish on the trot. For Ferrari, it was a lousy way to end the first portion of their up and down season and they will have the bitter taste of Carlos Sainz’s P4 and Charles Leclerc’s P6 stuck in their mouths for a month before they can try to redeem themselves and get back on track.

Having already fought his way from that P10 start to P5 by Lap 12, Verstappen made his first pit stop for fresh rubber on Lap 17, swapping his opening set of Soft Pirellis for the more durable but still high performing Mediums. While the Mercedes of George Russell, who started the race from P1 after earning his first career F1 pole, covered the Dutchman’s move and followed him into the pits for his own Soft-to-Medium swap, Ferrari chose to keep their two drivers out. For Carlos Sainz, who started from P2 on the grid, it was just one lap more and he promptly came in for a fresh set of Medium tires, the same compound the Spaniard had started on. On the other hand, Charles Leclerc, Verstappen’s chief championship rival, stayed out until Lap 21, also opting for the Medium-to-Medium move. That meant that both Ferraris were still obligated to run a different compound later in the race unless it should rain enough to necessitate wet weather tires. The threatening weather held off on this cool and cloudy day in Hungary, however, and the decision of which tire to choose at the next stop proved to be the pivotal inflection point of the Grand Prix. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Hungary — Qualifying results

Mercedes’ Russell stuns Sainz and Ferrari at Hungaroring to earn first career pole; Leclerc P3; nightmare quali for Red Bull with Verstappen P10, Perez P11

Mercedes young hard charger George Russell stunned the field and particularly Ferrari when he laid down a stonking lap at the death of Q3 during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Hunagrian Grand Prix. At the short, twisty and highly technical Hungaroring, Russell bested the seemingly insurmountable fast lap of the Scuderia’s Carlos Sainz by .044 seconds to earn his first career Formula 1 pole position. It was pure joy for Russell and his side of the Mercedes garage while Sainz and Ferrari were left shaking their heads at the last second reversal. Sainz will start P2 alongside Russell on the front row tomorrow with the second Prancing Horse of Charles Leclerc earning P3 for his efforts.

If Russell’s over performance wasn’t enough to make for an extra thrilling quali, the anomalously abysmal performance of team Red Bull added another layer of intrigue and contributed to a massive shuffling of the expected grid. First, Sergio Perez was erroneously dinged for exceeding track limits during Q2, which put the Mexican off his stride. By the time the stewards had corrected their error and restored his time, Perez was at sixes and sevens and couldn’t get his pace up enough to get out of the second quali session, relegating him to P11 come Sunday on what is something of a bogey track for him. As if that wasn’t bad enough, points leader Max Verstappen experienced some sort of engine issues in Q3 that robbed him of full power and saw the rest of the other final nine runners easily blow past his best time. So Verstappen will start in the unfamiliar position of P10 come race day and will be forced to fight his way back to the front on a circuit where passing is more than a little difficult.

The Red Bulls’ twin misfortunes opened the door to McLaren’s Lando Norris to set the fourth fatstest Q3 time in a strong effort, while his teammate Daniel Ricciardo could do no better than P9. The two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso earned P5 and P6 respectively, somewhat surprising since Alonso had been the quicker of the two all weekend long up until that point. The second Silver Arrow of Lewis Hamilton was far off the pace of his pole-sitting junior teammate, seeming to struggle with his tires after locking up multiple times en route to only the seventh fastest lap. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas broke a cold streak and finally made it into Q3, taking a solid P8 on the grid.

With so many cars out of expected position, Russell keen to earn his first F1 victory, Ferrari anxious to stop him and the Red Bulls determined to fight back from far back, tomorrow’s race could be bonkers.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Hungarian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:18.407 1:18.154 1:17.377 23
2 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:18.434 1:17.946 1:17.421 22
3 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:18.806 1:17.768 1:17.567 22
4 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:18.653 1:18.121 1:17.769 19
5 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:18.866 1:18.216 1:18.018 20
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:18.716 1:17.904 1:18.078 17
7 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:18.374 1:18.035 1:18.142 21
8 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:18.935 1:18.445 1:18.157 20
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:18.775 1:18.198 1:18.379 19
10 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:18.509 1:17.703 1:18.823 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. With the grid well and truly shuffled and passing at a premium in this last tilt before the summer break, it should make for a potentially conflict-filled affair where the final outcome is anyone’s guess. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of France — Results & aftermath

Verstappen gifted win after Leclerc crashes out from lead; Hamilton P2, Russell P3 for first Merc double podium of ’22; Sainz rallies from rear to P5 despite Ferrari indecision

In a deja vu sequence horrible enough to turn the stomach of any tifosi, Sunday’s French Grand Prix saw championship contender Charles Leclerc retire from the lead of a race for the third time this Formula 1 season, only this time it was down to the kind of driver error that has more often bedeviled his teammate and not the mechanical malfunctions that have plagued Leclerc’s campaign. After starting from the pole and successfully fending off the hard charging P2 Red Bull of Max Verstappen during the opening stanza of this 53-lap tilt form the eye-wateringly busy and colorful Paul Ricard Circuit in sweltering southern Le Castellet, the Monegasque inexplicably spun off at Turn 11 on Lap 18 and binned his blood red Ferrari nose first into the tire barriers after sailing through the theoretically grippy and definitely trippy run-off area. Unable to grab reverse and get out of that predicament, Leclerc howled in primal rage on the radio, knowing his race had unceremoniously ended even before his first pit stop, not to mention the further damage to his championship aspirations due to yet another DNF. Verstappen, on the other hand, was gifted a lead he would not relinquish for the remainder of the race. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Leclerc on a day when his was clearly the fastest car on track and, combined with Verstappen’s victory, saw his deficit to the Dutchman in the Drivers’ Standings balloon to 63 points. Between reliability issues and pilot error, Ferrari have left a ton of points on the table this season despite being every bit as quick as Red Bull when they go toe-to-toe. Leclerc and everyone at the Scuderia will be looking to put this weekend behind them in hurry and try to salvage a solid double points result next week in Hungary before the summer break.

Leclerc’s misfortune was good news not only for Verstappen but also for Lewis Hamilton and team Mercedes. With the lead Ferrari out of the picture and the second Prancing Horse of Carlos Sainz forced to fight his way back from a P19 start after engine component change penalties, Hamilton inherited P2 after a round of Lap 19 Safety Car pit stops. This was after the English seven-time World Champ made a decisive move on the number two Red Bull of Sergio Perez to take P3 away form him on the opening lap. While Hamilton had nothing for Verstappen and would eventually come home over 10-seconds behind Max, he was able to manage his tires nicely and keep Perez behind him to secure that happy second place finish. In fact, Checo struggled all weekend, perhaps due the broiling hot track temps here in the south of France. Not only could he not match the pace of his teammate but he struggled against both Mercedes in the race, getting passed not only by Hamilton on Lap 1 without being able to answer back but by the second Silver Arrow of George Russell on Lap 51 after seemingly being lulled to sleep by a Virtual Safety Car. When the VSC ended, Russell went full tilt boogie but Perez seemed to hesitate before putting his foot down, making him easy meat for the feisty young Brit. Russell held off Perez’s Red Bull for the final two laps and secured P3 and the last step on the podium, the first time that Mercedes have had two drivers in the podium places all year. While the Mercs are improving, it’s still glaringly obvious they are the third fastest team in 2022 and need either Ferrari or Red Bull to have issues to get a top three finish, and maybe serious trouble for both for a lucky win. Still, credit where credit is due: when the elite top two teams have faltered, the Silver Arrows have been there to pounce.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz had an epic if bizarre race on his way to a P5 result. After starting from P19 due to those engine change penalties, the Spaniard patiently carved his way through the field on Hard Pirelli rubber even while the vast majority of runners were on the softer, quicker Medium tires. By Lap 13, Sainz had passed Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll for P10 to put himself back into the points. He then got a paradoxical advantage when his teammate crashed out and caused a Safety Car, diving for the pits along with the Mercedes duo and nearly everyone else not named Verstappen for what should theoretically have been the cheap pit stop time-wise. But the team were dinged for a clearly unsafe release, nearly colliding with Alex Albon’s Williams upon exiting their box after an already slow stop, and Sainz was assessed a 5-second penalty. Nevertheless, the Spaniard put his head down and again was an overtaking machine, passing McLaren’s Lando Norris for P6 on Lap 21 and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso for P5 on Lap 22. By Lap 30, he was on the gearbox of Russell and quickly dispatched him with aplomb for P4 . Next in Sainz’s sights was the P3 Red Bull of Perez. But the Ferrari braintrust now appeared confused as to whether to call in Sainz for another stop, as well as serving the penalty, or to leave him out on that rapidly aging set of Medium tires until the finish. Even as Sainz harassed Checo, the team were on the radio asking Sainz his opinion of their strategy options. Most amazingly, while Sainz was just setting up Perez for a pass he would complete on Lap 42 to take that coveted P3, the team were telling him to box. Sainz didn’t want to comply but eventually consented, the Ferrari pit wall more than a little worried about the potential for tire failure on the red hot track and the nightmare of a possible double-DNF, zero points day. When Sainz emerged from his second stop in P9, it was time once again for another passel of passes, which he impressively executed in such a decisive manner that he was able to fight all the way back up to P5 before the laps ran out. It was one of the more remarkable fifth place drives you could ever want to see, though the Monday debrief at Ferrari over their strategy calls should be an animated one.

Top 10 finishers of the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 53 1:30:02.112 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +10.587s 18
3 63 George Russell MERCEDES 53 +16.495s 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 53 +17.310s 12
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 53 +28.872s 11
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 53 +42.879s 8
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +52.026s 6
8 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 53 +56.959s 4
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +60.372s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 53 +62.549s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — the Hungarian Grand Prix from the picturesque Hugaroring. It’s the last GP before the August break so everyone, especially Leclerc, will be looking to head to their vacations on a high note. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of France — Qualifying results

Ferrari team tactics earn pole for Leclerc at Paul Ricard; Verstappen P2, Perez P3 for Red Bull; Sainz still headed to the back after towing teammate to the front

Knowing that the Prancing Horse of Carlos Sainz would be starting the race from the rear due to engine penalties, Ferrari cleverly sacrificed the Spaniard’s effort in the service of his non-penalized teammate, Charles Leclerc, during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix. With the twin long straights of the eccentrically colorful Circuit Paul Ricard lending themselves to judicious use of the two car draft, Sainz was able to lead out Leclerc twice in Q3 and give his Monegasque teammate just that much of an edge over the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who was flying solo since Sergio Perez was trying to secure his own high grid position. It worked a treat, making the best of Sainz’s bad situation after a raft of replacements were required when his engine literally blew up at the last race in Austria, and earned Leclerc his first pole since way back in Round 8 at Azerbaijan. Sainz’s team-effort tow on Leclerc ended up being good enough for a .282 advantage over Verstappen by the time session ended, though with Perez settling in at P3 and Sainz heading to the rear it will be a two-to-one Red Bull advantage when the lights go out on Sunday. It should be fascinating to see what kind of strategy the Scuderia brain trust can come up with overnight to work Sainz up through the field and hopefully put him into play against team Red Bull’s race winning aspirations.

With Sainz sacrificing himself and not setting an actual quali time of his own, Mercedes Lewis Hamilton took advantage by setting the fourth fastest time and he will line up alongside Perez on the second row. His Silver Arrows teammate George Russell was pushed down to P6 on the grid, however, when McLaren’s Lando Norris put in a fierce final lap in Q3 and snatched P5 from his fellow Brit. Wily old Fernando Alonso looked good in setting the seventh fastest time of the final session and Yuki Tsunoda flew the flag for the underperforming AlphaTauri team by qualifying in P8. Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, who also took engine component replacement penalties for this weekend, ran no laps in Q3 and was classified in P10. But the Dane will also slide to the back of the field and into P20 alongside P19 Sainz to start tomorrow’s GP. That pair’s demotions elevated the lucky duo of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon to P9 and P10 on the grid respectively.

Top 10 qualifiers for the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:31.727 1:31.216 1:30.872 17
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:31.891 1:31.990 1:31.176 14
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:32.354 1:32.120 1:31.335 20
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:33.041 1:32.274 1:31.765 19
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:32.672 1:32.777 1:32.032 14
6 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:33.109 1:32.633 1:32.131 20
7 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:32.819 1:32.631 1:32.552 17
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:33.394 1:32.836 1:32.780 20
9 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:32.297 1:31.081 DNF 10
10 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:32.756 1:32.649 9

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Penalty-effected starting grid is here.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Leclerc will be desperate to get away from the Red Bulls cleanly, establish a gap and hold on until the calvary in the form of Sainz arrives. Verstappen and Perez will need to avoid tripping over each other in their hot pursuit of the P1 Prancing Horse. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Results & aftermath

Leclerc holds off Verstappen & gremlins to win at Red Bull Ring; Hamilton battles back to P3; Perez & Sainz DNF

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was clearly the fastest car on track come race day for the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, passing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen multiple times at the eponymously named Red Bull Ring. But the Monegasque had some tense moments late in this 71-lap contest when he had to not only hold off the charging second place car of Verstappen but also a mechanical gremlin that was effecting his throttle pedal. Coming after the sister Prancing Horse of teammate Carlos Sainz suffered a catastrophic engine failure on Lap 57, Leclerc’s vocal concerns over team radio were certainly understandable. But the sole remaining Ferrari was able to keep Verstappen and any gremlins at bay and Leclerc claimed victory at Spielberg on a partly cloudy day, his first F1 win when not starting from the pole. For Verstappen, it was good damage limitation on a day where the speed that he showed in such abundance to take the win in Saturday’s Sprint race and thereby start from the pole seemed to completely vanish amidst Sunday’s cooler track conditions. Repeatedly dueling each other on the same compound tires, Leclerc was always considerably faster than the points-leading Verstappen on a circuit that the Dutchman’s team owns and which Max has won on three out of the previous four races. While Verstappen grabbed the bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the contest and also nabbed 8 points to Leclerc’s 7 in the Sprint race, Leclerc was still able to vault up to P2 in the Drivers’ standings and now finds himself properly back in the championship hunt after some difficult weeks, only 38-points in arrears of the Red Bull man.

Leclerc was aided in that surge not only by Sainz’s fiery engine failure when the Spaniard, who earned his first F1 win at Silverstone last week, should have been on course for a P2 result and a Ferrari 1-1, but also by the unfortunate DNF of Verstappen’s Red Bull stablemate Sergio Perez. Perez’s race was ruined when he and Mercedes’ George Russell came together while fighting over the same piece of track at Turn 4 the opening lap. While Russell was eventually deemed the culpable party and issued a 5-second penalty after spinning out the Red Bull, Perez’s car ended up being mortally wounded. After an emergency pit stop for a new nose and fresh tires, Perez pounded around several laps at the back of the field without much success before the team gave up the ghost and retired his car on Lap 26. That relegated Checo to third in the championship and his only saving grace was that Sainz also failed to score on the day.

Faring better and taking advantage of Sainz and Perez’s misfortune were the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Russell. Hamilton drove a canny race, going exceptionally long for his opening stint on Medium Pirelli tires to create an insurmountable gap to the Alpine of Esteban Ocon behind him. When the dust and DNFs had settled, Hamilton found himself on the last step of the podium in P3. It was the English seven-time champion’s third consecutive third place finish. Russell, meanwhile, was able to rebound from his penalty, as well as his car surviving the contact with Perez, and through dogged persistence passed his way back through most of the field for an eventually excellent P4 result. While Ocon and his Alpine didn’t have anything for the Silver Arrows, it was nevertheless an excellent day for the team. The Frenchman took a solid P5 and veteran teammate Fernando Alonso fought all the way back from last on the grid because his car wouldn’t fire up for the Saturday Sprint to take the last available point in the GP in P10.

Haas also had an excellent day, with Mick Schumacher following up his maiden F1 points in Britain last week with eight more after finishing a terrific P6 and teammate Kevin Magnussen slotting in a valuable P8. And McLaren finally had a double points scoring day, with Lando Norris capturing P7 after an event filled race and teammate Daniel Ricciardo holding up his end of the bargain on the day in P9.

Top 10 finishers of the Austrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 71 1:24:24.312 25
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 71 +1.532s 19
3 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 71 +41.217s 15
4 63 George Russell MERCEDES 71 +58.972s 12
5 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 71 +68.436s 10
6 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 70 +1 lap 8
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 70 +1 lap 6
8 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 70 +1 lap 4
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 70 +1 lap 2
10 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 70 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight — the French Grand Prix from the colorful and venerable Circuit Paul Ricard in southern Le Castellet. With only two more rounds until the August break, Red Bull and Ferrari will be working feverishly on reliability and performance ahead that showdown in France. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Austria — Sprint Qualifying results

Verstappen wins Sprint race at Red Bull Ring to earn P1 start in Austrian GP; Ferrari’s Leclerc & Sainz duke it out for P2 & P3

Formula 1’s gimmicky Sprint Qualifying format returned for this first time this season to set the grid for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix. On a sunny day at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen converted his “pole” from Friday’s standard qualifying into a victory in the 23-lap Sprint Race on Saturday, earning the top starting spot for tomorrow’s race and 8 championship points in the process. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will line up alongside the Dutch points leader in P2, having out dueled his teammate and last week’s race winner Carlos Sainz, in a rather fierce internecine on track battle. In the event, Sainz came off second best after a series of mutual hip checks and had to settle for P3. Mercedes’ George Russell will start from P4, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton battled back from a nasty sideways shunt during Friday qualifying to take the last point available in this format in P8. Verstappen’s Red Bull stablemate Sergio Perez also had to fight his way to the front after being penalized for exceeding track limits during quali and being relegated to P13 for the start of the Sprint. The veteran Mexican ace picked his way through the field expertly in the limited laps available and ended up all the way up in P5 when the checkers flew. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon secured P6 but teammate Fernando Alonso’s car wouldn’t fire up on the grid and he will go back to P19 on the grid tomorrow, a far distance from his original P8 qualifying effort. The two Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher seem genuinely quick here and finished the Sprint in P7 and P9 respectively. Schumacher held off Hamilton for several laps before finally giving up the last point paying position to the seven-time champ’s Silver Arrow.

Top 10 finishers of the Sprint race to set the grid for tomorrow’s Austrian GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 23 26:30.059 8
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 23 +1.675s 7
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 23 +5.644s 6
4 63 George Russell MERCEDES 23 +13.429s 5
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 23 +18.302s 4
6 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 23 +31.032s 3
7 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 23 +34.539s 2
8 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 23 +35.447s 1
9 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 23 +37.163s 0
10 77 Valtteri Bottas* ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 23 +37.557s 0

*Bottas took a new power unit after the Sprint and so will start from P20 tomorrow.

Complete Sprint results available via Formula1.com.

Complete “qualifying” results from Friday also via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 9AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. At a track where the home team and their main man Max dominate it’s an open question if the Ferraris have anything at all to challenge the flying Dutchman, as he seeks to gap his nearest championship rivals. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Britain — Results & aftermath

Superb Sainz defies team orders to earn maiden F1 win in incident-packed British GP; Perez storms back to P2 as Verstappen falters to P7; Hamilton bests Leclerc for final podium spot in wild Silverstone action

In a race that had to be seen to be believed, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz emerged form the chaos and unpredictability of Sunday’s British Grand Prix with his first Formula 1 victory. The ostensible number two man at the Scuderia defied a late post-Safety Car strategy call by the Ferrari pit wall that would have had the Spaniard act as a blocker to his teammate Charles Leclerc. Instead, having come in for fresh Pirelli Soft tires under the full course yellow on Lap 39 of this 52-lap contest at the venerable Silverstone Circuit, and knowing that Leclerc had stayed out for some inexplicable reason on his old, well-worn Hard tires, Sainz vetoed that plan and quickly made short work of his stablemate to recapture and keep the lead of a race from which he started on pole.

By the time Sainz claimed that vital first F1 win, the start seemed like a million years ago. On the opening lap on a reasonably clear and sunny day at Silverstone, there was a horror shunt between Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyou, Mercedes’ George Russell and the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly. With numerous drivers bogging down at the start due to many closing to do their first stint on the west grip Hard Pirellis, that led to a big shuffle in the field between the quicker cars on softer rubber and the slower runners. Gasly thought he saw an opening between Russell and Guanyu and made for it. But the door quickly closed when Russell jinked to the left, causing the front of the AlphaTauri to strike both the flanking cars rear wheels. That sent Russell into a spin but the rookie Guanyu was upended and flew into a scary barrel roll at high speed across the gravel trap, eventually hitting the catch fence with some force before coming to rest in the space between the tire barrier and the actual concrete wall behind. Wedged in as he was, the Alfa Romeo rookie remained trapped in his car for some time as the medical teams and marshals worked the problem, with Russell sprinting over to see if he could lend a hand. After what seemed like an eternity, the young Chinese driver was successfully extracted and put in an ambulance to be taken to the on site care center for further evaluation. Thankfully, it turned out that Guanyu was not seriously injured. But he, Russell and the Williams’ of Alex Albon, who was also peripherally involved in the mayhem and speared sharply into the pit straight wall, were all out of the race before the first corner had been successfully navigated. Gasly also sustained damage that would eventually end his race on Lap 28. Additionally, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, and the second AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda all sustained some degree of damage in that midfield melee.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Understandably, the clean up from the resultant debris field and the several stranded cars, as well as Guanyu’s extraction, required an extensive Red Flag period of about 45 minutes. Lost in all that drama was the fact that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had overtaken the pole-sitting Sainz rather easily heading into that eventful Turn 1. However, as the race was stopped before even the first sector could be completed and timed, everyone went back to their original grid positions when the contest was finally ready to restart, officially on lap 3 after a second formation lap behind the Safety Car. The second time proved the charm for Sainz, as he held off Verstappen’s deja vu challenge. Continue reading →

2022 F1 Grand Prix of Britain — Qualifying results

Sainz nabs pole away from Verstappen at rainy Silverstone with superb final flying lap; Leclerc settles for P3 after late spin

Ferrari’s nominal number two, Carlos Sainz, prevailed against more heralded competitors to earn pole amidst very tricky wet and rainy conditions during Saturday’s qualifying for the British Grand Prix. With a fine last lap in Q3, the final qualifying round, Sainz bested the previous fast time of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and, when Verstappen was unable to respond on his last try, the Spanish veteran had earned his first ever pole in Formula 1. After 151 career entries, Sainz grabbing that maiden pole was a popular result with everyone in the paddock not named Verstappen, who was annoyed that he could not hook up his final try and was undone by a poor middle sector. But the Dutch points leader will still line up alongside Sainz on the front row in P2. And at the moment there is no rain forecast for tomorrow’s race so, theoretically, the drivers can put their wet weather tires away and fight it out on slicks. Then again, it is still England in the summertime, so don’t stow your Wellies and brelliies quite yet.

Sainz’s Scuderia stablemate, Charles Leclerc, was in the mix for pole, as well, right up until the moment he spun on his final Q3 attempt. The Monegasque will line up in P3 on the grid, right across from Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, who was able to haul himself up to P4 with a good late effort. Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton showed some of his old brilliance at one of his favorite circuits, willing himself to P5 in front of the absolutely soaked Silverstone faithful, while young George Russell could only manage P8 in the second Silver Arrow. McLaren’s Lando Norris was impressive in setting the sixth fastest lap on this sodden day, especially when compared to his more senior teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, who qualified a woeful P14. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso qualified P8,  Alfa Romeo’s rookie Zhou Guanyu continued to show improvement in P9 and Nicholas Latifi had another fine run in a rainy quali to get his Williams into Q3 and earn P10 on the grid.

Top 10 qualifiers for the British GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:40.190 1:41.602 1:40.983 26
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:39.129 1:40.655 1:41.055 24
3 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:39.846 1:41.247 1:41.298 26
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:40.521 1:42.513 1:41.616 26
5 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:40.428 1:41.062 1:41.995 23
6 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:41.515 1:41.821 1:42.084 26
7 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:41.598 1:42.209 1:42.116 23
8 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:40.028 1:41.725 1:42.161 23
9 24 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:40.791 1:42.640 1:42.719 28
10 6 Nicholas Latifi WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:41.998 1:43.273 2:03.095 24

Complete qualifying results amiable via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 10AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. Can Sainz follow up his maiden pole with his first win? Or will a miffed Max strike back against the Ferrari threat? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!