Qualifying

1st July 2022 :

Wet qualifying, a lot of unexpected positions for some drivers.

 

Highlights :

• Nicholas in Q3
• Carlos' pole
• Alex eliminated in Q1
• The two Alpha Tauri, Daniel and Esteban eliminated in Q2
• Zhou in Q3
• No bouncing for the Mercedes
• Fernando P7

 

Race

3rd July 2022

What a race ! I don't know where to start but first I'm so happy that Alex and Guanyu are OK !

The crash at the start was really scaring, after a contact between George, Pierre and Guanyu, the Chinese driver rolled out to the fences while George went check on him because he was stuck between the fences and the wall of tyres. Pierre had no damage to his car due to this first contact.

Meanwhile this crash, another one was happening. Indeed, Alex was touched by Sebastian at the rear, the car went into the wall before rolling again on the track and finished his course a bit further after crashing into Yuki and Esteban.

After this incident, Guanyu and Alex were of course out of the race. On his side, George was also out however he could have continue nevertheless, he went check on the Chinese driver. It's not the first than our GPDA president did this, he also did the same with Callum Ilott a few years ago.

Because of that start, at the second one, the starting grid was the same as the first without the three drivers who had DNF.

It led to a wonderful fight between Max and Carlos, after a few laps Max passed in front.

While trying to pass Pierre, Yuki crashed into him making the two spun out. It resulted to Pierre abandoning a few laps later. And some debris of the Alpha Tauri went into Max's floor. It damaged it, Max thought it was a puncture because the car slowed down but it wasn't.

On Charles' side due to his fight with Checo, he damaged his front wing. He stayed with it until the end of the race however he wasn't slower than if he had a normal one.

Because of Max's problem, Carlos was leading and Charles was just behind. The Monegasque was faster than Carlos nevertheless Ferrari didn't let him pass the Spaniard. The only order was subjected to Carlos, it was to do the same laps time than Lewis who was just following Charles.

After a few laps, Carlos pitted so the other one pass by him.

There wasn't a lot of action until Esteban's PU broke down. It provoked a safety car, Ferrari and Mercedes took the decision to pit Carlos and Lewis at the depend of Charles.

The last one had hard tyres of 40 laps meanwhile the two others had new soft tyres.

At the restart, we had a beautiful battle between Lewis, Checo and Charles because Carlos passed the Monegasque and escaped far away at the front. 

The fight between those three was really amazing, and it's by seeing five cars from different team fighting than we can say that the new regulations has worked.

This battle lasted a few laps and it resulted by a podium for Checo and Lewis, Charles finishing 4th because of his tyres.

The Grand Prix finished on Carlos' first win and another bad strategy for Ferrari.

 

Highlights :

• Crash Zhou - Russell - Gasly and Albon - Vettel - Tsunoda - Ocon
• DNF Zhou, Albon and Russell
• Battle between Carlos and Max
• Crash between the two Alpha Tauri
• Damage to Max's floor -> slow
• Charles' front wing damaged
• Battle Charles - Lewis - Checo
• Carlos's first win
• Points for Mick and Kevin

 

Results

1. Carlos Sainz - /
2. Checo Perez -2 positions
3. Lewis Hamilton - 2 positions
4. Charles Leclerc + 1 position
5. Fernando Alonso - 2 positions
6. Lando Norris - /
7. Max Verstappen + 5 positions
8. Mick Schumacher - 11 positions
9. Sebastian Vettel - 9 positions
10. Kevin Magnussen - 7 positions
11. Lance Stroll - 9 positions
12. Nicholas Latifi + 2 positions
13. Daniel Ricciardo - 1 position
14. Yuki Tsunoda + 1 position

DNF : Guanyu Zhou, Alex Albon, George Russell, Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

 

Drivers' notes

I'm just going to rate the drivers for which I have information. Drivers who have been really broadcasted won't be below. Those rates are for the qualifying and the race.

Remember, it's only my point of view, we can have a different one and I can be wrong too !

 

- Nicholas Latifi : 8/10

Qualified 10th, finished 12nd, Nicky did a really good qualification, a lot of people is going to say that is because of the rain. And that's probably the case, but when there is an exceptional situation the drivers need to use it to do their best. And he was there and took the opportunity.

He had a good start he wasn't implicated in the crashes

The points are mostly for the qualifying even if he didn't do a bad race neither.

 

- Lewis Hamilton : 9/10

Lewis is back, even if he had been out-qualified by 1 second, he was implicated in a lot of fights. He also had the pace for the win but unfortunately his slow pit stop made him go back on the track behind Charles.

Good strategy from Mercedes with the pit stop for soft during the safety car.

 

- Carlos Sainz : 8/10

Even if he wasn't the fasted on quali, he had been the cleverest, who hadn't made any mistakes under the rain so he took his first pole position. However, he hadn't the pace on Sunday but he was again the cleverest in terms of strategy and of course benefit by Ferrari during the safety car.

 

- Mick Schumacher : 8/10

Qualified 19th, but finished 8th on Sunday, marking his first points in F1, it's been a really good race for the Haas driver. Good battles for him with Max, Seb,..

I think it's important to mention him because Carlos' win had hidden his first points.

 

- Max Verstappen : 7/10

Tough qualification for him, he made a lot of mistakes compared to usual. He spun two or three times, and Charles spin during their last run costed him the pole because of the yellow flag.

He did a good first start, taking the opportunity to pass Carlos because he made a mistake. The second time, he passed him a few laps later