Verstappen takes a hat trick of wins, Hamilton inherits the longest active finishing streak and Alonso is the first driver to score from 20th on the grid at Catalunya. Here are the facts and statistics from the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix!
VERSTAPPEN WINS
Max Verstappen continued his record of winning every race he has finished so far in 2022 with his fourth victory of the season. Becoming the seventh driver to record multiple wins at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Verstappen now leads the championship for the first time this year.
This was Verstappen’s third successive victory. It is the second time that he has achieved a hat trick of victories, having last done so at the 2021 Styrian, Austrian and French Grands Prix.
Red Bull now lead the title race for the first time since the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.
This was Red Bull’s fourth victory at the Spanish Grand Prix. Red Bull Powertrains is the fourth different engine manufacturer to win a race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
ON THE PODIUM
Having not scored a 1-2 in over five years at the start of 2022, Red Bull have now recorded 1-2 results in two of the last three races. Sergio Perez finished as runner-up in the Spanish Grand Prix, recording his best result at the circuit to date. His previous best result here was fourth, recorded in 2017.
Red Bull are the first team to record a 1-2 result at the Spanish Grand Prix since Mercedes in 2019.
George Russell recorded his second podium finish of the 2022 season, finishing in third place. This was the first time Russell has scored points at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Perez and Russell become the first drivers other than Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen to finish on the Spanish Grand Prix podium since 2017.
Russell led four laps of the race, marking the first time he has led a race since deputising for Lewis Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix. In total, four drivers led the race. It was the first race to have more than three leaders since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix.
With Charles Leclerc retiring from the Spanish Grand Prix, George Russell is now the only driver to have completed every racing lap in 2022.
Russell has gained one position from where he has started on all four of his Spanish Grand Prix appearances.
The 2022 Spanish Grand Prix is the first time Red Bull have recorded a 1-2 result with a Mercedes driver in third place since the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix.
The 2022 Spanish Grand Prix was the first race in which the driver starting second has won, with the driver starting fifth finishing as runner-up and the driver starting fourth finishing third since the 1980 Monaco Grand Prix.
THE POINTS SCORERS
For the first time since 2016, Lewis Hamilton failed to win the Spanish Grand Prix. He finished in fifth place. Following Charles Leclerc’s retirement, Hamilton now has the longest active finishing streak. He has finished every race since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix.
With sixth place, Valtteri Bottas maintains his record of finishing in the top eight at every race in which he has crossed the finish line in 2022.
Bottas’ sixth place was the former Sauber team’s best Spanish Grand Prix result since Kamui Kobayashi finished fifth in 2012.
With Esteban Ocon eighth and Fernando Alonso ninth, Alpine scored with both cars. It’s the first time the Enstone-based team have scored with both cars at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2012, when they were under their Lotus guise.
After starting 20th, Fernando Alonso finished the Spanish Grand Prix in ninth place . In doing so, the Spaniard equalled Kimi Raikkonen as the driver to have scored in the third most F1 races. This was the first time Alonso has scored at his home event since 2018.
Alonso is the first driver to score points from 20th on the grid at Catalunya. However, ninth is not the best result from that position. Christian Fittipaldi (1993) and Eric Bernard (1994) both finished eighth, before the position awarded points.
Alonso gained eleven positions in the race. That’s the most he has gained in a race since the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.
At all of the last three races in which a driver has started from 20th on the grid, they have gone on to score points.
Yuki Tsunoda’s tenth place finish made 2022 the fourth consecutive season in which the Red Bull junior team has scored at the Spanish Grand Prix.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
Daniel Ricciardo finished in 12th place, failing to score for the third time in his last four Spanish Grand Prix outings.
Pierre Gasly finished 13th, failing to score at the Spanish Grand Prix for the first time since 2018.
For the first time since the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix, Alex Albon finished in the same position as he started.
Following first lap contact with Lewis Hamilton, Kevin Magnussen finished 17th, recording his worst Spanish Grand Prix result to date.
With Sebastian Vettel 11th and Lance Stroll 15th, this was the first time that the Silverstone-based team has failed to score at two consecutive Spanish Grands Prix since 2008 and 2009.
THE RETIREES
Charles Leclerc recorded his first retirement since the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. This was Leclerc’s second DNF at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya , having also retired in 2020.
Leclerc became the first Spanish Grand Prix polesitter to fail to finish since Lewis Hamilton in 2016. He is the first polesitter to retire at any race since Max Verstappen at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix – which was also the last race before the Spanish Grand Prix to be won from second on the grid.
Zhou Guanyu recorded the second and final retirement from the race. Zhou has now retired from both of the last two races. Zhou became the first driver to retire having started 15th at the Spanish Grand Prix since Heikki Kovalainen in 2011.
The 2022 Spanish Grand Prix was the first race to feature no Safety Cars or VSC periods since the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix. The 2020 Spanish Grand Prix – which also featured no caution periods – was completed in a time almost six minutes faster than the 2022 race.
