2022 Bahrain Grand Prix

2022 Bahrain Grand Prix
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Race details
Date	20 March 2022 (2022-03-20)
Official name	Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2022
Location	Bahrain International Circuit Sakhir, Bahrain
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.412 km (3.363 miles)
Distance	57 laps, 308.238 km (191.530 miles)
Weather	Clear
Attendance	98,000 [2]
Pole position
Driver	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
Time	1:30.558
Fastest lap
Driver	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
Time	1:34.570 on lap 51
Podium
First	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
Second	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari
Third	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2022) was a Formula One race that was held on 20 March 2022 at the Bahrain International Circuit, a motor racing circuit in the west of Bahrain. It served as the season opener of the 2022 Formula One World Championship and was the eighteenth running of the Bahrain Grand Prix. ^[3]

Charles Leclerc won the race after starting from pole position, ^[4] his first win since the 2019 Italian Grand Prix. ^[5] Leading all but two laps after pitting a second time, ^[4] short of a grand slam, ^{[lower-alpha 2]} Leclerc had a hat-trick with pole, race win, and fastest lap. ^{[7] [8]} Teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lewis Hamilton completed the podium, as reigning champion Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez both retired. ^[9] It was Ferrari's first win and 1–2 finish since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix. ^[10]

Background

Entrants

Further information: 2022 Formula One World Championship § Entries

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with the only exception being Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel, who tested positive for coronavirus and was therefore replaced by Nico Hülkenberg. ^{[11] [12]} This was Hülkenberg's first race since his one-off appearance at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix. The race was also the Grand Prix debut of Zhou Guanyu for Alfa Romeo. ^[13] He became the first ever Chinese driver to take part in a Formula One Grand Prix, as well as the first one to score a point during a race weekend. ^[14]

Tyre choices

Further information: Formula One tyres

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C1, C2, and C3 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event. ^[15] This was a step harder than 2021 where the C2, C3 and C4 tyres were used. This race was also the first race where the 18-inch tyres were used as the 2022 regulations began.

Practice

Three practice sessions were held at the Grand Prix, each lasting an hour in length. The first practice session was on Friday 18 March, and started at 15:00 local time (UTC+03:00). The only red flag of the session was when Esteban Ocon's Alpine shed its sidepod bodywork on the main straight. The session ended being topped by Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri on soft tyres. ^[16]

The second session started at 18:00 local time on the same day. The session ended with reigning World Champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing topping the timing sheets with a 1:31.936 on soft tyres. Charles Leclerc was 0.087 seconds behind him in second place with his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. in third. The third practice session took place on 19 March, starting at 15:00 local time. ^[3] Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing was fastest again Charles Leclerc in second by 0.096 seconds, after overcoming a spin into the Turn 11 gravel. Sergio Pérez was in third, 0.25 seconds off the pace. ^[17]

Qualifying

Qualifying lasted for one hour and started at 18:00 local time on 19 March. ^[3] Kevin Magnussen of Haas achieved the team's first Q3 appearance since the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. ^[18] Charles Leclerc of Ferrari set the fastest time for pole position, ^[19] ahead of Verstappen and teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. ^[20]

Qualifying classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Final grid
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:31.471	1:30.932	1:30.558	1
2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-RBPT	1:31.785	1:30.757	1:30.681	2
3	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:31.567	1:30.787	1:30.687	3
4	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-RBPT	1:32.311	1:31.008	1:30.921	4
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:32.285	1:31.048	1:31.238	5
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:31.919	1:31.717	1:31.560	6
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1:31.955	1:31.461	1:31.808	7
8	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	1:32.346	1:31.621	1:32.195	8
9	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:32.269	1:31.252	1:32.216	9
10	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-RBPT	1:32.096	1:31.635	1:32.338	10
11	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:32.041	1:31.782	N/A	11
12	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	1:32.380	1:31.998	N/A	12
13	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:32.239	1:32.008	N/A	13
14	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1:32.726	1:32.664	N/A	14
15	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:32.493	1:33.543	N/A	15
16	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-RBPT	1:32.750	N/A	N/A	16
17	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:32.777	N/A	N/A	17
18	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1:32.945	N/A	N/A	18
19	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:33.032	N/A	N/A	19
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1:33.634	N/A	N/A	20
107% time: 1:37.873
Source: [21] [22]

Race

The race started at 18:00 local time on 20 March, ran under overhead lights and lasted for 57 laps. ^[3] At the start, Leclerc remained ahead of Verstappen at the first turn. Sainz remained in third place, with Pérez being passed by Hamilton and Magnussen. Bottas, who began at sixth, fell to 14th within the first lap. Schumacher and Ocon collided on the first lap, which resulted in a five-second penalty for Ocon. Pérez passed Magnussen and Hamilton to return to fourth position. ^[4]

Hamilton entered the pit lane on lap 9, becoming the first driver of the race to do so, and reentered the race 12th. Verstappen, still behind Leclerc, pitted on lap 14, along with Sainz, while Leclerc pitted a lap later. Verstappen passed Leclerc on lap 17 using DRS, but Leclerc regained first soon after. On lap 19, Verstappen attempted to pass again, but he locked up and overshot turn 1, allowing Leclerc to build a lead. ^{[4] [23]}

Leclerc maintained his lead, with Verstappen entering the pit lane on lap 31, followed by Leclerc a lap later. Sainz and Pérez both pitted on lap 34, followed by Verstappen pitting for a third time on lap 44, and then by Sainz and Hamilton. On lap 46, Gasly's car caught fire, which prompted the safety car until lap 51. When the race restarted, Leclerc maintained the lead over Verstappen, who radioed the pit crew to notify them he suspected he had a power unit issue. He was passed by Sainz and Hamilton, and he entered the pit lane to retire his car on lap 54. On the final lap, Pérez suffered a fuel system issue causing his power unit to switch off, with the resulting blockage of the rear axle as he was negotiating the first corner causing him to spin his car and retire. Leclerc and Sainz maintained first and second position, followed by Hamilton in third, through to the end of the race. ^{[4] [24]} Russell finished fourth with Magnussen of Haas in fifth.

Race classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	57	1:37:33.584	1	26 1
2	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	57	+5.598	3	18
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	57	+9.675	5	15
4	63	George Russell	Mercedes	57	+11.211	9	12
5	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	57	+14.754	7	10
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	57	+16.119	6	8
7	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	57	+19.423	11	6
8	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-RBPT	57	+20.386	16	4
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	57	+22.390	8	2
10	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	57	+23.064	15	1
11	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	57	+32.574	12
12	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	57	+45.873	19
13	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	57	+53.932	14
14	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+54.975	18
15	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+56.335	13
16	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	57	+1:01.795	20
17	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	57	+1:03.829	17
18 2	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-RBPT	56	Fuel system	4
19 2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-RBPT	54	Fuel system	2
Ret	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-RBPT	44	Power unit	10
Fastest lap: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 1:34.570 (lap 51)
Source: [22] [25] [26] [ failed verification ]

Notes

• ^1 – Includes one point for fastest lap. ^[26]
• ^2 – Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance. ^[25]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Charles Leclerc 26 2 Carlos Sainz Jr. 18 3 Lewis Hamilton 15 4 George Russell 12 5 Kevin Magnussen 10 Source: [27]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 44 2 Mercedes 27 3 Haas-Ferrari 10 4 Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 9 5 Alpine-Renault 8 Source: [27]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

• 2022 Sakhir Formula 2 round
• 2022 Sakhir Formula 3 round

Notes

1. At the time of the event Formula One planned to hold twenty-three Grands Prix. ^[1]
2. As a team, Ferrari achieved the grand slam due to Charles Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. being the only other driver to lead a lap. It was Ferrari's first team grand slam since the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix. ^[6]

References

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