Charles Leclerc’s retirement from the lead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix meant we never got to see how his tactical battle with the Red Bull drivers would have turned out.
After losing the lead from pole position, the Ferrari driver pitted when a Virtual Safety Car period was triggered on lap nine. That left him needing to cover 42 laps on a set of hard tyres – or make a costly second pit stop.The Red Bull pair made their pit stops during green-flag running, losing more time, which put Leclerc back into the lead of the race. Not for long, though – he crossed the line in first place just once before his power unit failed spectacularly approaching the start/finish area.
Would Leclerc have been able to stay ahead had he not retired? Unfortunately there’s little useful data from the race to answer the question. His team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr was already out, and with the next closest car to the Red Bulls seven seconds back, yet to make a pit stop and lapping a second slower, there was no threat to ensure Verstappen and Perez kept pushing.
What is clear is Leclerc brought his hard tyres in especially gently when he left the pits. He knew he had a long way to go on that set. After Perez pitted he took over a second out of Leclerc in two laps, and Verstappen was clearly quicker than his team mate.
Therefore there seems little doubt Verstappen would have caught him. Whether he would have been able to pass is another matter. He wasn’t able to early in the race, but at that stage Leclerc was gaining a useful tow from Perez. Ferrari’s unreliability cost us a much livelier race.
Although Verstappen was clearly quicker than his team mate, Perez nicked the fastest lap bonus point by a mere four-thousandths of a second. He set the quickest lap after the pair pitted for another set of hard tyres as a precaution when another VSC period offered them the opportunity.
Verstappen made a bid to take it back on the penultimate lap, and did well to get as close as he did on a 14-lap-old set of tyres. He took the chequered flag 20 seconds up the road from Perez.
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2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Position change
Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | 7 | 0 | 3 |
George Russell | 5 | 0 | 2 |
Max Verstappen | 3 | 0 | 2 |
Sergio Perez | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Charles Leclerc | 1 | -1 | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | 4 | 0 | |
Lando Norris | 11 | 0 | 2 |
Daniel Ricciardo | 12 | 0 | 4 |
Esteban Ocon | 13 | 0 | 3 |
Fernando Alonso | 10 | 0 | 3 |
Pierre Gasly | 6 | 0 | 1 |
Yuki Tsunoda | 8 | -1 | -5 |
Lance Stroll | 19 | 2 | 3 |
Sebastian Vettel | 9 | 1 | 3 |
Alexander Albon | 17 | 2 | 5 |
Nicholas Latifi | 18 | -1 | 3 |
Valtteri Bottas | 15 | -1 | 4 |
Zhou Guanyu | 14 | 0 | |
Mick Schumacher | 20 | 0 | 6 |
Kevin Magnussen | 16 | -2 |
2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1’46.046 | 36 | |
2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1’46.050 | 0.004 | 50 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’47.044 | 0.998 | 39 |
4 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1’47.177 | 1.131 | 42 |
5 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | 1’47.523 | 1.477 | 42 |
6 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’47.531 | 1.485 | 13 |
7 | Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 1’47.966 | 1.920 | 48 |
8 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1’47.989 | 1.943 | 49 |
9 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’47.997 | 1.951 | 37 |
10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’48.038 | 1.992 | 38 |
11 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’48.179 | 2.133 | 42 |
12 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’48.206 | 2.160 | 41 |
13 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’48.276 | 2.230 | 44 |
14 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1’48.297 | 2.251 | 36 |
15 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1’48.410 | 2.364 | 40 |
16 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | 1’48.519 | 2.473 | 39 |
17 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’48.723 | 2.677 | 12 |
18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’48.789 | 2.743 | 12 |
19 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’48.978 | 2.932 | 3 |
20 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’49.583 | 3.537 | 37 |
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2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
---|---|---|---|
Max Verstappen | C4 (18) | C3 (15) | C3 (18) |
Sergio Perez | C4 (16) | C3 (17) | C3 (18) |
George Russell | C4 (9) | C3 (24) | C3 (18) |
Lewis Hamilton | C4 (9) | C3 (24) | C3 (18) |
Pierre Gasly | C4 (9) | C3 (42) | |
Sebastian Vettel | C4 (9) | C3 (42) | |
Fernando Alonso | C4 (18) | C3 (33) | |
Daniel Ricciardo | C3 (33) | C4 (18) | |
Lando Norris | C4 (20) | C3 (31) | |
Esteban Ocon | C3 (33) | C4 (18) | |
Valtteri Bottas | C3 (33) | C4 (17) | |
Alexander Albon | C4 (9) | C3 (20) | C3 (21) |
Yuki Tsunoda | C4 (9) | C3 (29) | C5 (12) |
Mick Schumacher | C3 (9) | C4 (14) | C3 (27) |
Nicholas Latifi | C4 (3) | C4 (14) | C3 (33) |
Lance Stroll | C3 (30) | C4 (16) | |
Kevin Magnussen | C4 (9) | C3 (22) | |
Zhou Guanyu | C4 (9) | C3 (14) | |
Charles Leclerc | C4 (9) | C3 (12) | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | C4 (8) |
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2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 20.249 | 9 | |
2 | George Russell | Mercedes | 20.527 | 0.278 | 33 |
3 | George Russell | Mercedes | 20.538 | 0.289 | 9 |
4 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 20.571 | 0.322 | 18 |
5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 20.722 | 0.473 | 33 |
6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 20.831 | 0.582 | 33 |
7 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 20.979 | 0.730 | 33 |
8 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 21.443 | 1.194 | 20 |
9 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 21.468 | 1.219 | 18 |
10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.470 | 1.221 | 9 |
11 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 21.540 | 1.291 | 29 |
12 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 21.555 | 1.306 | 9 |
13 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 21.794 | 1.545 | 33 |
14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 22.059 | 1.810 | 30 |
15 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 22.069 | 1.820 | 17 |
16 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 22.231 | 1.982 | 23 |
17 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 22.349 | 2.100 | 33 |
18 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 22.638 | 2.389 | 33 |
19 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 22.698 | 2.449 | 9 |
20 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 23.001 | 2.752 | 9 |
21 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 23.083 | 2.834 | 9 |
22 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 23.212 | 2.963 | 9 |
23 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 23.379 | 3.130 | 16 |
24 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 25.577 | 5.328 | 9 |
25 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 26.973 | 6.724 | 9 |
26 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 29.395 | 9.146 | 3 |
27 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 41.500 | 21.251 | 38 |
2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
- FIA should black-flag cars if their porpoising endangers drivers’ safety – Horner
- Transcript: Why Norris reluctantly complied with McLaren’s Baku team orders
- Montreal is “going to hurt” in stiff 2022 cars say drivers hoping for bouncing fix
- Leclerc was heading to a ‘comfortable win’ before retirement – Ferrari
- F1 should penalise those who ‘obviously’ slow on purpose in qualifying – Norris
Danny (@denny)
12th June 2022, 23:02
Charles had a pace on hard as we can see.
Hope he doesn’t lose his edge and his mojo after last three heartbreaks…
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
13th June 2022, 7:21
@denny I don’t see it. It’s just a new tyre… it doesn’t show he was particularly quick. None of his laps were faster than MV’s on same tyre. Yes there is 9 laps worth of fuel difference so hard to compare but even if you look at last lap of Charles and compare with the first one for Max, he was significantly slower than Max. If they continued Max would have been over a sec a lap faster. + Redbulls stopped pushing really after Ferrari threat disappeared.
Sunny
14th June 2022, 3:57
What are you on about.. If they continued Max would be over a sec faster? Are you looking at the same data as me? Until lap 9 they were almost identical on pace with Max struggling to stay within DRS range. Then you’re gonna compare Max’s first lap on hards with less fuel vs Charles’s last lap on hards with more fuel? Are you actually serious? “Max would be over a sec faster” are you ACTUALLY serious?? Not to mention the rest of Max’s stint was not even close to that first lap you conveniently chose to prove your point
MattDS (@mattds)
14th June 2022, 11:52
Max would’ve been way faster. These are Max’s sector times after pitting, tyres not even fully up to ideal temps yet, compared to Charles’s sector times.
Obviously S1 on Max’s outlap is not included as the pit time is impacting that sector time.
Lap 19
S2: Max 43.207 Charles 43.644
S3: Max 25.560 Charles 25.832
Lap 20
S1: Max 38.243 Charles 38.457
These 3 sectors constitute one full lap. Time difference: 0.923s. That’s not “over a second faster” but it is significantly slower, and the tyre difference being as it was, this would’ve seen Max rapidly closing the gap and given the tyre difference that was there now (in contrast to the first stint where they had equal tyres) overtaking would’ve been a real possibility.
For completeness.
Lap 20
S2: Max 43.088 Charles 43.481
Another four tenths just in the one sector (slightly over 6 tenths gained on the running lap 20).
Nitzo (@webtel)
13th June 2022, 6:10
Once Ricciardo went to mediums, his pace sort of dropped off a bit…Lando was atleast half a second faster per lap than Daniel in the last third of the race. Even Albon was quicker than Daniel in this period. Weird.
For a decent part of the race, Albon seems to have been quicker than both the McLarens…am guessing this is because Lando and Daniel were caught in a DRS train.
Jere (@jerejj)
13th June 2022, 7:30
@webtel Weird indeed & yes, Albon probably was quicker through Mclarens getting stuck in a DRS train.