The raw numbers of Max Verstappen’s scorching run to victory in the Belgian Grand Prix are deeply impressive.
From 14th on the grid – effectively 13th as Pierre Gasly’s spot was vacant due to a last-minute pit lane start – Verstappen was eighth by the end of lap one. He was aided by the first-lap collision between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.After the Safety Car came in, Verstappen picked off his rivals with impressive speed. He took Alexander Albon and Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap after the track went green, then Sebastian Vettel, Alonso and George Russell on consecutive tours.
As he closed on race leader Carlos Sainz Jnr and Sergio Perez in second, Ferrari brought their man in. While Verstappen was briefly detained by Perez, he soon swept past – team principal Christian Horner said this was not under instruction from the pit wall.
After making his own, delayed first pit stop, Verstappen only had to pass Sainz to take the true lead of the race. This was done by lap 18 out of 44 – well before half-distance. From there he cruised home to win by 17 seconds, though it could easily have been more.
Despite taking pole position, Carlos Sainz Jnr was powerless to stop the Red Bull onslaught, and ended the day 26 seconds behind the driver who had started 13 places behind him. Both started on the soft tyres, but Verstappen extracted better performance and durability out of them, ensuring he had all bases covered.
His team mate, however, could not produce the same. Perez lapped 1.4 seconds slower than Verstappen on their quickest tours, and lost around half a second per lap to his team mate after they swapped places.
Leclerc’s bid to set the fastest lap of the race was compromised when he emerged narrowly ahead of Alonso, who then overtook him. Although the Ferrari driver was able to regain his last place it interfered with his bid to take the bonus point.
Did Ferrari make a tactical error? They expected Leclerc to stay ahead and Alpine team principle Otmar Szafnauer said the same. Leclerc’s pit stop wasn’t especially slow, but it was just enough to bring Alonso within range, and the power of DRS did the rest.
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2022 Belgian 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 Belgian 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 | 4 | ||
| George Russell | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| Max Verstappen | 15 | 7 | 14 |
| Sergio Perez | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Charles Leclerc | 16 | 6 | 11 |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | 1 | 0 | -2 |
| Lando Norris | 18 | 3 | 6 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 7 | 1 | -8 |
| Esteban Ocon | 17 | 4 | 10 |
| Fernando Alonso | 3 | -1 | -3 |
| Pierre Gasly | 8 | -11 | -1 |
| Yuki Tsunoda | 13 | -5 | 0 |
| Lance Stroll | 9 | 0 | -2 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 10 | 5 | 2 |
| Alexander Albon | 6 | -1 | -4 |
| Nicholas Latifi | 11 | -1 | -7 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 14 | 0 | |
| Zhou Guanyu | 19 | 3 | 5 |
| Mick Schumacher | 20 | 3 | 3 |
| Kevin Magnussen | 12 | 1 | -4 |
2022 Belgian 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 Belgian Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1’49.354 | 32 | |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’49.984 | 0.630 | 44 |
| 3 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1’50.764 | 1.410 | 29 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1’50.793 | 1.439 | 31 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’51.678 | 2.324 | 31 |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1’51.717 | 2.363 | 36 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’51.977 | 2.623 | 32 |
| 8 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1’52.212 | 2.858 | 32 |
| 9 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’52.256 | 2.902 | 38 |
| 10 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’52.317 | 2.963 | 30 |
| 11 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | 1’52.436 | 3.082 | 32 |
| 12 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’52.515 | 3.161 | 40 |
| 13 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1’52.868 | 3.514 | 35 |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’52.880 | 3.526 | 29 |
| 15 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | 1’53.002 | 3.648 | 24 |
| 16 | Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 1’53.055 | 3.701 | 28 |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’53.080 | 3.726 | 34 |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’53.332 | 3.978 | 29 |
| 19 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 2’05.651 | 16.297 | 1 |
| 20 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
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2022 Belgian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | C4 (15) | C3 (15) | C3 (14) | |
| Sergio Perez | C3 (14) | C3 (13) | C2 (17) | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | C4 (11) | C3 (14) | C2 (19) | |
| George Russell | C3 (13) | C3 (16) | C2 (15) | |
| Charles Leclerc | C4 (3) | C3 (22) | C3 (17) | C4 (2) |
| Fernando Alonso | C3 (11) | C3 (14) | C2 (19) | |
| Esteban Ocon | C3 (12) | C2 (20) | C3 (12) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | C3 (14) | C2 (19) | C3 (11) | |
| Pierre Gasly | C3 (10) | C2 (12) | C3 (22) | |
| Alexander Albon | C3 (10) | C2 (16) | C3 (18) | |
| Lance Stroll | C3 (15) | C3 (11) | C2 (18) | |
| Lando Norris | C3 (13) | C2 (16) | C3 (15) | |
| Yuki Tsunoda | C2 (18) | C3 (12) | C3 (14) | |
| Zhou Guanyu | C3 (14) | C3 (14) | C4 (16) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | C3 (12) | C2 (20) | C3 (12) | |
| Kevin Magnussen | C3 (11) | C2 (16) | C3 (16) | |
| Mick Schumacher | C3 (14) | C2 (16) | C3 (13) | |
| Nicholas Latifi | C3 (3) | C3 (12) | C2 (19) | C4 (9) |
| Valtteri Bottas | C4 (1) | |||
| Lewis Hamilton |
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2022 Belgian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.322 | 30 | |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 22.349 | 0.027 | 14 |
| 3 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 22.542 | 0.220 | 22 |
| 4 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 22.543 | 0.221 | 11 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 22.641 | 0.319 | 11 |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 22.650 | 0.328 | 27 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 22.750 | 0.428 | 25 |
| 8 | George Russell | Mercedes | 22.825 | 0.503 | 13 |
| 9 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 22.833 | 0.511 | 33 |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 22.857 | 0.535 | 10 |
| 11 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.882 | 0.560 | 15 |
| 12 | George Russell | Mercedes | 22.977 | 0.655 | 29 |
| 13 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 23.036 | 0.714 | 13 |
| 14 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 23.085 | 0.763 | 12 |
| 15 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 23.146 | 0.824 | 32 |
| 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 23.189 | 0.867 | 25 |
| 17 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 23.222 | 0.900 | 14 |
| 18 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 23.334 | 1.012 | 10 |
| 19 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 23.334 | 1.012 | 42 |
| 20 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 23.349 | 1.027 | 26 |
| 21 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 23.364 | 1.042 | 28 |
| 22 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 23.396 | 1.074 | 27 |
| 23 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 23.414 | 1.092 | 34 |
| 24 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 23.491 | 1.169 | 32 |
| 25 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 23.511 | 1.189 | 12 |
| 26 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 23.555 | 1.233 | 15 |
| 27 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 23.560 | 1.238 | 29 |
| 28 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 23.744 | 1.422 | 14 |
| 29 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 23.954 | 1.632 | 25 |
| 30 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 24.158 | 1.836 | 14 |
| 31 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 24.168 | 1.846 | 15 |
| 32 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 24.198 | 1.876 | 3 |
| 33 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 24.253 | 1.931 | 30 |
| 34 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 24.415 | 2.093 | 26 |
| 35 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 24.982 | 2.660 | 30 |
| 36 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 26.815 | 4.493 | 11 |
| 37 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 30.055 | 7.733 | 18 |
| 38 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 35.825 | 13.503 | 3 |
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Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
28th August 2022, 23:25
Insane that Verstappen, starting in the pack on softs, could still easily go a lap longer than Perez (the so called tyre management expert) who started on mediums.
Fastest lap, even fastest tyre stop. Today was like playing the codemasters F1 game on easy mode.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
29th August 2022, 1:02
They pitted Perez early to block Leclerc. Great strategy by Red Bull.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
29th August 2022, 5:39
LOL! Big fail strategy you mean! Ferrari was absolutely no threat for RBR this race. LEC who started 15th and didn’t show any fast pace in any session, was even a smaller threat than SAI. Hopefuly, now the remarks “Ferrari is the fastest, best car etc” will no longer be seen here.
Frans
29th August 2022, 7:15
It wasn’t to block LEC for the benefit of VER, but more about to make sure PER was ahead of LEC after the stop. If you look at the lap time chart, around the time when PER pitted, PER was driving a bit slower than LEC. Remember that LEC pitted during the safety car and PER didn’t. Also LEC probably managed to condition his tires better because there was no pressure to push the tires super hard at the start of the stint, thus can keep his tires alive really well. Btw, this is not exclusive to PER, VER was also ended up slower and slower, although since VER had so much speed, VER going slower and slower was still faster than LEC.
So basically, if PER didn’t pit at that moment, he would’ve lost the windows where he could pit and stay ahead of LEC. Sure, you might argue that it didn’t matter since PER can blast past LEC quickly, but as a team, they can’t be complacent just because they have a large speed advantage.
MacLeod (@macleod)
29th August 2022, 7:48
+1 Also Perez had a bad start and probaly went too hard in the beginning which the tyre doesn’t like as you need to bring them slowly on temp….
Rolfski (@rolfski)
29th August 2022, 0:45
Not sure what galaxy Max was from today but it must be far, far away.
delphi
29th August 2022, 3:10
Hard trying to gauge whether Ric possessed any post-split reinvigoration when they had Norris undercut him by three laps. It was so long that I seriously thought they were trying to take him to the end.
frood19 (@frood19)
29th August 2022, 6:56
Great drive by Max but I really found that race quite dull. The opening couple of laps were amazing but then as soon as the DRS was switched on, every pass became a slam dunk down the kemmel straight. There were some moves into the bus stop, which was cool despite the travesty that chicane has become. But the sense of jeopardy or suspense was pretty much absent because that DRS zone is totally unnecessary.
I was watching the highlights on channel 4 and it seemed very hard to follow the strategies. I don’t think they even mentioned leclerc’s issue with the tear-off. I’ve found I only really get what has happened in the races after reading articles like this one. FTA coverage is sorely lacking right now – the sport is clearly enjoying an upswing in popularity but I can’t see how it will be embedded without more FTA coverage.