Max Verstappen won the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, securing Red Bull’s 2022 Formula 1 Constructors’ World Championship win. Last year’s winner prevailed in an exciting duel against Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and with his 13th win of the season equaled the old record of Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) finished the race in third place, once again moving past Sergio Perez (Red Bull) in the Drivers’ Championship, who finished fourth.
Behind them, George Russell (Mercedes), Lando Norris (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Alpine), Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) finished in the points.
Mick Schumacher (Haas) was 15th. A total of 17 of the 20 drivers who started saw the checkered flag.
Pole setter Carlos Sainz retired after a collision with Russell at the start; as well as Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo).
What went wrong with Verstappen’s pit stop?
Last year’s winner was 2.1 seconds ahead of Hamilton when Mercedes made the second pit stop to attempt an undercut. Verstappen came in a lap later, at the same time as Leclerc – and was 11.1 seconds when changing tires because the impact wrench had to be changed on the left front.
Since the first pit stop, the Red Bull driver had complained about poor driving behavior several times and dropped back to third place after adjusting for stops. “Fine, fine,” he radioed sarcastically, and was admonished by his race engineer, “It’s still a long race. Stay focused, Max, come on!”
In lap 39 he made short work of Leclerc: the Ferrari driver was able to counter the first Verstappen attack in turn 1. On the back straight, however, the Red Bull’s better top speed was enough to pass. Verstappen was now 4.5 seconds down on Hamilton with 17 laps to go.
What happened after that?
With Verstappen through at Leclerc, it quickly became apparent that it would be difficult for Hamilton to maintain his streak of winning at least one Grand Prix every year of his career. Already on lap 44, Verstappen had halved his original gap to 2.2 seconds.
Hamilton’s tire set was a lap older than Verstappen’s and while the Mercedes ran on Hard, the Red Bull was fitted with Medium. The decision in the duel was made on lap 50 of 56: Verstappen sucked himself in at the end of the long back straight, swerved inwards and passed. Red Bull criticized Hamilton’s alleged “moving under braking”.
Despite the strong performance, it was not an easy race for Hamilton. The brakes were changed at the start because he had noticed so-called glazing on the grid lap. After just ten laps of the race, he reported a “tearing” on the left front on the radio, probably related to the tires and not to the brakes.
It was on lap 20 when he first mentioned the brakes: “I’m having problems.” But he was lucky that Verstappen wasn’t able to call up his full potential either. At first, the World Champion complained that he was struggling with the wind, and then he tried different “Strat” settings to get his balance under control. Which he couldn’t.
Is Red Bull now Constructors World Champion 2022?
Yes. The situation before Austin was such that Ferrari would have had to score 19 points more than Red Bull to keep the championship race open. With the Sainz failure, that was almost done, and it was also clear: If Verstappen wins, the matter is decided. The day after Dietrich Mateschitz’s death, it is Red Bull’s first constructors’ world title since 2013 and fifth overall.
Sainz vs. Russell starting collision: who was to blame?
Verstappen got the best start and took the lead past Sainz. Sainz approached the first corner relatively wide while Russell, a few yards behind and side by side with Hamilton, was very far in on a line. At the exit at the top of the hill, the curve radii of the two spread apart and Russell brutally drove Sainz into the sidepod.
For the race director, the question of guilt was clear. She quickly imposed a five-second penalty on Russell, who was third behind Stroll at the time of the verdict. That didn’t help Sainz anymore. He came into the pits with punctures and was pushed straight into the garage by his crew. Ferrari later confirmed a water leak in the cooling system as the cause of the failure.
How did Vettel’s race go?
For Aston Martin, the US Grand Prix started right on schedule. Stroll came back from the first lap in third, Vettel in fifth. Vettel got off to a great start thanks to quick reactions and reacted quickly in the tumult of the first lap and, with a bit of luck, was on the right line at the right time.
On lap 17, Vettel was lucky again when almost everyone was already in the pits and Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) caused a safety car phase with his departure at the exit of turn 18. Vettel took the chance to pit with a “discount” on lap 18 and rejoined the field in sixth place.
He won the position against Stroll, who had already stopped before the yellow phase, and initially had a new main task with the fight against the two AlphaTauris, which he had behind him after Stroll’s failure – with the advantage that he was a medium himself fresher than Gasly’s Hard by seven turns and Tsunoda’s Medium by eight turns.
Gasly then received a five-second penalty for falling too far behind the safety car, leaving Vettel’s first opponents from behind Tsunoda and Norris. From lap 39 to lap 41, when he was overtaken by Hamilton, Vettel was even briefly in the lead because he came to the second pit stop later than the top favorites.
At the end of the 41st lap, Vettel also came to the pit stop, and just like Verstappen, he also had problems on the left front. With a downtime of 16.8 seconds, his race, which had been so lucky up to that point, was severely damaged.
He rejoined in 13th position, 4.3 seconds behind Tsunoda, and still worked his way up to P8 by the end of the race, including a heart-stopping final against Magnussen on the final lap.
Stroll vs. Alonso collision: who was to blame?
The first safety car phase had only just ended when the second came. At the restart, Stroll failed to overtake Vettel immediately and was suddenly busy defending himself against Alonso at the back. On lap 22, on the back straight, he drew close to the Aston Martin and started to overtake.
Stroll then moved extremely late to the left, when Alonso was almost at his side, to defend. “Reacted very late,” complained the Spaniard immediately. The shock was still in his limbs, because the Alpine took off from the rear wheel of the Aston Martin like a rocket and slid along the barriers.
Lucky in misfortune: A few meters earlier, and Alonso might have crashed into a gap in the crash barriers with serious consequences. And because the steering angle was more favourable, he was even able to drive into the pits and continue the race in 16th position. Unlike Stroll, for whom the previously promising race Sunday had gone with it.
How was Schumacher’s race Sunday?
Not good. He was unable to take the chance to recommend himself with a strong performance for 2023 in front of the Haas team at home. Although Schumacher gained two positions at the start, after touching Nicholas Latifi (Williams) at the latest, the issue of championship points was over for him. At the end of the race there was also a five-second penalty due to track limits.