Sun, heat and gravel will be remembered for a long time for this 2022 Spanish Grand Prix conquered by Verstappen, at the third consecutive success, and Perez, riding two increasingly reliable Red Bulls. With a brilliant third place from Russell: certainly not obvious, but completely deserved. A positive result for Christian Horner’s team that heavily influences the world situation after six completed races, as it extends its hand to the leadership of both the drivers ‘and constructors’ world championship, both still in the hands of Mattia Binotto until this morning.
Reliability was the key word of this race and the tropical temperatures impacted without appeal on the results of many of the protagonists of the season. In fact, if the presence of our mother star is undoubtedly pleasant for the participants and for the television needs, the heat that caused the Iberian anticyclone today, contextualized in a track with very abrasive asphalt, has undoubtedly penalized the performance of the cars. , given that the Pirelli tire dealer was forced to use the hardest tires, with road holding that certainly does not reflect the maximum potential of these Formula 1 cars.
Consequently, between overheating and tires, the key factors of today’s suffering of the cars can be circumscribed: Russell was already complaining of thermal problems via radio at a quarter of the race, which risked affecting his result. Max Verstappen, already the victim of a driving error, then apparently had a breakdown in Drs. And throughout the Catalan afternoon each team had its alarms cyclically, charged to different sensors. That said, despite this scenario hostile to men and mechanics, also considering the ‘starting position’ factor, the final result seemed to be able to satisfy the Italians without surprising too much. On the Catalan track, in fact, twenty-eight out of thirty-two times he had won a single-seater starting from the front row, twenty-three of which from pole. But the various events have instead determined an order of arrival that not even the best of bookmakers could have predicted with precision.
The ‘bulk’ of the problems and the upheavals in the classification arrived already in the first half of the grand prix. The start of the Spanish test was completely neutral for the two top drivers but presented several thorny episodes that heavily affected some drivers. Leclerc held off Verstappen’s attack, who qualified second after a qualifying and a pre-race hindered by potentially serious technical problems. Russell, as the Anglo-Saxons say, immediately showed how much fire he had inside him from the beginning: he immediately gained positions, especially to the detriment of Sainz. And then a dubious episode: Hamilton, following a contact with Magnussen, ended up at the bottom, and it also went well for him, because the Haas ended up in the gravel and remained far behind. During the grand prix, however, no sanctions were received because the seven-time champion all in all had three quarters of cars inside and in front, so it was a fairly acceptable event.
From then on, although it seemed like a fairly predictable race could take shape, a row of plot twists began. Already in the early stages, quite surprisingly, Verstappen, from second position, slipped to fourth position while chasing Leclerc: a driving error, same point as Sainz a few laps earlier. Maybe a late braking and the Red Bull went into the gravel. But beyond other small things, the most sensational fact unfortunately is to the detriment of Leclerc. On lap 26, his Power Unit stopped running smoothly as he was comfortably leading the race, fresh from a very efficient tire change of just 2.2 seconds. He had been able to stay first from the start, the grand prix seemed to belong to him despite Verstappen’s little ‘gift’ with the blunder in the corners. With the withdrawal of the red, the immediate pursuers soon returned their appetite, so Hamilton, who finished fourth, emerged from the underworld.