Event: Spanish F1 Grand Prix
Track: Catalunya Circuit

Warm-up lap starts at: 15:00 Local | 15:.00 CET | 14:00 UK | 06:00 LA | 22:00 Tokio

Table of Contents
F1 Starting Grid 2022 Spanish GP
The Road to the Catalunya Pole
2022 Spanish F1 GP Race Strategy
Pirelli's Motorsport Director - Mario Isola said

Ferrari's updates seemed to work great. Charles Leclerc scored his 13th F1 career pole. Max Verstappen will start from P2, which is the 'dirty' side of the track. Behind him will be home country driver Carlos Sainz.

Mercedes seemed to have solved their porpoising problem without losing too much downforce. George Russell will start from P4 which is his best qualifying position this season. His teammate Lewis Hamilton and 7 times champion wasn't able to take advantage of the Mercedes upgrades during qualifying and will start from P6

F1 Starting Grid 2022 Spanish GP

 

PosNoDriverTeamLap TimePole gap
116Charles LeclercFerrari1:18,750
21Max VerstappenRed Bull1:19,073+0,323s
355Carlos SainzFerrari1:19,166+0,416s
463George RussellMercedes1:19,393+0,643s
511Sergio PérezRed Bull1:19,420+0,670s
644Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:19,512+0,762s
777Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo1:19,608+0,858s
820Kevin MagnussenHaas1:19,682+0,932s
93Daniel RicciardoMcLaren1:20,297+1,547s
1047Mick SchumacherHaas1:20,368+1,618s
114Lando NorrisMcLaren1:20,471+1,721s
1231Esteban OconAlpine1:20,638+1,888s
1322Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri1:20,639+1,889s
1410Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri1:20,861+2,111s
1524Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo1:21,094+2,344s
165Sebastian VettelAston Martin1:20,954+2,204s
1718Lance StrollAston Martin1:21,418+2,668s
1823Alex AlbonWilliams1:21,645+2,895s
196Nicholas LatifiWilliams1:21,915+3,165s
2014*Fernando AlonsoAlpine1:21,043+2,293s

*Notes: Fenando Alonso (Alpine #14) - Required to start from the back of the starting grid - Additional power unit elements have been used

 

The Road to the Catalunya Pole

F1 Starting Grid 2022 Spanish F1 Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, receives his Pirelli pole position award from Carlos Sainz Snr during the Spanish GP at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday May 21, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Mark Sutton / LAT Images)

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc claimed his fourth pole position of the season, using the P Zero Red soft tyre from start to finish. He completed just one run in each session apart from Q3, in order to save a set of soft tyres for the race. His sole Q2 run was on used soft tyres: the same set that he had run in Q1. Leclerc was fastest in all the practice sessions, and also all the qualifying sessions apart from Q2.

The hour-long qualifying session got underway in high temperatures of 37 degrees centigrade ambient and 48 degrees on track, making it particularly important to manage the tyres on this high-energy circuit.
Just the soft tyre was used throughout qualifying by all the drivers, with a performance advantage of just over a second per lap compared to the P Zero Yellow medium.

The Pirelli Pole Position Award was given to Leclerc by the father of his team mate: Carlos Sainz (Senior) from Spain. Sainz is a two-time World Rally Champion with Pirelli, who won the Catalunya Rally – held on stages close to Montmelo – for the first time exactly 30 years ago in 1992: just one of 26 rally wins throughout his exemplary career. Sainz comes to the Spanish Grand Prix direct from Rally Portugal, where a gala event to celebrate 50 years of the World Rally Championship – now exclusively supplied by Pirelli – was held three days ago.

F1 Starting Grid 2022 Spanish F1 Grand Prix

2022 Spanish F1 GP Race Strategy

The fastest way to approach the 66-lap Spanish Grand Prix is a two-stopper, and even a three-stopper isn't out of the question. But which two-stopper will be quickest? The most versatile option to start the race on is the P Zero Yellow medium tyre, in order to ensure a reasonably long first stint, but what happens after then largely depends on the tyres that each driver has left from their allocation.

The Pirelli Zero Red soft has a notable speed advantage over the medium, albeit with a shorter life, and that could make it appealing for those with good race pace. The P Zero White hard tyre could play a part too, although it’s more than a second per lap slower than the medium.

Theoretically, the fastest way to approach the race is medium-medium-soft. The second-fastest way is medium-soft-soft, and then there are some three-stop strategies that could work out well too. Medium-hard-soft, using all three compounds, is an interesting option, but it’s faster on paper to avoid the hard.

However, there isn’t a particularly high safety car probability in Spain, and the temperatures are expected to be slightly warmer than today. All of this might push the teams towards the harder compounds, given the levels of degradation seen so far in free practice.

Pirelli's Motorsport Director - Mario Isola said:
"It was a hot and tough qualifying session, where managing the soft tyre was crucial in order to extract every last bit of performance. Not only that, but strategy played an important part and Leclerc’s calculated risk to complete only one run in Q2 – a decision that was also taken by Mercedes – could  give him some different options.

Degradation will definitely be a factor tomorrow, with temperatures predicted to be perhaps even hotter than today, so this is likely to be the most challenging race of the year for tyres so far, where management and strategy will be key to success. One interesting thing we saw today was FP3: often this is focussed on preparation for qualifying, but today we saw lots of teams optimising set-up and balance in the light of the degradation experienced yesterday."


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4 F1 Fan comments on “F1 Starting Grid 2022 Spanish F1 Grand Prix

  1. ReallyOldRacer

    I'm going to make a Swede like comment and get myself in trouble. It's nice to watch race coverage in Europe and see attractive girls sans cow bodies. Something else to look at other than the SKYguys.

    And of course a yippee for the Haas boys. Double points finish tomorrow or are they teasing me?

    Reply
    • Nobodysperfect

      This track seems to be the ultimate test regarding the new car design, which should make overtaking a lot easier. I recall a lot of dull racing around Catalunya as wins from pole are no exception. I do recall some huge drama, with 2016 when both Mercedes drivers collided in the first lap. Also the one with Mika Hakkinen when he ran out of fuel was a great one. Schumacher's rain race with Ferrari back in 1996 and Senna vs Mansell was also a great one.

      Reply

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