2022 Spanish Grand Prix Sunday Tach Notes From Nicholas Frankl

Nicholas Frankl
Senior Editor
The Auto Channel Motor Sport Desk

Barcelona, May 22, 2022

• Red Bull driver Max Verstappen used a three-stop strategy and went from second on the grid to race victory and the championship lead. He alternated between the P Zero Red soft tyre (with which he started the race) and the P Zero Yellow medium, on which he finished it.
• His team mate Sergio Perez and Mercedes driver George Russell, who also finished on the podium, both used a different three-stop strategy: soft-medium-medium-soft.
• Everyone chose to start on the P Zero Red soft tyre, with the exception of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who selected the P Zero Yellow medium. Having dropped to the back of the field following contact on the opening lap, Hamilton climbed back to fourth overall thanks to a three-stop strategy – with his first stop after lap one, making it effectively a two-stopper.
• Valtteri Bottas was the highest-placed actual two-stopper, in P6. Just four of the finishers stopped twice, with three different strategies in play.
• Ambient and track temperatures were the highest they had been all weekend today, peaking at 51 degrees centigrade on track. Despite these punishing conditions, the drivers favoured the soft and medium compounds.