Formula 1 is back from the summer break, and what a magnificent track to return to – Spa Francorchamps – where we will hopefully get more than two laps this season. Our 2022 Belgian Grand Prix Results, Lap by Lap Review & Summary is also back and tries to explain all you needed to know from the big race in more than two laps also.
Our review covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to with our laps that matter. Plus we throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend.
The 2022 Belgian Grand Prix Results, Lap by Lap Review & Summary gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a small serving of cynicism. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
And why not check out our latest Grand Prix Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far and the last race.
2022 Belgian Grand Prix Results
THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the Scene – Multiple penalties meant that no car started the race in the position they qualified in. The headline penalties were Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc who will start from 14th and 15th.
It has to be said that Max Verstappen is by far the fastest car, and he is still one of the favourites to win the race.
The mixed up grid gives opportunities for Red Bull and Ferraris other drivers to win a race, and for drivers like Alonso, Ricciardo and Albon to get season high results. Lord knows Daniel Ricciardo could do with a season highlight. It may help him get a drive for 2023.
TOP 10 GRID (Starting Position) – SAI PER ALO HAM RUS ALB RIC GAS STR VET — VER 14th — LEC 15th
Lap 1 – Wow, you won’t see a first lap like this very often. Pole sitter Sainz gets away best and leads into the first corner and steams away at the front. Behind, plenty happening. Second placed Perez veers right from the grid to no advantage as Alonso takes second and the Mercedes drop him down to fifth. Alonso and Hamilton battle for second as they approach the Les Combes chicane and the former foes collide with Hamilton’s car thrown into the air. Further behind Perez overtakes Russell for what becomes second. Russell almost spins off in the gravel and collects cars including Max Verstappen on his return to the track. From there cars are running two, three and four wide on the track in parts. And we’re only halfway around the first lap. Hamilton retires his car at the team’s call. For the record Max Verstappen ends lap one in 8th and Charles Leclerc is 10th. Vettel does a great job to jump from 10th to 5th.
ORDER – SAI PER RUS ALO VET RIC ALB VER STR LEC
Lap 2 – Nicholas Latifi who started much higher than usual because of all the penalties showed why him starting from further back is a good thing as he runs wide into the gravel at the top chicane and slides back onto the track and wipes out Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas. And brings out the Safety Car. Thanks Nick, some of your best work.
Lap 3 – Decent sledge on the radio while the safety car was on as Fernando Alonso calls Lewis Hamilton an idiot and says he can only run and win when he is first. Harsh, and possibly a little unfair, but maybe not based on this season. Safety Car is still going. It’d better piss off soon, as this race only has 44 laps due to the length. For the record Lewis Hamilton didn’t care what Alonso said in his post race interview.
Lap 4 – Charles Leclerc pits for new tyres under the Safety Car, apparently pit because he had a disposable tear off visor stuck in his brakes. Likely excuse from the masters of shit strategy – Ferrari. Nicholas Latifi pits for a new front wing and will resume where he is comfortable and out of the way – last.
Lap 5 – Race Resumes. Carlos Sainz nearly goes off before the race restarts at the final corner. But that was the height of the action as the front runners behave themselves and no change in order. Except for Max Verstappen grabbing sixth off Daniel Ricciardo, and Alex Albon steals the soon-to-be-former-McLaren-driver’s 7th place half a lap later.
ORDER – SAI PER RUS ALO VET VER ALB RIC STR MAG
Lap 6 – Max Verstappen is up to fifth and just six seconds off the lead. Leclerc is 16th and eight seconds further back. Verstappen then quickly takes Fernando Alonso for fourth.
Lap 8 – Max Verstappen passes Gorge Russell for third. Just six racing laps for Max to go from 14th to 3rd.
Lap 9 – Charles Leclerc overtakes two Alpha Tauris in one lap. But he is still down in 14th.
ORDER – SAI PER VER RUS ALO VET ALB RIC STR OCO
Lap 11 – Sergio Perez is making life a lot harder for Max Verstappen to overtake him than we first thought. In fact they are starting to spoil their own races.
Lap 12 – Carlos Sainz pits for new tyres. Drops from first to 6th. Alonso pits too. Max Verstappen passes Sergio Perez eventually. Which means he is now first.
Lap 14 – Sainz overtakes Vettel for fourth, which then becomes third when George Russell pits. Russell again doing a great, solid job for Mercedes. Leclerc makes it two passes for Ferrari v Aston Martin when he steals fifth from Lance Stroll. Meanwhile at the front, Max Verstappen is over three seconds to the good.
Lap 15 – Sergio Perez pits for new tyres quicker than a normal person can pick their nose, and he rejoins in third in front of Charles Leclerc, just. They almost touch, and Ferrrari point that out on radio.
Lap 16 – Max Verstappen pits for new tyres – can he stay in the lead? No. He rejoins ahead of his team mate in second, who will have to suck eggs and play second fiddle. George Russell continues his fine afternoon as he takes Leclerc for fourth.
ORDER – SAI VER PER RUS LEC ALO TSU ALB VET OCO
Lap 18 – Max Verstappen takes the lead from Carlos Sainz. He will take some beating to lose today, or some kind of localised natural disaster. Sadly for the neutral, Red Bull appear to be professional with strategy.
Lap 21 – Max Verstappen is already 5.5 seconds in front of Carlos Sainz. Make that in front of Sergio Perez as the Mexican overtakes Sainz with ease.
Lap 24 – Not much happening, if you can’t tell by the TV coverage as they are showing lap after lap of Daniel Ricciardo being not able to overtake Alex Albon’s Williams. Although they’ve woken up, and so have we to a potential battle for third coming up between Carlos Sainz and George Russell. Ferrari spoil that party by pitting Sainz. Charles Leclerc pits too right after. Sainz resumes 4th, and Leclerc rejoins just in front of Ricciardo’s continuing attempt to overtake Albon.
Lap 30 – George Russell pits and drop to fourth. But even more importantly at the end of lap 30 Max Verstappen pit for new tyres but was so far ahead he gets to keep his lead. Think that’s all the front runners pit stops now, so why not do an order for those still with us.
ORDER – VER PER SAI RUS LEC VET OCO ALO RIC GAS
Lap 36 – George Russell trying to close the gap to Sainz for third appears to be the main focus and most important battle. Further back, the TV producers must love Alex Albon, as they are showing a few more laps of the Williams driver holding up a group of cars.
Lap 40 – Four laps to go and Max Verstappen is nearly 17 seconds in front of his team mate in second. Perez himself is ten seconds but doesn’t look like George Russell will catch the Ferrari in time.
Lap 43 – Ferrari pit Charles Leclerc, we presume to steal the fastest lap off Max Verstappen, but in true Ferrari style they forgot about Fernando Alonso who passes Charles Leclerc as the Ferrari exits the pit. Ferrari truly suck at strategy as Leclerc can’t get back past Alonso quickly. He does eventually part way around the last lap. But Leclerc didn’t get fastest lap anyway. And to top that all off gets a five second post-race penalty for speeding in the pitlane. 5 second being enough to fall behind Alonso and cost themselves more points. What a bunch of buffoons.
Last Lap – Max Verstappen does it oh-so-easy and wins the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix from 14th. Perez takes a relatively anonymous second, and Sainz holds on for third.
FINAL ORDER – VER PER SAI RUS LEC ALO OCO VET GAS ALB
2022 Belgian Grand Prix Results
RACE RATING
Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest.
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 8 / 10
Not overly important for a big moment, just a continuation of Red Bull’s dominance this season, and their opponents weaknesses. Of which there is a quite a few. This race really shows how fast the Red Bull is and means effectively this Championship is over.
ON TRACK ACTION -7 / 10
First part of the race was action packed, with a mad first lap and loads of overtaking at the front and down the field. But it was front heavy with most of the action in the first 20 laps.
ENDING 2 / 10
Dull ending, that for Australians watching past midnight, and with the current Aussie driver down in a point-less and pointless 15th, it couldn’t come soon enough. Leclerc’s failed attempt to take fastest lap was sort-of amusing.
OVERALL RATING 17 / 30
A great start to the race as the heavy hitters started towards the back of the grid. A mad first lap with a clash between old rivals. But slowly, and surely Max Verstappen and Red Bull asserted their dominance, and the
2022 SEASON RATINGS SO FAR
Want to know what we thought of previous races? Or which ones to to back and watch?
R1 Bahrain Grand Prix 26/30
R2 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix 21/30
R3 Australian Grand Prix 16/30
R4 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix 17/30
R5 Miami Grand Prix 19/30
R6 Spanish Grand Prix 17/30
R7 Monaco Grand Prix 24/30
R8 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 22/30
R9 Canadian Grand Prix 21/30
R10 British Grand Prix 26.5/30
R11 Austrian Grand Prix 24/30
R12 French Grand Prix 17/30
R13 Hungarian Grand Prix 23/30
Season Average – 21.1 / 30
2022 Belgian Grand Prix Results
GREAT & GRAPE OF THE RACE
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Grid penalty? No worries. The Championship leader was up to third by lap eight, and leading by lap 12. He was super quick all weekend. And they could probably have started him from the closest village from the track and he would have still won the race.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
GEORGE RUSSELL – Drove an outstanding race, running in the top six throughout, and was only holding his own against everyone other than the pace setting Red Bulls. Seems to be handling the shit Mercedes car better than Sir Lewis.
SERGIO PEREZ – Decent job for the second Red Bull driver, taking a good amount of points behind Max Verstappen, but showed a little bit of backbone when approached by Max in the early part of the race to overtake.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Up the front end of the gird after penalties and ended up sixth after it all played out. Somehow survived a clash with Lewis Hamilton on the first lap that eliminated the Mercedes driver.Still got it.
ALEX ALBON – He may have held up car after car in the race, but the end result for a point for Williams is a sweet reward.
THE GRAPE-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON
Smashed in qualifying by his front running buddies where pre race thoughts were Mercedes might be back in genuine contention here, then throws away the gifted fourth starting place on the grid by running into Fernando Alonso at Les Combes chicane. He retires before a lap is completed.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CARLOS SAINZ – Gifted first place on the grid after the penalties for others, and ends up off the podium.
CHARLES LECLERC – Double Ferrari in the grapes. Blown away by Red Bull if we’re honest, and the botched attempt for fastest lap sums up the season.
NICHOLAS LATIFI – Started higher up the grid than usual, probably glad he doesn’t do it very often. Ask Valterri Bottas.
DANIEL RICCIARDO – 15th place probably won’t be tempting many teams to your service next year.
2022 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated.
