Yee haw, F1 heads to Texas where everything is bigger and better. Talking about bigger and better our 2022 US Grand Prix Results, Lap by Lap Review & Summary is here to round it all up for you.
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 US 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 US 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 – A dry race on a great track, which we’ll take after rain had caused delays and boredom in previous weeks. Carlos Sainz took a surprise pole, and behind him is the lip smacking prospect of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton close to each other on the grid. The lacklustre Mercedes has robbed fans seeing those two go head to head much in 2022.
Red Bull were racing under the shadow of the team owner and Red Bull originator Dietrich Mateschitz passing away on Saturday. With just the constructor’s trophy and race win respect to fight for, we’re sure it will be a fun Grand Prix. Coincidentally, Red Bull can wrap up their first team title in a while on the same weekend of Mateschitz’s passing.
There was a huge and vocal crowd ready to go. Amazing how far F1 in the US has come.
GRID (Starting Order) – SAI VER HAM RUS STR NOR BOT ALB PER VET
Lap 1 – Carlos Sainz was slower off the line than Max Verstappen who took the lead into the first corner and the Ferrari driver was in a spin seconds later. Lewis Hamilton took over second and the big winners were the two Aston Martins who filled third and fifth. Replays shows George Russell 100% to blame for the Sainz spin, and he can expect some kind of penalty. Sainz meanwhile was out. Thanks George. As ever the loser from the start was Bottas who always seems to go backwards.
ORDER – VER HAM STR RUS VET NOR PER GAS ALB LEC
Lap 4 – Not what the fans who wanted some excitement wanted. Max Verstappen out in front, with no one challenging him in any meaningful way, and he sets fastest lap to prove his dominance. Where can we look to now for some on track action. Perhaps George Russell can crash into someone else. For the record he got a penalty for the Sainz clash.
Lap 6 – Nicholas Latifi reminded F1 fans what we will be missing next year with a little spin in his Williams. He continued in last, or was already last. Either way. Sergio Perez also continued his progress up to 4th from a starting grid spot of 9th.
Lap 10 – Charles Leclerc meanwhile was up to 7th after penalties dropped him to midfield for the start. He was currently 7th, stuck behind Sebastian Vettel. Interesting radio message coming through too, Lewis Hamilton complaining about tyres, and Max Verstappen mentioning the wind.
Lap 11 – Some cars at the lower midfield (including Ricciardo of course) pit for new tyres, which starts off a cain reaction of changing tyres.
Lap 13 – Lewis Hamilton is the first of the front runners to pit for tyres. We’ll see if that is significant soon.
Lap 14 – Max Verstappen and George Russell pit. Verstappen comes out just in front of Lance Stroll who dares to race with him for a few corners. Further behind Charles Leclerc has overtaken both Aston Martin and is chasing Verstappen but yet to pit.
Lap 15 – Perez pits from his temporary lead and jumps up to a net third behind Verstappen and Hamilton. Lance Stroll pits a lap later.
Lap 17 – Better do a check after the leaders have pit. Max Verstappen has a six second lead over Lewis Hamilton. So we’ll declare the win for Verstappen then.
ORDER – VER LEC (No Pit 0) HAM VET (0) PER RUS ALO (0) STR (0) OCO (0)
Lap 18 – SAFETY CAR DELPOYED – Charles Leclerc who has yet to pit is handed a golden ticket of a Safety Car just as he nears the end of the lap. He gets a free pitstop and rejoins in fourth which works out nicely. It also help Vettel stay in the top six. Oh, and why was the Safety Car deployed you ask? Valtteri Bottas spun off somewhere.
ORDER – VER HAM PER LEC RUS VET STR GAS ALO NOR
Lap 22 – SAFETY CAR ENDS – We go racing again.
MASSIVE CRASH!!!! Vision switches to Fernando Alonso into the barrier at high speed and cars spinning in the middle of the track – looks like an Aston Martin. Lance Stroll and Alonso clashing eh? Well that should be something to talk about at Aston Martin in 2023.
Replays show that both cars were very lucky. Alonso touches the left rear tyre of Lance Stroll and air gets under the Alpine and Alonso is out of control for a good few seconds. Luckily he lands the right way up and into the barriers. That looked like it could be a Mark Webber airplane special flip at one stage. Looks like Stroll kept pushing Alonso to the left as Alonso attempted to overtake and Alosno was caught a bit unaware.
Pierre Gasly does his best Days of Thunder impression and drives through the smoke and flying bits of carbon fibre. Safely, we should add. Mick Schumacher was clipped by Esteban Ocon who made his way through the melee less safely.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED AGAIN
ORDER – VER HAM PER LEC RUS VET GAS TSU NOR MSC
Lap 26 – SAFETY CAR ENDS – Racing resumes. No crashes this time, and an overtake for 11th is the highlight. That was Magnussen> Ocon for the record.
Lap 30 – Charles Leclerc nails Sergio Perez for third place in a brilliant piece of overtaking. He at least looks to have the speed to make Verstappen sweat a little this weekend.
Lap 33 – It’s easy to pick on Daniel Ricciardo in 2022, but…..Fernando Alonso, whose car had flown in the air and ht the barrier, and has a wobbly mirror takes seven laps to go from the back of the field to past Ricciardo’s McLaren.
Lap 34 – Lewis Hamilton pits, as he was gaining on Verstappen, the leader was complaining about his strategy. Hamilton rejoins in 6th.
Lap 35 – Max Verstappen pits for new tyres too to cover Lewis Hamilton. And the pit stop is a shocker – 11 seconds. Not only does Verstappen fall behind Lewis Hamilton, but also Charles Leclerc. And he looks mad. Maybe there’s some life in this race after all.
Lap 38 – Verstappen looking looking very keen to get past Leclerc, who isn’t going slow himself. Perez pits from the lead leaving Vettel in the front.
Lap 39 – Max Verstappen overtakes Charles Leclerc into turn one, but runs a little wide and Leclerc takes it back immediately. Further around the lap Verstappen overtakes Leclerc for good in a bold move. Leclerc gives chase, but his Ferrari is not a Red Bull. Now Verstappen is off to chase Lewis Hamilton for the race win. Yes please.
Lap 40 – Hamilton catches Vettel, and he won’t want to stuff around getting past, as Verstappen will be with him soon. He gets past into the first corner on Lap 41.
ORDER – HAM VET (Yet to Pit) VER LEC PER RUS MAG ALO (!!) OCO ALB
Lap 42 – Pooooor Sebastian Vettel. Takes his final pit stop and a tyre sticks. 30 seconds later he’s lost a chance for big points.
Lap 44 – Lando Norris is turning himself into a one man entertainment machine, making overtake after overtake of the midfield cars. He’s up to 9th from well back, with a few more to pick off before the end of the race.
Lap 45 – Max Verstappen is 2.2 seconds from Lewis Hamilton – there’s 11 laps to go, so we will get to see these two battle for the lead in what feels like the first time this season.
Lap 47 – Verstappen is within 1.8 seconds now and inching closer.
Lap 50 – Verstappen is within a second and gets DRS now. He gets close on pit straight but decides against a move. He has the faster car so can wait. But will Hamilton let him by easily? Verstappen overtakes Hamilton into the back straight hairpin. Lewis Hamilton jinks inside and they race side by side for a few corners (without incident) but the Red Bul lstays ahead. He edges away but Hamilton hasn’t given up yet.
Lap 52 – Verstappen gets a warning about track limits – if he goes wide one more time it is a five second penalty. So Verstappen has to behave himself and Hamilton apply pressure to force the mistake. And stay within five second just in case. Hamilton is sticking with him too. Fascinating stuff.
Lap 54 – Verstappen edges away, and now Hamilton must rely on a mistake from the Red Bull driver. Unlikely that is.
Last lap – Max Verstappen wins the US Grand Prix, and he squeezed the lead out to just over five seconds as an insurance policy at the end. The result gives Red Bull the constructor’s title on the weekend that their owner passed away.
Lewis Hamilton finishes a fine second. Leclerc not a bad third. Further back Vettel and Magnussen pile on the entertainment for 8th in the last few corners, Vettel comes out on top, probably as he deserved.
FINAL ORDER – VER HAM LEC PER RUS NOR ALO VET MAG TSU
2022 US 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 – 5 / 10
The race didn’t really matter except for the Constructors trophy, which in all honesty, doesn’t really matter for F1 fans.
ON TRACK ACTION – 9 / 10
Was worried early it was going to be a dull race, but the first safety car and a botched Red Bull pit stop livened up the race. Battles for the top position as well as the usual midfield beefs kept up the entertainment for most of the remaining laps of the race after that first safety car.
ENDING 9 / 10
Max Verstappen chasing down Lewis Hamilton for a race win in the closing laps is as good as it gets really. Well for recent races. The battle didn’t last as long as we like, but still good. Vettel v Magnussen on the very last lap was fun too.
OVERALL RATING 23 / 30
It looked like it could be a dull US Grand Prix, but the race got interesting after Valtteri Bottas spun off and went from there. A big crash involving Alonso and Stroll that somehow Alonso survived and kept racing. Then battles for the top positions including a duel for first between old foes Hamilton and Verstappen. Good stuff. Worth the early start (in this part of the world).
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
R14 Belgian Grand Prix 17/30
R15 Dutch Grand Prix 21/30
R16 Italian Grand Prix 11/30
R17 Singapore Grand Prix 15/30
R18 Japanese Grand Prix 22/50
2022 US 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
Outdragged Carlos Sainz to take the lead of the race, which was a good thing as Sainz was harpooned by George Russell. Had it easy out front, then came the pit stop where his tyre got stuck. Still, he had enough pace and patience to overtake Hamilton with five laps to go and win the race.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LEWIS HAMILTON – His best race of 2022. Was able to race with Verstappen without crashing.
CHARLES LECLERC – A solid podium after starting the race from the midfield due to penalties applied after qualifying.
FERNANDO ALONSO – One of those weekends where he could have cost himself points and not the team. Lucky his accident wasn’t worse given the airtime he got after hitting Stroll’s rear tyre. But he actually kept going and was in the top six towards the end. Some kind of driver.
SEBASTIAN VETTEL – A bad pit stop cost him a seriously good result, but he still ended up in the points despite that 30 second stop. Led the race for a while, which is a nice reward for his weekend on his last trip to the US Grand Prix.
LANDO NORRIS – Another weekend of outperforming a car that looks dog ordinary in the hands of his team mate. Some good racing to climb to 6th in the end. Best of the rest again, as ever.
THE GRAPE-EST – CARLOS SAINZ
Carlos Sainz hasn’t had much luck this season, and he received exactly none at the US Grand Prix raceday as he turned his pole position into a retirement at the first corner.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
DANIEL RICCIARDO – Rode into the track on Friday on a horse. One wonders whether he could get more pace out of the horse than his McLaren. In the company of Latifi towards the back of the field during the race to underline where he’s at.
LANCE STROLL – Qualified well, got a bump up the grid for penalties and was racing well but involved in a big accident with Fernando Alonso after the first Safety Car restart and all his good work ruined. Not fully to blame for accident, but he didn’t help.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Dud piece of driving at the first corner where he took out Carlos Sainz. Overshadowed by Hamilton in the race.
NICHOLAS LATIFI – Spun off, penalised for driving someone off the road, finished last. One of his best. At least he finished.
2022 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated.
