2022 French Grand Prix

The **2022 French Grand Prix** was a Formula 1.5 motor race held on 24 July 2022 at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France.

## Background

The event was held across the weekend of the 22–24 July. It was the twelfth round of the 2022 Formula 1.5 World Championship.

### Championship standings before the event

Esteban Ocon led the Drivers' Championship on countback, equal on points with Lando Norris, with Valtteri Bottas third, a further 12 points behind. Alpine led the Constructors' Championship, leading McLaren by 35 points and Alfa Romeo by 84 points.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race. Robert Kubica drove for Alfa Romeo in Free Practice One.

### Tyre Choice

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C2, C3, and C4 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

### Track changes

The end of the pit lane speed limit zone was moved from where the last team garage to the actual pit exit for safety reason, with the change expected to add 3.5–4 seconds to the time cars lose in the pit lane. In addition, following concerns from the Grand Prix Drivers' Association over consistency of penalties being handed out in races, a handful of incidents were informally reviewed in the drivers briefing to see where drivers felt the penalty system had worked and where it had not worked well.

## Free Practice

The first two practice sessions took place on 22 July, while the third practice session was held on 23 July 2022. In FP1 Gasly topped the session ahead of Norris and Albon. Whilst in FP2 it was Norris ahead of Gasly, but this time it was Magnussen in third. The third and final practice session was topped by Alonso, Albon and then Norris.

## Race

Prior to the race, some teams worried that the high temperatures may overheat the power unit or tyres. The race started at 15:00 local time on 24 July and was contested over 53 laps. Alonso passed Norris off of the start to take the lead whilst Ocon and Tsunoda collided at turn eight. Both were able to carry on initally, though Tsunoda later retired due to damage received in the crash. Ocon was given a five-second time penalty by the FIA. After a mid race safety car, Zhou Guanyu and Mick Schumacher collided. Both were able to carry on, and Zhou was given a five-second time penalty by the FIA. Kevin Magnussen and Nicholas Latifi collided, contributing to both of their retirements later in the race, while Zhou, who had a power unit issue, pulled over on lap 49, which brought out the virtual safety car (VSC).

Alonso won the race, making it four consecutive Alpine victories in a row, the first time any team did this since Force India in 2017.

## Championship Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

  1
  1

;Constructors' Championship standings

  1
  1

## External Links

1. ↑  Kevin Magnussen was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding their quota of power unit elements.
2. ↑  Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll set the identical lap time in qualifying. Gasly was classified ahead of Stroll as he set the lap time earlier.
3. ↑  Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll set the identical lap time in qualifying. Gasly was classified ahead of Stroll as he set the lap time earlier.
4. ↑ Includes 1 point for fastest lap
5. ↑  Zhou Guanyu was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance. He also received a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Mick Schumacher. His final position was not affected by the penalty.