2022 Austrian Grand Prix

The **2022 Austrian Grand Prix** was a Formula 1.5 motor race held on 10 July 2022 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. It was the second Grand Prix weekend of the 2022 season to utilise the Formula 1.5 sprint format.

## Background

The event was held across the weekend of the 8–10 July. It was the eleventh round of the 2022 Formula 1.5 World Championship, and the 35th running of the Austrian Grand Prix in a World Championship season.

### Championship standings before the race

Lando Norris led the Drivers' Championship by 4 points from Valtteri Bottas, with Esteban Ocon third, a further 10 points behind. Alpine led the Constructors' Championship, leading McLaren by 25 points and Alfa Romeo by 55 points.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

### Tyres

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

### Fan harassment allegations

During the event, some spectators accused other fans of harassment. Formula 1.5 teams and drivers have moved to condemn such behaviour with lifetime bans from attending races in the future thought to be a possible punishment for offenders. The harassment report has received condemnation from many drivers.

## Practice

There were two practice sessions, each lasted one hour. The first practice session took place on 8 July 2022, 13:30 local time (UTC+02:00). The session was topped by Magnussen, followed by Alonso and Schumacher. The second session took place on 9 July, at 12:30 local time. FP2 was topped by Alonso, then his teammate Ocon in 2nd and Bottas in third.

## Qualifying

The qualifying session took place on 8 July.

The first part of qualifying (Q1) saw the bottom five drivers eliminated from the rest of the session. Sebastian Vettel had his last lap time deleted, dropping him from 11th down to 14th. Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, Zhou Guanyu, Nicholas Latifi and Vettel were eliminated.

The second part of qualifying (Q2) saw the bottom five drivers eliminated from the rest of the session. Lando Norris ran wide in every attempt and did not set a representative lap time. He later explained his car was suffering from a brake problem. Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Alexander Albon, Yuki Tsunoda and Norris were eliminated.

The third part of qualifying (Q3) was a four-car shoot-out for pole position. Ocon took pole ahead of Magnussen and Schumacher, with Alonso finishing P4.

Following the qualifying session McLaren team manager Andreas Seidl admitted his team had not done a good job in qualifying after both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo had their qualifying sessions affected by reliability problems. Seidl also stated that the team must also shoulder some of the blame for Ricciardo's difficulties in the season overall thus far.

## Sprint

The sprint took place on 9 July, and was scheduled to run for 24 laps, though this was shortened by one lap due to an aborted start procedure resulting from a stopped car.

Fernando Alonso was left on the grid with his wheel blankets on before the formation lap. He was wheeled back into the pit lane, but due to an electrical issue, he did not start. Zhou Guanyu had an engine issue at the end of the formation lap, this meant another formation lap was required to move Zhou's car. He managed to restart his car, completed the second formation lap and was required to start from the pit lane. Mick Schumacher, Daniel Ricciardo, George Russell, Esteban Ocon, Sergio Pérez, Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel were summoned to the stewards after the sprint after radio messages on the formation lap were alleged to have breach the regulation that "[drivers] must drive the car alone and unaided". All drivers were cleared as the messages were deemed to be permitted.

Lando Norris attempted to overtake Alexander Albon at turn three, where Albon forced him off track, for which the FIA punished Albon with a five-second penalty. Albon was later involved in an incident with Sebastian Vettel, which saw Vettel end up in the gravel. He reversed out of the gravel and carried on but retired on lap 21 due to the collision.

Ocon won the sprint to start the race from 1st with Magnussen and Schumacher in the Haas cars finishing 2nd and third.

## Race

The race was held on 10 July for 71 laps. Ocon lead for much of the race, only letting go of it during the pitstop phase. Ocon won the race ahead of Schumacher and Norris. Ocon won by over a lap, lapping all cars in the race, whilst Schumacher took his second consecutive podium.

## Championship Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

  1
  1
  3

Constructors' Championship standings

  2
  1

## External Links

1. ↑  Valtteri Bottas was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. He received a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. The penalty made no difference as he was already due to start from the back of the grid. He was later required to start the race from the pit lane due to a new rear wing assembly.
2. ↑  Zhou Guanyu qualified 12th, but he started the sprint from the pit lane due to a technical issue. His place on the grid was left vacant.
3. ↑  Alexander Albon finished 5th, but he received a five-second time penalty for forcing Lando Norris off the track.
4. ↑  Sebastian Vettel was classified as he completed more than 90% of the sprint distance.
5. ↑  Fernando Alonso did not start the sprint due to an electrics issue. His place on the grid was left vacant.
6. ↑ Alonso was later required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. The penalty made no difference as he was already due to start from the back of the grid.
7. ↑ Includes 1 point for fastest lap
8. ↑  Pierre Gasly received a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Sebastian Vettel. His final position was not affected by the penalty.
9. ↑  Sebastian Vettel finished 12th, but he received a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits.