The 2022 Dutch Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2022) was a Formula One motor race held on 4 September 2022 at Circuit Zandvoort in Zandvoort, Netherlands. The race was won by defending winner Max Verstappen.

The race ran over a distance of 72 laps and was the 34th overall running of the Dutch Grand Prix and the 32nd time the event has been held as part of the Formula One World Championship, as well as the 32nd World Championship race held at Circuit Zandvoort.

Background The event was held across the weekend of the 2–4 September. It was the fifteenth round of the 2022 Formula One World Championship.

Championship standings before the race Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship by 93 points from teammate Sergio Pérez, with Charles Leclerc third, a further 5 points behind. Red Bull Racing team led the Constructors' Championship, leading Ferrari by 118 points and Mercedes by 159 points.

Entrants

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

Tyre choices

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C1, C2, and C3 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

Track changes The second DRS activation point was moved further back, being positioned after turn 13. As a result, the second DRS detection point was moved further back, being established after turn 12.

Practice There were three practice sessions. The first two were held on 2 September. The first practice started at 12:30 local time (UTC+02:00) and ended with George Russell fastest, followed by Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz Jr. The second practice session was scheduled to held on 16:00, but was delayed to 16:15 due to two red flag periods during qualifying for the Formula 2 support race. Charles Leclerc was fastest, ahead of Sainz and Hamilton. The third practice session took place on 3 September, starting on 12:00 local time. Leclerc was fastest in the session, followed by Russell and Verstappen.

Qualifying Qualifying took place on 3 September, starting at 15:00 local time.

Qualifying classification DriverConstructorQ1Q2Q311 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-RBPT1:11.3171:10.9271:10.3421 216 Charles LeclercFerrari1:11.4431:10.9881:10.3632355 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1:11.7671:10.8141:10.4343444 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:11.3311:11.0751:10.6484511 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-RBPT1:11.6411:11.3141:11.0775663 George RussellMercedes1:11.5611:10.8241:11.147674 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1:11.5561:11.1161:11.1747847Haas-Ferrari1:11.7411:11.4201:11.4428922 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-RBPT1:11.4271:11.4281:12.55691018 Lance StrollAston Martin Aramco-Mercedes1:11.5681:11.416No time101110 Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-RBPT1:11.7051:11.512N/A111231 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1:11.7481:11.605N/A121314 Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault1:11.6671:11.613N/A131424 Zhou Guanyu1:11.8261:11.704N/A141523 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1:11.6951:11.802N/A151677 Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1:11.961N/AN/A16173 Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes1:12.081N/AN/A171820 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1:12.319N/AN/A18195 Sebastian Vettel1:12.391N/AN/A19206 Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1:13.353N/AN/A20107% time: 1:16.309Source:

Race Race report The race took place on 4 September, starting at 15:00 CEST, and lasting 72 laps. Verstappen lead away from pole, with Leclerc, Sainz and Hamilton behind. Kevin Magnussen scraped the barriers on lap 2, demoting him to the back of the field. On lap 18, Carlos Sainz Jr. had a slow pit stop as his tyres were not ready; the mechanics also misplaced the spare wheel gun in an unsafe position which Pérez ran over. The slow pitstop demoted Sainz to eleventh. On lap 45, Yuki Tsunoda's AlphaTauri pulled over with an issue on the front-left tyre. Tsunoda was told to continue and came in a lap later, for a change of tyres and to tighten his seatbelt, which he had loosened as he prepared to abandon his car. On lap 47, Tsunoda retired with a differential issue. This brought out a virtual safety car, allowing Verstappen to make a pit stop to keep the lead ahead of the two Mercedes. On lap 55, Valtteri Bottas retired with an engine issue, bringing out a full safety car. Hamilton stayed out, while Verstappen and Russell pitted for softs. Verstappen overtook Hamilton at the restart almost immediately, while Sainz received a five-second penalty for an unsafe release during his pit stop. After Russell made a split-second decision to pit again for faster softs, he overtook Hamilton, who fell to fourth after being overtaken by Leclerc as well. The final standings saw Verstappen in first place, winning the 30th race in his career and the fourth race in a row, ahead of Russell in second and Leclerc in third. Sainz’s penalty demoted him from fifth to eighth. The race was viewed as Hamilton’s best chance of victory, but because of the bad strategy call, he didn’t even finish on the podium.

Post race Following the race, a conspiracy theory emerged accusing Red Bull Racing strategist Hannah Schmitz of conspiring with sister team AlphaTauri to ensure a favourable result for Verstappen, after questioning the nature of Tsunoda's retirement on lap 47 which helped Verstappen take a pit stop with a reduced time loss, due to the virtual safety car. This followed the post-race comments of Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff who openly admitted to being suspicious about the circumstances of Tsunoda's retirement saying he was left "speechless" by the incident and that he may have had inspected the incident more closely had his driver Lewis Hamilton been a realistic contender to win the drivers championship. AlphaTauri responded to the accusations, stating Tsunoda's car had a genuine problem the team was initially not aware of. Media sources also criticised the conspiracy theories surrounding Tsunoda's retirement. The incident was looked into by race stewards, whose only action was to reprimand Tsunoda for having his belts undone.

Race classification DriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredPoints11 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-RBPT721:36:42.773126263 George RussellMercedes72 +4.071618316 Charles LeclercFerrari72 +10.929215444 Lewis HamiltonMercedes72 +13.016412511 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-RBPT72 +18.168510614 Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault72 +18.75413874 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes72 +19.30676855 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari72 +20.91634931 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault72 +21.1171221018 Lance Stroll72 +22.4591011110 Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-RBPT72 +27.00911 1223 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes72 +30.39015 1347Haas-Ferrari72 +32.9958145 Sebastian Vettel72 +36.00719 1520 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari72 +36.869181624 Zhou Guanyu72 +37.32014173 Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes72 +37.76417186 Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes71 +1 lap20 77 Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari53Engine16 22 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-RBPT43 Differential9Fastest lap: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing-RBPT) – 1:13.652 (lap 62)Source: Notes – Includes one point for fastest lap. – Carlos Sainz Jr. finished fifth, but he received a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release. – Sebastian Vettel finished 13th, but he received a five-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points1 Max Verstappen310 12 Charles Leclerc201 13 Sergio Pérez201 14 George Russell188 15 Carlos Sainz Jr.175Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points1 Red Bull Racing-RBPT5112 Ferrari3763 Mercedes3464 Alpine-Renault1255 McLaren-Mercedes101Source:

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also 2022 Zandvoort Formula 2 round 2022 Zandvoort Formula 3 round

References

External links