The 2022 Austrian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Rolex Großer Preis von Österreich 2022) was a Formula One motor race held on 10 July 2022 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. It was the second Grand Prix weekend of the season to utilise the Formula One sprint format.
Max Verstappen qualified on pole position and retained the first grid spot by winning the sprint race. Charles Leclerc won the race in spite of late issues with his car, retaking second place in the standings from Sergio Pérez. This race marked Leclerc's third and final win of the 2022 season and Ferrari's first win in Austria since Michael Schumacher won there for the team in 2003. Verstappen finished second, and Lewis Hamilton came in third. The entire race weekend was marred by accusations of poor fan behavior.
Background
The event was held across the weekend of the 8–10 July. It was the eleventh round of the 2022 Formula One World Championship, and the 35th running of the Austrian Grand Prix in a World Championship season.
Championship standings before the race
Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship by 34 points from teammate Sergio Pérez, with Charles Leclerc third, a further 9 points behind. Red Bull Racing led the Constructors' Championship, leading Ferrari by 63 points and Mercedes by 124 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 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 teams and drivers have moved to condemn such behaviour with lifetime bans from attending F1 races in the future thought to be a possible punishment for offenders. The reported harassment received condemnation from many drivers, including Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen. Hamilton called the abuse "disgusting" while Verstappen stated the harassment was "shocking" and should never happen. Vettel has called Formula One to ban spectators who harass other fans from attending races for life.
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 second session took place on 9 July, at 12:30 local time.
Qualifying
Qualifying took place on 8 July and determined the starting order for the sprint.
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 17th down to 20th. 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. Sergio Pérez ran wide on his last lap, with the FIA deleting his lap time after the session (as opposed to during the session, as was the practice for the other time deletions, since they failed to confirm their readings until after Q3 had already started). Despite setting times in Q3, he was reverted to his best legal Q2 lap time, demoting him to 13th.
The third part of qualifying (Q3) was a ten-car shoot-out for pole position. Lewis Hamilton spun on a fast lap, bounced across the gravel and hit the barrier. The red flag was waved and the session timer was paused as Hamilton's car was cleared. Once the session restarted, the second Mercedes of George Russell spun at turn 10 and hit the barrier, causing another red flag. Max Verstappen qualified first, with Charles Leclerc second and Carlos Sainz Jr. third. Pérez initially qualified fourth, but after his lap times were deleted, Russell was promoted into fourth and Esteban Ocon into fifth. This also meant that despite Pierre Gasly's elimination in Q2, he was promoted to tenth.