Verstappen is the fourth driver to take back-to-back wins at Circuit Paul Ricard, Alonso becomes the driver to have completed the most racing laps and Ricciardo scores at consecutive races for the first time in almost a year. Here’s a statistic from every driver’s 2022 French Grand Prix weekend!
🇳🇱 Max Verstappen
On the race weekend at which Max Verstappen overtook Mark Webber as the driver to have made the most Grand Prix starts with Red Bull, Max Verstappen took his 27th victory with the team at the 2022 French Grand Prix. With his first win since the Canadian Grand Prix, Verstappen equalled Jackie Stewart for eighth in the all-time F1 win list.
Verstappen is the fourth driver to take back-to-back wins at Circuit Paul Ricard, after Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Lewis Hamilton. This was the first time that the driver starting second on the grid at Circuit Paul Ricard has won since Nigel Mansell did so in 1986.
🇲🇽 Sergio Perez
After recording his best French Grand Prix qualifying result with third place, Sergio Perez finished fourth. This was the first time Perez has finished in a worse position than where he started since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
🇬🇧 Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton became the sixth driver to have started 300 races at the 2022 French Grand Prix. On Saturday, Hamilton equalled his best qualifying result of the season with fourth place. This was the first time that Hamilton has not qualified on the front row at Circuit Paul Ricard. With second place in the race, Hamilton recorded his best result of the season to date. This was his fifth podium in 2022. Hamilton continues his record of never finishing outside of the top two at Circuit Paul Ricard.
🇬🇧 George Russell
With third place, George Russell recorded his fourth podium – and fourth third place finish – of the season. Russell has finished in the top five at every race he has finished so far this year. Russell is the 31st different driver to finish on the podium at Circuit Paul Ricard.
🇲🇨 Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc secured pole position for the 2022 French Grand Prix. This was his seventh pole of the 2022 season; his first since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Recording his 16th pole with Ferrari, Leclerc moves ahead of Felipe Massa to third in the list of most poles with the team. Only Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda are now ahead of Leclerc.
Crashing out while leading, Leclerc recorded his third retirement of the year. This is the third time in the last seven races that Leclerc has retired whilst leading the race. Leclerc became the first polesitter at Circuit Paul Ricard who failed to win since the last Ferrari driver to take pole at the track – Nigel Mansell in 1990. He is only the third driver to retire having taken pole at the circuit. The other was Ayrton Senna in 1986.
🇪🇸 Carlos Sainz
With a back of the grid penalty, Carlos Sainz did not set a competitive time in Q3. Qualifying ninth, he became the first Ferrari driver to qualify outside of the top eight at Circuit Paul Ricard since Stefan Johansson qualified tenth in 1986.
Sainz gained 14 places on his way to fifth place in the 2022 French Grand Prix. It’s the most positions he has gained in a race since gaining 17 in the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. This was the first time Sainz has finished in the top five at the French Grand Prix, as well as the first time he has gained positions at the event.
🇦🇺 Daniel Ricciardo
Qualifying in 11th place, Daniel Ricciardo became the first McLaren driver to qualify outside of the top ten at the French Grand Prix since 2018, when both cars were out in Q1. Ricciardo has not reached Q3 at any of the last three races. The last time he failed to reach Q3 at three events in a row was when he was at Toro Rosso, at the 2013 Korean, Japanese and Indian Grands Prix.
Ricciardo finished in ninth place for a second consecutive race. This was the first time he has scored at two races in a row since the 2021 Italian and Russian Grands Prix.
🇬🇧 Lando Norris
Lando Norris qualified fifth for the French Grand Prix, recording his fourth top five qualification of the 2022 season. Norris finished seventh for a second consecutive race. With both Norris and Daniel Ricciardo scoring, this was the third consecutive French Grand Prix in which McLaren have scored with both cars. However, this is only the second time in the last ten races at Circuit Paul Ricard that no McLaren driver has finished in the top six.
🇪🇸 Fernando Alonso
With sixth place, Fernando Alonso scored for the seventh race in a row. It’s the first time he’s scored at seven consecutive races since the eight races between the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix and the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix. It’s the tenth time in his career that he has scored at seven or more consecutive races.
On the fourth lap of the race, Alonso overtook Kimi Raikkonen as the driver to have completed the most Grand Prix laps in Formula 1 history.
🇫🇷 Esteban Ocon
For the third time in his three French Grand Prix appearances, Esteban Ocon was eliminated in Q2. Ocon gained places on Sunday to finish eighth, recording points at his home race for the first time in his career.
🇫🇷 Pierre Gasly
Qualifying in 16th, Pierre Gasly recorded his fourth Q1 exit of the season. Gasly has missed out on Q3 at all of the last four races. This is his longest run of non-Q3 appearances since the four races between the 2019 Belgian and Russian Grands Prix.
🇯🇵 Yuki Tsunoda
With eighth place, Yuki Tsunoda equalled his best qualifying result of the year. He last qualified eighth at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. This was the eighth top eight qualification of his career. Things didn’t go so well on Sunday. Tsunoda was the first driver to retire from the French Grand Prix. He recorded his third non finish of the year.
🇩🇪 Sebastian Vettel
Finishing in 11th place, just behind his team-mate, Sebastian Vettel failed to score at the French Grand Prix for the first time since its return to the calendar.
🇨🇦 Lance Stroll
Lance Stroll was eliminated in Q1 for a seventh consecutive race. He remains yet to make it out of Q1 at the French Grand Prix. In the race, Stroll scored for the fourth time this season. He is yet to finish above tenth place in 2022. His latest point saw him overtake Alex Albon in the standings.
🇹🇭 Alex Albon
Alex Albon will made his 50th Grand Prix start. He finished 13th for the third time this year.
🇨🇦 Nicholas Latifi
Nicholas Latifi qualified in last place for the third time this year. This was the third time in the last four races at Circuit Paul Ricard that a Williams driver has qualified in last place. Latifi retired for a second consecutive race. This is the first time he has recorded successive retirements since the 2021 Bahrain and Emilia Romagna Grands Prix.
🇫🇮 Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Bottas failed to reach Q3 at the French Grand Prix for the first time in his career. He also left the track without scoring a point for the first time.
🇨🇳 Zhou Guanyu
Zhou Guanyu qualified in 18th place, recording his second consecutive Q1 exit. This was the first time he has recorded consecutive Q1 exits in his F1 career. On Sunday, Zhou recorded the fifth retirement of his career. This was his fifth retirement in the last eight races. This was the former Sauber team’s first DNF at Circuit Paul Ricard.
🇩🇪 Mick Schumacher
After having a lap time deleted in Q1, Mick Schumacher qualified on the back row for the third time in the last five races. With Schumacher finishing 15th and Kevin Magnussen retiring, this was the first time that Haas have failed to score since the Canadian Grand Prix. With both Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel on the grid, this was the 850th race to feature a German driver on the grid.
🇩🇰 Kevin Magnussen
Kevin Magnussen reached Q3 for a second consecutive race. This was the first time he has qualified in the top ten at consecutive races since the start of the season. In the race, Magnussen failed to finish for the fourth time in the last eight races.
