2022 Bahrain Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres

2022 Bahrain Grand Prix

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While much has changed in Formula 1 between the last race of 2021 and the start of the new season, one significant factor remained for the season-opening race: Bahrain is a punishing track for rubber.

With two teams fighting for the lead at the front, the drivers pushed each other into fairly aggressive two-stop strategies at first.

Eventually Red Bull took a gamble, and brought second-placed Max Verstappen in for a third stop. This was a classic piece of aggressive strategy by Red Bull, pitting both cars on the same lap to provoke a reaction from Ferrari, who had to bring Carlos Sainz Jnr in the next time around to keep his position safe from Sergio Perez.

But just as that was promising to give us a dramatic run to the flag, Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri caught fire, the Safety Car was summoned, and almost everyone joined the Red Bull driver in fitting another set of soft tyres.

In the first race since the ‘Q3 tyre rule’ was scrapped, almost every driver lined up on the soft tyres at the start. Clearly the disadvantage of losing ground at the start was uppermost in their minds. However from there we saw a wide range of strategies, though Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted their gamble of fitting hard tyres was as worthwhile as “sticking your hand in the toilet.”

Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Bahrain International Circuit, 2022
Gallery: 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix in pictures
Verstappen was convinced he could have taken the fight to the Ferraris with a more aggressive strategy, a view his team principal Christian Horner didn’t share. He had fallen almost five seconds behind race winner Charles Leclerc before making that extra stop for fresh rubber, which rather suggests Horner was right.

The standings before the Safety Car also indicates the depth of Mercedes’ troubles. Lewis Hamilton was almost 40 seconds off the leader when Gasly pulled over. Even factoring the time loss with that switch to hard rubber, it underlines the fact Mercedes are not contenders for victory on pure pace at the moment. So does his fastest race lap behind 1.6 seconds off Leclerc’s on like-for-like rubber.

At least, not on a track like Bahrain. But these cars have only done significant running on two different circuits so far, and Mercedes seemed to find Circuit de Catalunya more to their liking. The competitive order could shift dramatically at Jeddah next weekend.

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2022 Bahrain Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2022 Bahrain Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

Position change

DriverStart positionLap one position changeRace position change
Lewis Hamilton512
George Russell925
Max Verstappen20-17
Sergio Perez4-2-14
Charles Leclerc100
Carlos Sainz Jnr301
Lando Norris13-3-2
Daniel Ricciardo18-24
Esteban Ocon1114
Fernando Alonso8-1-1
Pierre Gasly102
Yuki Tsunoda1648
Lance Stroll1927
Nico Hulkenberg1720
Alexander Albon1431
Nicholas Latifi2024
Valtteri Bottas6-80
Zhou Guanyu15-45
Mick Schumacher12-11
Kevin Magnussen722

2022 Bahrain Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2022 Bahrain Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

RankDriverCarFastest lapGapOn lap
1Charles LeclercFerrari1’34.57051
2Max VerstappenRed Bull1’35.4400.87051
3Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari1’35.7401.17052
4Sergio PerezRed Bull1’36.0891.51952
5Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’36.2281.65853
6George RussellMercedes1’36.3021.73256
7Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’36.5992.02953
8Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’36.6232.05353
9Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’36.6852.11539
10Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault1’36.7332.16344
11Mick SchumacherHaas-Ferrari1’36.9562.38637
12Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1’36.9882.41851
13Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Red Bull1’37.1042.53453
14Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1’37.1102.54053
15Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes1’37.1462.57649
16Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes1’37.2612.69150
17Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Red Bull1’37.3242.75434
18Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1’37.3552.78550
19Nico HulkenbergAston Martin-Mercedes1’38.2013.63149
20Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’38.2513.68151

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2022 Bahrain Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Charles LeclercC3 (15)C3 (16)C2 (15)C3 (11)
Carlos Sainz JnrC3 (14)C3 (19)C2 (11)C3 (13)
Lewis HamiltonC3 (11)C1 (16)C2 (17)C3 (13)
George RussellC3 (15)C1 (18)C2 (12)C3 (12)
Kevin MagnussenC3 (14)C3 (20)C2 (12)C3 (11)
Valtteri BottasC3 (14)C2 (22)C2 (9)C3 (12)
Esteban OconC3 (14)C2 (16)C1 (13)C3 (14)
Yuki TsunodaC3 (15)C2 (14)C3 (15)C3 (13)
Fernando AlonsoC3 (11)C2 (14)C1 (17)C3 (15)
Zhou GuanyuC3 (15)C2 (22)C2 (8)C3 (12)
Mick SchumacherC3 (12)C2 (23)C3 (22)
Lance StrollC3 (18)C3 (20)C2 (7)C3 (12)
Alexander AlbonC3 (13)C2 (22)C2 (11)C3 (11)
Daniel RicciardoC2 (17)C3 (16)C1 (11)C3 (13)
Lando NorrisC2 (24)C1 (17)C3 (4)C3 (12)
Nicholas LatifiC3 (14)C3 (18)C2 (13)C3 (12)
Nico HulkenbergC3 (19)C3 (18)C2 (7)C3 (13)
Sergio PerezC3 (15)C2 (18)C3 (10)C3 (13)
Max VerstappenC3 (14)C3 (16)C2 (13)C3 (11)
Pierre GaslyC3 (14)C2 (18)C1 (12)

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2022 Bahrain Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Sergio PerezRed Bull24.17333
2Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri24.1880.01544
3Esteban OconAlpine24.2330.06043
4Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari24.2870.11444
5Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri24.3500.17729
6Max VerstappenRed Bull24.4020.22943
7Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari24.4380.26533
8Nicholas LatifiWilliams24.4570.28414
9Fernando AlonsoAlpine24.5080.33542
10Charles LeclercFerrari24.5270.35431
11Lando NorrisMcLaren24.5680.39524
12Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri24.5750.40214
13Charles LeclercFerrari24.6130.44046
14Nicholas LatifiWilliams24.6580.48545
15Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari24.6660.49314
16Nicholas LatifiWilliams24.7780.60532
17Alexander AlbonWilliams24.8740.70113
18Daniel RicciardoMcLaren24.8850.71233
19Max VerstappenRed Bull24.8970.72414
20Fernando AlonsoAlpine24.9090.73625
21Daniel RicciardoMcLaren24.9150.74217
22Max VerstappenRed Bull24.9370.76430
23Sergio PerezRed Bull24.9470.77443
24Lando NorrisMcLaren24.9750.80245
25Charles LeclercFerrari25.0120.83915
26Lance StrollAston Martin25.0390.86645
27Sergio PerezRed Bull25.0460.87315
28Alexander AlbonWilliams25.0550.88246
29Daniel RicciardoMcLaren25.1390.96644
30Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo25.1560.98336
31Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo25.1881.01545
32Lewis HamiltonMercedes25.2011.02811
33Mick SchumacherHaas25.2141.04112
34Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo25.2911.11837
35George RussellMercedes25.3341.16133
36Fernando AlonsoAlpine25.3651.19211
37Esteban OconAlpine25.3931.22030
38Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo25.4281.25515
39Kevin MagnussenHaas25.4781.30514
40Alexander AlbonWilliams25.5701.39735
41George RussellMercedes25.5741.40145
42Lewis HamiltonMercedes25.5791.40644
43Mick SchumacherHaas25.5861.41335
44Lance StrollAston Martin25.7391.56618
45Nico HulkenbergAston Martin25.7481.57544
46Lewis HamiltonMercedes25.7961.62327
47Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri25.8751.70232
48Kevin MagnussenHaas25.8761.70334
49George RussellMercedes25.8881.71515
50Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo25.8931.72014
51Kevin MagnussenHaas26.0511.87846
52Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri26.0951.92215
53Nico HulkenbergAston Martin26.7122.53937
54Lance StrollAston Martin26.9572.78438
55Nico HulkenbergAston Martin27.3653.19219
56Lando NorrisMcLaren27.3673.19441
57Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo28.6474.47445
58Esteban OconAlpine30.4846.31114

2022 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “2022 Bahrain Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres”

  1. Saturday I was watching on sky, as soon as Croft and Brundle started bemoanibg the rightful and obvious end of the “bad” q2 tyre rule I switched to Edwards and Palmer.
    Croft and Brundle are still “doing their thing” you know when they try to change something because they don’t like it, regardless of logic. I hope they enjoyed the strategy this Sunday. Almost everyone started on softs bet they didn’t predict that and then some went in completely opposite directions. What a genuine race. Drs is still there but we had a proper race.

    1. Started with Edwards and Palmer on FP1 and never looked back. Sam Collins’ pitlane reporting was great, too.

      Brundle I can deal with, as a figure of authority on racing, but Crofty’s awful takes and constant yelling to feign excitement is enough to never go back.

  2. I just saw lap 45. Max did a 95.7 and Charles a 97.4. At 1.7s/ lap quicker and Max needing to cover 26 seconds on 12 laps, I think Max could have won. Don’t understand how Ferrari reached the conclusion that they need not cover. Something for the team to analyse and fix before the next race.

    Also, been a while since we saw such a huge undercut benefit. All drivers were comfortably 2-2.5s a lap faster than the laps prior to pitstop. And that too without pushing on the out lap (as Max said). Previously, a gap of 2 to 2.5s to the car behind would be considered sufficient to ward off an undercut. But i think drivers now need to be at least 4-5s ahead in order to prevent undercut.

    1. In Bahrain the undercut has always been very powerful to the effect of 3 or 4 seconds.

      1. Hmm, just checked last year’s interactive graphs, the difference seemed lesser to the tune of 1-2 seconds.

        Another thing I noticed was that last year, as the stint progressed, the lap times increased slowly (the reducing car weight offsetting the wearing tyres to an appreciable extent. This year, the lap times are increasing much faster. That is also making the undercut more powerful. Now, this could be a temporary phenomenon as teams understand the tyres better. I think whichever teams get on top of this sooner could have serious race pace advantage.

  3. Kimberley Barrass
    21st March 2022, 7:46

    Three observations:
    Merc PU is the worst! (I don’t know why – or whether this is redeemable in the current engine freeze)
    Mercedes package is bad, but even if the handling element is fixed, their maximizable pace looks off Ferrari and red bull due to simple speed limitations.
    There is something about the cars (almost all of them) handling of low(er) speed corners that makes there general speed feel more visceral and the fact that the drivers seem to have to drive them now… – I am not sure if the race was actually a good one yet.. But it was certainly enjoyable to watch from start to finish

    1. Russell already looking faster than Hamilton on race pace, just shows that the talk of him being Mr Saturday was wrong.

  4. Is there any way to get the stopped time from the overall pitstop time?

  5. Mercedes and Mercedes powered cars are doomed for next 4-5 years.I cn’t see them making any inroads for a deficit of 1 -1.5s.

    1. Kimberley Barrass
      22nd March 2022, 23:07

      So – There are still elements of the engine that aren’t locked in until September – energy recovery systems mainly – so I hold out some hope that a certain amount is recoverable – but I agree with this totally! – Even if the Mercedes team absolutely nail their handling – they might potentially be able to maximise their performance with the aggressive packaging, but I can’t see how they are never not third fastest, and realistically as other teams develop into the engine capability – probably not even third.

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