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

2022 Mexican Grand Prix

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Mercedes’ rivals were quick to highlight the strategic error which might have cost them victory in the Mexican Grand Prix.

Both Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and his opposite number at Ferrari, Mattia Binotto, said Mercedes had slipped up for the second race in a row. The Mercedes drivers started the race on the medium tyre compound and switched to hards, while their nearest rivals used softer tyres for both stints.

Although Lewis Hamilton stayed in touch with Max Verstappen during the opening stint, once Mercedes fitted the hard tyres he began to drop back. “You could hear their drivers were not very happy about the hard tyre and that’s the second weekend in a row that they put that tyre on and it’s cost them a victory,” said Horner. “So I was quite surprised at that.”

Red Bull drew the conclusion during practice that the hard tyre wasn’t well suited for the race. “For us, the soft-medium this morning looked like a quicker race. The medium-hard, the hard, there’s just not as much grip with the tyre. So we were quite surprised that Mercedes went as conservative as they did with a medium-hard strategy.”

Parc ferme, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2022
Gallery: 2022 Mexican Grand Prix in pictures
As the front-runners used all their new sets of softs during practice and qualifying, those who opted for them on Sunday had to run worn rubber. Mercedes were counting on the soft tyre giving up early on, but Verstappen was able to cover 25 laps – more than a third of the race distance. That made it possible for him to complete the race on a set of mediums.

“He controlled the race from the very beginning on those soft tyres, not warming them up too quickly, making sure that there was longevity to them,” said Horner. “Actually, when they came off the car, there was still a lot of life left in them.

“That gave us even more confidence that the medium tyre would be fine for a one-stop. It was again a question not abusing that tyre, which is something that he’s just been masterful at this year.”

Mercedes weren’t the only team who thought a medium was the best tyre to start on. “I think that some of the others were maybe also surprised that a one-stop suddenly was on the books with a soft and medium,” said team principal Toto Wolff.

But after switching Hamilton to hards on lap 29, they did the same for George Russell five laps later. There were still several other drivers on their original sets of medium tyres at this stage, and Russell was keen to stay out and try to switch to a soft for the final stint. The likes of Daniel Ricciardo made that strategy work, but Mercedes were unwilling to deviate from their original plan.

Russell finally fitted soft tyres after a second pit stop to claim the bonus point for fastest lap, with a time over one-and-a-half seconds quicker than anyone else. That must have left him wondering what he could have achieved had he been given that rubber 35 laps earlier.

Ricciardo used his soft tyres to climb to seventh place. He was aided by the fastest stationary pit stop time of the race, McLaren servicing his car in 1.95 seconds. However Charles Leclerc’s pit stop was slightly quicker in terms of the total time from pit entrance to exit.

That meant Ricciardo was the first driver home who finished in a higher place than he started. The top six all came home in the same order they were in at the end of lap one.

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2022 Mexican 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 Mexican 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:

2022 Mexican 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 Mexican Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

RankNo.DriverCarLap timeGapAverage speed (kph)Lap no.
163George RussellMercedes1’20.153193.3171
211Sergio PerezRed Bull1’21.7751.622189.4830
33Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes1’22.0221.869188.9148
41Max VerstappenRed Bull1’22.0461.893188.8536
544Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’22.0621.909188.8132
655Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari1’22.1992.046188.532
724Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’22.2602.107188.3647
810Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Red Bull1’22.2772.124188.3242
918Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes1’22.4632.310187.942
1016Charles LeclercFerrari1’22.6032.450187.5848
1114Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault1’22.8662.713186.9848
1223Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1’22.9142.761186.8748
135Sebastian VettelAston Martin-Mercedes1’23.0862.933186.4945
1431Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1’23.2793.126186.0548
1520Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’23.3003.147186.0149
1677Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’23.3633.210185.8743
174Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1’23.4023.249185.7848
1822Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Red Bull1’23.4033.250185.7848
1947Mick SchumacherHaas-Ferrari1’23.6413.488185.2530
206Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1’23.7093.556185.156

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2022 Mexican Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2022 Mexican Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

RankNo.DriverTeamComplete stop time (s)Gap to best (s)Stop no.Lap no.
116Charles LeclercFerrari22.193128
23Daniel RicciardoMcLaren22.280.087144
331Esteban OconAlpine22.3430.15133
422Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri22.4680.275129
51Max VerstappenRed Bull22.4870.294125
65Sebastian VettelAston Martin22.5340.341138
74Lando NorrisMcLaren22.5850.392131
863George RussellMercedes22.7950.602134
963George RussellMercedes23.1180.925269
1018Lance StrollAston Martin23.1190.926240
1114Fernando AlonsoAlpine23.1590.966140
1223Alexander AlbonWilliams23.1820.989138
1344Lewis HamiltonMercedes23.1941.001129
1455Carlos Sainz JnrFerrari23.4691.276129
1518Lance StrollAston Martin23.5091.316117
1647Mick SchumacherHaas23.6791.486124
1720Kevin MagnussenHaas23.7221.529138
186Nicholas LatifiWilliams23.8261.633123
1977Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo23.8631.67139
206Nicholas LatifiWilliams24.0391.846252
2124Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo24.2182.025145
2211Sergio PerezRed Bull24.8922.699123
2310Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri29.1686.975140

2022 Mexican 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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8 comments on “2022 Mexican Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres”

  1. Ricciardo made up 20s compared to Norris with that medium-soft strategy. If only MB allowed Russell to do the same.

    1. Still not enough for a win… but would have done for an easy second… and opened a huge can of worms at Merc.

    2. Still not enough for a win but good enough for a second, would have opened a huge can of w0rms at Merc. No wonder they refused to do it.

  2. That must have left him wondering what he could have achieved had he been given that rubber 35 laps earlier.

    Isn’t this a bit silly? Like the soft tyre could withstand for 35 laps the kind of punishment it got in a late f-lap attempt.

    1. someone or something
      1st November 2022, 17:59

      Indeed. It wasn’t even an impressive lap by any means. 1.6 seconds faster than Pérez, 1.9 seconds faster than Verstappen – but 40 laps later than Pérez. With a time penalty per lap of fuel of 0.054 seconds, that’s about 2.1 seconds in Russell’s favour just looking at the car’s weight. Then there’s the fact that Pérez’s fastest lap was set on 13 laps old tyres (Russell: 2), compound: medium (Russell: soft, which should be worth another 0.5 seconds without even looking at the tyre age). And there’s the fact that Pérez’s fastest lap was merely a byproduct of his pace in the middle of the race, merely the fastest lap by a tiny margin of a series of lap times in the high 1:21s to low 1:22s. Russel’s lap, by constrast, was a single push lap with the sole purpose of lapping quicker than anyone else.

      The fact that Russell had so many favourable factors on his side, yet only managed to set a comparatively underwhelming lap time does not lend itself to the conclusion that the Mercedes had much more pace in it than the tyre strategy allowed it to show.
      It is, however, quite possible that Russell knew that he only had to drive a clean lap without taking any risks, and therefore deliberately under-drove the car. But that, too, is mere speculation.

  3. I like the colour coded tyre chart, much easier to read than the old one.

  4. From his pitstop till finish line Max drove 43 (= all laps except 2 VSC laps and pitstop lap) in the 1:22 despite aging tires and traffic.
    That is mighty impressive consistency and tire management.

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