Mark Webber nearly scored the perfect result of a win from pole position with fastest lap and every lap led. But Lewis Hamilton snatched the fastest lap late in the race for only the fifth time in his career.
Read on for more stats and facts from the Spanish Grand Prix.
It was the first time Webber led a race from start to finish. Ayrton Senna holds the record for winning the most races in this fashion – he claimed 19 of his 41 victories that way.
Of the current drivers, Michael Schumacher has done it 11 times and Fernando Alonso twice. Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button each have one lights-to-flag win to their names.
It was the fifth consecutive pole position for a Red Bull driver and Mark Webber’s third of his career. That gives him as many as Jose Froilan Gonzalez, Tony Brooks, Dan Gurney, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Elio de Angelis and Teo Fabi.
With Sebastian Vettel alongside him this was the team’s third front row lock-out – al of which have been achieved this year.
Mark Webber scored the third pole position and third win of his career. He’s now won as many races as Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins, Phil Hill, Didier Pironi, Thierry Boutsen, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Johnny Herbert and Giancarlo Fisichella.
Virgin got both their cars to the finish for the first time – something Sauber are yet to achieve.
Timo Glock and Kamui Kobayashi finished races for the first time in 2010 – meaning every driver has finished at least once this year.
Jenson Button finished in the points for the tenth race in a row.
For the first time in 12 races there wasn’t a Mercedes-powered car on the podium – after they’d filled the top three in China.
This was the 40th world championship Spanish Grand Prix. The first was held at Pedralbes in 1951, but after a second race there in 1954 F1 didn’t return to the country until 1968.
The event alternated between Jarama and Montjuch Park until 1975, when Montjuich was dropped following a crash which killed five spectators. In 1980 the race was temporarily stripped of its world championship status due to the FISA-FOCA war. The last race at Jarama, in 1981, was won by Gilles Villeneuve, the Ferrari driver holding up a train of cars for most of the race.
F1 returned to Spain in 1986 and has had a race their every year since. After five years at Jerez the Grand Prix moved to the new Circuit de Catalunya in 1991, which held the race for the 20th time this year.
Laps led in 2010
Only one driver added to his tally in Barcelona. Red Bull have led 180 of the 285 laps so far this year.
| Driver | Laps led |
| Sebastian Vettel | 110 |
| Jenson Button | 71 |
| Mark Webber | 70 |
| Fernando Alonso | 18 |
| Nico Rosberg | 16 |
Podiums in 2010
Surprisingly, after five races no driver has made it onto the podium more than twice:
| Driver | Podiums |
| Felipe Massa | 2 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 2 |
| Jenson Button | 2 |
| Nico Rosberg | 2 |
| Fernando Alonso | 2 |
| Mark Webber | 2 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 2 |
| Robert Kubica | 1 |
2010 average grid
Here’s the grid based on every F1 driver’s average starting position:
| Pos | Driver | Position |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | 1.6 |
| 2 | Mark Webber | 2.4 |
| 3 | Nico Rosberg | 5.0 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | 6.4 |
| 5 | Michael Schumacher | 7.4 |
| 6 | Jenson Button | 7.8 |
| 7 | Robert Kubica | 7.8 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | 8.8 |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | 8.8 |
| 10 | Adrian Sutil | 9.0 |
| 11 | Rubens Barrichello | 11.0 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | 12.4 |
| 13 | Kamui Kobayashi | 13.2 |
| 14 | Sebastien Buemi | 13.6 |
| 15 | Pedro de la Rosa | 13.8 |
| 16 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 14.0 |
| 17 | Vitaly Petrov | 14.8 |
| 18 | Jaime Alguersuari | 15.4 |
| 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | 19.2 |
| 20 | Timo Glock | 19.2 |
| 21 | Jarno Trulli | 19.4 |
| 22 | Lucas di Grassi | 22.4 |
| 23 | Bruno Senna | 23.2 |
| 24 | Karun Chandhok | 23.4 |
2010 average race
This is the average finishing position of each driver in 2010:
| Pos | Driver | Position |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | 3.50 |
| 2 | Jenson Button | 4.40 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | 4.80 |
| 4 | Felipe Massa | 5.40 |
| 5 | Mark Webber | 5.60 |
| 6 | Nico Rosberg | 5.80 |
| 7 | Robert Kubica | 6.00 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | 6.20 |
| 9 | Michael Schumacher | 7.50 |
| 10 | Adrian Sutil | 8.75 |
| 11 | Vitaly Petrov | 9.00 |
| 12 | Rubens Barrichello | 10.20 |
| 13 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 10.33 |
| 14 | Jaime Alguersuari | 11.20 |
| 15 | Pedro de la Rosa | 12.00 |
| 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | 12.00 |
| 17 | Sebastien Buemi | 13.50 |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | 13.75 |
| 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | 14.00 |
| 20 | Karun Chandhok | 15.33 |
| 21 | Bruno Senna | 16.00 |
| 22 | Lucas di Grassi | 16.50 |
| 23 | Jarno Trulli | 17.00 |
| 24 | Timo Glock | 18.00 |
Spotted any interesting stats and facts from the Spanish Grand Prix? Post them in the comments.
2010 Spanish Grand Prix
F1 Novice
11th May 2010, 9:45
Hmmmmmmmmm did Hamilton need fastest lap that late ?
Did pushing the tyres that late contribute to the failure ?
On the other hand perhaps he wanted to push Webber to see if he could make his car fail like Vettel’s had ?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
11th May 2010, 10:00
Hamilton was responding to Alonso, who’d put in some quick sectors shortly before. After that Alonso backed off and so did Hamilton – he did a few slower laps before the failure.
No word on what caused the failure yet so it’s too soon to say whether Hamilton played a role in it. More here:
Hamilton splits Red Bulls before wheel failure (Spanish GP team-by-team)
MigueLP
11th May 2010, 10:36
web was more than capable of doing the fastest lap if he wasnt saving his car so the title of this arcticle is pure patriotism not logics i do wanted to see someone beat redbull that wasnt the case on any circuntances
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
11th May 2010, 10:49
Webber drove a great race and the headline calls attention to that. He was on course to do the “Chelem”, as it’s sometimes called, but Hamilton’s fastest lap stopped it.
This is an article on interesting stats and facts from Spain and that was by far the strongest angle, so it forms the headline. ‘Patriotism’ has nothing to do with it.
PlushPile
11th May 2010, 12:08
Have you been reading this site long?
Keith has never shown any of the bias that many of his compatriotes do…
PJA
11th May 2010, 13:54
How is the headline wrong in anyway? Regardless of who was capable of setting the fastest lap the fact remains that Hamilton got the fastest lap and so stopped Webber from achieving the perfect result.
Adam Milleneuve
11th May 2010, 10:01
Hamilton’s tyre failure is said to be due to debris or stones getting wedged between the tyre and the rim. He was very unlucky after such a great drive.
MigueLP
11th May 2010, 10:38
clearly web wasnt pushing it was impossible for lewis to catch him
Nefer
11th May 2010, 14:20
MigueLP, I think you’re having an argument with yourself.
Hamilton very unlucky… feeling for him after that great drive. Webber… out classed everyone this weekend, no doubt about it.
So how about this for another stat… 2nd most boring race this season?
I reckon Monaco will be full of surprises to keep us entertained though. Really looking forward to it.
Mike
12th May 2010, 3:41
I don’t think it was that boring, If you look at the stats on paper yes of course it was boring. But there was always something happening, just because Button didn’t pass Schumacher doesn’t mean it isn’t good to watch him try.
In Bahrain it was boring because there were long periods where nothing happened. But last race, this was not the case.
KateDerby
11th May 2010, 9:59
Hamilton was around 20 seconds behind Webber with 4 laps to go so if he was trying to push Webber into a mistake it was a long shot to say the least!
emil
11th May 2010, 10:57
whrong 12 seconds was behind
KateDerby
11th May 2010, 11:57
I did say about 20, it had been 25 seconds plus, clearly Webber was backing off, saving the engine and tyres.
Patrickl
11th May 2010, 12:22
The biggest gap was about 15 seconds and for the last few laps it was around 12 seconds.
After lap 62 (with 4 laps to go as you say) the gap was 12.118.
Maybe you are confusing Alonso for Hamilton? Alonso was indeed between 20 and 25 seconds behind Webber.
Mike
12th May 2010, 3:49
12 seconds in 4 laps??
Even if KateDerby got it wrong the point he/she makes is correct, Unless Webber had a car problem or had decided to drive the HRT instead, 3 seconds a lap is too much even for Hamilton.
And then he’d still have to pass him…
PatrickL
12th May 2010, 11:24
No one said that Hamilton was pushing Webber, so I only responded to the claim that she repeated. Which was about the gap.
The times just go down because they burn fuel. Alonso set a fastest lap and Hamilton countered. Webber picked up some speed to. After that they all slowed down.
Bleu
11th May 2010, 10:14
Thanks to new point system, points-wise this was Michael Schumacher’s best ever race.
Todfod
11th May 2010, 10:16
I think its gonna stay that way. LOL
graigchq
11th May 2010, 11:28
lol – never thought about it like that.. most points scored in a single race by Schumacher ever.. and he still lost!
David A
11th May 2010, 17:09
Same with Hamilton at China and Massa at Bahrain I guess.
GeeMac
11th May 2010, 10:25
“It was the first time Webber led a race from start to finish. Ayrton Senna holds the record for winning the most races in this fashion – he claimed 19 of his 41 victories that way.”
That really surprised me. I assumed that MSC would have held this record due to the manner in which he and Ferrari dominated F1 between 2000 and 2004…
MigueLP
11th May 2010, 10:41
the only ferrari great years were 2001 2002 and 2004 the rest 2000 and 03 were very competitive years
DanThorn
11th May 2010, 11:23
Dont forget that a lot of Schumacher’s wins came during the refuelling era when drivers usually relinquished the lead during their pit stops. All of Senna’s wins came during an era when refuelling was banned and it was more common for a driver to lead every lap of a race.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
11th May 2010, 11:32
Very true.
Tim
11th May 2010, 12:05
In the Senna era there was also a greater gap between the cars, which meant the field tended to spread out further, faster than in the refuelling era.
Mike
12th May 2010, 6:59
Wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You mean from a historical perspective its really rather silly for people to be upset that cars like the Lotus that are a WHOLE 3 SECONDS!!! off the pace?!?!?!
….. The teams won’t like this revelation one bit!
Ned Flanders
11th May 2010, 11:05
Rosberg and Schumacher the 3rd and 5th best qualifiers of the season so far? That doesn’t seem right- although I suppose the data is skewed by the crazy Malaysian GP qualifying.
Here’s my stat. Two problems: it has nothing to do with the GP, and it’s more a prediction of a future stat. Anyway… assume as seems likely Sebastian Vettel or Mark Webber win the world title this season. That’ll mean the championship has been won by 5 different drivers in five seasons (in order: Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Button and ?). When was the last time this happened? Early 80’s perhaps?
DanThorn
11th May 2010, 11:25
I can think of the run between 76 and 82: Hunt, Lauda, Andretti, Scheckter, Jones, Piquet and Rosberg for 6 different champions in a row.
DanThorn
11th May 2010, 11:25
Sorry, make that 7!
Ben
11th May 2010, 11:29
Better than that – 5 drivers in 5 seasons from 5 teams
Last I can find is 76-82 where there was 7 drivers in 7 years. Another run of 7 in 64-70.
But never a triple-5
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
11th May 2010, 11:35
True, but Hamilton also qualified poorly in Australia.
TommyC
11th May 2010, 12:01
as i posted elsewhere, it’s the first race this year where red bull hasn’t stuffed up webber’s pitstop. unfortunately, it was vettel’s turn.
PlushPile
11th May 2010, 12:11
Yeah, whoever they’ve got on the right front needs to be shot
sam
11th May 2010, 12:02
the first race where jonathan legard didn’t get the inside and outside of the corner the wrong way round while commentating on an overtake :D
Ned Flanders
11th May 2010, 12:18
Probably because there were no overtakes!
Ned Flanders
11th May 2010, 12:23
This is more of an observation that a stat, but for the second consecutive year, a driver in 4th place during the Spanish GP developed a problem late in the race which cost him a lot of time.
But the final outcomes were very different; last year, Massa fell from 4th to 6th, whereas this season Vettel held position and actually gained a place to take 3rd
Beninlux
11th May 2010, 12:34
Isn’t that the first race of this season where Hamilton had no on-track overtakes (excluding back markers)?
sato113
11th May 2010, 12:37
could count HAM’s pass on VET into turn 1?
'
11th May 2010, 20:25
I don’t remember any in Bahrain…
sato113
11th May 2010, 12:36
‘there wasn’t a Mercedes-powered car on the podium’
lol, surely you mean mercedes powered driver? getting a car on the podium i’d like to see!
also, if the circuit de catalunya is celebrating it’s 20th race in 2010, then surely it’s first race would have been 1990, not 1991?
great stats, love this page after a gp!
TommyC
11th May 2010, 13:15
inclusive counting though. 20 is right.
sumedh
11th May 2010, 13:00
Interestingly, the last time there was no Mercedez powered driver on the podium (Nurburgring 09), it was Webber who won that time too.
That podium also consisted of 2 Red Bull and 1 Ferrari driver (Webber, Vettel and Massa), this one also had the same colors (Webber, Alonso and Vettel), just that 2nd and 3rd places were swapped.
Paul Gilbert
11th May 2010, 13:21
10th consecutive Spanish GP to be won from pole – does any other circuit have a longer such streak?
GeoCucc
11th May 2010, 17:03
No. The 2nd longest consecutive win from pole was in the Hockenheimring. 7 races between 1988 – 1994.
:)
Icthyes
11th May 2010, 13:31
Scraping the barrel, it’s the first victory Webber has achieved where he hasn’t had to fight Barrichello for it!
Andrew White
11th May 2010, 13:35
After 5 races, no driver has more than 2 podiums. 7 drivers have had two while Kubica got the other one.
The 8 drivers who finished between 3rd and 10th were all from different teams. The same can also be said of the 9 drivers between 10th and 18th.
Alonso has never been outside the top 3 in the WDC.
Kovalainen’s problem before the start again denied us a full starting grid of 24 cars. Could it first be seen on the tight streets of Monaco?
SonyJunkie
11th May 2010, 14:51
Both of Buttons podiums were on the top step!! Seems it’s either First or some other insignificant position!!! :)
Grosjean's rubble
11th May 2010, 14:19
‘Podums in 2010…’
Paul Gilbert
11th May 2010, 17:25
I think Rubens Barrichello is another current driver who has led an entire race – I believe he did it in Europe 2002.
Paul Gilbert
11th May 2010, 17:26
Scrap that – he didn’t start on pole.
GB2009
12th May 2010, 6:01
I’ve got one that I can’t 100% confirm, but I am fairly sure it is correct.
The 2010 Spanish GP was THE FIRST time Mark Webber was leading a GP at the end of Lap 1!
PatrickL
12th May 2010, 11:21
Didn’t Webber get ahead of Vettel during lap 1 of the Chinese GP?
Kate
12th May 2010, 18:36
Alonso was ahead – though of course only because he jumped the start
I think GB2009 is right actually, off teh topic of my head.
Kate
12th May 2010, 18:37
Really can’t type – meant to say off the top of my head!