Sebastian Vettel led Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean home in the Bahrain Grand Prix, recreating the same podium we saw at this race last year (pictured).
This is only the third time in Formula One history the same race has had a repeat podium in consecutive years. It last happened in the 1998 and 1999 Spanish Grands Prix, won by Mika Hakkinen with David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher second and third.
The 1964 and 1965 British Grands Prix also had the same podium, with Jim Clark winning ahead of Graham Hill and John Surtees. Remarkably the same trio were also on the podium in 1963 – Clark won but Surtees beat Hill to second on that occasion.
Vettel’s second win in the Bahrain Grand Prix was his 28th career victory. The next drivers in front of him on the all-time winners list are Nigel Mansell and Fernando Alonso, with 31.
It was the 36th win for Red Bull, meaning they are now on their own in fifth place in the list of most successful F1 teams. That’s a remarkable achievement given last Friday marked four years since their first F1 victory:
| Position | Team | Wins | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ferrari | 220 | 25.7% |
| 2 | McLaren | 182 | 25.0% |
| 3 | Williams | 114 | 19.1% |
| 4 | Lotus | 81 | 14.6% |
| 5 | Red Bull | 36 | 24.0% |
Vettel scored his 17th fastest lap, giving him as many as Rubens Barrichello. He is also the only driver to have led every race so far this year.
Nico Rosberg scored the second pole position of his career, giving him as many as Stuart Lewis-Evans, Jo Siffert, John Watson, Gilles Villeneuve, Michele Alboreto, Jean Alesi and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
It was the first time Mercedes have scored back-to-back pole positions since Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio did so in the 1955 British and Italian Grands Prix. Mercedes’ 11th pole position gives them as many as Cooper and BRM.
Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber marked their 200th grand prix starts in Bahrain (Ferrari celebrated Alonso’s 200th participation two races ago). It was also the 150th race start for Red Bull.
Paul di Resta led an F1 race for the second time in his career – the previous occasion was this race last year.
Red Bull’s head of trackside electronics Gill Jones was not the first woman to stand on the podium at an F1 race representing a team. It’s happened on at least one other occasion.
Virginia Williams, who passed away last month, received the trophy for Williams at the 1986 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, when Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet finished first and second. This was her husband Frank Williams’s first appearance at a race after bring paralysed in a road accident earlier that year.
Finally, Kimi Raikkonen finished in the points for the 21st consecutive race, meaning he needs three more to equal Michael Schumacher’s record.
After Raikkonen the driver with the next-longest streak of consecutive points scores was Felipe Massa, on 13, but that ended with his 15th-place finished yesterday. Next up is Vettel on 11. Lotus remain the only team to have both drivers finish in the points in every race so far this year.
Spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Bahrain Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
2013 Bahrain Grand Prix
- 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix fans’ video gallery
- Vettel wins Bahrain Driver of the Weekend poll
- Bahrain was an “aberration”, says Vergne
- Karthikeyan (no, not that one) takes Predictions win
- Top ten pictures from the 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix
Images © Red Bull/Getty
Girts (@girts)
22nd April 2013, 12:02
In his 200th race, Webber scored points for the 100th time.
celeste (@celeste)
22nd April 2013, 14:00
Nice little bit
Tango (@tango)
22nd April 2013, 12:05
“Lotus remain the only team to have both drivers finish in the points in every race so far this year.”
Now that’s interesting. I hadn’t noticed Grosjean had scored at every race this year. I thought he was having a dismal start of season. Well good for him (that being bad = scoring at every race).
celeste (@celeste)
22nd April 2013, 14:01
It is, I was wondering it RBR lead on constructor was under menace
JJkjaer
22nd April 2013, 15:16
Also worth noticing he hasn’t had any controversial crashes so far, like he had many times last year. It will be interesting to see what he is capable of.
Harry Westwood (@sirspuddington)
22nd April 2013, 20:08
I’m hoping we get to see more of the old Romain speed-wise cos he was very good but he seems to completely removed his aggression or something has unsettled him or something like that.
Mike (@mike)
23rd April 2013, 4:47
@sirspuddington
I agree, he was absolutely passive for most of Bahrain. But then again, given the amount of flak he copped last year, do you blame him?
His problem now is, the other drivers know they can push him around, and they will, so if unexpectedly he doesn’t yield, they will probably crash!
rahul1810 (@rahul1810)
22nd April 2013, 12:07
Sutil was fastest on the last 55 laps of the race after pitting on the first lap.
This was shared by someone on Twitter.
q85
22nd April 2013, 12:56
So sutil was quickest from that point on? How come? didnt he finish behind alonso who pitted twice after that?
Or am i reading it wrong and misssing the point totally
AL (@allypta)
22nd April 2013, 13:27
Sutil had the fastest lap up to that point. Vettel then beat that by (if I recall correctly) about a tenth on lap 55.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd April 2013, 14:33
@rahul1810 I don’t know who’s putting this claim about but that’s the second time I’ve read it and it isn’t correct. You can see here:
2013 Bahrain Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps
rankx (@rankx22)
22nd April 2013, 15:42
I don’t see how @rahul1810 can be wrong.
According to @adrianmorse Adrian Sutil was
– 81.3 seconds behind the leader on lap 2
and
– 76.6 seconds behind the leader on lap 55 (finish)
that means, from lap 2 to lap 55 he was (in total time) quicker than vettel. of course, adrian had 1 pitstop already done.
@keithcollantine
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
22nd April 2013, 17:26
@rankx22 – well you’ve said it yourself: Sutil had pitted, so he effectively lost 17 seconds to Vettel, which if we subtract from the gap at the end gives a time of minus 12.3 seconds. Still a bloody good effort though – you could argue (without factoring in starting positions obviously) that he then would’ve beaten everyone else bar Räikkönen had he not been involved in that collision (Grosjean was 19 seconds off Vettel).
That’s not the point though, the stat is that on each individual lap Sutil was fastest is not true – Keith has pointed out that is most definitely not the case which is evident from the link he has posted to.
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
22nd April 2013, 18:09
@vettel1, I don’t agree with your reasoning regarding the pit stop. Pitting on the first lap does not equal a free pit stop, it only means he had new tyres on lap 2, whereas Vettel’s had done Q3 and the first lap of the race – also a considerable advantage, of course, but not worth 17 seconds I would think. In addition, Sutil would not have had the benefit of cars moving out of his way for blue flags.
Note that I’m not saying that Sutil would have beaten Vettel if it had only been the two of them on track, as Vettel looked to have a bit in reserve, but he was the only driver to make up time on him.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
22nd April 2013, 18:15
@adrianmorse – of course that makes a difference, but he got rid of the medium for the hard which was widely recognised as being the better race tyre. So not a free pit stop, but a pit stop nonetheless. So effectively he didn’t make up time on Vettel, rather still lost time.
The 17 seconds though does not apply to the state of Vettel’s tyres, rather the fact Sutil only was that far behind initially because he had pitted! If he hadn’t and the car magically was repaired, he would’ve been 64.3 seconds behind Vettel (who hadn’t yet pitted of course), not 81.3.
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
22nd April 2013, 19:47
@vettel1, I’m not quite sure I understand. As of lap two, with his early stop behind him, he was 81 seconds behind the leader (Rosberg still), and from that point onwards, he didn’t lose any time to the lead of the race.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
22nd April 2013, 20:14
@adrianmorse – but that is the point! He had his stop behind him with a fresh set of boots and only had to make two more stops, whereas Vettel had to make the full three. That’s why the gap was less at the end, precisely because he made the early stop!
That’s why Hulkenberg was leading last week – he hadn’t stopped, so he was in the lead momentarily. Once he did, he fell behind again. Sutil just did the reverse.
Dan (@)
22nd April 2013, 18:17
Adam Cooper was tweeting it after the race on twitter.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd April 2013, 23:41
I see what this stat is getting at now – it’s not that Sutil was fastest on each of those laps, it was that he was fastest over all of them combined. I get it now!
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
23rd April 2013, 21:53
@keithcollantine – although by my reasoning even that’s not wholly true – Vettel did an extra pit stop effectively over Sutil in that time frame!
sumedh
22nd April 2013, 12:14
I am waiting for andae23 to comment. Without that, this article cannot be complete.
Lucas Wilson (@full-throttle-f1)
22nd April 2013, 12:20
+1 ;)
andrewf1 (@andrewf1)
22nd April 2013, 12:37
hehe, that’s so true! me too
Tango (@tango)
22nd April 2013, 12:38
I can’t wait ! It’s my favorite comment to my favorite F1F recurring page.
the_sigman (@sigman1998)
23rd April 2013, 17:06
Haha! True!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
22nd April 2013, 12:46
What about non-consecutive repeated podiums? there probably aren’t kazillion examples either.
GeoCucc (@geocucc)
22nd April 2013, 12:56
This was only the 4th repeated podium in the same order on the same track. One is the above mentioned 1998 and 1999 Barcelona race, and the other two are:
1988 and 1990 Jerez – 1st: Alain Prost, 2nd: Nigel Mansell, 3rd: Alessandro Nannini
1997 and 2001 Monaco – 1st: Michael Schumacher, 2nd: Rubens Barrichello, 3rd: Eddie Irvine
andae23 (@andae23)
22nd April 2013, 12:55
This is what I noticed (not that many good ones this time, sorry guys..) :
– Fernando Alonso tied Mark Webber’s record of 59 races without a race-terminating mechanical failure, despite having a mechanical failure.
– All (five) world champions on the grid scored points in today’s GP, as well as the previous GP. The last time all world champions scored points in consecutive GPs was in 2011, at the Malaysian and Chinese Grands Prix.
– The Force India drivers started fifth and sixth, or 5.5 on average. The last time their average grid position was this good was at the 2009 Italian, when Adrian Sutil started second, while Vitantonio Liuzzi started seventh.
– Nico Rosberg scored his last pole position 371 days ago, at the 2012 Chines Grand Prix. Remarkably, his father Keke Rosberg had the exact same number of days between his two most recent pole positions at the 1985 British and 1986 German Grands Prix.
– The 2012 Chinese GP was also the last time two German drivers were on the front row of the grid (Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher). Vettel of course won the race, which is in agreement with the statistics: the last time neither of the two Germans on the front row won the race was at the 2001 USA Grand Prix, when Häkkinen won the race after the Schumacher brothers had started from the front row.
– In the last eight races Sebastian Vettel started in second place, he went on to win the race on five occasions.
– Four races in and none of the five rookies has scored points so far. The last time none of the rookies scored any points in the first four races of a season was in 2004: in the eighth race in Canada, Timo Glock scored a point on his debut – something Pantano, Bruni and Klien all failed to do in the seven previous races.
– In a repeat of 2011, Williams hasn’t scored a single point so far. In that year, the team took their first points in race six, the Monaco GP.
– Giedo van der Garde finished in 21st place, which is the worst result for a Dutch driver in F1 history, beating Christijan Albers’ 19th places at the 2005 Italian and 2007 Monaco GPs.
sumedh
22nd April 2013, 13:14
Wow! What were the odds of that happening!!
MW (@)
22nd April 2013, 13:26
And that someone would notice!! I’d say Nico would like to know about that one.. Hopefully he reads this blog!
celeste (@celeste)
22nd April 2013, 14:05
Maybe someone should tweet that to him
AlbertC (@albertc)
23rd April 2013, 6:30
Don’t want to spoil your excitement, but given that every race is held on a sunday you could just aswell say 53 weeks instead of 371 days.
Chris (@orrc)
26th April 2013, 0:04
Leap years mean that 371 days won’t always exactly equal 53 weeks.
tmax (@tmax)
22nd April 2013, 18:30
good ones… feel sorry for Williams
Warwick (@warwick)
23rd April 2013, 16:52
Sam Michael resigned after it happened in 2011.
Aish Heydrich (@aish)
22nd April 2013, 18:49
@andae23: Are you a fricking computer?
andae23 (@andae23)
22nd April 2013, 21:43
@aish shhhhh… my identity must remain a secret ;)
Gridlock (@gridlock)
22nd April 2013, 14:54
You’d have thought RBR would be more careful about claiming the first woman on the podium (which I think Horner did in post press) given the obvious candidate to have done it previously only passed away recently. Poor show.
Alfie (@alfie)
22nd April 2013, 15:42
Didn’t Jochen Rindt’s wife also collect his championship trophy?
Jon Sandor (@jonsan)
22nd April 2013, 19:47
I believe what Red Bull said was that Gill Jones was the first woman team member to appear on the podium.
Erivaldo moreira (@erivaldonin)
22nd April 2013, 16:10
the last time the car number 9 was started in pole at Bahrain GP 2009.
9th place Rosberg was the worst result of a pole position since the Japanese GP 2008
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
22nd April 2013, 20:50
Excluding retirements, I reckon?
Erivaldo moreira (@erivaldonin)
22nd April 2013, 22:17
yes
Renato Breder
22nd April 2013, 17:54
“After Raikkonen the driver with the next-longest streak of consecutive points scores was Felipe Massa, on 13, …”
No! The next is Carlos Reutemann.
From the 1980 Belgian Grand Prix to the 1981 Belgian Grand Prix, Reutemann set 15 consecutive points scores, including three wins (Monaco-80, Brazil-81 and Belgium-91), five 2nd, five 3rd (that equals 13 podiuns out of 15 races!), one 5th and one 5th.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd April 2013, 19:01
Out of those currently racing, of course.
Mitchell white
22nd April 2013, 18:06
Raikkonen’s 32nd consecutive finish. One more to equal Heidfeld.
It was also his 6th podium in Bahrain without winning. Alonso holds that record with 7 podiums at interlargos without winning.
Traverse (@)
22nd April 2013, 18:12
I knew F1 was fixed!! ;)
Ninjenius (@ninjenius)
22nd April 2013, 19:06
I don’t suppose anyone has the stats on how many of the 57 laps saw at least 1 car in the pits (non-retired) (might be a bit more complicated with cars being lapped etc…)
It looked like there were a hell of a lot more laps with cars in the pits than all on the track, what with such differing strategies. Would be interesting to see as a percentage compared with past ‘records’. I’d research it myself but, y’know, laziness etc…
plushpile (@plushpile)
23rd April 2013, 1:03
Using Kieth’s data there were 75 pit stops, which fell on 37 laps, so
Laps are of course relative to the car stopping, eg lapped cars will record their stop on a lap behind what the leader was currently on.
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
22nd April 2013, 20:20
Nico Rosberg’s 9th place is the worst result for a polesitter since Lewis Hamilton was classified in 12th place after crashing out of the 2009 Italian Grand Prix on the final lap. However, if you wish to ignore this result as he technically did not finish, you’d have to go back to the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix where, once again, polesitter Hamilton came home in 12th, this time completing the race.
Incidentally, at the previous race in Singapore, Felipe Massa did one worse by completing the race in 13th.
Tomsk (@tomsk)
22nd April 2013, 20:29
Good and very timely point about Virginia Williams – I guess this was Frank’s first visit to a race since she passed away. Sad times for the family, let’s hope their set-up works a treat again at Barcelona and gives them something to celebrate, like a good fistful of points.
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
22nd April 2013, 20:36
This is the 15th consecutive race that Caterham have got both cars to the finish – currently the longest streak of any team.
In addition, 2013 is the first year in which each of the Caterham and Marussia cars have finished the first four races.
Bleu (@bleu)
22nd April 2013, 21:41
On addition to the second one, I believe Force India in 2009 is the only other team who has bbeen classified with both cars in each of first four races while not scoring a point. Fisichella and Sutil had one classified retirement though, so Caterham and Marussia make history in that way.
Bleu (@bleu)
22nd April 2013, 21:45
Safety car has not been used during the first four races. Since SC became regular part of F1 in 1993, this has happened five times earlier.
1995 – first visit in Belgium (Round 11)
1998 – first visit in Canada (Round 7)
2004 – first visit in Monaco (Round 6)
2005 – first visit in Spain (Round 5)
2011 – first visit in Monaco (Round 6)
MB (@muralibhats)
23rd April 2013, 7:49
Now that you have mentioned it, i expect it to make appearance in next round :)
Palle (@palle)
23rd April 2013, 8:56
Now every team will base their race strategy on a SC next race:-) Only Question is: Can the statistics tell us who is likely to be involved in the action causing the SC?
LOL
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
22nd April 2013, 23:02
First time since 2006 that Rosberg has finished in Bahrain in a different position to where he started.
89th consecutive race in which a German driver has scored – beats Britain’s record from the 1960s.
11 different drivers have led laps so far this season – last year saw 13 all season, 2010 and 2011 only saw 8 all season.
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
22nd April 2013, 23:23
This is Mercedes’ 2nd pole this season, should they double that, they will equal the most poles in a season for them (4 – 1954 [All by Fangio]). First back-to-back poles for the Brackley team since 2009 (Spain & Monaco with Button).
Romain Grosjean has now got his longest point-scoring streak in F1 (4 races). Di Resta has had by far his best first 4 ‘flyaway’ races of the season (2 points in 2011, 15 in 2012, 20 in 2013). The Enstone team have not had 4 podiums in the first 4 races since 2006, where they had 5. Nico Hulkenberg finished a race outside the points since Singapore 2012 (14th), despite claiming fastest lap in that race. Paul Di Resta was 4th in both these races.
No podiums for McLaren in the first 4 races since 2009, and they have not had as bad a start to the season as they did in 2004! ( 1 6th, 2 8ths, 5 points in old money, 16 in new money).
paulista
23rd April 2013, 9:52
At the beginning of the season Sebastian Vettel was the sixth best scorer of all time (in modern points/race start) just behind Alain Prost. After this weekend he is fifth (behind Fangio, Ascari, Farina and Schumacher). The figures are 17.12, 13.94, 13.55, 12.71, 12.58 and 12.48. Lewis Hamilton is still seventh with 11.76, above the grossly overrated Ayrton Senna, eight with 11.68
paulista
23rd April 2013, 10:47
eighth
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
23rd April 2013, 22:02
I think that’s a highly unjust thing to say: Senna had a lot of mechanical failures in his time, and had to contend several seasons fighting the far superior William’s cars and often a faster Benetton as well. The plain numbers only tell half the story…
hamed (@hamjad)
24th April 2013, 11:37
It was also 31th consecutive race that Raikkonen was finishing a race. record holder is Nick Hiedfeld