Lewis Hamilton’s Austrian Grand Prix victory means British drivers have now won a total of 250 world championship races:
Some of the most successful countries in terms of winning racing drivers haven’t enjoyed success for many years. The most recent Brazilian race winner was Rubens Barrichello in the 2009 Italian Grand Prix and the last French victory was 20 years ago, courtesy of Olivier Panis in Monaco.
Mercedes were on course for their third one-two of the season until their drivers tangled on the final lap, dropping Nico Rosberg off the podium.
After the first nine races last year Mercedes had taken a maximum possible 18 podium finishes. Over the same period this year they’ve managed only 11 – a clear sign their previous dominance has taken a hit.
This was Hamilton’s 46th win, leaving him five short of Alain Prost who occupies second place in the all-time winners’ table.
He also took his fifth pole position of the season, giving him a career total of 54, and his 30th fastest lap which puts him level with Nigel Mansell. Hamilton therefore took a ‘hat-trick’ of win, pole and fastest lap for the tenth time in his career.
His Q2 lap of 1’06.228 was the fastest ever seen around the Red Bull Ring, formerly known as the A1-Ring. This is the shortest lap time seen in F1 for over two-and-a-half decades, going back to Nigel Mansell’s pole position time for the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard in 1990, which was 1’04.402.
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Rosberg’s career-best run of 14 consecutive front row starts came to an end. Only five drivers have managed longer streaks, one of which is his team mate.
Instead Nico Hulkenberg joined Hamilton on the front row of the grid. This was his second front row start, the only other being his 2010 pole position for Williams in the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.
Another star of qualifying was Pascal Wehrlein, who equalled the best starting position for Manor/Marussia/Virgin by taking 12th on the grid, as Jules Bianchi did at Silverstone in 2014.
Wehrlein went on to score his first point and give the team its second points finish in its six-year history. This was the first since the team was formally renamed Manor at the beginning of this season.
Finally Saturday’s Formula E race saw (Nicolas) Prost and (Bruno) Senna start and finish first and second. The last time those two names occupied the top positions at the start and finish of a race was when their famous fore-bearers raced together for the final time in F1 at the 1993 Australian Grand Prix, Ayrton Senna leading Alain Prost to the flag.
Review the year so far in statistics here:
- 2016 F1 championship points
- 2016 F1 season records
- 2016 F1 race data
- 2016 F1 qualifying data
- 2016 F1 retirements and penalties
- 2016 F1 strategy and pit stops
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Austrian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
frood19 (@frood19)
4th July 2016, 11:43
who were the other longer consecutive front row starters? I’m guessing Hill, Prost, Senna, Schumacher (and Hamilton)
ColdFly F1 (@)
4th July 2016, 14:08
I believe Vettel is the record holder with 25 consecutive front row starts.
@frood19
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
4th July 2016, 23:42
24 – Senna (Germany 1988 – Australia 1989)
20 – Hamilton (Belgium 2014 – Italy 2015)
17 – D Hill (Australia 1995 – Japan 1996)
16 – Prost (South Africa 1993 – Australia 1993)
15 – Mansell (Australia 1986 – Mexico 1987)
Vettel’s longest run is 14 (Singapore 2010 – Britain 2011), and M Schumacher’s longest run is only 8 (France 2002 – Australia 2003).
Thanks to statsf1.com.
James Brickles (@brickles)
4th July 2016, 11:44
Fairly certain that it’s the first time since the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix where the lead has changed on the final lap.
anonymouscoward (@anonymouscoward)
4th July 2016, 19:51
@brickles and what a moment that was.
pluisje (@pluisje)
4th July 2016, 11:50
Both of Verstappens podiums came after the Mercedes drivers hit eachother on track, and he had Raikkonnen very closely on his tail.
Martin
4th July 2016, 11:52
Austria was the 5th consecutive race not to feature both Mercedes drivers on the podium, by far the longest streak since the start of the current turbo era. The only other time Mercedes have went more than one race without a double podium was Italy/Singapore 2015.
pluisje (@pluisje)
4th July 2016, 11:52
Both of Virgin/Manors points-finished came after the drivers rolled onto the wrong grid-slot after the warmup lap.
Strontium (@strontium)
4th July 2016, 22:46
@pluisje I noticed that too, very interesting stat. Bianchi’s finish was originally 8th, dropped to 9th following a penalty. I’m wondering if a similar penalty would have resulted in Manor losing their point or not.
pluisje (@pluisje)
4th July 2016, 11:57
Since they swapped seats, Verstappen scored 59 points, Kvyat only 1. (For comparison, Ricciardo scored 52 and Sainz 18)
Alex W
4th July 2016, 12:22
Go Sainz!!!! 18 times better than Kyv….. :)
BasCB (@bascb)
5th July 2016, 10:32
Kvyat does seem to have all the issues an STR car can run into since that swithch!
krxx
8th July 2016, 22:29
-3
kreid
4th July 2016, 12:17
Those stats about Honda make you wonder why anyone would bank on them being able to dominate again.
ia
4th July 2016, 12:34
Photo of the article is very telling:
Max big smile
Lewis thinking about what just happened
Kimi not looking happy (ever)
jmlabareda
4th July 2016, 12:52
Would the almost 6 years between front row starts for the Hulk be a record?
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
4th July 2016, 23:48
Not quite – Mario Andretti scored pole in USA 1968 (his first start), and did not start on the front row again until Sweden 1976.
jmlabareda
5th July 2016, 12:07
interesting stat – thanks!
Mach1 (@mach1)
4th July 2016, 14:06
When was the last time 1 & 2 colided on the last lap?
Stubborn Swiss (@stubbornswiss)
4th July 2016, 14:25
Given the incident we all witnessed in Austria this past weekend, plus the new stats Hamilton has achieved over the same race weekend, I am most surprised not to be able to find any comments from the likes of Jackie Stewart, who typically manages to crawl out of the woodwork to heap condemnation on Hamilton, whenever he perceives an opportunity.
omarR-pepper
4th July 2016, 21:41
@stubbornswiss so that could be a new stat for itself! Maybe you can write something like this:
“This is the first time Lewis Hamilton has not been criticized by Jackie Stewart after a polemic incident. Or the first after any time Lewis has breathed”.
BasCB (@bascb)
5th July 2016, 10:37
I am sure we will hear of him towards the middle of the week again during the Silverstone buildup @stubbornswiss.
Erivaldo moreira (@erivaldonin)
4th July 2016, 16:42
Vettel, Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo and Verstappen had won the last 61 races.
This is the longest period of five drivers winning .
previous records :
60 races by Vettel, Hamilton, Rosberg, Alonso and Ricciardo between Monaco 2013 and Russia 2016.
54 races by
Piquet, Senna, Prost, Mansell and Berger between Brazil 1986 and USA 1989
TribalTalker (@tribaltalker)
5th July 2016, 10:35
@erivaldonin – great stat! Either Raikkonen is under-performing or Vettel is a genius (or both).
krxx
8th July 2016, 22:38
How on earth does someone come to that conclusion (based on this stat)?
Alisson
5th July 2016, 12:04
@erivaldonin great stat!
but there is errors
Malaysia instead Monaco
53 instead 54
Arthur (@eriko)
4th July 2016, 17:51
Vettel and Raikkonen are tied for points, as are Sainz and Kvyat. 96 and 22 respectively.
David (@ringridder)
4th July 2016, 18:00
Verstappen is now the most successful Dutch driver in history, surpassing his own father. Max has 121, surpassing Jos who should have 119 points according to the current system.
Max is also the first Dutchman to finish second in a Grand Prix.
Jonathan Parkin
4th July 2016, 20:23
Max Verstappen has also surpassed his father by getting two ‘real’ podiums – his words. This is because Jos inherited his second podium after his teammate’s disqualification in Belgium ’94
Corey (@dragon86)
4th July 2016, 20:54
Currenty, Merecedes has as many 5th and 7th places finishes(2) as they do 2nds. Only 1 third place finish. Last double podium was at Russia 6 races ago.
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
4th July 2016, 23:49
The 2 most recent first-time points scorers have done so by finishing 10th on the 3rd of the month in 2016.
First time since Europe 2005 (Raikkonen’s tyre failure) that the leader at the start of the last lap did not finish on the podium.
First time since USA 1959 (Brabham pushing his car over the line) that the leader at the start of the last lap finished the race, but did not finish on the podium.
Hamilton has passed 2000 career points.
Raikkonen has managed more podiums so far in 2016 than he managed in the whole of 2014 & 2015 combined.
9 different drivers have finished 6th this year.
Perez’s first no-score since China means that Ricciardo now has the longest unbroken streak (5 races, last no-score Russia 2016).
Perez’s first DNF (albeit classified) since Hungary 2015 means that Ricciardo now has the longest unbroken streak (13 races, last DNF Russia 2015).
Vettel and Raikkonen both have 84 podiums in their careers, and are tied on points in 2016 (Vettel is ahead by virtue of more 2nd-place finishes).
Rosberg’s first grid penalty since Belgium 2012.
22nd different track that Hamilton has won on, equals Prost, 1 behind M Schumacher’s record.
Red Bull’s first podium at their home track.
Kirill Egorov (@bigraces)
5th July 2016, 14:00
Not only Red Bull’s first podium at their home track it was also for the 1st time Red Bull driver lead at Red Bull Ring
Ashwin (@redbullf1)
4th July 2016, 23:59
I am surprised to see that chart and find out that GB drivers have more F1 wins than German drivers, I didn’t know that.
BasCB (@bascb)
5th July 2016, 10:48
There have been boatloads of british drivers in F1 but only a few Germans that made any impact on the winning tables (M. Schumacher, Vettel, N. Rosberg, further R.Schumacher and then the likes of Frenzen, Von Trips and Stuck) @redbullf1
Richard (@rick1984)
5th July 2016, 12:39
Here is the stats for Germans to have won a race:
Michael Schumacher 91
Sebastian Vettel 42
Nico Rosberg 19
Ralf Schumacher 6
Heinz Harald Frentzen 3
Wolfgang Von Tripps 2
Joachen Mass 1
for a total of 164 from 944 races (is indeed 17.3%)
It really is a tale of two halfs though.
Hungary 1992 was race no 527 and also the last race before Michael Schumachers first win.
At the end of this race Germans had won a grand total of 3 grand prix, for a strike rate of just below 0.6% (very un-german).
since then there have been 417 races with German drivers winning 161 of these, for a strike rate of 38.6% (a bit more German there).
In response to @bascb above, dont think Hans Stuck (senior) ever scored a points finish, with Hans Joachim Stuck (junior) a best result of third (two of).
Hans Herrmann (@twentyseven)
5th July 2016, 16:38
Taking English drivers rather than GB drivers gives 176 wins which is only 12 ahead of Germany.
Scotland would take 5th spot with 65 wins (Jackie Stewart, Jim Clarke and David Coulthard)
Northern Ireland has 9 wins (Eddie Irvine and John Watson)
Erivaldo moreira (@erivaldonin)
5th July 2016, 3:02
“Hamilton has passed 2000 career points”
He is the first driver to do so.
kingwajik
5th July 2016, 9:24
i wish hamilton will be the champion :) and rio haryanto can take the first point in F1. go go go rio
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
5th July 2016, 13:05
With Manor finishing 10th, 10 different teams have now scored points this season, the first time we’ve had that many since 2009. If Sauber were now to score this year, we’d have 11 teams scoring points for the first time since 2002 (all 11 teams did score points in 2007, but McLaren technically scored 0 points following their disqualification).