While 114 different driver have won rounds of the world championship, 35 of those have but a single victory to their names.
They include current racers Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris – though the latter came close to adding his second last weekend.His collision with Max Verstappen meant another driver took the opportunity to claim their second win. George Russell duly became the 79th driver to win more than round of the championship.
Coincidentally, when he scored his first win at Interlagos two years ago, Verstappen was also penalised for a collision with a rival, this time Lewis Hamilton.
Sunday’s result means five different drivers have won races this year, two more than last season and as many as in the whole of 2022.
Russell also ended Mercedes’ wait for there first win since his maiden triumph at Interlagos two years ago. Four different constructors have now won races this year, something which has only happened three times since the V6 hybrid turbo regulations were introduced in 2014, the other occasions being 2020 and 2021.
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For the second time in three years at the Red Bull Ring, Verstappen took two pole positions and won the sprint race but victory in the grand prix eluded him. Last year he took pole and victory in both.
So while Verstappen still enjoys a dominant position at the top of the points table, he is having a patchier season. He has won seven grands prix so far, and no other driver has more than one, but Verstappen still hasn’t won three in a row. This is a big change when you consider that after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix he’d won 19 of the previous 20 grands prix.
Verstappen took pole position by an emphatic margin despite the early stages of qualifying being very close. He claimed the top spot by 0.404 seconds, yet in Q1 the entire 20-car field was covered by just 0.798s (and the top 19, Zhou Guanyu excluded, by 0.593s).
Oscar Piastri equalled the best result of his career again with second place. Afterwards he was still cursing the borderline track limits call which cost him third on the grid – the position Russell won from.
Third place for Carlos Sainz Jnr moves him within 15 points of his team mate. He can therefore claim bragging rights in the intra-team battle at Ferrari as Charles Leclerc scored 16 points in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which Sainz missed due to illness.
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Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth, scoring his best result since returning to F1 with Haas last season. With Kevin Magnussen eighth, Haas replicated their 2022 Austrian Grand Prix result (though a seventh place in the sprint race that weekend meant they scored more points two years ago).
Haas bagged 12 points and jumped past Alpine in the constructors’ championship. That was a galling development for Alpine, who worked their way up to seventh in the standings by collecting ninth and tenth place finishes, only for Haas to beat their entire season score to date in a single race.
Daniel Ricciardo marked his 250th grand prix start with his second points finish in one this year. However his biggest score of the year remains so far remains his fourth place in the sprint race in Miami.
Fernando Alonso failed to score for the fourth time in the last five races as Aston Martin’s slump continues. However he snatched the fastest lap away from Verstappen on the final tour by just 0.025 seconds, ensuring no one scored the bonus point. It is the 26th fastest lap of his career, putting him ninth on the all-time list, and second this year.
Finally, the changes to the last two corners prompted a huge fall in the number of track limits infringements. Last year 83 infringements were recorded during the race (not 1,200, as stated elsewhere, which was the number of potential infringements investigated) but this year there were just 16. Most importantly, none of those occured at the remodelled turns nine and ten – instead, one, three and six were the trouble spots.
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Over to you
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Austrian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
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2024 Austrian Grand Prix
- Austrian GP clash will have taught Norris how to race Verstappen – Ricciardo
- Verstappen was “lucky” tyre damage didn’t force him to retire like Norris
- Pirelli introducing new C6 tyre to improve racing on street tracks next year
- Norris admits ‘overreacting’ but queries why Verstappen avoided track limits penalty
- Norris and Verstappen’s Austrian GP collision “blown out of proportion” – rivals
José Lopes da Silva
2nd July 2024, 16:46
So Alonso extended the record of time between the first and the last fastest lap to over 21 years, which means roughly 28% of the whole history of the F1 world championship. Same as some other records around 20 years, but still.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
2nd July 2024, 16:52
Better get off two wins as soon as possible George – it’s cursed!
Jonathan Parkin
2nd July 2024, 17:11
With Haas finishing in the top six in Austria, only Sauber, Racing Bulls, Williams and Alpine haven’t registered a top six finish.
Yes I know its an academic exercise since points are now down to 10th, but I do like looking at the championship from the 1991-2002 scoring system, because that’s what it was when I started watching F1
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
2nd July 2024, 17:19
Lando or Oscar to be number 80 then I’m betting.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
2nd July 2024, 17:37
Seems most likely, unless they miss out this year and Ocon lucks himself into the improving Mercedes seat.
Janith
2nd July 2024, 20:09
Just like how Perez lucked into the Red Bull seat.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd July 2024, 18:14
@nullapax More likely Lando as Oscar first needs to achieve his maiden victory & Lando finishes higher more often.
@brightlampshade He’d need to be very lucky, but realistically, he isn’t getting that drive, nor has he been a true contender at any point in the first place & the fact Mercedes will seemingly wait until November at the latest before making a decision clearly means they’re still trying to lure Max, & thus, the eventual announcement about Antonelli will happen in that month unless they succeed by that point.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd July 2024, 18:10
Logan Sargeant out-qualified Alexander Albon for the second time this season, albeit like in Miami, only in sprint qualifying.
He again was the only driver to finish two laps down, albeit the early pit stop largely contributed this time around.
Guanyu Zhou finished last in qualifying for the seventh time this season.
Max Verstappen achieved his fifth consecutive pole position at Red Bull Ring, his first such achievement on any circuit.
0.798 sec is the closest ever gap between the fastest & the slowest in Q1 since the current format debuted in 2006.
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
2nd July 2024, 19:56
0.798s between first and last in Q1 – the closest ever.
Verstappen led 62 laps – the most he’s led in any race this season – but did not win.
Gasly has exactly 400 career points.
Piastri has already scored more points in 2024 than in the whole of 2023.
All 3 wins by British drivers since the start of 2022 have come in sprint weekends.
Norris’ first non-scoring GP since Las Vegas 2023. Verstappen, Hamilton, and Russell all have the longest unbroken streak (all failed to score in Australia but have scored in every race since), although Piastri has scored in the last 13 weekends.
First time the race-winner has led fewer than 10 laps of the race since Verstappen in Saudi Arabia 2022 (6 laps).
Every team has had at least 1 DNF this season.
Russell is one of 8 drivers who has scored more than 1 pole and more than 1 win but never done both in the same race. He is some way off Keke Rosberg’s achievement of 5 poles and 5 wins without a win-from-pole.
Second time Verstappen has lost the lead after colliding with a driver who (as of today) has 1 win to his name, allowing a Mercedes driver to win.
Hamilton’s team-mate scored a win helped by Verstappen colliding with Norris nearly 3 years after Norris’ (then) team-mate scored a win helped by Verstappen colliding with Hamilton.
The 4 races so far this year that Verstappen has failed to win have all been for fundamentally different reasons (reliability, unlucky safety car timing, off pace all weekend, collision).
Thanks to statsf1, the official F1 site and GP Rejects for some of these.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd July 2024, 20:24
Although he would’ve lost the Miami GP even without the SC error, given the tyre disadvantage & floor damage.
Janith
2nd July 2024, 20:08
Lando will become F1’s 80th multiple winning driver soon.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd July 2024, 20:27
Most likely
PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
3rd July 2024, 19:12
Saw this elsewhere
First race in Max’s career that he hasn’t finished on the Podium after starting from Pole.
PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
3rd July 2024, 19:20
*F1 Career
PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
3rd July 2024, 19:44
Knew I should of done some digging first, this stat doesnt include 3 DNF’s starting from Pole. The rest are 4 x 2nd and Sundays 5th position out of 40 Poles