Melbourne’s Albert Park once again acted as Formula 1’s curtain-raiser as Sebastian Vettel kicked off the new season with victory. Motorsport Week rounds up some of the statistics and facts from the weekend’s action.
Vettel’s victory was the 48th of his career, bringing him three shy of Alain Prost on the all-time list in the race in which he matched his fellow four-time champion’s tally of 199 starts. Vettel’s win also meant he joined Michael Schumacher (155), Lewis Hamilton (118) and Prost (106) in taking a century of podiums. Vettel’s spell in the lead also brought him above the 3,000 laps led mark to 3,030, behind only Schumacher (5,111) and Hamilton (3,535). Vettel’s win, combined with Kimi Raikkonen’s third place, marked Ferrari’s best start to a Formula 1 season since 2010, and it is the first time since 2001/02 that it has claimed back-to-back victories at the opening round of the year.
Over at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton’s pole position was the 73rd of his career, fifth in a row in Australia, and seventh overall at the event, bringing him above Ayrton Senna’s previous record of six, all of which were achieved at Adelaide. His runner-up spot was his eighth Australian GP podium, another record, though he now trails Vettel 3-2 on victories achieved at the venue. With Hamilton losing the lead, and Valtteri Bottas only eighth, 22 points was Mercedes’ lowest return in Australia in the hybrid era. Hamilton, though, is now just one race away from matching Kimi Raikkonen’s record of successive points finishes, having reached the top 10 at each event since his dramatic 2016 Malaysian GP retirement.
For Red Bull, it got both cars to the chequered flag in Australia for the first time in the hybrid era; it was the first time since 2014 that it had both cars on the grid! Daniel Ricciardo’s fourth matched the best result for a home representative at the event (under World Championship allocation). Ricciardo also bagged the fastest lap, the tenth time he has done so in Formula 1.
Force India failed to score at the season-opening event for the first time in nine years, while conversely Renault had its first double points result since its full-scale return as a works team in 2016. All six of the Renault-powered cars reached the top 10 – the most the manufacturer has had in the leading positions in over 30 years; Fernando Alonso’s fifth was McLaren’s best result since the 2016 US Grand Prix.
Haas had its best ever qualifying result, lining up fifth and sixth on the grid, with Kevin Magnussen making it through to Q3 for the first time since Brazil 2014. However, neither car reached the chequered flag after their respective wheel nut issues, the third time it has suffered the fate – the last occasion came at the corresponding event 12 months ago.
At Sauber, Charles Leclerc ended Monaco’s 24-year wait for its fourth-ever Grand Prix driver, while Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin became Russia’s third Formula 1 driver, following in the footsteps of Vitaly Petrov and Daniil Kvyat. The Australian Grand Prix, meanwhile, was the first event since 1971 not to feature a Brazilian driver; Felipe Massa did not race in Hungary last year but participated in the opening practice sessions.
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