Who’s hot 🔥 and who’s not 👎🻠at the Circuit de Barcelona–Catalunya? Motorsport Week takes a look at how teams and drivers have fared at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Wins ðŸ†
Four drivers on the current grid have triumphed at the Spanish Grand Prix and it is little surprise that reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton is the most successful of the bunch.
It took until 2014 for Hamilton to register a victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya but he added another pair of wins in 2017/18 to sit on three, behind only six-time winner Michael Schumacher on the all-time list.
Kimi Raikkonen took two wins in the 2000s (2005 and 2008) while ex-team-mate Sebastian Vettel (2011) and Max Verstappen (on his Red Bull debut in 2016) are the other winners in the current field.
Vettel can nonetheless stake a claim to having won three Formula 1 races on Spanish soil on account of his 2010 and 2011 wins a few hundred kilometres down the coast in Valencia.
Podiums 🎉
Hamilton has taken seven podium finishes at Barcelona – meaning he remains five behind all-time record-holder Schumacher.
Raikkonen and Vettel are both on five while Verstappen and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo are on two, the ex-Red Bull driver taking his first (legal) top-three finish at the venue in 2014.
Valtteri Bottas’ runner-up spot 12 months ago was his first podium at Barcelona as he completed a Mercedes 1-2.
Poles 💨
Lewis Hamilton leads the way in this classification as well.
Hamilton was disqualified from top spot in 2012, due to a fuel shortage, but has made amends since, qualifying on pole with Mercedes in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
In fact, Mercedes has been supreme on Saturday for the last six years, with Nico Rosberg on top in 2013 and 2015.
Somewhat surprisingly, given his status as one of Formula 1’s best qualifiers, and given the machinery at his disposal, Sebastian Vettel has never taken pole position at Barcelona.
Raikkonen’s 2005 and 2008 efforts earned him pole position for those respective grands prix.
What else? ðŸ”
Mercedes has already amassed four 1-2s after just four races of 2019 – the best start to any Formula 1 season, and as many lockouts as it took in each 2017 and 2018.
McLaren is in its best position for a year – having moved up to fourth off the back of its first double points result in 12 months – but it’s been a difficult start for Haas, Toro Rosso and Williams.
Haas has equalled its worst points return of eight after four rounds, while Toro Rosso has not returned to Europe with such a lowly tally since 2010.
