Sebastian Vettel reached a points milestone, Red Bull reached a podium milestone, and Romain Grosjean reached an unwanted milestone. Here are all the key statistics and facts from the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix weekend!
Lewis Hamilton recorded his 64th Formula One victory on Sunday, and his 121st podium finish. It was Mercedes’ 78th win. Hamilton extended the record of consecutive race finishes to thirty, while his seventh podium finish in Spain equals Fernando Alonso top three tally at the Catalunya track.
It was Hamilton’s third win in Spain, equalling Mika Hakkinen’s win tally at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. It’s also the first time a driver has won won back-to-back races at this track since Michael Schumacher in 2003 and 2004.
Lewis Hamilton won by the largest margin at the Spanish Grand Prix since Mark Webber in 2010.
On Saturday, Lewis Hamilton achieved his 74th pole in F1, and the 90th pole position for the Mercedes team. It was the fourth time he has started from pole at the Spanish Grand Prix, the third time in a row where he’s been fastest on a Saturday in Catalunya and the sixth time he’s started from the front row at the track.
Valtteri Bottas started from the front row for the first time in 2018 and went on to take his 25th podium finish, and his first top three appearance in Spain. It was the first time Mercedes have locked-out the front row this season.
Red Bull reached 150 podium finishes thanks to Max Verstappen’s third place finish. Red Bull are only the sixth team in the history of Formula One to achieve that many podiums. For Verstappen, it was his twelfth rostrum appearance and his first since the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix and his second in Spain, equalling the same number of podiums which his team-mate has at this track. Verstappen has also reached Q3 at every Spanish Grand Prix he has competed in.
Sebastian Vettel has still never qualified on pole at the Spanish Grand Prix, making the Catalunya track one of only four where he hasn’t set the fastest time on a Saturday. Such is his qualifying form this season, third place was his worst Saturday performance so far in 2018, ending a streak of three poles. Sunday marked the first time Vettel hasn’t finished on the Spanish Grand Prix podium since 2014. Nevertheless, Vettel still reached a milestone, passing 2,500 career points. He and Lewis Hamilton are the only drivers to have ever done so.
After the 2018 race, Sebastian Vettel has still scored the most points of any current driver in Spain with 137 points, compared to Lewis Hamilton’s 129.
Carlos Sainz always performs well at his home Grand Prix. He’s beaten his team-mate on every Saturday he’s qualified at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and has scored points in all four of his Spanish Grand Prix appearances. He’s also beaten fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso in all of their home Grands Prix. Sainz is one of only six drivers to have progressed to Q3 at every round so far in 2018.
Fernando Alonso finally put a McLaren in Q3 for the first time in 2018. It’s no surprise really, given he’s only ever missed out on Q3 at the Spanish Grand Prix once.
Only three drivers have scored points at every race in 2018. Lewis Hamilton hasn’t finished below fourth so far this season, while Sebastian Vettel’s worst result of the season so far is his eighth place in China. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso is the other driver to have scored in every race thus far, taking an average of 6.4 points per Grand Prix.
Stoffel Vandoorne has been out-qualified at every race so far this year, and for all of the past ten races (since the 2017 Japanese Grand Prix).
Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson have all maintained their 100% finish records in Spain, while Stoffel Vandoorne has never made it to the end of the Spanish Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel has finished all of the last ten races at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
This is officially the worst ever start to a season for Romain Grosjean. For the first time in his career he has failed to score a point from any of the first five races.
Kimi Raikkonen has made it to Q3 at every race since the 2016 German Grand Prix. His fourth place on Saturday in Spain marks only the second time he hasn’t qualified on the front row in 2018.
Pierre Gasly is the only driver to have been knocked out in every stage of Qualifying so far this season (Q1 in Australia, China and Azerbaijan, Q2 in Spain and Q3 in Azerbaijan).
Despite not running in FP1, Sergey Sirotkin still managed to out-qualify team-mate Lance Stroll for the third time. He recorded his best-ever finish of fourteenth, having previously finished fifteenth twice. Despite it being his best finishing place, the Russian driver was still last of the cars running at the end of the Grand Prix.
Sergio Perez recorded his worst Qualifying performance since the 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix with fifteenth place on the grid. It was his second Q2 exit of 2018.
Nico Hulkenberg recorded his first Q1 exit since Spain 2015 due to mechanical issues. He failed to make Q3 for the first time this season, and for the first time since the 2017 United States Grand Prix. Curiously, the German has never reached Q3 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Charles Leclerc has shown his potential in the past two races, having made it through to Q2 on Saturday in both Baku and Barcelona and scoring points on each of the two Sundays. The Spanish Grand Prix marked Sauber’s first back-to-back points scoring events since the 2015 season.
Marcus Ericsson has never progressed past Q1 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He has never scored a point at the track but has finished all of the Grands Prix he has competed in here.
From 81 Formula One races, Marcus Ericsson has scored eleven points in his career. From five Formula One races, Charles Leclerc has scored nine points in his career.
Until this weekend, Kevin Magnussen had been eliminated in Q2 at every Spanish Grand Prix he’d raced in. He’d never scored a point in Spain before this weekend, but that finally changed with his sixth place finish.
For the first time in 2018, a lap record was beaten. Daniel Ricciardo clocked in the fastest lap of the race – a 1:18.441 – eclipsing Kimi Raikkonen’s former record from 2008. It was the twelfth time Ricciardo has set the fastest lap in a Grand Prix in his career, and the third time he has done so in 2018. The track record was also beaten multiple times over the weekend, with Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest lap ever seen at the track in Q3.
The 2018 Spanish Grand Prix saw the lowest number of finishers in the Spanish Grand Prix since the 2010 event. Just fourteen drivers made it to the chequered flag in 2018 and 2010, though 2010 had a higher DNF percentage, as 24 drivers participated in the event.