Hamilton breaks records with his sixth home victory, Ferrari reach 450 Q3 appearances and Alfa Romeo score at Silverstone for the first time since 1951! Here are all the facts and statistics from the 2019 British Grand Prix weekend!
At the 70th British Grand Prix to be held as a round of the F1 World Championship, Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to record six victories at the event, surpassing Alain Prost’s former record of five wins at Silverstone and Jim Clark’s tally of five British Grand Prix wins. Hamilton also equals Prost’s record of the most Grand Prix wins at home – though Michael Schumacher has more wins on home turf, with nine in total (including his wins at the European Grand Prix).
With his win, Lewis Hamilton becomes first driver to score 200 points at Silverstone and the only driver to have scored points in every year of a decade at the circuit. It was his 80th career victory. He also finished on the podium for the 143rd time in his career and recorded the fastest lap of the race for the 43rd time.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finished on the podium. Mercedes now have 197 podium appearances. That means they equal Lotus as the team with the fourth-most podium finishes in Formula 1 history. It’s the seventeenth time a team have scored a 1-2 finish at the British Grand Prix.
On Saturday, Valtteri Bottas recorded the tenth pole position of his career. He becomes the 34th F1 driver to have taken pole position at Silverstone. It was Mercedes’ 96th pole and their eighth pole position at the track. They’ve taken pole at all of the last seven British Grands Prix. It was also the sixth pole for a Finnish driver at Silverstone; the first since Heikki Kovalainen claimed pole for McLaren in 2008.
Valtteri Bottas also became the 34th different driver to take ten pole positions in their F1 career. He equals Jochen Rindt’s tally of poles. This was the seventh race at which Bottas has taken pole but failed to win.
Mercedes-powered cars now have as many pole positions at Silverstone as Renault-powered cars, with Valtteri Bottas’ pole equalling the French manufacturer’s record of thirteen poles at the track.
Valtteri Bottas secured his 39th podium finish with his third top three appearance at Silverstone. Bottas’ podium sees Finland overtake Brazil and equal France on fifteen podium finishes at the track. Finland is now the equal-third most successful nation by way of podiums at Silverstone.
The Safety Car made one outing during the 2019 British Grand Prix. It was the seventh consecutive race at the track to feature a Safety Car period.
Charles Leclerc recorded the fifth podium finish of his career at the British Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver now has the same number of podium finishes at Piero Taruffi, Andrea de Cesaris and Olivier Panis. He’s the 73rd different driver to have finished on the podium at Silverstone. It was the first time a Monegasque driver has finished in the top three at the track, making Monaco the 20th different country to be represented on the Silverstone podium.
A resurfaced track helped to see both the Silverstone Track Record and Lap Record tumble over the 2019 British Grand Prix weekend. On Saturday, Valtteri Bottas beat Lewis Hamilton’s 2018 pole time by 0.799 seconds. In the race, Hamilton set a 1:27.369 on the final lap, eclipsing his existing Lap Record from 2017 by a massive 3.252 seconds.
For the first time this season, three different teams topped the three practice sessions. It’s the first time since 2012 that three different teams have topped the three practice sessions at the British Grand Prix. Free Practice 1 marked the first time Pierre Gasly had been fastest in a practice session in his Formula 1 career.
Daniel Ricciardo out-qualified his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg. It’s the first time Ricciardo has out-qualified at team-mate at the British Grand Prix since 2014 and the first time Hulkenberg has been out-qualified at the track since 2010.
George Russell finished fourteenth in the British Grand Prix, recording the best finish of his career so far.
Kevin Magnussen recorded his worst qualifying performance of the season so far. It’s the first time the Dane has been eliminated in Q1 since the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix.
Having reached the end of the British Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen equalled Rubens Barrichello and Fernando Alonso’s shared record of most races finished at Silverstone. All three have finished fourteen races at the track so far in their careers. Raikkonen also surpasses Michael Schumacher’s tally of 241 classified finishes in his career, putting him a clear third in the all time list, behind Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button
With ninth on the grid, Alex Albon recorded the best qualifying position of his career so far, reaching Q3 for the second time.
With his penalty applied, Sebastian Vettel finished behind both Williams cars in the 2019 British Grand Prix. It’s the first time a Ferrari driver has failed to score at Silverstone since Kimi Raikkonen crashed out of the 2014 event and the worst ever finishing position for a Ferrari car at the track which has not failed to finish the race.
Racing Point failed to pick up a point at the British Grand Prix. The last time the Silverstone-based team failed to score at the event was in 2012.
Neither Haas driver reached the end of the race. The team recorded their third double non-finish after the 2017 and 2018 Australian Grands Prix. You can also add the 2018 Italian Grand Prix to the list of double non-classified results for the team (Kevin Magnussen retired while Romain Grosjean was disqualified).
For the third season in a row, a McLaren driver finished in eleventh place at the British Grand Prix. Lando Norris finished just outside the points, just as Stoffel Vandoorne did in both 2017 and 2018. With sixth place, Carlos Sainz recorded the team’s best result at the track since 2014.
Renault recorded a double points finish. It’s the first time both Renault drivers have scored at the track since 2007!
Kimi Raikkonen picked up Alfa Romeo’s (formerly Sauber) first points at the track since Nico Hulkenberg finished tenth in 2013. Forgetting the team’s Sauber heritage, this is the first time an Alfa Romeo driver has scored points at Silverstone since 1951, when all three of the team’s drivers finished in the top six.
Lance Stroll recorded Racing Point’s (formerly Force India) first Q1 exit at Silversttone since 2009. It marked the team’s 100th Q1 exit since they were renamed as Force India. That means 10% of their Q1 exits have been courtesy of Stroll, who is yet to progress past Q1 with the team.
With both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc reaching the final part of qualifying, Ferrari became the first team to reach 450 Q3 appearances.