Hamilton finishes on the podium at Yas Marina for a seventh successive year, Vettel fails to score at the track for the first time since 2011 and Sainz records four consecutive top six finishes for the first time. Here’s a statistic from each driver’s 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend!
?? Lewis Hamilton
On his return to Formula 1 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton failed to qualify on the front row for only the second time in 2020. Hamilton finished third in the race, extending his record of most Abu Dhabi Grand Prix top three finishes to nine, and equalling Michael Schumacher’s record of most podium finishes with a single constructor. This was Hamilton’s 116th top three finish with Mercedes. Schumacher finished on the podium with Ferrari on 116 occasions during his career. This was the seventh year in a row that Hamilton has finished on the podium at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
?? Valtteri Bottas
After out-qualifying his team-mate at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the first time since 2017, Valtteri Bottas recorded his 56th podium finish, putting him one short of equalling Nico Rosberg’s career tally of top three finishes.
?? Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel failed to reach Q3 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the first time since 2015. This was his first Q2 exit at the Yas Marina Circuit. It was Ferrari’s 60th Q2 exit since the system was introduced in 2006. In the race, Vettel finished fourteenth. It was his worst finishing position of the 2020 season, excluding his two retirements. It was also his worst finishing position in a race which he has finished since his sixteenth place at the 2019 British Grand Prix. This was the first time since 2011 that Vettel failed to score at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
?? Charles Leclerc
Although Charles Leclerc maintained his 100% Q3 appearance rate at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, he failed to maintain his 100% points finishing rate at the event. His thirteenth place was the first time that he has finished outside of the top seven at the Yas Marina Circuit.
?? Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen took pole position for the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, making Red Bull the first non-Mercedes powered team to take pole this season. This was Verstappen’s third pole position and his first at the Yas Marina Circuit. He is the sixth different driver to take pole position at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since it joined the calendar in 2009. On Sunday, Verstappen took his second win of the 2020 season. This was the tenth win of Verstappen’s career, making him the 34th driver to have recorded ten wins in Formula 1. Verstappen became the sixth driver to have won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and made this the sixth consecutive year in which the polesitter has won the event. This was only the second time that Verstappen has won from pole position, having last done so at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, and the second time in his career that Verstappen led every lap of the race. The only other time he has done so is at the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix.
?? Alex Albon
With Max Verstappen taking pole, Alex Albon became the only driver on the grid to be out-qualified by his team-mate at all seventeen races in 2020. Albon finished the race in fourth, recording the fifth top four finish of his career.
?? Carlos Sainz
For the first time in his career, Carlos Sainz finished in the top six for a fourth consecutive race. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was also the first time since the Hungarian Grand Prix that Sainz finished in the same position as he started.
?? Lando Norris
Equalling his career-best qualifying performance, Lando Norris’ fourth place is the first time that a McLaren driver has qualified in the top four at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since Lewis Hamilton took pole position at the 2012 race. With fifth place in the race, Norris recorded the sixth top five finish of his F1 career.
?? Daniel Ricciardo
At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo failed to reach Q3 for the first time since the Spanish Grand Prix, ending a ten-race streak of top ten qualifications. It was also the first time he has not reached Q3 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since 2012, and the first time in ten appearances at the circuit that he was been out-qualified by a team-mate. In the race, Ricciardo set the Fastest Lap for the fifteenth time in his career. This was the eleventh consecutive race in which Ricciardo has scored, which is his longest streak since scoring in all of the last seventeen races of the 2016 season.
?? Esteban Ocon
Esteban Ocon out-qualified team-mate Daniel Ricciardo at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the first time since the Styrian Grand Prix. Ocon scored for a third consecutive race. It’s the first time he’s scored points at three successive races since doing so at the 2018 Austrian, British and German Grands Prix.
?? Sergio Perez
Forced to start from the back due to a power unit penalty, Sergio Perez failed to reach Q3 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for a third successive year. Perez was the only retiree from the Grand Prix. It was his second retirement in the last three races. 2020 is the first season in which Perez has not scored points at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since 2012. Of the last five newest winners in F1, four of them (Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez) retired from the race after their first win.
?? Lance Stroll
It was a weekend of firsts for Lance Stroll at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as he reached Q3 at the Yas Marina Circuit for the first time and scored his first point at the track.
?? Daniil Kvyat
Daniil Kvyat reached Q3 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the first time since 2015. His seventh place in qualifying is the second-best ever qualifying result at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the Red Bull junior team. The best result for the team was fifth in 2014, also recorded by Kvyat.
?? Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly qualified in the top ten at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the first time in his career. In the race, Gasly finished in eighth place for AlphaTauri, equalling the Red Bull junior team’s best ever result at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The team last finished eighth here in the inaugural race in 2009, with Sebastien Buemi in eighth for Toro Rosso.
?? Kimi Raikkonen
With twelfth place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen recorded his best result since scoring at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. It was also his best result at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix since finishing fourth in 2017.
?? Antonio Giovinazzi
For a second year in a row, Antonio Giovinazzi finished the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in sixteenth position. This was the seventh time that Giovinazzi has finished sixteenth in a Grand Prix. He’s the eighth driver to have recorded seven or more sixteenth place finishes in Formula 1.
?? Kevin Magnussen
On his final Formula 1 appearance, Kevin Magnussen finished in eighteenth place for the second time in his career. He last finished eighhteenth at the 2018 Singapore Grand Prix. His nineteenth place in the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix is the only time that Magnussen has finished a race in a worse position.
On his second race appearance, Pietro Fittipaldi qualified and finished in nineteenth position. With Haas having never retired at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Fittipaldi’s nineteenth place is the team’s worst ever result at the track.
?? George Russell
With George Russell qualifying in eighteenth place, ahead of Haas’ Fittipaldi, this is the first time since 2017 that Williams have not set the slowest two times in qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
?? Nicholas Latifi
For the seventh time in his rookie season, Nicholas Latifi qualified in last place. Latifi finished the race in seventeenth – the second time he has finished in that position in his career.
Read more statistics from the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend in our Post Race Statistics article!