Bottas does what no driver has done since 1981, Norris takes his first podium finish and Hamilton sets a new record for most consecutive finishes. Here are all the facts, figures and statistics from the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix weekend!
ADVANTAGE BOTTAS
For a second year in a row, Valtteri Bottas won the first Grand Prix of the season. It was the eighth victory of Bottas’ career and his second win at the Red Bull Ring. He’s the eighth driver to have recorded multiple wins at the Austrian Grand Prix, and the Red Bull Ring is the first circuit at which Bottas has taken two wins.
With his eighth career victory, Bottas equals the career totals of Jacky Ickx, Denny Hulme and Max Verstappen. He becomes only the sixth driver to record four podium finishes at the Styrian track.
Bottas was the first polesitter to win the Austrian Grand Prix since he did so himself in 2017.
The 2020 Austrian Grand Prix is the first race which Valtteri Bottas has led from start to finish. He becomes the 56th driver to record a lights to flag victory in Formula 1. Bottas has now led 143 laps at the Red Bull Ring – almost three times as many laps as any other driver on the 2020 grid. He’s one lap away from equalling Nico Rosberg’s record of most laps led at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas is the first driver to lead the Austrian Grand Prix from start to end since Jacques Laffite did so at the 1981 Austrian Grand Prix.
BOTTAS TAKES THE FIRST POLE OF THE SEASON
On Saturday, Valtteri Bottas secured his twelfth pole position, equalling the career tallies of Gerhard Berger and David Coulthard. It was Mercedes’ fifth pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas equalled the record for most pole positions at the Austrian Grand Prix. It was his third pole at the track, equalling the tallies of Niki Lauda, Rene Arnoux and Nelson Piquet. The Red Bull Ring becomes the first track at which Bottas has taken three pole positions. It is also the only circuit at which he has taken more than one pole.
Valtteri Bottas took pole position for the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix by 0.012s – the equal 29th closest pole margin in F1 history. It’s the same margin by which he took pole at the 2019 United States Grand Prix, just three races ago.
Valtteri Bottas equalled Rene Arnoux as the driver to have started the Austrian Grand Prix from the front row on the most occasions. The 2020 Austrian Grand Prix was set to be the first time since the 2019 British Grand Prix that both Mercedes lined up on the front row. However, a three-place grid penalty meant that this was the second race in a row that Mercedes set the two fastest qualifying times but only one lined up on the first row. Hamilton and Bottas set the two fastest times in qualifying at the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but Bottas started from the back of the grid due to a power unit penalty.
Valtteri Bottas becomes the 36th different driver to take pole position at a season-opening Grand Prix. The 2020 Austrian Grand Prix is the first time that pole has been decided by less than a tenth at the first race of a season since Michael Schumacher took pole by 0.047 seconds at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Mercedes maintained their record of reaching Q3 with both cars every year at the Austrian Grand Prix since its return to the calendar in 2014. Valtteri Bottas recorded his 63rd consecutive Q3 appearance.
Valtteri Bottas’ pole lap was the fifth shortest pole lap time in Formula 1 history. The record for the shortest pole lap belongs to Niki Lauda, who completed the only pole lap shorter than a minute at the 1974 French Grand Prix.
FIRST PODIUM FOR NORRIS
Lando Norris became the 40th different British driver to finish on the podium in Formula 1 and the 212th different driver to finish in the top three in the sport’s history.
At 20 years, 7 months and 22 days, Lando Norris becomes F1’s third youngest podium finisher, behind Max Verstappen at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix and Lance Stroll at the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Lando Norris became the first driver to finish on the podium in car number 4 since Felipe Massa finished in third place at the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.
As a result of Norris’ podium, this is the first time since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix that Lewis Hamilton is not the leading British driver in the Drivers’ Championship. On the previous occasion, Jenson Button led the way.
Lando Norris’ career-best fourth place in qualifying marked McLaren’s best qualifying result at the Austrian Grand Prix since Kimi Raikkonen lined up on the front row in 2003. Norris eventually moved up to third on the grid – marking McLaren’s first top three start since Jenson Button started third at the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix.
As well as scoring his first podium, Lando Norris became the 133rd driver to record the fastest lap of a Formula 1 race. His fastest lap time was 0.518s away from Raikkonen’s Lap Record at the Red Bull Ring. It is the exact time with which Max Verstappen set the fastest lap of the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix.
SUNDAY STATS
Charles Leclerc finished as runner-up for Ferrari. He recorded his eleventh career podium, equalling the career tallies of Chris Amon, Patrick Tambay and Jarno Trulli. It’s the second consecutive year that Leclerc has finished as runner-up at the Red Bull Ring. He becomes the 24th driver to take multiple podium finishes at his track.
This is the first time in Formula 1 that Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren have shared the podium positions.
Lewis Hamilton’s five-second penalty demoted him to fourth in the final classification. He joins Alan Jones, Carlos Reutemann and Sebastian Vettel as the fourth driver to have recorded two fourth place finishes at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Despite finishing only fourth, Lewis Hamilton made the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix the 34th consecutive race in which he has scored. It’s a new record for most successive races in which a driver has scored points, surpassing his own previous record of 33 consecutive points-scoring races which he had between the 2016 Japanese Grand Prix and the 2018 French Grand Prix. It is also a new record for most consecutive race finishes.
Sebastian Vettel finished in tenth place for the first time in his Formula 1 career. Of the top twenty positions, fourteenth and twentieth are the only positions in which Vettel is yet to finish a Grand Prix.
On his Formula 1 debut, Nicholas Latifi became the 765th driver to start a round of the Drivers’ Championship and finished in eleventh. That equalled George Russell’s best result.
For a second consecutive year, Antonio Giovinazzi scored points at the Austrian Grand Prix. It’s also the third year in a row that the Alfa Romeo team have finished in ninth place at this event. Giovinazzi’s ninth place finish marked the best result for an Italian driver at the Austrian Grand Prix since Jarno Trulli finished eighth in 2003. Giovinazzi scored from eighteenth on the grid. It’s the fourth time in the last six years that the driver starting eighteenth has scored.
On his return to Formula 1, Esteban Ocon scored his first points since the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix. His eighth place finish marked the first time that the Renault works team has scored at the Austrian Grand Prix since Alain Prost won in 1983.
Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon and Antonio Giovinazzi all maintained their 100% points scoring rate at the Austrian Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly maintains his 100% finish record at the event. The Frenchman has also gained positions from where he started on all three outings at the Red Bull Ring.
The 2020 Austrian Grand Prix lasted for a total time of one hour, 30 minutes and 55.739 seconds. That’s just 0.261 seconds longer than the time in which Riccardo Patrese won the 1990 San Marino Grand Prix.
This is the sixth Formula 1 race in history in which the polesitter won the race, the driver starting seventh finished second and the driver starting third finished third. The 1966 Dutch Grand Prix, 1984 German Grand Prix, 1988 Hungarian Grand Prix, 1995 Spanish Grand Prix and 2003 British Grand Prix are the other times it has happened.
There were three Safety Car periods at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix – the highest number of Safety Car outings in the event’s history.
THE RETIREES
Only eleven drivers reached the chequered flag at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix. Nine drivers retired from the race – the highest number of retirements at this circuit since 2001. Since the 2008 Australian Grand Prix, the 2015 Australian Grand Prix is the only other race in which as few as eleven cars have finished.
Daniel Ricciardo recorded his second retirement at the Austrian Grand Prix. It was also the second consecutive year in which Ricciardo has retired from the first race of the season.
Max Verstappen became the 59th different driver to record the first retirement of a Formula 1 season. It was his second retirement at the Austrian Grand Prix, having last retired from the event in 2017. Later in the race, Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Alex Albon also retired. It was the first time since 2014 that Red Bull failed to score at the first Grand Prix of the season, and the first time in their history that they have not scored at their home track. The team have now recorded four retirements at the circuit in the last four years.
Both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean retired from the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix. For a second season in a row, Haas failed to score at the Austrian Grand Prix. It was the team’s first double DNF since the 2019 British Grand Prix.
Daniil Kvyat failed to finish the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix. From his team’s seven appearances at the Austrian Grand Prix, the 2019 race remains the only one in which both cars have reached the end of the race.
Lance Stroll recorded his first Austrian Grand Prix retirement, and the event became the third race in a row from which the Racing Point driver has retired.
Kimi Raikkonen retired from the Austrian Grand Prix for the third time in his career. It was the first time an Alfa Romeo (formerly Sauber) has retired from the Austrian Grand Prix since 2003. Despite his retirement, Raikkonen became the first driver to complete 500 racing laps at the Austrian Grand Prix.
George Russell and Alex Albon each recorded their first retirement from the Austrian Grand Prix.
Largely as a result of all the retirements, no driver who finished the race lost a position from where they started. Valtteri Bottas, Lando Norris and Sergio Perez are the only drivers who finished where they started.
SATURDAY STATISTICS
The 2020 Austrian Grand Prix marks only the fourth time in his Ferrari career that Sebastian Vettel has failed to reach Q3. It’s the first time that Vettel has been eliminated in Q2 at Ferrari. The last time he recorded a Q2 exit was when he qualified eleventh at the 2014 Russian Grand Prix. The last time a Ferrari driver was eliminated in Q2 was at the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix.
In qualifying, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen equalled their previous best Austrian Grand Prix qualifying performances. Lando Norris set a new career best qualifying position with fourth, while Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll and George Russell all recorded new best Austrian Grand Prix qualifying results.
On his tenth appearance at the circuit, Kimi Raikkonen recorded his worst Austrian qualifying result. For the third time in the last four races, both Alfa Romeo drivers were out in Q1. It was the first time both of the team’s cars have been eliminated in Q1 at the Austrian Grand Prix since 2017.
Kevin Magnussen qualified fifth at the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix. In 2020, he recorded Haas’ first Q1 exit at the Red Bull Ring. On the other side of the Haas garage, Romain Grosjean equalled Fernando Alonso as the driver to have the most Q2 eliminations at the Red Bull Ring.
AlphaTauri (nee Toro Rosso) surpassed McLaren as the team to have had the most Q2 exits at the Austrian Grand Prix. Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly recorded the team’s seventh and eighth Q2 eliminations at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Williams saw both cars eliminated in Q1 for a 23rd consecutive race. George Russell was only 0.073 seconds away from reaching Q2.
Racing Point recorded their first Q3 appearance since Lance Stroll reached the top ten at the 2018 Italian Grand Prix. It’s the first time both Racing Point cars have reached Q3 since the 2018 United States Grand Prix.
PRACTICE STATISTICS
For the first time since Formula 1 returned to Austria, the same team was fastest in all three practice sessions. That honour went to Mercedes, who have topped the timesheets at at least one Austrian Grand Prix practice session since 2014.
Lewis Hamilton’s session-topping FP3 time (1:04.130) was the exact same lap time that he set in the same session at the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix.
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“Lewis Hamilton’s five-second penalty demoted him to fourth in the final classification. He joins Alan Jones, Carlos Reutemann and Sebastian Vettel as the fourth driver to have recorded two fourth place finishes.”
Am I misreading this? There are only FOUR drivers to have finished 4th more than once? That seems incredibly unlikely.
That would be incredible if true. I forgot to add the final part of the sentence – “at the Austrian Grand Prix”. Thanks for the heads up!