Hamilton equals the Sakhir win record, Red Bull finish with both cars on the podium for the first time in over three years and Mercedes move up the order of most victories. Here are the facts and statistics from the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix!
HAMILTON’S 95TH VICTORY
Lewis Hamilton took victory in the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, winning for the 95th time in his career. He equalled Sebastain Vettel’s record of most Bahrain Grand Prix wins and equalled his own personal best of wins in a season. This was Hamilton’s eleventh win of 2020. Including Hamilton in 2020, there have been only eight occasions where a driver has recorded eleven or more wins in a year. This was the fourth time that Hamilton has achieved the feat.
For only the second time in his career, Hamilton took a fifth consecutive victory. The only other time that he has won five successive races was in 2014, when he won all five races between the Italian Grand Prix and the United States Grand Prix. Hamilton is only the second driver, after Michael Schumacher, to record five consecutive wins on multiple occasions.
Mercedes recorded their 115th Grand Prix victory, surpassing Williams for third in the all-time list of most Grands Prix won by a team. Prior to this race, Williams had sat third in the list since winning their 80th race at the 1995 San Marino Grand Prix. This was Mercedes’ fifth victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Hamilton led all but one lap of the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix. With that, Hamilton surpassed 600 laps led in the 2020 season. In F1 history, only 34 drivers have led more laps in their entire career than Hamilton has led this year. He has now led at least one lap in all of the last seven Bahrain Grands Prix.
The 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix is the first dead rubber Formula 1 race which Lewis Hamilton has won which was not held at Yas Marina Circuit. His win is the tenth victory for the polesitter in the last eleven dead rubber events.
Hamilton now leads the Drivers’ Championship by 131 points, which is the fourth largest lead ever held by a driver.
ON THE PODIUM
Joining Hamilton on the podium were the two Red Bull drivers. This was the first time since the 2017 Japanese Grand Prix that both Red Bull cars have finished a race in the top three positions.
While Hamilton became the first driver to record nine podium finishes in Bahrain, Max Verstappen and Alex Albon become the seventeenth and eighteenth different drivers to finish on the podium at the Bahrain International Circuit. Prior to the 2020 race, Sebastian Vettel was the only Red Bull driver to have finished on the podium at the track. Verstappen and Albon bring Red Bull’s tally of top three Bahrain finishes to five.
Hamilton’s podium was the eleventh for a British driver at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Britain therefore equals Finland as the nation with the most podium finishes at the event.
Max Verstappen finished on the podium for the 41st time in his career, equalling Felipe Massa for 22nd in the all-time list of most podiums. With the Fastest Lap, Verstappen also became the 36th driver to have recorded ten Fastest Laps in F1.
With third place, Alex Albon is the 145th driver to record multiple podium finishes in Formula 1.
THE TOP TEN
It was a successful day for McLaren, who finished with both cars in the top five for the third time this year. Finishing in fourth place, Lando Norris recorded the third top four result of his career. Carlos Sainz finished in fifth place for a second consecutive race, recording successive top five finishes for the first time since the 2019 German and Hungarian Grands Prix.
In both of the last two races, Carlos Sainz has started fifteenth and finished fifth. This was the first time that Sainz has scored at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
This was the first time that both McLaren drivers have finished in the top five at the Bahrain Grand Prix since 2007.
Valtteri Bottas finished the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix in eighth place. This is the first time Bottas has failed to finish on the podium at two consecutive races since the 2019 German and Hungarian Grands Prix.
Bottas’ eighth place ends a six year streak of both Mercedes drivers finishing on the podium at the Bahrain Grand Prix. This is the third consecutive year in which the driver starting second at the Bahrain Grand Prix has failed to finish on the podium.
Both Renault drivers finished in the points. The last time both Renault drivers finished in the points at the Bahrain Grand Prix was in the inaugural race here in 2004. It’s also the first time the Enstone team have had both drivers finish in the points in Bahrain since Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean both finished on the podium for Lotus in 2013.
With ninth place, Esteban Ocon maintains his record of scoring on every appearance at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
George Russell’s twelfth place was Williams’ best result at the Bahrain Grand Prix since Felipe Massa finished sixth in 2017.
Sebastian Vettel finished the Bahrain Grand Prix in thirteenth place. It’s the first time that he’s finished the event without scoring. The only other times that Vettel has failed to score at the circuit are when he retired in 2008 and when he failed to start in 2016. Just like Vettel, his former team-mate Kimi Raikkonen finished the Bahrain Grand Prix without scoring for the first time. It was also the third time that he has not scored at the track.
Kimi Raikkonen finished in fifteenth place for a second consecutive race. It’s the first time he’s finished in the same position at two races in a row since finishing third at the 2018 Mexican and Brazilian Grands Prix.
With Raikkonen fifteenth and Antonio Giovinazzi sixteenth, this is the first time that Alfa Romeo (formerly Sauber) have not scored at the Bahrain Grand Prix since 2017.
THE RETIREES
The 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix will be remembered for Romain Grosjean’s miraculous escape from a fiery crash on the opening lap. This was the first time that a driver was out of the Bahrain Grand Prix on the first lap since Sebastian Vettel in 2008. It’s Grosjean’s second DNF in as many races, and his second retirement at the Bahrain Grand Prix. From their five appearances at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Haas have now recorded four retirements.
The 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix was the first race in Sakhir to feature multiple Safety Car periods, as well as the first to be red-flagged. With the red flag period included, the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix lasted 0.515 seconds longer than the 1956 British Grand Prix.
The 2020 season is the first season since 2016 to have had three red-flagged races. Just like in 2016, 2020 has now had a total of four red flag periods.
It was a day to forget for Racing Point. Sergio Perez was set to finish on the podium for a second race in a row, but an engine failure in the closing stages left the team point-less. Lance Stroll had already been eliminated in an incident with Daniil Kvyat. This was Stroll’s fourth retirement in the last seven races. Meanwhile, this was the first race Perez has started this year in which he has failed to score. It’s also Perez’s first retirement at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
This was the first time that the Silverstone-based team have recorded a retirement at the Bahrain Grand Prix since Christijan Albers failed to finish for Midland in 2006 and the team’s first double DNF since the 2018 French Grand Prix.
Perez is first driver in sixteen races at the Bahrain International Circuit to fail to score having started from fifth on the grid.