Hamilton takes a record-breaking home win, Verstappen joins the 1,000 points club and Gasly records his team’s best ever Silverstone result. Here are all of the facts and statistics from the 2020 British Grand Prix!
HAMILTON’S RECORD-BREAKING HOME WIN
Despite suffering a puncture on the final lap, Lewis Hamilton recorded his 87th career victory at the 2020 British Grand Prix. It was his seventh win at Silverstone, setting a new record for driver wins at their home Grand Prix. He previously shared the record of six home Grand Prix wins with Alain Prost. Though Hamilton has broken the record of most home Grand Prix wins, he is not yet the driver to have won on home soil most frequently. That honour belongs to Michael Schumacher, who won in Germany nine times in his career.
Lewis Hamilton is the first driver to have taken ten podium finishes at the British Grand Prix and is the first driver to have led 300 laps of the Silverstone circuit. Having led every lap of the race, Hamilton sets a new record for most lights to flag victories in Formula 1. Ayrton Senna was the previous record holder, setting the record in 1991, having led nineteen races from start to finish.
With his win, Lewis Hamilton is now just one top three finish away from equalling Michael Schumacher as the driver with the most podium finishes in Formula 1 history. Schumacher stood on the podium 155 times in his career, while Hamilton’s tally is 154 so far.
Mercedes recorded their seventh victory at Silverstone, as well as their thirteenth podium at the track. The 2020 British Grand Prix marked the team’s 90th win from pole position in Formula 1, equalling the tally of McLaren’s wins from pole. Only Ferrari have won having started from pole position on more occasions.
For only the fourth time in Formula 1 history, seven consecutive Grands Prix have been won from pole position. The last time this rare occurrence happened was between the 2000 Belgian Grand Prix and the 2001 Malaysian Grand Prix.
ON THE PODIUM
Max Verstappen finished as runner-up in the 2020 British Grand Prix, scoring his 34th podium finish and a sixth podium from the last seven races. This was Red Bull’s eleventh podium finish at Silverstone – their first since 2016.
On the final lap of the race, Max Verstappen set a new Lap Record. He beat the Silverstone record by 0.272 seconds and recorded the eighth fastest lap of his career. He becomes the 29th driver to have set the fastest lap of a World Championship race at Silverstone.
With second place and a point for fastest lap, Max Verstappen scored nineteen points and took his total career points to exactly 1,000. He is only the twelfth driver in F1 history to have scored 1,000 points.
Charles Leclerc finished in third place, recording his twelfth visit to the podium. He ties with the career podium tallies of Stefan Johansson and Robert Kubica. It was Ferrari’s 45th podium finish at the Silverstone circuit.
Both Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc recorded their second podium finishes at Silverstone, becoming the 36th and 37th drivers to have had multiple podium finishes at the track.
THE POINTS SCORERS
Finishing in ninth place, Lance Stroll scored points for a third consecutive race. It’s only the third time in his career that he has scored on three successive outings – the first time he has done so since the 2017 Italian, Singapore and Malaysian Grands Prix. This was also the first time in his career that Stroll has scored points at the British Grand Prix.
Lando Norris scored on home soil for the first time in his career, recording his third top five finish in the last four races. Norris’ fifth place was McLaren’s best result at the British Grand Prix since Jenson Button finished in fourth place in 2014.
Alex Albon, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Antonio Giovinazzi and George Russell all recorded their best British Grand Prix results.
With fourth place, Daniel Ricciardo equals his best result at Renault. He also finished fourth in the 2019 Italian Grand Prix. Ricciardo’s team-mate Esteban Ocon finished sixth. After the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the 2019 Italian Grand Prix, this is only the third time since Renault’s last victory at the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix that both Renault drivers have finished in the top six. It was the first time both Renault cars have finished in the top six at Silverstone since 2006.
With seventh place, Pierre Gasly recorded AlphaTauri (formerly Toro Rosso)’s best ever British Grand Prix result. Their previous best Silverstone finish was eighth, recorded by Daniel Ricciardo in 2013 and Carlos Sainz in 2016.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
The 2020 British Grand Prix marked the first time that Valtteri Bottas has finished a race in a position outside of the points since he finished eleventh at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix. It was also the first time that the driver starting second on the grid at Silverstone has failed to score since Mark Webber in 2008.
Finishing thirteenth after a late-race puncture, Carlos Sainz ended a six race streak of finishing in the points. The last time he failed to finish in the top ten was at the 2019 Mexico Grand Prix, where he also finished thirteenth.
Moving from last on the grid to twelfth at the end of the race, George Russell gained the most positions of any driver at the 2020 British Grand Prix and the most in his career. With twelfth place, the British driver equalled his second best ever result.
Kimi Raikkonen was the only driver to be lapped at the 2020 British Grand Prix, but he did make some history on a challenging afternoon. He became the first driver to have finished a race at Silverstone on sixteen occasions, surpassing the tally of fifteen finishes recorded by Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello. He also became the fourth driver to have raced over 900 laps of the Silverstone circuit, with his total laps raced here now standing at 935. Only Barrichello has raced more laps of Silverstone than Raikkonen (1,049).
HULKENBACK
Nico Hulkenberg returned to Formula 1 as a result of Sergio Perez testing positive for COVID-19. He was due to make his 178th start, but failed to make the start due to mechanical issues. It was the third DNS of his career, after failing to start at the 2013 Australian Grand Prix and the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix. Hulkenberg became the first driver to record a DNS since Kimi Raikkonen at the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix, and the twelfth driver to record a DNS in F1’s 54 visits to Silverstone.
THE RETIREES
For a second year in a row, Kevin Magnussen retired as a result of contact in the early stages of the British Grand Prix. He becomes the third driver to be the first retirement at Silverstone in two consecutive years, after Eddie Irvine in 1994 & 1995 and Mark Webber in 2006 & 2007. Haas have now recorded five retirements in five British Grand Prix appearances. 2017 is the only year that both of the team’s cars reached the end of the race. With Romain Grosjean finishing sixteenth, Haas scored the same result in the 2020 British Grand Prix as they did in the 2016 British Grand Prix.
For the first time in his six British Grand Prix appearances, Daniil Kvyat failed to finish. It was also only the second time that the Russian driver has failed to score at Silverstone.