Bottas takes his second win of the season, McLaren fail to score for the first time in 2020 and AlphaTauri record their best Sochi result. Here are the facts and statistics from the 2020 Russian Grand Prix!
BOTTAS WINS
Valtteri Bottas took the ninth victory of his career at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix. He becomes the second driver, after team-mate Lewis Hamilton, to have taken multiple wins at the Russian Grand Prix. Bottas also won the race in 2017. Both of the Finn’s victories at the circuit have come from third on the grid.
With his first victory since the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, Bottas equalled the number of victories recorded by Mark Webber and Max Verstappen.
Sochi Autodrom becomes the second circuit at which Bottas has won on multiple occasions. The Red Bull Ring is the only other circuit at which Bottas has won twice.
Bottas scored 26 points at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix as a result of also picking up the Fastest Lap of the race. He’s the only driver to have recorded multiple Fastest Laps at Sochi Autodrom. It’s the fifteenth Fastest Lap of his career; the same number as recorded by Jackie Stewart, Clay Regazzoni and Felipe Massa. As a result of his 26 points, Bottas becomes the second driver to have scored 100 points at the Russian Grand Prix.
As a result of Bottas winning, Finland remain top of the list of most podium finishes – one ahead of Britain. This was the fifth podium for Bottas at the circuit, and the sixth in total for a Finnish driver.
On their 220th appearance, Mercedes recorded their 110th win, meaning that the team has won half of the races which they have entered. That’s the highest winning percentage for any team in Formula 1 history. Mercedes are the fourth team to have recorded 110 wins. Ferrari were first to do so at the 1997 Canadian Grand Prix, McLaren recorded their 110th win at the 1998 San Marino Grand Prix and Williams took their 110th victory at the 2003 European Grand Prix.
Mercedes set a new record for most consecutive victories at a single circuit. They’ve won at Sochi Autodrom every time since the circuit first appeared on the calendar in 2014.
For a third race in a row, a Mercedes driver recorded the Fastest Lap of the race. It’s the first time the team have recorded the Fastest Lap at three consecutive events since the 2018 United States, Mexican and Brazilian Grands Prix.
ON THE PODIUM
Max Verstappen finished as runner-up in the 2020 Russian Grand Prix, recording Red Bull’s first podium finish at Sochi Autodrom. It was Verstappen’s 38th podium finish, and the 40th overall for a Dutch driver. Verstappen is the eighth different driver to have finished in the top three at the Russian Grand Prix, while Red Bull are the fifth different team to have finished on the podium in Sochi.
For a fourth Russian Grand Prix in a row, the polesitter failed to win. Lewis Hamilton finished in third place, recording his 159th podium finish. It marks the first time that Hamilton has lost positions from where he started at this circuit. It was his sixth podium finish at Sochi Autodrom.
Lewis Hamilton led fifteen laps of the Russian Grand Prix. Of the last thirty races, Hamilton has failed to lead only two: the 2019 Italian Grand Prix and the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton started on pole, making this the 600th time that a British driver has started on the front row of the grid at a World Championship Formula 1 Grand Prix.
With both Bottas and Hamilton finishing on the podium, Mercedes have now taken twelve podium finishes at the Russian Grand Prix. That’s twice as many as any other team has recorded at the event.
Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton finished on the podium together for the eleventh time. It’s the sixth time that they have done so this year. Only four trios have finished on the podium together more frequently in F1’s history.
The 2020 Russian Grand Prix is the sixth time that the top three have finished in the reverse order of how they started. This is something which did not happen in Formula 1 until the 1999 Austrian Grand Prix. It last happened at the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix.
THE TOP TEN
Sergio Perez finished in fourth place, recording his best result of the season to date and his best result since finishing on the podium at the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He maintains his record of having scored in every race which he has entered this year, and – along with Hamilton – is one of only two drivers to have scored at all seven Russian Grands Prix held since 2014. The 2020 Russian Grand Prix marked the first time that the Mexican has finished where he started at Sochi Autodrom. He’s the seventh different driver to finish fourth at the Russian Grand Prix. No driver has finished fourth more than once in Sochi.
Failing to win the 2020 Russian Grand Prix, Perez overtakes Nick Heidfeld as the driver to have started the most F1 races without recording a victory.
The top five on the grid all went on to finish in the top five in the race for the first time in Russian Grand Prix history.
Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix, recording his best ever result at the circuit. It’s also his team’s best result at the circuit. Both Renault drivers finished in the points at the Russian Grand Prix for the first time. Esteban Ocon finished seventh in the race, equalling the team’s previous best result at the circuit. It also matched Ocon’s previous best result at the track. He finished seventh here with Force India in 2017.
Before the 2020 Russian Grand Prix, the Red Bull junior team had scored only two points at Sochi Autodrom. Daniil Kvyat finished eighth in the 2020 race, with Pierre Gasly finishing ninth, meaning the team picked up six points.
Kvyat recorded the team’s best-ever result at the circuit. It was the first tme that the Russian has scored at his home event with his current team. His only other points here came with Red Bull, with whom he finished fifth in 2015.
Pierre Gasly also beat his team’s previous best Russian result. It’s the first time that Gasly has scored in Russia, and the first time that he has finished a race in the same position as where he started since the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
Antonio Giovinazzi finished one position outside of the points in eleventh place. It’s the best result that he has recorded at the Russian Grand Prix, and his best result since finishing ninth at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix.
For the second year in a row, Sebastian Vettel failed to score at the Russian Grand Prix. Finishing in thirteenth place, Vettel is the first Ferrari driver to finish a race at Sochi Autodrom in a position outside of the points.
Kimi Raikkonen finished in fourteenth place at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix. At the event, he equalled Rubens Barrichello’s record of most Formula 1 starts.
With Lando Norris finishing in fifteenth and Carlos Sainz failing to finish, the 2020 Russian Grand Prix is the first race at which McLaren have failed to score since the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix. Norris failed to score for only the second time in 2020. He lost seven positions from where he started – which is the most positions he has lost in any F1 race where he has reached the chequered flag.
For a third year in a row, Williams failed to score at the Russian Grand Prix. However, their 2020 result was an improvement on last year’s double retirement. George Russell finished a race at the track for the first time. The group of drivers to have retired on every appearance at the circuit reduces to five: Brendon Hartley, Kamui Kobayashi, Max Chilton, Rio Haryanto and Robert Kubica.
Kevin Magnussen equalled his second-best result of the season with twelfth place, while Romain Grosjean finished seventeenth. It’s the first time since 2017 that Haas have failed to score at Sochi Autodrom.
With a maximum of 182 points still available in 2020, Sebastian Vettel, Daniil Kvyat, Nico Hulkenberg, Kimi Raikkonen, Antonio Giovinazzi, Kevin Magnussen, Nicholas Latifi, George Russell and Romain Grosjean no longer have a mathematical chance of winning the 2020 Drivers’ Championship.
THE RETIREES
There were two retirements from the 2020 Russian Grand Prix: Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll. Both drivers also retired from the last race at Mugello. It’s the first time that Sainz has recorded consecutive retirements since the 2019 Belgian and Italian Grands Prix, and the first time that Stroll has done so since retiring from the 2019 Brazilian, Abu Dhabi and 2020 Austrian Grands Prix.
Both Sainz and Stroll were eliminated on the first lap. This is the fourth time in the last five Russian Grands Prix that at least one car has retired on the opening lap of the race.
Carlos Sainz recorded McLaren’s first DNF in Russia, though it is not their first non-finish. Fernando Alonso failed to make the start of the Sochi race in 2017.
Lance Stroll is the first driver to retire having started from twelfth at the Russian Grand Prix. He recorded his team’s first retirement at the circuit since 2016. It was the Canadian’s first non-finish at the circuit. Stroll has never scored at Sochi Autodrom.
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