Hamilton breaks the record of most podium finishes, Racing Point finish with both cars in the top five and McLaren record their best Barcelona result since 2011. Here are all the facts and statistics from the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix!
A NEW ALL-TIME RECORD FOR RACE WINNER HAMILTON
Lewis Hamilton extended his championship lead with victory at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix. It was his 88th Formula 1 win and his fifth victory at the Spanish Grand Prix. It’s the fourth consecutive season in which Hamilton has won the event, setting a new record for most consecutive wins at the circuit. Hamilton won by a margin of 24.177 seconds – the largest win margin since the 2019 British Grand Prix and the largest margin seen at the Spanish Grand Prix since Kimi Raikkonen’s 2005 victory.
With his 156th podium finish, Lewis Hamilton now has more top three finishes than any other driver in Formula 1 history. He takes the record from Michael Schumacher, who had been the record holder since the 2002 British Grand Prix. This was Hamilton’s ninth podium finish at the Spanish Grand Prix.
In qualifying, Lewis Hamilton ensured that the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix would see him become the first driver to have started on the front row 150 times in his career. Read more: 2020 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying Statistics.
Hamilton’s win was the ninth for a British driver at Catalunya. British drivers are now the most successful at the track, having previously shared the record for most wins at the circuit with German drivers. Hamilton also secured the 20th podium finish for a British driver at the Barcelona track, also usurping German drivers from the top spot.
ON THE PODIUM
For a third year in a row, Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas joined Lewis Hamilton on the podium at the Spanish Grand Prix – though not in the same order as in the previous two seasons. The 2020 Spanish Grand Prix marked the first time that Red Bull have finished second at Catalunya and the first time that Mercedes have finished third at the track. It was also the first time a Mercedes driver has finished third at the Spanish Grand Prix since Juan Manuel Fangio did so in 1954.
Both Mercedes and Red Bull reached ten Catalunya podium finishes at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix. Mercedes now have eleven top three finishes at the track, while Red Bull have ten.
Max Verstappen finished on the podium for a fifth consecutive race and recorded his 36th top three finish. It puts him 24th in the all-time list, equal with Graham Hill, who secured 36 podiums over a nine year period. Verstappen becomes the ninth driver to have finished on the podium at Catalunya four times.
For the first time in his career, Valtteri Bottas finished in third place in two consecutive races. Bottas became the sixteenth driver to have recorded 50 podium finishes in his career, tying with Jenson Button’s career tally. It was his third podium finish at the Spanish Grand Prix.
On the final lap of the race, Valtteri Bottas set a new Lap Record at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, beating Daniel Ricciardo’s former record from 2018 by 0.258 seconds. Bottas is the sixteenth driver to have set the fastest lap of a race at Catalunya.
For the fifth time at Catalunya, the race winner lapped everyone except the podium finishers. This also happened at the circuit in 1993, 1994, 1996 and 2017. It’s the first time that as few as three drivers have completed every lap of a race since the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.
All of the podium finishers started within the top three on the grid. That’s the first time that has happened at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2015, and the first time it has happened in Formula 1 since the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
THE POINTS SCORERS
For the first time since 2014, McLaren did not record a retirement in the Spanish Grand Prix. It’s the first time that both McLaren cars have finished in the points in Spain since 2013, and Carlos Sainz’s sixth place is the team’s best result at the track since both cars finished on the podium in 2011.
Carlos Sainz maintained his 100% points-scoring record at the Spanish Grand Prix. He also equalled his best result at his home Grand Prix, having previously finished sixth for Toro Rosso in 2016.
Sebastian Vettel recorded his worst Spanish Grand Prix result since his retirement on his first appearance at the event with Toro Rosso in 2008. Nevertheless, finishing in seventh place, Vettel has finished in the top seven at Catalunya in every season since 2009. Scoring six points, Vettel becomes the second driver in Formula 1 history to have scored 3,000 career points.
The 2020 Spanish Grand Prix marks the first time since 2005 that neither Ferrari driver finished in the top six at Catalunya. That’s the only other time that no Ferrari has appeared in the top six at the circuit.
For a second year in a row, nine of the ten points-scorers at the Spanish Grand Prix started inside the top ten on the grid. Charles Leclerc, the only retiree of the race, was the only driver who failed to score having started in the top ten, while Sebastian Vettel was the only driver to score who did not start in the top ten. Vettel is the first driver to score from eleventh on the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix since Romain Grosjean in 2015.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
Both Alfa Romeo and Williams recorded the same result at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix as they did in the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix.
Finishing in twelfth place, Daniil Kvyat failed to score at the Spanish Grand Prix for the first time since 2014. The Russian driver maintains his 100% finish record at the track.
The 2020 Spanish Grand Prix marks the first time that Haas have failed to score at Catalunya since their maiden appearance at the event in 2016. For Romain Grosjean, this is the first time the Frenchman has finished the race in a position outside of the points.
For the first time in 2020, Renault failed to score a point. It’s the third time in the last five years that the team have left the Spanish Grand Prix without picking up a point.
THE ONLY RETIREMENT
Charles Leclerc was the only retirement of the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix, recording Ferrari’s third retirement from the event in the last four years. Leclerc is the first driver to retire having started from ninth on the grid at Catalunya since Ralf Schumacher all the way back in 1997.
With 19 of the twenty drivers finishing the race, the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix had the highest percentage of finishers from any of the thirty races held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. While it’s the highest percentage of finishers, there have been two occasions where more drivers have finished a race at the track, in 2011 (21) and 2014 (20).
AND FINALLY…
The 2020 Spanish Grand Prix was won in a time that was 0.264s longer than the 2002 British Grand Prix and 0.717s shorter than the 1998 Australian Grand Prix.