At the 500th race in which a Mercedes-powered car has competed, Hamilton could take his 100th pole position and Verstappen could move further up the list of most wins without a title. Here are the milestones and records which could be broken at the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix!
THE MILESTONES
The 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix will be the 1,038th World Championship Formula 1 race. This will be the 27th Portuguese Grand Prix since the first event was held in 1951, as well as the eighteenth Portuguese Grand Prix to be held as a round of the F1 World Championship.
This will be the second time that the Algarve International Circuit has hosted a Grand Prix. It becomes the seventh track to have held exactly two World Championship F1 races.
On race day it will have been 189 days since the last Portuguese Grand Prix. That’s the second shortest gap between World Championship races in Portugal. The only shorter gap was between the 1984 and 1985 Portuguese Grands Prix, which was 182 days.
This will be the 500th race in which a Mercedes-powered car has competed. Mercedes become the fourth engine manufacturer to reach the milestone.
The 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix will be the third F1 race held on 2nd May. The last race held on this date was the 1999 San Marino Grand Prix.
The 63rd lap of the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix will be the 1,000th Grand Prix lap raced in Portugal in World Championship history.
THE RECORDS TO BREAK
Lewis Hamilton will be the first driver to have taken 100 pole positions in Formula 1 should he set the fastest lap time on Saturday at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
If Lewis Hamilton wins the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix, he will become only the fourth driver to have taken multiple wins at the event. The other drivers to have done so are Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Stirling Moss.
A win for Lewis Hamilton would see him join Stirling Moss and Alain Prost as the third driver to have taken back-to-back wins in Portugal. Moss did so in the first two World Championship Portuguese races, in 1958 and 1959, while Prost won the 1987 and 1988 events.
Max Verstappen could record his twelfth Grand Prix victory this weekend. If he does so, he will move ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa on the list of most F1 wins without being crowned World Champion. Verstappen would sit in a shared third place on the list with Carlos Reutemann.
Should Lewis Hamilton remain in the lead of the Drivers’ Championship after the Portuguese Grand Prix, he would overtake Michael Schumacher as the driver to have led the championship on the most occasions. Schumacher led the title after 121 Grands Prix during his career – a number which Hamilton will surpass if he leads after the Portimao race.
A pole position for Mercedes would see them equal Williams as the team to have taken the third most poles in F1 history. Williams have taken 128 pole positions in the sport – their most recent being at the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix.
If Mercedes win the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix, they will become the fifth team to take consecutive wins at the Portuguese Grand Prix, after Cooper, McLaren, Ferrari and Williams.
A 1-2 finish for Mercedes would see them equal Cooper and Williams as the team to have taken the most 1-2 finishes at the Portuguese Grand Prix. No team has taken more than two 1-2 finishes at the event, while Cooper are the only team to have done so in consecutive seasons.
At the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen equalled the record for the most common podium trio in Formula 1. If they finish together on the podium again this weekend, it would be the fifteenth time they have done so: a new record for the most common trio. The record is currently shared between this trio and Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel.
If anyone other than Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas or Max Verstappen finishes on the podium, they would become the 30th different driver to finish on the podium at the Portuguese Grand Prix in World Championship history.
If Lewis Hamilton were to win the race, he would become the driver to have scored the most points at the Portuguese Grand Prix in World Championship history. It’s not particularly surprising, given that 25 points are now given for a win, compared to ten when sixteen of the seventeen previous races were held. Alain Prost currently holds the record for most points scored in Portugal, with 49.
Should a driver starting outside of the top three on the grid win the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix, it would be only the second time that the event has not been won from the top three on the grid. The only race that wasn’t won by a driver starting in the top three was the 1993 Portuguese Grand Prix, which Michael Schumacher won from sixth on the grid.
If the Safety Car makes an appearance in Sunday’s race, it will be the first time that the Safety Car has made an outing in a Portuguese Grand Prix.
Should the driver starting from second on the grid win the Portuguese Grand Prix, this will be the 250th World Championship race won by the driver starting from second. Only polesitters have won more races, with 435 Grands Prix having been won from pole.
If Kimi Raikkonen scores, he will become only the second driver to have a gap of over twenty years between his first and last points-scoring Grands Prix. Michael Schumacher is the only other driver who has achieved this.
A points-scoring finish for Sebastian Vettel would make him only the sixth driver to have scored points in fifteen consecutive seasons.
A podium finish for Carlos Sainz would see him join Nico Hulkenberg as the second driver to have more than 400 career points without ever winning a Grand Prix.
A pole position for Valtteri Bottas would be his seventeenth pole in Formula 1. Should he achieve it, he would move ahead of Stirling Moss and Felipe Massa on the list of non-World Champions with the most pole positions. Only Rene Arnoux, who took eighteen poles in his career, would remain ahead of the Finn.
If Kimi Raikkonen or Valtteri Bottas lead a lap, Finland will become the fifth nation to have had a driver lead in at least 200 Grands Prix. Meanwhile, should Daniel Ricciardo lead a lap, this will be the 100th Grand Prix in which an Australian driver has led a lap.
