Hamilton takes his 98th win, the podium is identical to last week and Vettel sets the longest point-less streak of his career. Here are the facts and statistics from the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix!
HAMILTON TAKES HIS 98TH WIN
Lewis Hamilton took victory at the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix, recording the 98th win of his career. This was his third win of the 2021 season. With his sixth Spanish Grand Prix victory, Hamilton equals Michael Schumacher as the driver with the most wins at the event.
2021 is the fifth season in a row that Hamilton has won the Spanish Grand Prix. Ayrton Senna – who won the Monaco Grand Prix in every season between 1989 and 1993 – is the only other driver to take five successive wins at a single circuit.
With three wins and a second place finish, 2021 is the best start which Hamilton has had to any of his fifteen seasons in Formula 1.
Hamilton’s victory was the tenth for a British driver at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
With his win, Hamilton becomes the first driver to win from pole position in 2021.
Hamilton led only twelve laps on his way to victory in the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix. It’s the sixth fewest laps Hamilton has led in a race which he has gone on to win.
Recording their seventh Spanish Grand Prix win in the last eight years, Mercedes move ahead of Williams in the all-time win list at the Catalunya circuit. Only Ferrari have taken more wins here than Mercedes.
With victory, Mercedes equalled Ferrari as the most successful engine manufacturer at the Spanish Grand Prix. Both manufacturers have won the event twelve times. Meanwhile, Mercedes now have more wins at Catalunya than any other engine manufacturer. This was their twelfth win at the circuit, passing Reanult’s former record of eleven victories.
ON THE PODIUM
For a fourth season in a row, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas shared the podium at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The podium at the Spanish Grand Prix was identical to the podium at the Portuguese Grand Prix one week ago, with Hamilton first, Verstappen second and Bottas third. It’s the first time that two consecutive races have had identical podiums since the 2016 United States and Mexican Grands Prix. This is the twelfth time successive races have had identical podium results in F1 history.
The 2021 Spanish Grand Prix podium was also identical to the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix podium. This is only the fifth time that consecutive races at a circuit have had identical podium results. It has happened three times at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya: 1998 & 1999, 2018 & 2019 and 2020 & 2021.
The top three on the grid finished in the order in which they started for a fourth time at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. It was also the seventh time that the top three starters have all gone on to finish on the podium at the track.
While Hamilton became only the second driver to record ten podium finishes at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Verstappen is the sixth to record five top three finishes, and Bottas made his fifth podium appearance at the track.
With second place, Max Verstappen passes Carlos Reutemann for eighteenth in the all-time list of most podium finishes in Formula 1. Meanwhile, with third, Valtteri Bottas equalled Nigel Mansell’s tally of podiums and is now just one away from equalling Nelson Piquet for tenth in the all-time list.
Mercedes recorded their thirteenth podium finish at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, equalling McLaren for second in the list of most top three finishes at the track. Meanwhile, Red Bull recorded their eleventh podium finish at the circuit, eclipsing Williams’ tally.
THE TOP 10
Charles Leclerc finished the Spanish Grand Prix where he started it in fourth place. With the top three also finishing in the order they started, 2021 is only the second time – after 2015 – that all of the top four cars have finished in the order they started at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
After the Spanish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc are the only drivers to finish in the top six at every race so far this season.
Finishing in sixth place, Daniel Ricciardo scored points for a fifteenth consecutive race, equalling the second longest points-scoring streak of his Formula 1 career. It was the first time Ricciardo has scored at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2018.
With both Ricciardo and Norris in the top ten at all four races so far this year, 2021 is the first season since 2011 in which McLaren have scored with both cars at all of the first four races of the year.
Ricciardo and Norris’ sixth and eighth place give McLaren their largest points haul at a Spanish Grand Prix since both cars finished on the podium in 2011.
With seventh place, Carlos Sainz maintained his record of scoring points on every appearance at the Spanish Grand Prix. He has finished in the top nine on all seven of his home race appearances.
2021 is the first time since 2015 that Sainz has finished the Spanish Grand Prix in a worse position than where he started from.
Esteban Ocon finished in ninth place, recording his first points at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2017. It’s the first time a driver for the Enstone team has scored at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya since Carlos Sainz finished seventh in 2018.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
Finishing in twelfth place, Kimi Raikkonen gained five positions in the Spanish Grand Prix – the most of any driver. It’s the most positions Raikkonen has gained in a race since last year’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Raikkonen’s twelfth place was his best Spanish Grand Prix result since finishing as runner-up in 2016.
Sebastian Vettel finished thirteenth in the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix. It is the first time since he retired when driving for Toro Rosso in 2008 that Vettel has failed to score at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Vettel has now failed to score at all of the last seven races. It is now the longest point-less streak in his Formula 1 career. His previous longest streak of races without points was six, between the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix and the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix.
For only the second time in the last six seasons, the Silverstone-based team failed to score at the Spanish Grand Prix. With Aston Martin failing to score at the previous race too, this is the first time since the 2019 Austrian and British Grands Prix that the Silverstone-based team have failed to score at two races in a row.
On their two previous appearances at the Spanish Grand Prix, Antonio Giovinazzi and George Russell finished sixteenth and seventeenth respectively. In 2021, both drivers improved their best result at the circuit, with Russell finishing fourteenth and Giovinazzi fifteenth.
THE ONLY RETIREE
Yuki Tsunoda recorded the first retirement of his Formula 1 career. This was only the second retirement for the Red Bull junior team at the Spanish Grand Prix in the last seven seasons. Tsunoda is their first retirement at the Catalunya circuit since Pierre Gasly in 2018.
Tsunoda’s retirement marks the third time in the last four seasons that the driver who has started sixteenth at the Spanish Grand Prix has retired.
This was the second year in a row that there was only one retirement at the Spanish Grand Prix.