Hamilton takes victory at a 30th different circuit, Alonso finishes on the podium for the first time since 2014 and Red Bull are on their best finishing streak since 2011. Here are the facts and statistics from the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix.
HAMILTON WINS IN QATAR
Lewis Hamilton claimed victory at the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, taking the 102nd victory of his Formula 1 career. With victory at Losail International Circuit, Hamilton became the first driver to win at 30 different circuits during his career.
Hamilton has won from pole position at four of the last five new venues to join the Formula 1 calendar.
Losail is the 35th different circuit at which Hamilton has raced in his F1 career. He’s failed to win at only four venues he’s visited and has failed to finish on the podium at only one; the latter being Buddh International Circuit.
ON THE PODIUM
Max Verstappen finished as runner-up in the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, recording his 58th podium finish. As a result, he overtakes Nico Rosberg for thirteenth in the all-time list of most podium finishes.
Verstappen’s second place means that he now has a mathematical chance of winning the title at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Read more: How the title can be won in Jeddah.
Fernando Alonso took his first podium finish since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix. With 146 races having passed since his last top three result, Alonso set a new record for the most races between two podium finishes.
Alonso started from the top three on the grid for the first time since driving for Ferrari at the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix. The last time that Team Enstone started on the front row was the race before that, when Kimi Raikkonen started on the front row with Lotus at the 2013 United States Grand Prix
Losail International Circuit is the 27th at which Alonso has recorded a podium finish, putting him equal with Michael Schumacher for fourth in the list of most circuits at which a driver has taken a top three result.
Alonso is only the second driver in their 40s to finish on the podium since Nigel Mansell at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix. The only other driver to have done so in the last 26 years is Michael Schumacher at the 2012 European Grand Prix.
Alpine became the first team other than Mercedes or Red Bull to finish on the podium since Ferrari at the Russian Grand Prix.
2021 becomes only the second F1 season in which multiple Spanish drivers have finished on the podium. The other season was 2006, when both Alonso and Pedro de la Rosa finished on the podium.
THE POINTS SCORERS
Sergio Perez finished in fourth place. Both Red Bull have finished in the top five at all of the last five races. The last time that both Red Bull cars finished in the top five at five or more consecutive races was at the opening 12 rounds of the 2011 season.
With fifth place, Esteban Ocon made this the second time in 2021 that both Alpine drivers have finished in the top five. Both drivers finished in the top four when Ocon won the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Lance Stroll finished in sixth place, recording his best result of the 2021 season. It’s his best finishing position since finishing on the podium at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz finished in the points for a thirteenth consecutive race. This was the 27th race in a row at which Sainz has reached the chequered flag. That sees him equal the seventh longest finishing streak in F1.
With Lance Stroll sixth and Sebastian Vettel tenth, Aston Martin recorded their third double points finish of the season. Their last double points finish was at the French Grand Prix.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
Pierre Gasly started from the front row of the grid for the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, recording his first front row start. His previous best grid position was fourth place. Gasly is the first French driver to start from the front row since Romain Grosjean at the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Gasly fell nine places in the race, making this the seventh race of the 2021 season at which he has failed to score. It’s only the third time this year that he has reached the chequered flag without picking up a point.
With Yuki Tsunoda also finishing outside of the points, this was the first time AlphaTauri have not scored since the Russian Grand Prix.
Daniel Ricciardo has failed to score at any of the last three races. It’s his longest pointless streak since the 2019 Singapore, Russian and Japanese Grands Prix.
After a late race puncture, George Russell finished only seventeenth. It’s his worst result in a race he has finished since finishing eighteenth at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix.
THE RETIREES
Valtteri Bottas recorded his fourth retirement of the 2021 season. It’s the highest number of retirements he’s recorded in any season of F1 which he has competed in. In his previous four seasons with Mercedes, Bottas had recorded only six retirements in total.
Nicholas Latifi was the second retirement from the Qatar Grand Prix. Like Bottas, this was his fourth DNF of the year.
