Hamilton finishes on the podium for the 16th consecutive year, Tsunoda does something no driver has done since 2004 and Magnussen scores Haas’ best result in almost four years. Here’s a statistic from each driver’s 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.
🇳🇱 Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen competed in his first Grand Prix as World Champion, becoming the first new champion to start a Formula 1 race since Sebastian Vettel at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix. The Dutchman was the second retirement from the race, recording his fifth DNF at Bahrain International Circuit. Only Jenson Button has more finishes at the track than Verstappen. Verstappen continued the curse of Free Practice 3 in Bahrain. This was the fifth time in the last eight races at the circuit in which the driver fastest in FP3 failed to finish the race.
🇲🇽 Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez recorded his best ever Bahrain qualifying result with fourth on the grid. Things did not go so well in the race, as he retired one lap before the chequered flag. This was the third successive race in which Perez has retired. It’s the first time he has recorded three DNFs in a row during his Formula 1 career.
🇬🇧 Lewis Hamilton
With his 183rd podium finish, Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to record top three finishes in sixteen consecutive seasons. Hamilton also became the first driver to score points in 250 Grands Prix. Having recorded 103 wins, this was the 80th time that Hamilton has stood on the podium having not won the race. Only Kimi Raikkonen has had as many second and third places as Hamilton. Hamilton also equalled Raikkonen’s record of fifteen finishes at Bahrain International Circuit.
🇬🇧 George Russell
George Russell finished in fourth place, meaning that Fernando Alonso remains Lewis Hamilton’s only team-mate to finish ahead of him in their first race at the same team. Russell finished 1.536 seconds behind Hamilton – 0.261 seconds further behind than Valtteri Bottas finished in his first race as Hamilton’s team-mate.
🇲🇨 Charles Leclerc
After becoming the 36th driver to record ten pole positions in F1, Charles Leclerc ended Ferrari’s second-longest win drought at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix. Leclerc became the team’s fifth different winner in Bahrain and the ninth overall at the circuit. It was the third victory of his career; his first since the 2019 Italian Grand Prix. As a result of his win, Leclerc becomes the 61st different driver to lead the Drivers’ Championship.
🇪🇸 Carlos Sainz
With Carlos Sainz finishing in second place, Ferrari recorded their first 1-2 finish since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix. Sainz equalled his career-best result, finishing as runner-up for the third time. Crossing the finish line for the 30th race in a row, Sainz became only the fifth driver – after Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikkonen – to reach the chequered flag at 30 consecutive races. This was also the 16th consecutive race in which Sainz has scored. It’s the 20th occasion on which a driver has scored at 16 Grands Prix in a row.
🇦🇺 Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo qualified only 18th for the Bahrain Grand Prix – his worst ever Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying result. The Australian finished 14th in the race, making the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix the 175th race at which Ricciardo has crossed the finish line. That sees him move into the top ten of most races finished by a driver, usurping Nico Rosberg from tenth in the list.
🇬🇧 Lando Norris
Lando Norris’ 100% points scoring rate in Bahrain came to an end on his fifth appearance at the track. In better news, Norris became Daniel Ricciardo’s first team-mate to out-qualify him in Bahrain in his twelve appearances at the circuit.
🇪🇸 Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso set a new record for most races between a driver’s first and last appearances with the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix marking 393 races since his debut at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix. Alonso finished the race in ninth place, making 2022 the 18th Formula 1 season in which he has scored. He’s only the fourth driver to have scored in eighteen different seasons. The other drivers to have done so are Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Rubens Barrichello.
🇫🇷 Esteban Ocon
For the fifth time in six appearances in Bahrain, Esteban Ocon finished in the points. His seventh place was his best-ever result on the regular layout of Bahrain International Circuit. His only better result here came at the one-off Sakhir Grand Prix in 2020, held on the Outer Loop layout, where he finished as runner-up.
🇫🇷 Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly became the second driver to make 75 starts with the Red Bull junior team at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, but it was a race to forget for the Frenchman. Gasly became the 61st different driver to record the first retirement of the year. Gasly’s retirement came 45 laps into the race, which is the longest into the season before a driver has retired. It broke a record which had stood for 65 years, since Peter Collins became the first retirement of the 1957 season 27 laps into the race.
🇯🇵 Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki Tsunoda recorded the Red Bull junior team’s first Q1 exit in Bahrain since 2017 but went on to finish the race in eighth place. Tsunoda became the first driver to score in Bahrain from sixteenth on the grid since the inaugural race at the track in 2004. Fernando Alonso finished sixth having started sixteenth in the 2004 Bahrain Grand Prix.
🇩🇪 Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel did not appear at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix after testing positive for coronavirus. This was the first race weekend at which Vettel did not compete since the 2007 European Grand Prix and the first race which he did not start since the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix.
🇩🇪 Nico Hulkenberg
Nico Hulkenberg returned to F1 with Aston Martin, replacing Sebastian Vettel. This was Hulkenberg’s first appearance since the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix and his 180th start in total. Hulkenberg equalled his worst Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying result with 17th place – the same Saturday result he recorded on his last appearance at the track with Renault in 2019. He finished the race in the same position as he started.
🇨🇦 Lance Stroll
Lance Stroll qualified on the back row at the Bahrain Grand Prix for the second time in his career. His 20th place with Williams in 2018 is the only worse qualifying result in Bahrain than the 19th that he recorded in 2022.
🇹🇭 Alex Albon
Finishing in thirteenth place on his Williams debut, Alex Albon failed to score points at Bahrain International Circuit for the first time in his four appearances at the track. Both he and Lando Norris moved out of the 100% points finishers group in Bahrain, while Zhou Guanyu joined the club. Paul di Resta, Stoffel Vandoorne and Yuki Tsunoda are the only other drivers to score on every Bahrain Grand Prix appearance.
🇨🇦 Nicholas Latifi
Nicholas Latifi finished sixteenth in the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, making this the first Bahrain race which he has finished since his first F1 appearance at the track for the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix. He qualified slowest of the 20 drivers for the race, just as he did in 2020.
🇫🇮 Valtteri Bottas
On his first appearance as an Alfa Romeo driver, Valtteri Bottas continued his record-breaking Q3 streak. This was the 102nd race in a row at which the Finn has qualified in the top ten. Ironically, Bottas out-qualified George Russell, the driver who replaced him at Mercedes. He recorded Alfa Romeo’s best qualifying result since Kimi Raikkonen qualified fifth at the 2019 German Grand Prix. Bottas went on to finish in sixth place; the team’s best result since the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. Scoring eight points, Bottas becomes the fourth driver to have scored 100 points at Bahrain International Circuit. This was the tenth consecutive race at the track in which Bottas has scored.
🇨🇳 Zhou Guanyu
Zhou Guanyu became the first Chinese driver to compete in a Grand Prix as well as the 90th different driver to start an F1 race at Bahrain International Circuit. Zhou impressed on his debut, scoring a point with tenth place on his first outing. China became the 34th nation to score points in F1, while Zhou is the 66th driver to score points in his maiden Grand Prix.
🇩🇪 Mick Schumacher
With Mick Schumacher reaching Q2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix, this was the first race at which neither Haas driver was eliminated in Q1 since the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix.
🇩🇰 Kevin Magnussen
Kevin Magnussen returned to Haas in place of Nikita Mazepin, making his 120th Formula 1 start. In his first race appearance since the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Magnussen qualified in the top ten for Haas, recording the team’s first Q3 appearance since the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. Magnussen finished in fifth place. This was the first top five finish for a Haas driver since both Magnussen and Romain Grosjean finished in the top five at the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.
