After each Grand Prix of the 2022 season, Motorsport.com brings you a compilation of the most important statistics.
These are the interesting figures and data after the first round of the campaign, the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The grand prix and the drivers
– This has been the 18th edition of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which places the event on a par with the Portuguese GP in F1 history. The Sakhir circuit hosted 19 grands prix (the difference is due to the 2020 Sakhir GP), that is, as many as those of Indianapolis and Sepang.
– It was the fourth time that Bahrain had hosted the opening race of a season, after 2006, 2010 and 2021.
– Fernando Alonso made his 335th start in F1, which places him 15 starts short of the record for most grands prix races held, held by Kimi Raikkonen (350).
– Nico Hulkenberg , who was called up at the last minute to replace Sebastian Vettel , made his 180th F1 start. Only five drivers on the current grid have more.
– Guanyu Zhou became the 771st driver to make at least one start in F1, and the first Chinese. It is the 39th different nationality that has a representative on the grid of a grand prix.
– It was Mercedes ‘ 250th start as a team. The star brand has 135 pole positions, 124 wins and 265 podium finishes.
The classification
– Charles Leclerc took his 10th career pole, equaling Jochen Rindt. It was his second pole in Bahrain. The previous one had been the first of his F1 campaign in 2019.
– It is the 231st pole position for Ferrari as a team and the 232nd as an engine manufacturer.
– It is the Scuderia’s best qualifying result since the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix (Sebastian Vettel 1st, Charles Leclerc 2nd).
– For the 102nd consecutive grand prix, and despite his move to Alfa Romeo , Valtteri Bottas finished qualifying in the top 10 (grid penalties not taken into account). This is still a record.
– Kevin Magnussen ‘s 7th place is his best result since the 2019 Monaco GP and Haas’s best since the 2019 German GP ( Romain Grosjean 6th).
– Bottas’ 6th place is Alfa Romeo’s best result since the 2019 German GP (Kimi Raikkonen 5th).
– Mick Schumacher ‘s 12th place in qualifying was his best result since his F1 debut.
– For the first time in his career, Daniel Ricciardo was overtaken by a teammate in Bahrain qualifying. He qualified 18th, and excluding his disqualification at the 2019 Singapore GP, this is his worst result since the 2019 Hungarian GP (18th). To find something worse, you have to go back to the 2017 British GP (20th).
– For the second time in the last three grands prix, both Aston Martins were eliminated in Q1. This had never happened in the previous 46 qualifying sessions
The race
– Charles Leclerc got the third victory of his career. He matched Phil Hill, Didier Pironi, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Giancarlo Fisichella .
– Leclerc also set his 5th fastest lap in the race. He matched Giuseppe Farina, Jody Scheckter and Pironi himself.
– As a result, Leclerc became the 47th driver to sign a triplet in Formula 1 (pole position, victory and best race lap). He is the sixth current driver to achieve this performance, accompanied by Lewis Hamilton (19), Sebastian Vettel (8), Fernando Alonso (5), Max Verstappen (3) and Valtteri Bottas (2).
– Ferrari achieved its 239th victory as a team, its 240th as an engine manufacturer and its 85th double. The Scuderia had not achieved a 1-2 since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix (Sebastian Vettel’s victory ahead of Charles Leclerc). The 45 races without a win represented the team’s worst period without a win since the 59 Grands Prix between Spain 1990 and Germany 1994.
– It was the 14th podium for Charles Leclerc, who equaled Richie Ginther, the seventh for Carlos Sainz, as many as Luigi Musso, Pedro Rodríguez and Johnny Herbert , and the 183rd for Lewis Hamilton, the all-time record holder.
– Hamilton has been on the podium for 16 consecutive seasons from 2007 to 2022, a new record (15 consecutive seasons for Michael Schumacher from 1992 to 2006) .
– Carlos Sainz added his 16th consecutive race in the points, as well as his 30th consecutive finished race. Only Lewis Hamilton (62), Daniel Ricciardo (34) and Nick Heidfeld (33) did better in the latter aspect.
– Charles Leclerc, who led 55 of the 57 laps in Bahrain, made his 13th appearance at the top of a grand prix, as did Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Carlos Sainz, for his part, has exceeded 100 km in the lead (105), still far behind Leclerc (1,968).
– Ferrari led the entire race for the first time since the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix with Sebastian Vettel.
– Guanyu Zhou is the 77th driver to have entered the points on his debut, including the Indianapolis 500, which from 1950 to 1960 was part of the F1 calendar.
– With Valtteri Bottas 6th and Guanyu Zhou 10th, Alfa Romeo put in its best overall performance since the 2019 Brazilian GP (Kimi Raikkonen 4th, Antonio Giovinazzi 5th).
– For the Haas team, Kevin Magnussen’s 5th place represents his best result since the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix (Romain Grosjean 4th, Kevin Magnussen 5th).
– Mick Schumacher achieved the best result of his F1 career with 11th position.
– No McLaren was in the top 10 in this race (Norris was as high as 13th), a first since the 2019 Chinese GP (Sainz, 13th, was the highest the team had been).
– Red Bull recorded its first double DNF since the 2020 Austrian GP, then with Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon .
– Max Verstappen has the highest DNF rate on the grid (30/142, or 21.13%), ahead of Nico Hulkenberg (21.11%) and Fernando Alonso (20.60%).
