Qatar Grand Prix: interesting statistics

Several interesting statistical selections based on the results of the Qatar Grand Prix…

Qualification

Max Verstappen won qualifying and took his 30th career pole. Nico Rosberg had the same number of pole positions. The next benchmark is Nigel Mansell and his 32 pole positions.

Pole in Suzuka is Verstappen’s tenth of the season. The leader in this indicator is Sebastian Vettel, who won 15 pole positions in 2011 and also drove a car built by Adrian Newey.

George Russell qualified second, the third time this season and for the second time in the last three Grands Prix he started from the front row.

Lewis Hamilton qualified third and finished in the top three for the first time since the Belgian Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso set the fourth fastest time and extended his run of reaching the qualifying finals at all stages of the season.

Oscar Piastri was sixth on the timesheet and ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris for the fourth time in the last six Grands Prix.

Pierre Gasly qualified seventh, Esteban Ocon eighth: for the first time in the last seven Grands Prix, the Alpine team qualified with two cars for the final session.

Valtteri Bottas set the ninth fastest time and thus reached the qualifying final for the third time this year (after Miami and Hungary).

For the fourth Grand Prix in a row, Lance Stroll dropped out of the race in the first part of qualifying.

For the tenth time this season, Kevin Magnussen dropped out of contention in the first part of qualifying.

Race

After winning the Qatar Grand Prix, Max Verstappen took his 14th win of the season and 49th of his career. For Max, this is the fourteenth victory in a row when starting from pole – a new Formula 1 record.

In Qatar, Verstappen drove his 36th race in a row, moving him up to second place in the general classification for this indicator. Lewis Hamilton is in the lead with 48 finishes in a row.

In Formula 1, Verstappen won at 24 different circuits, surpassing Michael Schumacher in this indicator and taking second place after Lewis Hamilton (31 circuits).

Verstappen leads the drivers’ standings with more than 200 points. The largest gap at the end of the season is 155 points – Vettel in 2013.

In Qatar, Verstappen scored his 10th hat-trick (pole, fastest lap and victory), now only behind Jim Clark (11), Lewis Hamilton (19) and Michael Schumacher (22).

Second place is Oscar Piastri’s best result in the Grand Prix.

Lando Norris finished third, marking the first time since 2010 that the McLaren team had achieved two double podium finishes in a row. During the last three Grand Prix, McLaren won 91 points from Aston Martin.

By finishing eighth, Valtteri Bottas repeated the best result of his season, which he achieved in Bahrain. His teammate Guanyu Zhou also repeated his best result and finished ninth. For the first time this season, both Alfa Romeo drivers scored points in the same race.

Lewis Hamilton retired for the 30th time in his career, the sixth time this has happened on the first lap. Now there are only two drivers left who have completed 100% of the distance this season: Verstappen and Alonso.