Sundaram Ramaswami
Drama and controversy ensued as the title protagonists spectacularly came to blows on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix. A clash that certainly will be remembered for several years with fans sharing divided opinions on the incident. But it was Lewis Hamilton who came out fairly unscathed and eventually won the race despite copping a time penalty. The Grand Prix was indeed an interesting one, just like the stats and facts that emerged from it.
Here are all the numbers from the 2021 British GP –
GENERAL –
- Lewis Hamilton secured victory at Silverstone despite serving an in-race penalty. The last driver to do so was his fellow countryman, Jenson Button at the 2011 Canadian GP, a whole decade ago.
- The race duration was just under the two-hour mark – owing to Verstappen’s crash and subsequent red flag – making it the longest British GP since 2014.
- This was the eighth time the British GP witnessed a red flag, the last four of which have been won by British drivers.
- Verstappen has led 403 laps this season, whereas his title rival Hamilton has led just 125 laps. Yet the defending champion is just eight points adrift of Verstappen’s tally.
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MERCEDES –
- Hamilton became the third driver (after Michael Schumacher at the Nurburgring and Ayrton Senna at Interlagos) to drive through a corner/straight named after them.
- Sunday’s victory was Hamilton’s 99th in the sport, one short of the magical century mark.
- The Brit tied the record for the most race wins at a single circuit – 8. He also has eight race wins at the Hungaroring, while Schumacher has the same amount of triumphs at Magny-Cours.
- It was also Hamilton’s ninth successive podium at the Silverstone circuit, a new F1 record, going past Alain Prost who took eight podiums on the trot at Circuit Paul Ricard in the 1980s.
- The defending champion is the only driver to have raced all 627 laps this year.
- The British Grand Prix is Mercedes’ most successful event with nine race wins here since 1955.
RED BULL –
- Since the 2020 Bahrain GP, Verstappen has either finished in the top two positions in every race or retired.
- Last time’s race winner, Verstappen has the highest DNF rate (21.71%) amongst active drivers since his F1 debut in 2015. Six of those have been first-lap retirements.
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- P16 was Sergio Perez’s worst race finish since the 2019 British GP. He hasn’t scored a single point in the last four races held at Silverstone.
- The Milton Keynes team failed to lead a Grand Prix for the first time in 2021.
- This was the first podium not featuring a Red Bull driver since last year’s Sakhir GP.
- Red Bull took three points from the race, while Mercedes went home with 43 points. That brought their gap in the Constructors’ standings down to just four points.
FERRARI –
- Charles Leclerc secured his first podium finish since the 2020 British GP.
- Finishing P2 meant Ferrari continued their streak of British GP podiums since the 2017 season.
McLAREN –
- Lando Norris’ 15-race points scoring streak is the longest by a McLaren driver.
- McLaren have scored double points in 13 of the last 15 races.
- The Woking-based team is the only one, apart from AlphaTauri, to score points in every race this season.
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ASTON MARTIN –
- Sebastian Vettel’s race performances this season replicate the figure of a sine curve. He started the season with four races outside the points, post which he struck some form by scoring in Monaco, Azerbaijan (a podium) and France. Since then, he has failed to finish in the top-10.
ALPINE –
- Fernando Alonso is on his longest points streak since Mexico ’17 – Spain ’18 (where he scored in 8 consecutive races).
- P7 on Sunday was his best British GP finish since 2014.
- The race also saw both Alpine cars scoring points, a first since Portugal.
ALPHATAURI –
- Pierre Gasly finished a race outside the points for the first time since the 2020 Sakhir GP.
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