Sundaram Ramaswami
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix may have earned its name from the Emilia Romagna region in northern Italy, but the race wholly and truly belonged to Mercedes. No team has dominated the sport in such a manner in any one era, and it looks like they are far from finished. One of the constants this year has been Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton breaking some record or the other at each Grand Prix, and the race in Imola was no different. However, apart from Hamilton’s 93rd GP victory and Mercedes’ record-breaking 7th successive championship, there were many more interesting facts from the race on Sunday.
Here are all the numbers from the 2020 Emilia Romagna GP –
GENERAL –
- This was the 100th Formula 1 Grand Prix to be held in Italy, with venues such as Monza (70), Imola (28), Pescara (1) and Mugello (1) contributing to that tally.
- The Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari has played host to 3 different Grands Prix – Italian (1980), San Marino (1981-2006) and Emilia Romagna (2020).
MERCEDES
- Last week’s winner, Lewis Hamilton, completed his 72nd race win with Mercedes and tied Michael Schumacher’s record with Ferrari for most wins with one constructor.
- Hamilton took victory at the 29th different circuit of his F1 career.
- With a lead of 85 points currently, the Brit can wrap up the drivers’ championship at Turkey.
- Hamilton has led 5021 laps in the sport and could surpass Schumacher’s record of 5111 laps later this year.
- Valtteri Bottas has lost 10 of the 15 races he started on pole, with Hamilton winning 6 of them.
- Mercedes won their 7th constructors title becoming the first team ever to clinch 7 successive championships. They are currently at par with Lotus who won 7 titles between 1963 and 1978.
- Mercedes have now recorded 100 race victories and 200 podium finishes in the hybrid era.
- This was the 199th win and 500th podium for cars running Mercedes power units in F1.
- Mercedes have won at each new/returning circuit in the hybrid era.
- Mercedes have a 253-point gap to Red Bull this year. The biggest gap between 1st and 2nd in a championship is 297 set by Mercedes in 2016.
RED BULL RACING
- Max Verstappen has retired from all the races held in Italy this year.
- Verstappen’s best finish at an Italian race is 5th which came at the 2018 Italian GP. His fellow Red Bull squad members have had better fortunes – Pierre Gasly (1st at 2020 Italian GP), Alex Albon (3rd at 2020 Tuscan GP) and Daniil Kvyat (4th at 2020 Emilia Romagna GP).
- The Dutchman has an interesting pattern to his races this year. He either finishes on the podium or retires altogether.
- Red Bull’s race results at the Italian GP and Emilia Romagna GP are exactly the same. In both races, Verstappen retired while Albon finished 15th.
- Albon has finished outside the points in two consecutive races now. The last Red Bull driver to do so was Mark Webber in 2009, who failed to score points at the European and Belgian GPs.
- Red Bull have failed to score points for the 3rd time in 13 races this season. This hasn’t happened since 2009, during Red Bull’s formative years in the sport.
RENAULT
- Daniel Ricciardo has scored 2 podiums in the last three races. His previous 2 podiums – both of which were race victories – came in 2018.
- This was Ricciardo’s best finish in a race in Italy.
- Renault finished on the podium for the 3rd consecutive time at Imola (2020, 2006, 2005).
McLAREN
- This was McLaren’s first double points finish since the Italian GP, 5 races earlier.
RACING POINT
- Racing Point have accumulated 52 points in the last 5 races, of which 48 were by Sergio Perez and 4 by Nico Hulkenberg. Lance Stroll hasn’t scored a point since his 3rd place finish at the Italian GP.
FERRARI
- Ferrari had scored a podium in each of the last 13 races at Imola (1994-2006). That streak came to an end on Sunday with Charles Leclerc’s P5 finish.
- Sebastian Vettel hasn’t finished higher than P10 for the 7th race in succession, something that hasn’t happened before in his 14-year career.
ALPHATAURI
- P4 at the Emilia Romagna GP was Kvyat’s best race finish since last year’s German GP, where he finished 3rd in a rain-marred race.
- Pierre Gasly has a love-hate relationship with races in Italy. He either wins or doesn’t score points at all. His points haul at each Italian race so far is 0, 0, 25, 0 and 0.
- AlphaTauri/Toro Rosso’s highest points tally in a season was 85, achieved last year. With Kvyat’s 4th place finish at Imola, the team have surpassed that mark and are currently at 89 points. Going by their 10-race points streak, they look set to breach the 100-point mark for the first time in the team’s history.
ALFA ROMEO
- Both Alfa Romeo cars scored points for the first time since the 2019 Brazilian GP.
HAAS
- Kevin Magnussen has retired in 6 races in 2020, the most this season.
