Sundaram Ramaswami
The 2020 F1 season has been a special one in all aspects, and the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday was no less iconic. A brilliant start from pole by Lance Stroll was converted to a historic win for Lewis Hamilton who has now reached the summit of Formula 1 in terms of championships. As has been the case this year, Mercedes and Hamilton continued to break records aplenty, while Sebastian Vettel surprisingly jumped right in to preserve a few.
Here are all the numbers from the 2020 Turkish GP –
GENERAL –
- Sunday was the first time the Turkish GP wasn’t won by a driver starting from the front row.
- The polesitter or race winner has never set the fastest lap at Turkey.
- This season has seen 12 different drivers finish on the podium, the most since 2012.
- The drivers who made it to the podium (Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel) were the only three drivers who featured in the last Turkish GP in 2011. Experience counts eh?
- Hamilton, Perez and Vettel have appeared on the podium together for just the 2nd time, the first one being the 2015 Russian GP.
- Five drivers led the race on Sunday, more than any other race this season, and for the first time since ‘that’ 2016 Austrian GP. Hamilton won both races.
MERCEDES –
- Hamilton claimed the Drivers Championship for the 7th time – equalling Michael Schumacher’s all-time record – and 6th with Mercedes, the most any driver has won with one constructor.
- This was the Brit’s 4th consecutive title, equalling Fangio and Vettel’s feat. Only Schumacher has fared better with 5 consecutive titles between 2000 and 2004.
- Hamilton won his 73rd race for Mercedes since joining them in 2013, a new record for victories with one constructor. Apart from Michael Schumacher, no driver has managed to go past 40.
- The last time Hamilton started a race in 6th place was at the 2014 British GP, which coincidentally also had a wet qualifying session. The Brit won that race as well.
- This was the 200th race win for Mercedes engines, only 39 behind Ferrari.
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- Mercedes became the third-most successful constructor in F1 as they registered their 114th win in the sport, tying with Williams on the all-time list with only Ferrari (238) and McLaren (182) ahead.
- They failed to start a race in the top-5 for the first time in the hybrid era. The last time it happened was at the 2013 Italian GP.
- Mercedes have won at every new/returning circuit in the hybrid era.
- The Brackley-based team have scored 500 points this season, while their nearest rival, Red Bull, have scored less than half that tally.
RACING POINT –
- Racing Point (34) have led more laps than Red Bull (32) this season.
- Sergio Perez led a race for the first time since the 2014 Austrian GP.
- Perez secured his best race result since the 2012 Italian GP, where he finished second to Hamilton again.
- The last time Force India/Racing Point secured pole position (2009 Belgium GP), they finished the race in 2nd with Sebastian Vettel in 3rd, similar to the Turkish Grand Prix.
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FERRARI –
- German drivers have at least one podium finish in each season since 1992. Sebastian Vettel’s 3rd place meant that streak extended to its 29th successive year.
- Vettel scored his first podium of the year, 385 days since his last one at the 2019 Mexico GP.
- The German has scored at least one podium finish every year, since his first full season in 2008. That’s 13 consecutive years with the overall record being 15 set by Michael Schumacher.
- In terms of points, this was Ferrari’s best race result since the 2019 Mexico GP.
- Charles Leclerc finished in the points for the 6th consecutive time this year.
RED BULL –
- Red Bull Racing’s 300th race in F1 didn’t go as planned. Max Verstappen had appeared on the podium in every race he finished since the 2019 USA GP, a streak which ended at the Turkish Grand Prix.
- Alex Albon became the 2nd Asian driver – after Takuma Sato – and first Thai driver to lead an F1 race.
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RENAULT –
- Last time’s podium finisher, Daniel Ricciardo, managed to score points for the 8th consecutive race.
ALPHATAURI –
- AlphaTauri’s record run of 10 straight points finishes came to a halt on Sunday, as Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat ended up 12th and 13th respectively.
- The last time both their drivers finished a race outside the points was the 2019 Russian GP, over a year ago.
WILLIAMS –
- Williams enjoyed a golden period between the 2014 Australian GP and 2015 Spanish GP where they scored points in 24 consecutive races, a record for the team. They have now gone 24 races without a single point, something the team hasn’t endured before in its illustrious history.
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