Hamilton equals his best winning streak in F1’s longest race since Brazil 2016

2020 Bahrain Grand Prix stats and facts

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Once the dramatic events of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix had passed, the result was not unlike many races this year: Lewis Hamilton won from pole position.

This was the 95th win of his career and also his fifth in a row. That equalled his personal best winning streak. But, surprisingly for the sport’s most successful driver ever, seven other drivers have managed streaks as long or longer.

Nigel Mansell, Jim Clark and Jack Brabham all won five in a row. Michael Schumacher reached seven as did Nico Rosberg as he began the campaign which inflicted Hamilton’s last championship defeat, in 2016.

Alberto Ascari won seven successive races but also managed wins in nine consecutive appearances (excluding the 1953 Indianapolis 500, which was part of the world championship at the time, which he did not enter). Finally, Sebastian Vettel won nine races in a row in 2013.

Hamilton won an extremely wet Brazilian Grand Prix in 2016
If Hamilton wins the next two races he will equal the record of 13 wins in a season held by Vettel and Schumacher. They achieved those feats in longer seasons: Just 17 races are being held this year compared to 18 in 2004 for Schumacher and 19 in 2013 for Vettel.

If Hamilton takes pole position in the next two races, he will become the first driver in Formula 1 history to reach 100 during his career.

There are measures of Hamilton’s dominance everywhere you look. He’s now led 68.4% of all laps raced this season, which is the fourth-highest ever, behind Ascari’s crushingly dominant 1952 and 1953 titles (over 77% of all laps led) and Clark’s 1963 title win (71%).

Behind Hamilton, Red Bull achieved their first double podium finish of the year, and the first for Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon as team mates. It was a harsh blow for Sergio Perez, whose late-race MGU-K failure cost him what would have been the first consecutive podium finishes of his career (he had two in three races in 2016).

As in Turkey, Sainz went from 15th to fifth
Verstappen grabbed the fastest lap, which was the 10th of his career, putting him level with Graham Hill, John Surtees and Mario Andretti. He also set nine out of the 10 fastest laps of the race – the other went to Daniel Ricciardo.

For the second race in a row, Carlos Sainz Jnr started 15th but climbed 10 places to finish fifth. However it wasn’t enough to stop team mate Lando Norris reversing his one-point lead over him in the drivers championship.

Finally, the 80-minute delay caused by Romain Grosjean’s crash meant the race lasted a whisker under three hours. Hamilton won in two hours, 59 minutes and 47.515 seconds. It was the longest race since the soaked 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix, which Hamilton won, taking just over a minute longer to do so than he did yesterday.

Review the year so far in statistics here:

Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Bahrain Grand Prix? Share the most intriguing numbers you’ve noticed in the comments.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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7 comments on “Hamilton equals his best winning streak in F1’s longest race since Brazil 2016”

  1. His previous five-race winning streak came in 2014 (Italian, Singapore, Japanese, Russian, and the US GP).

    The top four on the (original) grid were the same as in Mugello and in the same order.

    The second consecutive DNF for Romain Grosjean in Bahrain.

    The second year in a row, the Bahrain Grand Prix finished behind the SC.

    The 115th race win for Mercedes, which moves them past Williams for 3rd on the all-time list, behind only McLaren (182) and Ferrari (238).

    Before this race, Max Verstappen had retired in Bahrain more times (3) than he had finished it (2).

    Pierre Gasly has finished 8th or better in all of his three Bahrain starts.

    Daniel Ricciardo scored for a 9th consecutive race, surpassing his total points finishes from last season and securing his longest points streak since the final 17 races of 2016.

    Valtteri Bottas finished off the podium in Bahrain for the first time since his last Williams season.

  2. More than being Red Bull’s first double podium this season, it was their first double podium in just over three years – the last time being Japan 2017 (and Hamilton and Verstappen finished first and second respectively at that race too). In fact over the last five seasons Red Bull have only recorded five double podiums.

    Yesterday’s double podium did however secure second place in the constructors’ championship for Red Bull – they now can’t be beaten in that respect.

    As noted above, Mercedes overtook Williams yesterday to lie third in terms of all-time wins (115 vs 114). Nine of Mercedes’ wins were recorded in the 1954 & 1955 seasons, so it’s not inconceivable that next year, ‘modern’ Mercedes will overhaul Williams’ total despite having only re-entered the sport in 2010.

    One rather unwanted record for Williams this weekend: George Russell took the record previously held by Max Chilton for ‘most race starts by a British driver without recording a single point’: 36 vs 35.

    Possible records and landmarks at next weekend’s race: if Hamilton scores at least two points he will notch up a straight run of 1,000 (or more) championship points at consecutive races; and thirteen more laps led will see him pass Michael Schumacher’s current all-time record (currently standing at 5,111 laps led).

    1. Also to add that Mercedes’ win this weekend was their 102nd of the hybrid era, in which there have so far been 136 races – a win rate of 75%. The win rate exactly matches that achieved by Mercedes when they originally participated in the fifties (9 wins from 12 race starts). The current win rate has been sustained over a far longer period of course – seven seasons (2014-2020) versus two (1954-1955).

      Worth noting that in both eras their win rate has been higher – hitting 100% both times by winning their first race (1954) and first six races (2014).

  3. And if Hamilton achieved a podium he will equal Michael Schumacher record for the most podium for same constructer.

  4. 5th year in a row that a team has locked out the front row in Bahrain.

    Red Bull’s first top 3 start in Bahrain since 2014. That year was also the last time Perez reached Q3 in Bahrain.

    Kvyat is now the outright holder of most career penalty points (26).

    Red Bull’s first Bahrain podium since 2013.

    Hamilton’s 11th win of the season – equals his personal best.

    First time this year that Perez has started the race but not scored.

    Norris is ahead of team-mate Sainz in the championship by virtue of having 1 more fastest lap.

    The failure of Perez’s BWT Mercedes engine cost the Racing Point team 15 points, the same number as the team’s illegal use of Mercedes designs cost them earlier this year.

    Thanks to Channel 4 and the official F1 site for some of these.

    1. @paulgilb

      Kvyat is now the outright holder of most career penalty points (26).

      Which coincidentally is also his driver number.

  5. To think that he was just an illegal pitstop and practise start(s) away from a record-breaking 10 in a row…

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