Fan opinion: Key 2019 Australian GP statistics for every driver

By user NickyHaldenby on Motorsport Fans

Valtteri Bottas leads the title race for the first time, Lewis Hamilton breaks a 30-year-old record, and Carlos Sainz takes an unwanted record. Here’s a statistic from every driver’s Australian GP weekend…

Lewis Hamilton: After taking a sixth consecutive Australian Grand Prix pole, Hamilton failed to win from pole position for the 37^th time in his career. He’s now taken pole and failed to go on to win the race on more occasions than any other driver, beating Ayrton Senna’s previous record. Senna has held the record since he took it from Nelson Piquet at the 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix, almost exactly 30 years ago.

Valtteri Bottas: Following the fourth win of his career, this is the first time the Finn has led the Drivers’ Championship. It’s the first time someone other than Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel has led the title race since the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It also marks the first time since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix that a driver other than Hamilton, Vettel or Nico Rosberg has led the Drivers’ Championship.

Sebastian Vettel: The 2019 Australian Grand Prix is the first time Vettel has finished the even in a position lower than where he started it since 2013. It’s the first race at Albert Park at which no Ferrari driver has appeared on the podium since 2014.

Charles Leclerc: Set the fastest time in the first part of qualifying this weekend. It’s only the second time in the last five seasons that someone other than a Mercedes driver has set the fastest time in a qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix – the other being Vettel in Q2 in 2018.

Max Verstappen: After finishing third in the Australian Grand Prix, Verstappen continues his streak of podiums which began at last year’s Japanese Grand Prix. Finishing on the podium from fourth on the grid, this marks the first time a driver starting outside of the top three at Albert Park has finished on the podium at the track since 2015.

Pierre Gasly: Finished outside the points on his Red Bull debut. The Frenchman is in good company in failing to score on his first appearance with Red Bull. Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, and Daniil Kvyat all also failed to score in their first race with the team.

Daniel Ricciardo: Retired from his home event for the third time and was out-qualified by his team-mate here for a third season in a row.

Nico Hulkenberg: Finished seventh in the Australian Grand Prix. It’s the fourth time he’s finished in seventh at the event in the past five seasons.

Romain Grosjean: Has now started from sixth in every Australian Grand Prix since 2017 and retired from all three events. From his eight Albert Park appearances, he’s retired six times, including five times in the last six years.

Kevin Magnussen: Scored for the first time at the Australian Grand Prix since he took a podium finish on debut at the track. It marked only the second time a Haas car has crossed the finish line at the circuit, with the Dane’s sixth place equalling the team’s best finish.

Carlos Sainz: Until this weekend, Sainz had a 100% points-scoring record at the Australian Grand Prix. That came to an end as he became the first retirement of the 2019 season – the first time since 2009 that a McLaren driver has taken that unwanted honour.

Lando Norris: Out-qualified his team-mate on debut for McLaren, and recorded the team’s first Q3 appearance since the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix weekend. It’s also the first time McLaren have appeared in the final part of qualifying here since 2014. Norris is now the only driver on the 2019 grid to have reached Q3 on every appearance at Albert Park.

Sergio Perez: Finished thirteenth in the race, marking the first time that a driver starting tenth in the Australian Grand Prix has failed to score since 2010.

Lance Stroll: In the 300^thrace to feature a Canadian driver, Stroll scored for the first time at the Australian Grand Prix. Stroll was the driver who gained the most positions in the race, climbing seven places to finish ninth.

Kimi Raikkonen: With an eighth place finish, Raikkonen scored the Sauber (now Alfa Romeo) team’s first points in Melbourne since 2015.

Antonio Giovinazzi: Though he finished outside the points for a second time in the Australian Grand Prix, Giovinazzi’s fifteenth place finish ensured neither of the team’s cars retired from the event for the first time since 2015, while his qualifying effort meant neither driver was eliminated in Q1 at the track for the first time since 2012.

Daniil Kvyat: After more than a year away, Kvyat finished tenth on his return to F1. He also finished tenth on his last grand prix appearance at the Circuit of the Americas in 2017.

Alexander Albon: Was one of the three drivers making their F1 debut to out-qualify their team-mate at the Australian Grand Prix. Albon qualified 0.138s faster than Daniil Kvyat.

Robert Kubica: Finished in seventeenth position for the first time in his career. Other than races where he’s retired, the Polish driver has only finished lower than that in two grands prix – both eighteenth places in the 2007 Malaysia and 2009 Bahrain Grands Prix.

George Russell: Out-qualified his team-mate by 1.707 seconds at the Australian Grand Prix – the largest gap between team-mates this weekend. The gap can be somewhat explained by Kubica puncturing his tyre after hitting the wall on his final fast lap.

Click here to see the article in the Motorsport Fans app, and download the app to have your own say and discover more incredible content written by the fans for the fans.

Like this story? You might also like on Motorsport Fans...

Why Magnussen could have one of his toughest rivalries yet

Is Valtteri Bottas about to pull a Rosberg?