The 2019 F1 Bahrain GP ended up being a feast under the floodlights with Mercedes eking out a 1-2 as Lewis Hamilton won from Valtteri Bottas.
The weekend started off with Ferrari dominating the proceedings. The Italian manufacturer then took a 1-2 in qualifying with Charles Leclerc taking on Sebastian Vettel. It looked like a certain 1-2 finish in the grand prix as well until late drama.
The engine issue for Leclerc prevented a first win for Monegasque as he had to settle for his first podium in third with Hamilton coming through to score a Mercedes 1-2 from Bottas. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen was fourth with Vettel only fifth.
A lot happened over the weekend, here’s some key stats and information:
- Hamilton scored his 74th career F1 win, 53rd for Mercedes and first of the 2019 season. It was also his third Bahrain GP win, first since 2015.
- Mercedes took their 89th win, fourth in Bahrain – but first since the 2016 season. It was also their 46th 1-2 finish as in overall terms, Mercedes took its 175th win and 450th podium finish.
- Leclerc scored his first podium finish in his 23rd race start. It was also his first career pole and first fastest lap of the race. Incidentally, he was the 99th driver to take pole in the 999th F1 race – the 98th different driver to take pole was Bottas. He was also the 209th different driver to score a podium with Lance Stroll being the 208th.
- Leclerc become the sixth youngest to score a podium, second youngest – behind Vettel – to claim pole and third youngest to take the fastest lap at the age of 21-years, 166 days. He is also the third youngest – behind Verstappen and Vettel – to lead a grand prix.
- It was Ferrari’s 220th pole and 249th fastest lap.
- Hamilton scored his 136th podium while Bottas his 32nd. With the 18 points, Bottas crossed the 1000 points mark to be 10th in the overall list with 1007 – he is 40.5 points behind Mark Webber.
- With his 32nd podium, Bottas also moved up to eighth with Jean Alesi and Jacques Laffite in the overall list of most podiums without a world title.
- Both Lando Norris and Alexander Albon opened their F1 points account as they become the 340th and the 341st drivers to score a point. The only other Thai driver to score a point was Prince Bira in 1954 French GP with the last rookie British driver to score was Paul di Resta in 2011 Australian GP. The last time two rookies scored points together was in 2015 Australian GP when Carlos Sainz and Felipe Nasr achieved the feat.
- Norris also become the third youngest – behind Verstappen and Stroll – to score points in F1 at 19-years, 138 days beating Daniil Kvyat and Vettel to it.
- Pierre Gasly and Antonio Giovinazzi gained the most places in Bahrain GP with five each where approximately 97 overtaking moves were registered.
- There were seven different teams inside the Top 10 in Bahrain GP as McLaren opened their account – only Williams hasn’t scored so far.
- Verstappen’s fourth place ended his six-race streak of podium finishes.
- Romain Grosjean’s DNF in Australia and Bahrain equaled his worst start to a season – the last time it happened was in 2012. He also became the first driver to receive a penalty point in 2019 with his tally up to eight now. It won’t be until May 13 when two points will be wiped off.
- There was only a single classified retirement in the race with Grosjean. Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg all stopped on the same lap, but completed over 90% of the race distance, so were still classified as finished.
- Despite being classified as finished, this was Sainz’s worst F1 season start while Ricciardo equaled his with 2013 and 2014.
- Gasly finished eighth to open his account for Red Bull Racing.
- Sainz had his 83rd race start and moved to eighth with Jonathan Palmer in the overall list of most race starts without a podium.
- Even though only two races have been run, no driver has finished in the same position for both races.
- Leclerc set the fastest lap in all but one session in Bahrain GP – as he topped FP1, FP3, Q1, Q2, Q3 and set the fastest race lap. Vettel set the fastest lap in FP2.
The stats were compiled by Jack Elleker and Darshan Chokhani
Check out the stats from Australian GP