The F1 French GP wasn’t the best grand prix of 2019 season with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton winning yet again but there were still plenty of statistics and key information on offer.
Hamilton and Mercedes had it under control with pole for F1 French GP at Circuit Paul Ricard and he converted it into a fine victory and nearly had a grand slam under his belt until the final lap when Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel took it away.
While Hamilton eased into a win, Valtteri Bottas had a late scare but managed to keep second as Mercedes registered yet another 1-2 finish with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ending up third ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
Vettel had a bad qualifying but moved up to finish fifth with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz as the best of the rest in sixth from Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen after a penalty dropped Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo out of the Top 10.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg slotted in eighth ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly to round out the Top 10 finishers. Here’s some key statistics and information from the French GP weekend:
- Hamilton scored his 79th career F1 win, 49th from pole and 58th for Mercedes. It is only his second French GP win, joining a long list of drivers to do so.
- It is Hamilton’s fourth consecutive win, a feat he has achieved five times before the current one. This is also his best start to a season points wise with six wins and eight podiums to have 187 points and beat his previous best of 169 in eight races in 2015.
- Hamilton’s command in terms of points is such that, even after combining points of everyone from sixth to 17th (12 drivers), it is still worth 180 which is seven short.
- Mercedes registered its 95th win, seventh in France to join Lotus, Williams and Ferrari. They scored their sixth 1-2 finish of 2019 and 50th overall.
- Like Hamilton, Mercedes command over points is such that taking in teams from fourth until ninth, they have 143 to Mercedes’ 338, which doesn’t even crosses the half mark.
- Hamilton scored his 142nd podium, Bottas’ 37th and Leclerc’s third.
- Hamilton claimed his 86th career pole and third of the season as Vettel took his career’s 37th fastest lap and first of the season by just 0.024s margin.
- It is Leclerc’s third, third place finish. In eight races so far, Leclerc has only finish P3 (three times) and P5 (four times).
- Hamilton has now 10 consecutive podium finishes since 2018 Brazilian GP which is an ongoing record. His own best is 16 consecutive races on podium. The eight consecutive podium finishes since the first race in a season is also an ongoing record for Hamilton – his personal best is of nine.
- The record for consecutive points finishes continues on for Hamilton and Bottas, which has stretched to 20 F1 races now in French GP as both are yet to finish outside the points since 2018 British GP.
- In the same way, Vettel has 18 consecutive points finishes since 2018 Hungarian GP.
- Verstappen extended his Top 5 finish reign to 17 races now.
- First time in 2019 that Robert Kubica finished a race ahead of George Russell. Williams though continued its 100 percent reliability record with both cars along with Mercedes and Afla Romeo Racing.
- Raikkonen, Hulkenberg and Daniil Kvyat all finished five places ahead of their starting position with Kvyat starting from the pitlane.
- Ricciardo originally finished P7 but was given two five second penalties which demoted him to 11th. This moved Gasly to 10th, thereby making him the first Frenchman to score at his home GP since Olivier Panis in 2003.
- It was 850th F1 race start for McLaren as Norris and Sainz both made it into Q3 and out-qualified Vettel for the first time since 2014 Japanese GP. The team also registered its second double points finish of 2019.
- Vettel was only seventh to start the French GP, the last time he qualified outside the Top 6 in current era was in 2018 Japanese GP.
- Only the third time Antonio Giovinazzi out-qualified Raikkonen but is yet to score a point. Sergio Perez and Russell are the only two drivers still to be beaten by their teammates in qualifying battle.
- Romain Grosjean was the sole retirement as Haas is amidst is worst season start in terms of points after eight races. It had 22 points in 2016, 21 in 2017 and 27 in 2018 to only 16 in 2019 so far.
- Kubica has finished 18th in the last four races while Perez 12th in the last three.
- Ricciardo was given three penalty points for two different incidents on the last lap, which took his total tally to five. Perez was given one penalty point for his Lap 1 off and his tally sits at four.
Champagne for @WilliamsRacing! Famous British team execute first pit stop of 2019 season in less than two seconds at #FrenchGP. Robert Kubica turned around and sent back out in 1.97 seconds. #F1
All pit stop times: ➡️https://t.co/J27YVFsufC pic.twitter.com/nvwTQcYVEY— DHL_Motorsports (@DHL_Motorsports) June 23, 2019
The stats were compiled by Jack Elleker and Darshan Chokhani
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