Formula One has gone on it’s summer break at long last. Luckily us Badgers at the Sett don’t go off to hibernate until the winter. Here’s Laura Leslie with the best stats from the 2016 German Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton grabbed his 49th career win to bring him within two races of surpassing Alain Prost (51). Prost of course hit that mark on his way to title number four, something Hamilton will be hoping to replicate later in the season.
It was the first time Hamilton has led every lap of a Grand Prix since the Japanese Grand Prix last year. The win also means Hamilton is the first driver to win four races in a single calendar month.
Hamilton winning his fourth race in a row guarantees that this season will become the first to see a driver who wins four races on the bounce, not go on to win the title. Nico Rosberg did the quadruple at the beginning of the year.
The world championship leader has now won a remarkable 54% of races since the V6 Hybrid era began. Mercedes have won a simply ridiculous 86% of the races in that period. The race also marked the 50th time Hamilton had led the opening lap of a Grand Prix.
For homeboy Rosberg it was a disappointing weekend. It marked the 10th time a Mercedes has finished a race outside the top three, on seven occasions it has been Rosberg. This was despite taking his 27th pole position on Saturday afternoon.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo celebrated his 100th Grand Prix in style with another podium finish in 2nd. He hadn’t scored consecutive podiums since he won the Hungarian and Belgian Grand Prix in 2014. It was also the first double Red Bull podium since last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix thanks to Max Verstappen’s 3rd place finish.
It was Verstappen’s fourth podium finish in just eight races, more than justifying his promotion from Toro Rosso earlier in the year. The great team result has seen Red Bull jump clear of Ferrari into 2nd in the constructor’s championship.
Kimi Raikkonen continues to be ‘Mr Consistency’ in 2016 with his 10th points finish in 12 races. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel did finish ahead of the Finn in 5th place, but was a distant 32 seconds behind Hamilton’s winning Mercedes.
Force India scored yet another double points finish with Nico Hulkenberg grabbing 7th place and Sergio Perez 10th (the Mexican has never failed to finish outside the points around Hockenheim). For Hulkenberg it was his 6th points finish in seven races which no doubt helped the team renew his contract for 2017.
Over at McLaren Jenson Button qualified 12th for the sixth time this season. His 8th place finish brought some more cheer to a team who seem to be showing small improvements each race. They now lie just three points behind Toro Rosso who had a shocker in Hockenheim. It could have been double points for McLaren but Fernando Alonso unfortunately slowed with a few laps to go and fell from 10th to 12th.
For the 4th time in 2016 Esteban Gutierrez finished in 11th place and just missed out on a point for Haas. He did at least finish ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean for the second race in a row and the 4th time this season.
Finally there were just two retirements from the race. Brazilian pairing Felipe Massa and Felipe Nasr both failed to make the end. For Massa it marks the worst run of his lengthy career, he’s had just one points finish in the previous five races. There was some cheer for Williams as Bottas grabbed two points for 9th and the team won the DHL Fastest Pit-Stop award for the 10th time in 2016.
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