Lewis Hamilton could equal a record which has stood for 45 years at the next round of the championship.
Hamilton’s victory in Canada means he has now led 16 races in a row, beginning with the Hungarian Grand Prix last year. He needs one more to match the record of 17 set by Jackie Stewart between the 1968 United States and 1970 Belgian Grands Prix.
The championship leader led all bar one of the 70 laps at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. His career total now stands at 2,143, moving him ahead of Nigel Mansell. Only four drivers have led more laps: Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel.
Along with his 37th win Hamilton took his 44th career pole position – appropriately for the driver of car number 44 – which moved him within one of the driver in third place on the all-time record list. That is Sebastian Vettel, who with 45 pole positions has the most of any driver currently competing.
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Hamilton also equalled Vettel’s best run of consecutive front row starts with his 14th. But he needs to keep going for ten more races to equal the record set by Ayrton Senna. That would take Hamilton until the Mexican Grand Prix in November.
Hamilton’s victory gave Mercedes their first win in Canada and their 35th win in total. That puts them level with Renault and Brabham in sixth place on the all-time winners’ list. Second place for Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes their 20 one-two finish.
Third on the grid for Kimi Raikkonen was his best in over two years, when he was second for Lotus at Shanghai in 2013. Lotus also had their best two-car qualifying performance since 2013 – fifth and sixth the highest they’ve seen since Hungary that year. For Pastor Maldonado, sixth was his best since he lined up third at Abu Dhabi in 2012.
Raikkonen also out-qualified Vettel for the first time this year. Roberto Merhi did the same to Will Stevens, which means there are no drivers on the grid who haven’t out-qualified their team mate at least once this year.
In the race, Raikkonen set the fastest lap for the 42nd time in his career. That puts him on his own in second place on the all-time ranking, with one more than Prost and needing 25 more to catch Schumacher.
Valtteri Bottas became the first driver not in a Mercedes or a Ferrari to finish on the podium this year. And Pastor Maldonado scored his first points of the second, leaving only the Manor drivers and Fernando Alonso yet to score.
Review the year so far in statistics here:
- 2015 F1 championship points
- 2015 F1 season records
- 2015 F1 race data
- 2015 F1 qualifying data
- 2015 F1 retirements and penalties
- 2015 F1 strategy and pit stops
- 2015 F1 driver form guides
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Canadian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
2015 Canadian Grand Prix
- Fifth-placed Vettel wins Driver of the Weekend
- Even Montreal can’t lift F1 from its 2015 torpor
- Sponsor watch: Spain, Monaco and Canada 2015
- 2015 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Top ten pictures from the 2015 Canadian Grand Prix
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
8th June 2015, 11:54
Oh dear. What does the samurai have to say about that?!
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
8th June 2015, 12:00
@bullfrog – We keep positive and I believe in the project. I have seen many good things-e for the future that look promising. We will keep pushing.
Or ‘Whuuaha!’
ColdFly F1 (@)
8th June 2015, 16:52
I believe Alonso was 6th in sector 1 during qualifying. I guess that shows the strength of the chassis.
They just need more (reliable) power and less fuel consumption from that thing in the back!
@xtwl, @bullfrog
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
8th June 2015, 19:05
@coldfly – Their chassis has been average at best since 2012…
RV (@zenren)
8th June 2015, 12:09
To add more insult, Alonso was asked yesterday to lift off due to fuel usage!
The only advantage for a car low on horsepower is usually a better fuel efficiency. Looks like Honda is as thirsty as the others even if low on power!
JC
8th June 2015, 14:12
When you’re down on power, you’re sitting at the top of the rev range for longer as you’re slower down the straight. Hence you burn more fuel. On a track like Canada, that’s magnified given how long those straights are.
A better performing PU will use marginally less fuel, as it’ll spend less time at full power along the straight. Multiply that by a race distance and you explain the consumption.
JB gave this reason in an interview with Sky F1 after the race. The Honda engine isn’t thirstier than the others, it’s just needing to work harder for longer.
dex
8th June 2015, 16:17
So says Mr Horner!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th June 2015, 14:33
Check Top Gear’s fuel economy test with a Prius vs a M3, https://youtu.be/JmxUsGiGp3w?t=258
The Prius did 10 laps full throttle while the M3 could cruise around following it using a lot less fuel.
Not very scientific, but it’s the same concept here, as JC (and Jeremy Clarkson too, coincidentially) says: being low on power means having to push the engine a lot more to achieve the same speed. Nevermind trying to catch up with the others.
pxcmerc (@)
9th June 2015, 0:15
efficiency is an optimization problem, a prius at full throttle is not inside it’s optimum window, I would bet. Hybrids really are not that great for track driving anyways, unless you are recovering energy, they are just extra weight, and you will get better fuel economy with less weight.
Tommy (@tommy260z)
9th June 2015, 8:32
The only other driver Hamilton is beating right now is Rosberg. His car is doing the rest and these records he’s accumulating shouldn’t count for anything.
Paul
9th June 2015, 10:44
You’re right. In fact, why bother with drivers at all? They basically do nothing anyway.
Kevin Robinson
9th June 2015, 13:42
Yeah, we should totally ignore his stats just because he’s in the best car. Let’s see, we also then have to ignore a lot of Vettel’s, Schumi’s, Senna’s, Prost’s, Mansell’s (1992 in particular), all Lotus stats from the 60s.
Yeah, that is definitely the way to go.
knoxploration
11th June 2015, 17:07
Schumacher’s records *should* be ignored, because they were achieved through rampant cheating. As for the others, if their records were set predominantly because they had a regulated advantage over their rivals — such as, for example, the fact that others cannot catch up with Mercedes because they’re not allowed to update their engine as much as they need to, nor to test upgrades — then those records too are meaningless.
And it’s here that we come to the sad truth of modern F1: Every front-running team has a regulated advantage because they are given an unfair share of the TV money, rather than splitting it evenly between the teams. Frankly, every record set or broken in modern F1 is meaningless, and makes a mockery of what was once a sport.
David-A (@david-a)
11th June 2015, 21:44
Yeah right. Being the best driver isn’t cheating, nor is having the best car (which sometimes he didn’t even have).
gweilo8888 (@gweilo8888)
12th June 2015, 20:13
David-A: Nope, being the best driver isn’t cheating. Deliberately crashing into another car is, and he was caught doing that multiple times. So is deliberately blocking the track during qualifying, too, and he was caught doing that as well. And those are just the times he was caught cheating *despite* being the best driver — how many times did he get away with it scot free?
Being the best does not make cheating OK. Arguably, it makes it much, much worse. Schumacher was a perpetual cheat, and I say that as somebody who was a fan of his from his first F1 race right up until the second time he was caught undeniably cheating. (Everybody deserves one second chance, if they ‘fess up and show remorse. He got that one second chance, and he squandered it.)
Tim Edwards (@timpey)
9th June 2015, 16:59
That might actually be the stupidest post I’ve seen on here.
DonSimon
10th June 2015, 0:15
Give it 2 weeks.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
9th June 2015, 20:43
Those records do count because all the cars on the grid comply with the current race series regulations. If the other teams aren’t able to produce a car with the same capabilities as that used by Hamilton and Rosberg is that Mercedes fault? No, the onus is on the other teams to bring their “game” up to the Mercedes standard.
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
8th June 2015, 11:57
Those are some very big names that Hamilton is flirting with. I have noticed that out of the last 140 qualifyings (I believe, I’m going back to Canada 07), Hamilton and Vettel has been on pole on 89 occasions between them, and that is despite Brawn back in 2009 and Rosberg’s form last year. They’re definitely two of the greatest of all time across one lap, despite what happened last year.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
8th June 2015, 12:01
@craig-o Vettel is at least on par over one lap with Hamilton, if not better. Suggesting otherwise is nonsense.
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
8th June 2015, 12:10
@xtwl Depends on what kind of form both are in. I thoroughly enjoyed their qualifying duels in 2012 in cars which weren’t far off each other across one lap.
Edgar
8th June 2015, 16:05
Who stole some pole positions from the other on an inferior car?
vtf
8th June 2015, 16:13
You cannot steal pole with an inferior car under normal circumstances really.
ngwe23 (@realstig)
8th June 2015, 18:36
Are you suggesting that Lewis did the impossible?
vtf
10th June 2015, 23:07
No. I’m suggesting either his car was not inferior on that occasion or those were not the normal circumstances.
You don’t need me to tell you that no can do the impossible.
David-A (@david-a)
8th June 2015, 19:45
@Edgar @realstig
In 2011, he managed 1 pole, but Mclaren had the pace for many more, esp. Hungary, Japan, Abu Dhabi, Monaco & Italy all taken by Vettel en route to the pole record.
2012, Mclaren had the fastest car overall, and in 2013 Mercedes had the fastest qualifying pace up to the summer break (every dry session in the first half was either a Rosberg or Hamilton pole).
Polo (@polo)
14th June 2015, 3:45
@david-a I think McLaren’s one-lap advantage over Red Bull in 2012 was exaggerated by the respective form of their drivers.
By his standards, Vettel had a pretty bad year in terms of qualifying – he was almost matched by Webber (he was only ahead 11-9). Meanwhile, Hamilton had one of his best ever years and beat Button 17-3 in qualifying. Vettel took 6 poles, Hamilton took 7 (which could’ve been 8 without the McLaren under-fuelling error in Spain). Red Bull took 8 poles overall (6 Vettel, 2 Webber), McLaren took 8 as well (7 Hamilton, 1 Button).
I think the Red Bull and McLaren were pretty similar over one-lap in 2012.
Tito Bonanza
9th June 2015, 11:54
The funny thing is your statement makes Ricciardo a speed God over one lap last year.
vtf
10th June 2015, 23:08
I heard he’s getting another chassis for the next race since he was 1 sec per lap slower than Kvyat in last race.
Tito Bonanza
11th June 2015, 20:17
And that make my response to previous comment…. what…. invalid???
Jon (@johns23)
10th June 2015, 1:55
We will never know unless they become teammates
Miha (@msc157)
8th June 2015, 12:00
How many races did Schumacher lead in a row?
RL
8th June 2015, 12:21
I can’t say, but Schumi hasn’t had consecutive years of complete domination like Mercedes seem to be having. In 2001 and 2002, the Ferrari took a while to get started, and Mclaren and Williams sneaked in some early season wins. Also there were less races then.
There hasn’t been a team this dominant probably since Mclaren in the late 80s wherein if one of its drivers fails to win, the other one simply picks up the scraps.
Corrado (@)
8th June 2015, 21:37
+1
Also, the cars back in the 2000-2006 period weren’t reliable as the current cars (the engine especially).
vtf
10th June 2015, 23:09
+1
Bleu (@bleu)
8th June 2015, 13:54
@msc157 15 – Australia to Italy in 2004.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
8th June 2015, 12:02
Is this the first time another Spaniard (Sainz) than Alonso is leading a Spaniard (Alonso and Merhi) in the standings?
Tom L. (@tom-l)
8th June 2015, 13:18
Pedro de la Rosa’s mighty 3-point haul in the Jaguar in 2001 put him above Alonso (0 points) in that year’s standings!
Fernando (@fernanzazpi)
9th June 2015, 0:13
@xtwl @tom-l Another cases: PDLR leading Marc Gene in 1999’s season, since he scored one point in the opening race, Australia, driving his Arrows.
And in the late eighties, when Luis Perez Sala was leading team mate Adrian Campos in Minardi… 1989 if i am not mistaken.
Andy
8th June 2015, 12:17
“Raikkonen also out-qualified Vettel for the first time this year.”
Factually correct but should have an asterisk or something – not hard when the other car is broken so hardly an achievement IMO.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
8th June 2015, 12:38
The asterisks we start with we’ll never finish. How do you know KR would not have out-qualified Vettel in Malaysia if not for the strategy blunder in Q2?
Ciaran (@walsh-f1)
8th June 2015, 12:37
As noted by Sean Kelly Mercedes is the first team since Ferrari in 1952 to have two cars on the podium at the first seven grand prix’ of a season.
glue
8th June 2015, 12:56
Is the clickbait headline really necessary?
pSynrg (@psynrg)
8th June 2015, 13:07
How is that click-bait?
It’s an actual fact!
Tiomkin
9th June 2015, 17:16
@glue Click-bait is telling an outright lie or having the article bear little in common to the heading. Saying someone is near to achieving something is both truthful and is what the article is about. You need to read a dictionary.
Woody (@woodyd91)
8th June 2015, 13:14
I’m not sure Keith has ever wrote a headline that at least one person hasn’t claimed it to be click bait.
OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 40 victories!!! (@)
8th June 2015, 16:31
@woodyd91 maybe “glue” means that you can use that headline when the record is actually broken. But it’s not so bad to speculate, as almost everybody does here, don’t we?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th June 2015, 21:48
What exactly is the objection here? ‘How dare you write something which captured my interest?’ What a crime.
These accusations of ‘clickbait’ keep getting more unreasonable.
Bob Steele (@bobwhosaysni)
8th June 2015, 23:57
Keith, I see absolutely nothing wrong with this headline and have no idea why someone would suggest it is ‘clickbait’.
To others, headlines should give a highlight of the most interesting information so you know what you will read about.
Would you prefer each article lead with ‘Stuff about F1’?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
9th June 2015, 11:14
@bobwhosaysni
Well it would save a lot of time!
vtf
10th June 2015, 23:12
LOL
Julien (@jlracing)
8th June 2015, 13:34
– Sergio ,11th place, Perez has scored yet another 11th place. He now has 16 finishes in 11th place. He has to score one more to equal the record of most finishes just outside of the points. Jonny Herbert currently holds the record with 17 7th places. At that time only the first 6 drivers got points.
– With his 6 points scored in Canada. Pastor Maldonado has scored more points in this race alone than he scored together in the last 46 races
– Finally Pastor Maldonado’s total points scored in his F1 career is more than double the amount he scored with his sole win in Spain 2012. Before Canada he had scored 49 points, 25 of those points came from his victory. Now he has 55 points.
– Just like the 2007 Canadian GP we finally had a third team who scored a podium place. In 2007 only McLaren and Ferrari drivers stood on the podium of the first 5 races. In 2015 only Mercedes and Ferrari drivers stood on the podium for the first 6 races.
– If F1 still used the old scoring system before 2003 (10-6-4-3-2-1) then only 9 drivers and 5 teams would have scored points already. With Ferrari, Mercedes and Williams (and on slow tracks Red Bull) almost have a monopoly on scoring top-6 places it is unlikely it’ll change soon.
– Although it seems that the pace of Williams has stagnated since last year, after 7 races Williams have scored 104 points, thats 46 more than last year at this point!
– Mehri’s retirement was the first for Manor in the whole year.
– With 6 retirements this year, McLaren has just as many retirements as in 2013 and 2014 together.
– Fernando Alonso retired for the 4th time this season. This the most amount of retirements for him in one season since 2004 when he retired 5 times in one season. His most was 9 retirements in 2001
BJ (@beejis60)
8th June 2015, 16:41
wat @jlracing
David Goure
9th June 2015, 13:41
He means this is the first time in a LONG time that Alonso has had more than a handful of retirements in a season.
safeeuropeanhome (@debaser91)
8th June 2015, 17:05
Out of a possible 13 results (Bottas DNS in Australia) Williams have had 9 top 6 finishes. It would have looked even better without their rather shoddy pace at Monaco. Red Bull, Force India and Mclaren have all fell back on relative pace compared to the start of last year so even with Ferrari’s improvement they have been able to score decent points more easily.
Compare that to last season where they only had 2 top 6 finishes after the first 7 races, both for Bottas. Massa had a pretty ropey start to the year last season, getting caught up in a lot of incidents.
vtf
10th June 2015, 23:15
This season is not the best for him either. In Bahrain he couldn’t start the race from grid and accident caused him to finish barely in the points. In Monaco he got lost I think. In Canada he couldn’t properly qualify. I don’t know what was wrong with him in Spain….
MarkM
8th June 2015, 14:08
when you have a dominating car of the century, any record is possible…
sato113 (@sato113)
8th June 2015, 15:02
Wasn’t the 2011 red bull more dominating (with vettel) than the Mercedes (of Hamilton) of 2014-15?
Mashiat2 (@mashiat2)
8th June 2015, 15:48
@sato13 No. Both had 11 wins for Hamilton and Vettel but Hamilton faced more competition from NR and reliability problems.
rm
9th June 2015, 5:00
That’s an odd way of saying that Mercedes was a lot more dominant than the Red Bull.
vtf
10th June 2015, 23:17
+1 LOL You caught it …. Brilliant!
David-A (@david-a)
8th June 2015, 15:52
Vettel individually did have more points and wins at this point of 2011, but RBR had less points and podiums in total (and only one 1-2), so I’d say no.
OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 40 victories!!! (@)
8th June 2015, 16:40
@sato113 I don’t think so, and as @david-a points out, that could possibly be because:
a. Webber was not so good and was “wasting” a seat at the RedBull (not totally true in my opinion, as RedBull dominance was not so hard, so it was possible for other cars to match at least the “second” driver… and well, Webber was in his final years at F1, so maybe he was really going down a little.
b. This Mercedes is so good that Nico (who may be as skilled as Webber, maybe less skilled actually) can always get second place, and no matter how hard all the others try, they can’t even match him (I’m inclined to this theory).
I hope Ferrari starts to get better. That wouldn’t jeopardize Lewis, but Nico can get a run for his money if Vettel (and Raikkonen, uhm well not so sure about his skills / handling now) get closer again, as in Malaysia.
bola
10th June 2015, 23:33
If you gave Webber another half a second, I’m prett-ty sure he would have started&finished all the races 2nd behind Vettel and finished all the championships 2nd behind Vettel too. So him finishing 3rd most of the time makes you appreciate Mark. Now looking at the results and thinking back, it was quite interesting that Webber finished 6th in 2012 championship within a couple of points of McLaren drivers who had faster cars. Funny how Vettel, Alonso, Raikkonen all finished ahead of McLaren duo that year and managed to drag their constructor along with them to the point that the fastest car finished 3rd in the standings. It also shows you how WCC standings are not cut and dry.