Here are 2020 Spanish GP stats; a race that was a Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes masterclass.
24 seconds – Hamilton’s victory margin to Max Verstappen, almost a full pit-stop. Hamilton scored his 156th career podium in Formula 1, also the highest for any driver. The reigning World Champion is 3 wins away from overtaking Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 wins.
44 seconds – Valtteri Bottas’ gap to Hamilton’s race-winning time. Of course, Bottas’ time is a bit more skewed because he pitted three times compared to Hamilton’s two. The third pit-stop for Bottas was to give him the medium tyre to chase down the extra point for the fastest lap of the race. 21 laps to the end of the race, Bottas’ switch toe the soft tyre while Verstappen was racing on the medium turned out to be an anti-climax. Bottas barely ate into Verstappen’s gap.
54 seconds – Lance Stroll finished a lap down on Hamilton, but what was worse is that his gap to Bottas in third place was a shocking 54 seconds! Such has been Mercedes and Verstappen’s competitive advantage in the 2020 Formula 1 season
1 point – Racing Point (63 points), Mclaren (62 points) and Ferrari (61 points). Basically, 1 point separates each time from 3rd to 5th place in the Constructors’ Championship
1 – Alexander Albon was the ONLY driver to use the hard tyre in the race. We’re still figuring what Red Bull Racing’s strategy for their number #2 driver was!
2 – drivers in the top-10, Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel, successfully completed the race with just one tyre stop. Perez ran the soft-medium strategy while Vettel executed the opposite. Vettel’s 39 laps on the soft tyre were the highest for any driver
Less than a second – drivers from P8 to P11 finished the race with less than a second between them at the finish line. At the front was Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon followed closely by Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly (+ 0.589), Lando Norris (+ 0.557) and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo (+ 0.991)
22 points – Racing Point’s highest points haul at a race in the 2020 Formula 1 season. But of course, like all previous results, this result too will be under question with the ongoing protest
0 points – Renault’s first no-score at a race this season
99.99% – the number of fans who were convinced that the image of a Ferrari facing in the wrong direction was Sebastian Vettel’s! The most interesting 2020 Spanish GP stat?