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Brazil stats - Hamilton wins at record 24th different track

13 Nov 2016

Lewis Hamilton went into Sunday's race at Interlagos with the unenviable record of nine races, zero wins at the Brazilian circuit. But over the course of three wild hours he'd re-write the record books once more...
  • In the 44th world championship Grand Prix in Brazil it was the driver of car number 44 - Lewis Hamilton - who tasted victory, the world champion taking his first win in the country at the tenth time of asking.

  • Interlagos is the 24th track Hamilton has won at in F1, which is more than any other driver in history. The only circuit on the current calendar that Hamilton hasn’t won at is Baku, which only joined the schedule this year.

  • With his 52nd career triumph, Hamilton also moved into sole possession of second place on the all-time wins list ahead of Alain Prost. Only Michael Schumacher (91) has more.

  • Hamilton has now won three races in a row and has nine wins this season - exactly the same number as Mercedes team mate, and current championship leader, Nico Rosberg.
  • Rosberg’s second place gave Mercedes their third one-two in Brazil in a row, though at 3h 1m 1.335s, this race was almost as long as the other two combined! Unsurprisingly, that makes it comfortably the longest Brazilian race in history.

  • Rosberg is now 12 points ahead of Hamilton in the drivers’ standings, meaning that if he finishes on the podium at the final round in Abu Dhabi, he’ll be champion regardless of where his team mate finishes.

  • After making a late pit stop, Max Verstappen made up 11 places in 17 laps as he charged from P14 to P3 to secure his seventh podium finish of the season. He’s now just one behind team mate Daniel Ricciardo’s tally.

  • Verstappen also claimed the fan-voted Driver of the Day award for the eighth time this year - that’s six times more than any other driver.

  • The Dutchman also became, at 19, the youngest driver in F1 history to claim fastest lap, doing so four laps from the flag.

  • Verstappen’s former team mate Carlos Sainz meanwhile equalled his best ever F1 result with sixth. The Spaniard has finished there three times this season, and twice in the last four races.
  • Felipe Nasr scored his - and Sauber’s - first points since the 2015 United States Grand Prix, 24 races ago. The two points the Brazilian earned for finishing ninth lifts the Swiss team above Manor and into tenth place in the constructors’ standings.

  • Nasr's haul means that every team on the grid has now scored points this season. The last time that happened was back in 2009, where Toro Rosso were bottom of the pile in 10th despite having picked up eight points over the year.

  • Speaking of the constructors’ standings, there was also joy for Force India who solidified their grip on fourth place with their 11th double points finish of the season. Rivals Williams failed to get a car home in the top ten for just the third time this year.

  • Red Bull meanwhile effectively clinched second in the constructors' championship - they are now 71 points ahead of Ferrari, with a maximum of 43 on offer in Abu Dhabi.

  • Fernando Alonso, whose McLaren team are sixth in the standings behind Williams, finished in the points for the fourth time in the last six races. He has eight top ten finishes to his name this season - one more than team mate Jenson Button.

  • Incidentally, Sunday's race saw McLaren become just the second team in F1 history, after Ferrari, to reach 800 starts.
  • After starting the season with five straight podium finishes, Ferrari have now missed the rostrum for six successive races. Kimi Raikkonen’s DNF was his first at Interlagos since his debut season in 2001 - not the best way for the Finn to crown his 250th F1 start...

  • Similarly, in his final race in Brazil Felipe Massa recorded his first DNF on home soil since his maiden race in the country in 2002. 

  • Romain Grosjean recorded his second DNS of the year after crashing on his way to the grid. That’s the fifth DNS we’ve seen this season after Kvyat in Australia, Palmer and Vettel in Bahrain and Grosjean in Singapore.

  • Abu Dhabi is next up, with Yas Marina set to play host to its third title decider. Vettel (2010) and Hamilton (2014) were victorious on the last occasions - will Rosberg add his name to that roll call?