FACTS AND STATS: Ferrari end 45-race win drought in Bahrain Grand Prix, as Zhou scores on debut

With its sweeping new technical regulations, we knew 2022 could see a fresh F1 dawn – and so it proved in Bahrain – with a whole host of unexpected stats thrown up over a fascinating 57 laps in Sakhir. Here’s just a handful of the best ones…

• The winner of the opening race of the season has finished the championship as runner-up in every season since 2017.

• Prior to today Ferrari were winless in their last 45 races – the 2nd-longest winless streak in Ferrari history, after 59 in a row from Spain 1990 to Germany 1994.

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• The last Ferrari win was also a 1-2 finish (Singapore 2019 with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc).

• Leclerc is the first Monegasque driver to lead the World Championship.

• It is his 3rd win in 81 career starts.

• The last time Ferrari led every lap of a Grand Prix was Belgium 2018.

• With P2 in the second Ferrari, Carlos Sainz tied his career best result (previous achieved at Italy 2020 and Monaco 2021).

• Lewis Hamilton’s P3 was a better result than he scored in the opening race of 2020 when he won his most recent World Championship (he finished 4th in the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix).

• Hamilton only ran five laps in a podium position all race.

• Kevin Magnussen was P5 – only the 5th time a Haas has ever finished in the top five, and a comes after scoring zero points in 2021 and 3 points in 2020

• Valtteri Bottas’ P6 was the best result for Alfa Romeo since Brazil 2019, when Kimi Raikkonen was P4 with team mate Antonio Giovinazzi P5.

• Of the top six cars, four were powered by Ferrari engines.

• With P7, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon scored points for a fifth consecutive race, including the end of last season.

• And with Fernando Alonso in P9, Alpine scored with both cars for the fourth time in the last five races.

• Neither Red Bull saw the chequered flag for the first time since Austria 2020.

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• His P10 finish made Alfa Romeo rookie Zhou Guanyu the 66th driver to score a point on his F1 debut.

• With P8, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda scored points in Bahrain for a second consecutive season.

• Mick Schumacher’s P11 for Haas was his career-best result.