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FACTS AND STATS: Verstappen breaks Schumacher record for longest stint as championship leader
After a marathon weekend in Sao Paulo, it’s no surprise that the F1 statisticians have been working overtime. Here’s the notable numbers you need after Max Verstappen’s memorable win over Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly at Interlagos…
• Verstappen started the race from P17 in the Red Bull. Only five out of 1,121 previous world championship races have been won from 17th or lower.
• Verstappen’s last Grand Prix win was on June 23 (Spain).
• Verstappen ends a 10-race run without a win – his longest since an 11-race streak in 2020.
• That 10-race streak without a win matched all of the races that he did not win in 2022 and 2023 combined.
• Verstappen won by just over 19 seconds – having not finished within 19 seconds of the race winner since before the summer break (he was 59.558s behind Sainz at the last round in Mexico City)
• Verstappen breaks Michael Schumacher's record for the most consecutive days in the lead of the drivers' championship (Schumacher led for 896 days in a row).
• Red Bull scored for the 64th consecutive race weekend, tying the second-longest streak of all time set by McLaren from 2010-13 (the record is Ferrari’s 81, in 2010-2014).
• Esteban Ocon took P2 for Alpine. It’s the first time he's finished on the same step of the podium more than once (he previously finished first, second and third once each).
• Alpine had not completed a lap in the top five of a Grand Prix this season before today.
• Ocon had only scored five points this season before today, his lowest total after 20 races in his F1 career.
• Team mate Pierre Gasly took P3 on his 150th Grand Prix start.
• Gasly had never finished on the podium twice at the same venue before (he was p2 at Interlagos in 2019).
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• The last time two French drivers finished on the podium was Spain 1997, with Olivier Panis P2 and Jean Alesi P3.
• Today was the first time that the Alpine marque has had two cars on the podium in Formula 1.
• The last time the team from Enstone put two drivers on the podium was Korea 2013, when they were known as Lotus, with Kimi Raikkonen P2 and Romain Grosjean P3.
• Alpine jumped from ninth to sixth in the constructors' championship today, having never been higher than seventh throughout the 2024 season.
• George Russell took P4 for Mercedes, having led the race prior to the red flag.
• Russell finished in the top-six in both the Sprint and the Grand Prix this weekend.
• It was Russell’s 18th Grand Prix points finish of the year, though only his third podium.
• Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was P5 – he has never finished on the podium at Interlagos.
• Neither Ferrari made the podium here after both of them were on the podium at the previous two rounds in the United States and Mexico.
• After his P6 for McLaren, Lando Norris is now 62 points behind Verstappen, with 86 still available. It means Verstappen could clinch the title at the next round in Las Vegas.
• For Norris it was his lowest finish when starting from pole this season.
• Yuki Tsunoda was seventh for RB after he ran in the top three of a Grand Prix for first time in 2024.
• It ties his best result of the season.
• McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was P8 for the second consecutive race and the team now lead the constructors’ championship by 36 points over Ferrari.
• Liam Lawson was P9 in the second RB – he has finished ninth twice in three starts this season.
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• Lewis Hamilton’s P10 was his worst Interlagos result since he joined Mercedes in 2013.
• Sergio Perez came home just outside the points in P11 for Red Bull. He has scored only one point in the last two race weekends and the team are now 49 points off the constructors' championship lead.
• Ollie Bearman took P12 for Haas, the first pointless Grand Prix of his career.
• Franco Colapinto crashed out for Williams – it was his first failure to finish a race in his F1 career.
• In the second Haas, Nico Hulkenberg was disqualified – it was the first black flag for a driver during a Grand Prix since Canada 2007, when Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa exited the pits under a red light.
• Alex Albon’s failure to take the start means he has not completed a lap at the last two Grands Prix.
• At Aston Martin, Lance Stroll’s retirement on the formation lap means he remains tied with Jacques Villeneuve for the most starts by a Canadian driver (163).
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