Hat-trick Hamilton takes a record from Stewart

2015 British Grand Prix stats and facts

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Lewis Hamilton became the seventh driver in Formula One history to win his home race three times – something even his idol Ayrton Senna never managed.

Nigel Mansell and Jim Clark both scored five wins on home ground – for Mansell, one of those wins came in the European Grand Prix when it was held at Brands Hatch.

Hamilton has a long way to go to match the all-time record of nine home wins, held by Michael Schumacher. However he had the advantage of usually having two home races per year during his time in F1.

Nico Rosberg, who races under a German licence, has won his home race once. However he grew up in Monaco, and has won the last three races in a row at Monte-Carlo. Here are the 45 drivers who won F1 races on home ground:

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Drivers who won their home race

DriverCountryHome wins
Michael SchumacherGermany9
Alain ProstFrance6
Nigel MansellGreat Britain5
Jim ClarkGreat Britain5
Juan Manuel FangioArgentina4
Fernando AlonsoSpain3
Lewis HamiltonGreat Britain3
Ayrton SennaBrazil2
Jackie StewartGreat Britain2
Nelson PiquetBrazil2
Stirling MossGreat Britain2
Emerson FittipaldiBrazil2
Alberto AscariItalian2
David CoulthardGreat Britain2
Felipe MassaBrazil2
Ralf SchumacherGermany2
Bill VukovichUnited States2
Niki LaudaAustria1
Damon HillGreat Britain1
Mario AndrettiUnited States1
James HuntGreat Britain1
Jody ScheckterSouth Africa1
Rene ArnouxFrance1
DriverCountryHome wins
Tony BrooksGreat Britain1
Gilles VilleneuveCanada1
Riccardo PatreseItaly1
Giuseppe FarinaItaly1
John WatsonGreat Britain1
Peter CollinsGreat Britain1
Johnny HerbertGreat Britain1
Jean-Pierre JabouilleFrance1
Rodger WardUnited States1
Jim RathmannUnited States1
Ludovico ScarfiottiItaly1
Elio de AngelisItaly1
Johnnie ParsonsUnited States1
Lee WallardUnited States1
Troy RuttmanUnited States1
Bob SweikertUnited States1
Pat FlahertyUnited States1
San HanksUnited States1
Jimmy BryanUnited States1
Carlos PaceBrazil1
Sebastian VettelGermany1
Nico RosbergGermany1

In the opening laps of the race it almost seemed as though Hamilton didn’t want to break Jackie Stewart’s 45-year-old record for leading 17 races in a row. Having started from pole position Hamilton was passed by Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.

Due to the unusual shortness of the Silverstone pit lane entry, Hamilton actually led for the first time on lap 19 when he pitted from third place. That was the moment he set a new record for leading 18 races in a row.

Massa and Bottas both took turns in the lead, becoming the first non-Mercedes or Ferrari drivers this year to do so. Massa has now led races in ten consecutive seasons, but despite his excellent start on Sunday he remains the driver with the worst performance on lap one so far this year, losing a total of 13 places.

Hamilton’s pole position was his eighth of the season. That’s a new personal best for him – he set seven in 2008, 2012 and 2014. It also means he has more pole positions than any driver racing in Formula One today – 46 to Sebastian Vettel’s 45. Hamilton also equalled Vettel’s tally of fastest laps, setting his 24th.

This is the third time in his career Hamilton has set four pole positions in a row, but he has never managed five or more. However it was the 20th consecutive pole position for Mercedes. Four more for them will equal the all-time record for a team – and if Hamilton sets them all he’ll equal the same record for drivers.

Hamilton has out-qualified Rosberg eighth times out of nine races so far this year. The only other driver with as good a record is Romain Grosjean , who has consistently out-paced Pastor Maldonado.

However Hamilton is not the only driver on a hot streak. Vettel has finished in the points for the last 20 races in a row, which includes his last 11 starts for Red Bull. He needs seven more to reach the record held by team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Finally, Fernando Alonso scored his first point of the year, with tenth place.

Review the year so far in statistics here:

Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the British Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

2015 British Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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52 comments on “Hat-trick Hamilton takes a record from Stewart”

  1. I think Hamilton’s current level of performance is truly exceptional. As an F1 fan, I feel privileged to watch him race at such a consistently high level no matter if he enjoys the advantage of having a dominant car underneath him.

    That said, I still would not be too disappointed if this particular record streak of his came to an end any time soon…

    1. He has not driven particularly well this year. But such is the superiority of his car that he only needs to drive better than Rosberg.

      1. I think he has driven very well this year. The only weekends he has really been outperformed at so far have been Spain and Austria. Without the pit mishap in Monaco (blame whoever you want for it, but it was nothing to do with the standard of his driving) he would be leading the championship by 34 points at the moment (and would have finished in the top two in every race since Monza 2014). I know you seem to want to put down Hamilton at every opportunity, but regardless of how dominant the car is, you don’t take 8 out of 9 poles without performing at a very high level (especially against a teammate as quick as Rosberg).

        It’s like Vettel’s streak of 9 wins in a row in 2013 – yes the car was dominant in the second half of the season, and one could argue he only needed to drive better than Mark Webber to win, but it was still a great achievement that very few drivers could have pulled off.

      2. I would disagree with that. In most cases he set those pole positions by simply being faster when it mattered. And in the races he won he was able to keep his teammate behind, often making it seem easy too.

        And when he had to do some fighting, some thinking / tyre / fuel saving he has been able to do it. Really, I also would like Rosberg (or anyone really) to break his streak, but to me it seems Hamilton has greatly improved himself by not giving into his “things are going against me” moods this year. Every time he looks to be on the back-foot on a weekend, he comes back strong, and when the weekend seems to be turning bad, he recovers with pole more often than not.

    2. You mean, his car has been in redible this year?

  2. Record amount of spectators at the 2015 British GP. Surely British nationalism is at an all time high for sure.

    1. I thought it crossed 200k before they put a limit on. When Hamilton first won.

  3. On Massa’s opening lap performance (now -13), does this include where he stalled on the grid at Bahrain so went from 6th to 19th (pitlane)

  4. Alonso has scored one point for Mclaren after a “drought” of 2815 days;)

    1. What “drought” of 2815 days are you talking about?!?!

      1. I imagine since his result for McLaren in Brazil in 2007, his last race of his first tenure at Woking. This fact excludes the fact that he spent about 2700 of those days employed for other teams.

        1. @kodongo – Don’t go making excuses as to why ALO (widely considered one of the best on the grid) couldn’t even get in the points for McLaren while driving for Renault and Ferrari!! ;)

          1. @hobo
            Button who’s currently beating ALO, will have to be “widely considered one of the best on the grid” then as well.

          2. @supremacy – I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic in response to my sarcasm. But Alonso and Button are not in the same league, Alonso being far better, and I’m not even an Alonso fanatic.

          3. With the way things are right now BUT is arguably the best F1 driver out there. He beat HAM in total points during 1 season, and he is out scoring ALO by 4 to 1 currently. ;-)

          4. The reliability of the Mclaren has been so poor that we cannot make a good judgement about how well Button and Alonso are driving.

          5. @debaser91
            I’d say Button is doing surprisingly well, considering he’s known for needing ‘perfect’ cars to perform, while Alonso is known for getting results from dogs…

          6. Yes Jenson is doing OK, but the power unit is so bad that still getting to the end of a race is considered a success for them. It’s not really fair to compare them with such a poor car and the horrific luck/reliability that has affected both cars.

          7. On that note, Tarso Marques also ‘beat’ Alonso, he must be worth what 3 or 4 titles? :P

  5. During Sky FP2 commentary, they mentioned this was (I think) the 700th race for a Ferrari engine, but only the 698th for the Scuderia. Which two races did the team miss that their engines didn’t?

    1. The numbers are 900 and 898, but the answer is 1960 USA and 1966 Britain. Pete Lovely and Chris Lawrence entered private Coopers with Ferrari engine.

  6. * This was 109th race since previous win by Brazilian driver (Rubens Barrichello, Italy 2009). Brazil previously went 108 races without win from Brazil 1994 to Austria 2000.

    * Virgin-Marussia-Manor equalled their 2nd best result with 12th place. Earlier that had been achieved by Timo Glock in Singapore and by Charles Pic in Brazil, both in 2012. Only Jules Bianchi’s 9th place is better result that that.

    * Both Lotus cars were out on the first lap for the second time this year (also happened in Australia). Previous team to have suffer that fate twice during the season was Jordan in 1994 (Germany and Hungary)

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      6th July 2015, 20:37

      @bleu, I like you additional stats.

  7. Finally, Fernando Alonso scored his first point of the year, with tenth place.

    Excluding his Minardi year, is this the longest it has taken Alonso to get off the mark in a season?

    1. Yes. In fact from every season between 2003 until 2014, Alonso got his first points of the season at the first race of the season.

  8. – This was the 6th race this year to feature Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel on the podium

    – Deutshcland uber Alles has now been played on the podium at every race since Belgium last year.

    – If Lewis Hamilton wins 3 of the next 4 races, he will have equaled Ayrton Senna’s win total (41) in exactly the same number of starts (161).

    – And as a reflection of F1’s deepening financial crisis, this was the first time since 1996 that the British Grand Prix didn’t have a title sponsor.

    1. If Lewis Hamilton wins 3 of the next 4 races, he will have equaled Ayrton Senna’s win total (41) in exactly the same number of starts (161)

      That would be quite spooky actually given Hamilton admiration for Senna.

    2. @walsh-f1

      – Deutshcland uber Alles has now been played on the podium at every race since Belgium last year.

    3. pxcmerc (@)
      7th July 2015, 4:47

      3 out of the next 5, which is quite doable.

    4. – If Lewis Hamilton wins 3 of the next 4 races, he will have equaled Ayrton Senna’s win total (41) in exactly the same number of starts (161).

      That’s why he lets sometimes Rosberg win.

  9. Wouldn’t a hat-trick be if he scored 3 consecutive wins on this circuit? The way it is now, it’s just 3 wins. Not a hat-trick. I mean, I know the term from football, and you have to score three goals in the same match, so translating that to F1, when it comes to wins on a same circuit, it would make sense to count it only if it’s consecutive wins.
    Someone correct me if I’m wrong, and if there’s some earlier use of this term which would have a slightly different meaning.

    1. I believe what the term means here is that Hamilton has started from pole position, made the fastest lap and won the race, winning the 3 possible prizes in a GP weekend.
      If a pilot takes pole, sets the fastest lap, wins the race and leads every single lap of it, than it is called a “grand shelem” (I´m not shure how to spell this one).

      1. @allanwiese @biggsy Grand chelem, I think.

    2. I mean, I know the term from football, and you have to score three goals in the same match, so translating that to F1, when it comes to wins on a same circuit, it would make sense to count it only if it’s consecutive wins.

      You don’t have to get 3 consecutive goals in football for it to be classed as a hat trick. I think if you are translating the analogy to F1 each GP would become a “match” so every year each drive gets a chance score a goal in that match (win that GP). A hat trick would then be a driver scoring three goals in that match (winning the GP 3 times). I don’t see any need for them to be consecutive.

      Also I hate football, why on earth am I now writing about it on a motorsport site.

  10. This was the first time in the history of F1 that the top 3 drivers received trophies which were based on the respective track layouts for 4 consecutive race events. Also, the intermediate tyres made their debut of being run on a Sunday in 2015.

    #ForzaJules

  11. good for him, he won it in against 3 cars, big deal, he made mistakes at the start and only took the lead in pit stops because his car is the fastest in the field… big achievement. this is how pathetic f1 is. a driver does not really win any more, he just has to achieve the best his car can accomplish, and that means a win if you have the best car.

    1. he made mistakes at the start

      To be fair, both Hamilton and Rosberg got decent starts (they actually pulled away from several cars – including both Ferraris – at the start) and they later said that their clutch performance/lauches themselves were fine, but there wasn’t much grip on the front row grid positions which caused some minor wheelspin. The Williams got ahead because their starts were unbelievably quick, not because the Mercs made mistakes. The only pther car to get a start comparable to the Williams’ was Hulkenberg’s Force India.

      1. pther

        *other

  12. This was the ninth consecutive GP in which both Mercedes cars finished on the podium. Prior to this year the previous record was five, jointly held by Mercedes from last year and Ferrari in 2002 and 2005.

    1. Surely you mean 2004 and not 2005?

      1. You’re right.

  13. First time since Jenson Button was taken out on the first lap due to a collision since Korea 2012.

    Marussia achieved their best two-car result to date (including their time as Virgin), with 12th and 13th.

    Out of a possible 18 podiums, Mercedes have 18 podiums. Out of a possible 387 points, they have 371.

    Sebastian Vettel has yet to finish out of the top five this season, whilst Kimi Raikkonen has only finished inside of the top five on five occasions, three times in fourth. It was also the third time this season that we’ve seen the Hamilton/Rosberg/Vettel podium in that order.

    Fernando Alonso has 86 points less than he had at this point last season. For comparison, Sebastian Vettel has 65 points more than he had at this point last season.

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      6th July 2015, 21:01

      Out of a possible 18 podiums, Mercedes have 18 podiums. Out of a possible 387 points, they have 371.

      That’s a podium conversion rate of 100% (actual versus possible) and points conversion rate of 95.9%.
      I wonder what the highest conversion rate is any team has achieved in the past. Merc last year was at 81.6% podiums and 81.5% points.
      @craig-o

      1. Last year Merc scored 85.8% of the total possible points, which is the record for the modern era. (i.e. post 1979) They also picked up 81.6% of possible podiums, which again is a record in the modern era.

        Comparisons are tricky when you go back in time because the rules were so different. For example big teams once entered five or six cars in a GP, which increased their odds of putting two cars in the top three.

      2. @coldfly Lotus achieved a 100% points conversion rate back in 1963 and 1965 where only the highest placed car counted and only six results counted towards the championship. Ferrari also did similar back in 1961 with five from eight counted.

        In an era where two cars counted towards the result and every race counted towards the result, McLaren achieved 77.7% of possible points in 1988, Ferrari achieved 81.3% of possible points in 2002, and 80.9% in 2004 with the new(er) points system. Red Bull achieved 79.6% in 2011.

        As for podiums, Ferrari achieved 14 podiums in 8 races (although they missed the final one after the death of von Trips) back in 1961, but entered more than two cars for certain races (including four at Spa, where they took a 1-2-3-4. Their conversion rate in the end was 58.3%. No team managed to hit 50% again until 1980, where Williams achieved 64.3% of podiums possible. No team hit those sort of numbers again until 1988, where McLaren achieved 78.1%. Others came close between then, but Ferrari eclipsed the total number of podiums with 27 in 2002 (79.4%) and then 29 in 2004 (80.1%). Red Bull came the closest since then with 28 out of 38 (73.7%) but as mentioned before, Mercedes surpassed all last year with 31 out of a possible 38 (81.6%). Mercedes already have 18 podiums, and we are not even at the halfway point in the season yet. For comparison, that is more than or as many as any team could manage in an entire season of up to 17 races up until 1986.

        1. ColdFly F1 (@)
          7th July 2015, 15:32

          thanks, @craig-o. A very interesting stat indeed.
          And it also throws another light on this season. We all (at least I) thought that the competition was closer this year, but it seems that Merc is achieving even better results (primarily due to reliability).

  14. ColdFly F1 (@)
    6th July 2015, 20:47

    Interestingly Hamilton set the fastest lap even though Rosberg and Bottas set faster laps (detail & explanation).

  15. whenever Hamilton won the British GP, he also won the championship

    1. @erivaldonin Well, can’t quite say that just yet…

  16. Ricciardo’s engine-related DNF was the very first he’s had in his Red Bull career. That’s quite freakish when you consider how shockingly unreliable the (post 2013) Renault engines have been for everyone else who has driven with them.

  17. First time Hamilton has won at Silverstone having not scored pole there the previous year.

    10th consecutive season in which Massa has led at least 1 lap.

    Hamilton already has more points this year than he managed in either 2012 or 2013.

    Raikkonen has scored exactly 1100 career points.

    Still no driver has finished 8th more than once this year.

    And some more from magnetimarelli.com:

    3rd Silverstone pole for Hamilton – equals 3 other British drivers (Clark, Mansell, D Hill)

    17th consecutive front-row start for Hamilton – equals D Hill in 1995-96, only trails Senna’s 24 in 1988-89.

    First time Massa has outqualified his team-mate at Silverstone.

    28th consecutive race that Mercedes have led at least 1 lap, equals McLaren in 1988-89, only trails Williams’ 31 in 1995-97.

    First back-to-back Silverstone winner since Coulthard in 1999-2000.

    Massa has led 17 races since he last won one.

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