Hamilton wins his sixth championship, Bottas equals Ricciardo and Verstappen and what has Hamilton’s team-mate done at all of the last 120 races? Here are all the facts and statistics from the 2019 United States Grand Prix weekend!
A VERY EXCLUSIVE CLUB
Lewis Hamilton became a six-time Formula 1 World Champion at the 2019 United States Grand Prix. It makes him the second most successful F1 driver of all time, overtaking Juan Manuel Fangio’s tally of five titles. He now sits just one title behind Michael Schumacher’s record of seven World Championship wins.
Hamilton is the fourth driver to have won the title in three consecutive seasons, after Juan Manuel Fangio (1954-1957), Michael Schumacher (2000-2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2010-2013).
Hamilton’s championship win marks the eighth time that the Drivers’ Championship has been won in the USA. He’s the first driver to have secured a title here twice, having previously won his third title at COTA in 2015.
While Valtteri Bottas scored Mercedes’ 101st Grand Prix win, Hamilton made the team the third to have won eight Drivers’ Championships.
With his second place finish, Lewis Hamilton became the second driver to reach 150 podium finishes. The only other driver to do so is Michael Schumacher, who reached 150 at the 2006 French Grand Prix.
The 2019 United States Grand Prix marks the fourth time that a Formula 1 title has been decided on 3rd November. Graham Hill and Lotus secured the honours for 1968 at the Mexican Grand Prix, while McLaren secured the Constructors’ Championship at the Australian Grand Prix on that date in both 1985 and 1991. The 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is the only race previously held on 3rd November which has not seen a championship decided.
Hamilton secured his sixth title in the 1000th World Championship race to have featured a British driver.
UNBEATABLE BOTTAS
Valtteri Bottas took the seventh victory of his career at the 2019 United States Grand Prix. It was his first win at COTA and it made him the 40th different driver to have won a Formula 1 race held in the United States. He’s the fourth different driver to have won at this circuit and it was the fifth win for a Mercedes driver at the track.
With his seventh Grand Prix victory, Bottas equals the win tallies of Rene Arnoux, Juan Pablo Montoya, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. He also equals Carlos Reutemann’s total of 45 career podiums.
With his win, Bottas also scored his first podium finish at the US Grand Prix, making him the tenth driver to have finished in the top three at the Circuit of the Americas.
Valtteri Bottas became the eighth different driver to have led laps of a race at the Circuit of the Americas. He led 31 laps on his way to victory. Meanwhile, having led 25 laps, Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to have led 200 laps at this circuit.
On Saturday, Valtteri Bottas recorded his eleventh pole position and his first pole at the United States Grand Prix. It was his fifth pole of the 2019 season. He became the fourth different driver to have taken pole position at the United States Grand Prix.
With his eleventh pole position, Valtteri Bottas overtook Jochen Rindt for 33rd in the all-time list of most poles. He’s now one pole behind Gerhard Berger and David Coulthard.
Valtteri Bottas appeared in Q3 for the 60th consecutive event. With that, he equalled Nico Rosberg as the driver to have had the second-most consecutive Q3 appearances. Rosberg appeared in Q3 at every race between the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix and the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Bottas’ current streak started when he joined Mercedes, meaning that Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate has appeared in Q3 at all of the last 120 races.
Pole position was decided by just twelve thousandths of a second – the second year in succession that pole has been decided by less than a tenth of a second at the United States Grand Prix. All of the top three were within a tenth of each other, and Charles Lelcerc’s lap for fourth place was only 0.108 seconds slower than the pole lap.
SATURDAY STATS
Lewis Hamilton qualified in fifth for the 2019 United States Grand Prix, making this only the second time that he has failed to qualify on the front row at the Circuit of the Americas. The only other time that he has failed to qualify on the front row at the track was in 2013, when he also qualified fifth.
Lando Norris set the fastest time in an F1 session for the first time in his career during Q1. It was the first time McLaren have been fastest in a qualifying session since Fernando Alonso was fastest in Q1 at the 2017 British Grand Prix.
Both McLaren drivers went on to reach Q3, making 2019 only the second time that both McLaren drivers have reached Q3 at COTA. The only other time they did it was in 2014. Since then, Alonso in 2017 had been McLaren’s only other Q3 appearance at the United States Grand Prix.
Both Alfa Romeo drivers were eliminated in Q1 for the US Grand Prix, marking the first time the team have suffered a double Q1 elimination since the 2018 Italian Grand Prix. With that, Kimi Raikkonen’s 100% Q3 record at COTA came to an end. It means that Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon are now the only current drivers who have never failed to reach Q3 at the circuit.
Neither Sergio Perez nor Lance Stroll reached Q3, making this the first United States Grand Prix in which neither Racing Point (Force India) driver has reached the final part of qualifying since 2014.
SUNDAY STATS
With his third place finish, Max Verstappen joined Daniel Ricciardo as the driver with the 34th most podium finishes in Formula 1. Both have now finished in the top three on 29 occasions.
Despite pitting after sustaining damage on the first lap, Alex Albon finished fifth, making this the first United States Grand Prix which both Red Bull drivers have finished since 2014.
Toro Rosso left COTA without picking up a point for the first time since 2013.
Charles Leclerc set the fastest lap of a race for the fourth time in his career. It was also a new lap record at COTA, beating Lewis Hamilton’s former record by 1.223 seconds.
Lewis Hamilton overtakes Michael Schumacher as the driver with the most podium appearances at the US Grand Prix. Hamilton has now had eight podium finishes at the event, which is also a record for the most podium finishes achieved by a driver at F1 races in the USA.
THE NON FINISHERS
There were three retirements from the 2019 United States Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica and Kevin Magnussen. For all three, it was the first time they have retired at this circuit. With his retirement, Vettel lost his 100% points-scoring record at COTA. It’s was his second retirement of the 2019 season and marks the first time that a driver starting from the front row at COTA has failed to finish on the podium. Meanwhile, Kubica’s DNF marked Williams’ first non-finish at the track since both cars failed to finish in 2015.
Kevin Magnussen’s retirement marked the first time that the driver starting from twelfth on the grid has failed to finish the race at COTA; though he was disqualified having started from the same slot in 2018.
