Verstappen overtakes Vettel’s tally of Red Bull podiums, Perez sets a new record for most Baku podiums and Alonso sets a new record for the longest F1 career. Here’s a statistic from each driver’s 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend.
🇳🇱 Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen took his fifth victory of the season at the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Scoring his 25th win in total, Verstappen equalled Jim Clark and Niki Lauda for ninth in the all-time list of most F1 wins. With his 66th podium finish, Verstappen surpassed Sebastian Vettel as the driver to have taken the most podium finishes with Red Bull. As a result, he moves up to third in the list of most podiums with a single team. Verstappen was out-qualified by Perez on Saturday, which was the first time Verstappen had been out-qualified at two consecutive races since the 2018 United States and Mexican Grands Prix.
🇲🇽 Sergio Perez
With second place, Sergio Perez set a new record for most podium finishes in Azerbaijan. This was his fourth top three result at Baku City Circuit. Perez became the 51st driver in Formula 1 driver to record 20 top three finishes.
🇬🇧 Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth place at the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, recording his fifth top five finish in the six races at Baku City Circuit. This was the first race in Azerbaijan in which Lewis Hamilton has not led a lap since the inaugural event in 2016.
🇬🇧 George Russell
With George Russell finishing third, Mercedes extended their record of most podium finishes in Azerbaijan. Russell’s third place was Mercedes’ sixth top three finish at the track. Russell is the first driver to finish on the podium at Baku City Circuit having started from fifth on the grid.
🇲🇨 Charles Leclerc
In the sixth race weekend at Baku City Circuit, Charles Leclerc became the track’s first repeat polesitter. This was the 15th pole position of his career, putting him 22nd in the all-time list. No driver has ended their F1 career with exactly 15 poles. He made this the 25th time that a driver has started on the front row at eight or more consecutive races, becoming the 15th driver to achieve the feat.
For the second time in three races, Leclerc retired whilst leading the race. Leclerc has taken pole for all of the last four races but has failed to win any of them. The last driver to take pole for four or more races in a row and fail to win any was Juan Pablo Montoya, between the 2002 Monaco and French Grands Prix. Leclerc became the first polesitter at Baku City Circuit to fail to finish the race.
🇪🇸 Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz was the first driver to retire from the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, pulling off the circuit at Turn 4. He recorded Ferrari’s first ever retirement at Baku City Circuit. It was his third DNF of the season.
🇦🇺 Daniel Ricciardo
Qualifying 12th, Daniel Ricciardo equalled Carlos Sainz as the driver to have recorded the most Q2 exits in Baku. It was his fourth Q2 elimination at the track. Ricciardo finished eighth in the race, one position ahead of his team-mate. This was the first time since the Bahrain Grand Prix that Ricciardo finished ahead of his team-mate.
🇬🇧 Lando Norris
Lando Norris lost his 100% Q3 appearance record at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, missing out on qualifying in the top ten by just 0.022 seconds. With ninth place in the race, Lando Norris maintained his 100% points-scoring record at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He became the 49th driver to have scored in 50 Grands Prix.
🇪🇸 Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso set a new record for the longest Formula 1 career at the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, eclipsing Michael Schumacher’s former record. Alonso finished seventh in the race, equalling Schumacher for second place in the all-time list of most races in which a driver has scored points.
🇫🇷 Esteban Ocon
Esteban Ocon finished tenth, picking up his first point at Baku City Circuit since 2017. Both Ocon and team-mate Fernando Alonso scored points in the race, making this the first Grand Prix in Azerbaijan in which both of the Enstone-based team’s cars have scored points.
🇫🇷 Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly had his best weekend of the 2022 season so far, qualifying in sixth place and finishing fifth. It was his first top five result since finishing fifth at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
🇯🇵 Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki Tsunoda recorded his best qualifying result of the year to date with eighth place. He was running in the top ten when a broken rear wing necessitated a trip to the pits. Tsunoda ultimately finished 13th, becoming the first driver starting eighth on the grid at Baku City Circuit to fail to score points in the Grand Prix.
🇩🇪 Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel recorded both his best qualifying and best race result of the year so far. After qualifying ninth, Vettel finished sixth. It was his best result since finishing fifth at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix. Vettel remains the only driver to have scored in every race held at Baku City Circuit, with sixth place being his worst result here to date. Along with Lewis Hamilton, he is one of only two drivers to complete all 306 racing laps held so far at Baku City Circuit.
🇨🇦 Lance Stroll
Lance Stroll qualified 19th as a result of a crash for the second successive year at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. This was the Aston Martin driver’s third consecutive Q1 exit in Baku, as well as his third back row qualification of the 2022 season. He equalled Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson as the driver to have recorded the most Q1 exits in Baku.
Stroll pulled to the side of the track towards the end of the race, becoming the fifth and final retirement of the afternoon. This was Stroll’s first retirement of the season. He last failed to finish at the 2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. 2022 is the second consecutive season in which Stroll has retired from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
🇹🇭 Alex Albon
Alex Albon finished 12th in the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, one position lower than he finished on his first appearance here with Toro Rosso in 2019.
🇨🇦 Nicholas Latifi
Nicholas Latifi was eliminated in Q1 for a 15th consecutive race weekend. He equalled his longest run of successive Q1 eliminations, having also been eliminated in Q1 at all 15 races between the 2020 British Grand Prix and the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix. In better news for the Canadian, this was the second time in 2022 that he has not qualified on the back row of the grid.
🇫🇮 Valtteri Bottas
With 15th place, Valtteri Bottas recorded his worst qualifying result since qualifying 17th at the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix over seven years ago. This was the first time Bottas has failed to reach Q3 at Baku City Circuit. In the race, Bottas failed to score with Alfa Romeo for only the second time. This was the first time the Finn has finished a race in a position outside of the points since the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix. Despite this, Bottas gained four positions in the race – equalling the most positions he has gained in a race so far this season. On Lap 49, Bottas became the third driver to have raced 300 laps at the circuit.
🇨🇳 Zhou Guanyu
For the first time in Formula 1, Zhou Guanyu out-qualified his team-mate. Zhou retired from the race when running inside the top ten. This was Zhou’s third retirement in the last four races. All three retirements have been caused by mechanical issues. Zhou is the first Alfa Romeo driver to retire from a race at Baku City Circuit.
🇩🇪 Mick Schumacher
With both Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel on the grid, the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was the 846th race to feature a German driver on the grid. That saw Germany overtake Italy as the country with the third-most starts in Formula 1 history. In qualifying, Mick Schumacher recorded his first Q1 exit of the 2022 season.
🇩🇰 Kevin Magnussen
Kevin Magnussen became the fourth Ferrari-powered car to retire from the race, also recording his third retirement in the past four races. Magnussen recorded the first retirement from 16th on the grid at Baku City Circuit, while Charles Leclerc recorded the first retirement from pole. That means that second and eighth are now the only grid slots yet to record a DNF at the track.
