Motor racing-Formula One statistics for the Chinese Grand Prix

FILE PHOTO: Formula One F1 – Chinese Grand Prix – Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China – April 14, 2019 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton leads at the start of the race REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

(Reuters) – Statistics for Sunday’s Chinese Formula One Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit, round five of the world championship:

Lap distance: 5.451km. Total distance: 305.066km (56 laps)

No race held since 2019

Race lap record: Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari, one minute and 32.238 seconds. (2004)

Start time: 0700GMT/1500 local

CHINA

The race made its debut in 2004 and returns after a five year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nine of the 16 Chinese Grands Prix have been won from pole.

Lewis Hamilton is the most successful with six wins (2008, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019).

Two other current drivers have won in China – Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2013 and Daniel Ricciardo in 2018.

Mercedes have won six times, Ferrari four, McLaren three. Red Bull’s first Formula One win was at the circuit in 2009.

The lowest winning grid slot in China is sixth for Daniel Ricciardo in 2018 and Schumacher in 2006 — when the seven-times world champion took his 91st and final victory in Formula One.

The track puts a high level of stress on front tyres, particularly through the opening corners, but also has two long straights.

Hamilton has been on pole a record six times in China. Alonso and Valtteri Bottas have also been on pole in Shanghai.

Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu, China’s first F1 race driver, is making his home debut in what will be his 49th career start.

Teams have no recent data to work with since Formula One’s last visit to Shanghai was in a different technical era, before the current ground-effect cars.

CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD

Verstappen has led the championship for a record 43 successive races dating back to Spain in May 2022 and arrives in China 13 points clear of Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez and 18 ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Red Bull are 21 points clear of Ferrari.

SPRINT

Shanghai hosts the first of the season’s six sprint weekends, with just one practice session on Friday. It is the first time the format has been used in China.

Red Bull won five of six sprints last year.

WINS

Verstappen has won three of four races this season, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz triumphant in Australia.

Sainz is the only driver to have beaten Red Bull since 2022.

Hamilton has a record 103 career victories from 336 starts but is chasing his first since 2021 — a run of 49 races without a win.

Red Bull won 21 of 22 races last year, with Verstappen victorious in a record 19, and have won 34 of the last 37.

The team have won 116 races and are fourth in the all-time list of winners. Ferrari lead with 244, McLaren have 183 and Mercedes 125.

Verstappen has won 57 grands prix and is third on the all-time list. Michael Schumacher is second on 91.

POLE POSITION

Hamilton has a record 104 career poles, his most recent in Hungary last year.

Verstappen is the first driver since Hamilton in 2015 to take the first four poles of a season. Another on Saturday would be his sixth in a row, including the last race of 2023.

The last driver to take pole in the first five races of a season was Mika Hakkinen with McLaren in 1999.

PODIUMS

Verstappen has 101 career podiums, Hamilton 197.

The Red Bull driver set a record of 21 podiums in a season last year but Michael Schumacher remains the only driver to have stood on the podium in every race of a season (2002).

MILESTONE

Red Bull are celebrating the 15th anniversary of their first F1 win and first one-two finish, in Shanghai in 2009 with Sebastian Vettel.

Saturday could bring Red Bull their 100th F1 pole position.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Christian Radnedge)