Formula One statistics for Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Italy’s Imola circuit, round seven of the 24-race championship and the start of the European season. No race held in 2023 due to flooding. Lap distance: 4.909km. Total distance: 309.049km (63 laps)
2022 pole position: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull one minute 27.999 seconds
2022 winner: Verstappen
Race lap record: Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 1:15.484 (2020)
Start time: 1300GMT (1500 local)
IMOLA
The race, at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, is named after the surrounding region. It has previously been designated the Italian Grand Prix and San Marino Grand Prix. This will be the third Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Anti-clockwise Imola hosted the 1980 Italian Grand Prix and was home to the San Marino Grand Prix from 1981 until 2006, when seven times world champion Michael Schumacher won for a record seventh time.
Sunday will be the 31st F1 world championship race held at the circuit.
Brazilian triple world champion Ayrton Senna and Austrian Roland Ratzenberger died in accidents over the 1994 race weekend.
Hamilton (2020), Verstappen (2021 and 2022) and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso (2005) are the only current drivers to have won at Imola.
In the 30 races to date at Imola, 10 have been won from pole. Another nine winners have come from second on the starting grid. No winner has started lower than fifth.
Senna still holds the record for most poles at Imola, eight in total.
Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) and Oscar Piastri (McLaren) are racing at Imola for the first time.
CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD
Verstappen has led the championship for a record 45 successive races dating back to Spain in May 2022 and arrives in Imola 33 points clear of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and 38 ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Red Bull are 52 points clear of Ferrari and are sure to lead the standings until Monaco.
Verstappen has won four of six races this season, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz triumphant in Australia and McLaren’s Lando Norris in Miami.
Sainz and Norris are the only drivers to have beaten Red Bull since 2022.
Hamilton has a record 103 career victories from 338 starts but is chasing his first since 2021 – a run of 51 races without a win.
Red Bull won 21 of 22 races last year, with Verstappen victorious in a record 19, and have won 35 of the last 39.
The team have won 117 races and are fourth in the all-time list of winners. Ferrari lead with 244, McLaren have 184 and Mercedes 125.
Verstappen has won 58 grands prix and is third on the all-time list. Michael Schumacher is second on 91.
Hamilton has a record 104 career poles, his most recent in Hungary last year.
Verstappen has taken the first six poles of the season, and seven in a row including the last race of 2023.
The last driver to take pole in the first seven races was Frenchman Alain Prost with Williams in 1993, the best ever qualifying start to a season.
PODIUMS
Verstappen has 103 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). Verstappen cannot equal that this year, having retired in Australia. The race will be a 300th F1 championship grand prix for Mercedes.
The race marks the 30th anniversary of the deaths of Senna and Ratzenberger. Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel will drive Senna’s McLaren MP4/8 car in demonstration runs.
Source: BBC
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