John N
Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix put a whole new spin on the 2022 season after it all went wrong for Ferrari on the team’s home soil – quite a turnaround from their joy in Australia. The form reversal with Red Bull threw up some fascinating numbers, as did the results further down the grid.
- Today was only the 2nd time Red Bull has taken a one-two finish in the hybrid era (the other was Malaysia 2016 when Daniel Ricciardo led home Verstappen.
- Verstappen has won every time he has seen the chequered flag this year (two Grands Prix and one F1 Sprint.
- Verstappen took pole, victory, fastest lap, and led every lap – the first grand slam win in F1 history where a driver has taken P1 on the grid twice on the same weekend.
- Today was also the first time in F1 history that there have been consecutive grand slams for different constructors/drivers (Leclerc, of course, won last time out for Ferrari in Australia from pole, taking the fastest lap and leading every lap)
- Red Bull had never previously scored with both cars at Imola.
- Lando Norris had never previously finished on the podium in consecutive races at the same track – he was third for McLaren today, as he was at Imola last year.
- In fact, Norris has now been on the podium at the last three races held in Italy (he was second at Monza the previous year).
- Mercedes’ George Russell in P4 is the only driver to have finished in the top five at every race in 2022.
- P5 for Valtteri Bottas was the best result for Alfa Romeo since Brazil 2019 (Kimi Raikkonen P4, Antonio Giovinazzi P5).
- Leclerc has finished in the top six in all three of his Imola starts, but Ferrari has no podium here since 2006.
- Despite finishing P6, Leclerc is still more than one win plus fastest lap (more than 26 points) ahead of Verstappen after this race by finishing p6
- With Yuki Tsunoda P7 and Pierre Gasly P12, AlphaTauri had precisely the same result as in 2021, but the other way around with their drivers.
- With Sebastian Vettel P8 and Lance Stroll P10, Aston Martin scored for the first time in 2022.
- After the opening four races, all ten teams have now scored – that has not happened since the 2018 season.
- Kevin Magnussen, P9 for Haas, has scored in three of the first four Grands Prix this year after the team was pointless in the previous 28 races.
- Carlos Sainz has completed just one lap in the last two Grands Prix – after a 31-race finishing streak.
- In P13, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished a lap behind Max Verstappen for the first time since Mexico 2017.
- The last time Hamilton finished this low in a race was 18th in Azerbaijan last year, but that was after he went up the escape road at the final restart with two laps remaining while in the lead.
- Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was P14, ending a seven-race scoring streak.
