Formula 1 2018: The numbers behind the season's results so far
The key stats behind the race and qualifying results so far
Thursday 6 December 2018 12:08, UK
Twelve races down, nine to go, in a 2018 F1 season which so far has proved as incident-packed as it has been unpredictable.
Four different race winners, five changes of the championship lead, and no clear picture yet as to where either world title is headed.
We assess some of the key race and qualifying numbers at the half-term break…
The Race Day numbers
Although he had to wait until the fourth round of the season to register his first win of 2018 - and then in fortuitous circumstances in Baku - Lewis Hamilton broke for summer in Hungary with his fifth victory of the campaign, one more than Sebastian Vettel.
All of Mercedes and Ferrari's respective wins have been achieved by their lead championship driver, with Red Bull the only team to get both their drivers on the podium's top step so far.
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Incredibly, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull maintain their domination of race victories in F1's turbo hybrid era - they have shared all 91 wins between them since the current engines were introduced in 2014.
In fact, the 'Big Three' domination of F1 stretches back even further than that. The last race not won by one of that trio was the then-Lotus outfit's victory with Kimi Raikkonen in 2013's season-opening Australian GP.
That was 110 races ago.
There are certainly more surprises in this table.
While Hamilton's position at the head of the list certainly isn't, Raikkonen's placing above Ferrari team-mate Vettel is. But Raikkonen broke for summer on a run of five successive podiums to take his 2018 tally to eight, already his best return in a single season in five years. His career-best sequence is seven podiums in a row when he won his world title in 2007.
By contrast, Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo has only stood on the podium twice - albeit both times on the top step in China and Monaco.
Sergio Perez's brilliant third-place in Azerbaijan represents the only time one of the podium steps has been filled by a driver from outside a 'Big Three' team. The previous time that happened was also in Baku, with Lance Stroll for Williams in 2017.
This not a table that will sit comfortably with the two Red Bull-owned teams.
Difficult engine suppliers, different circumstances, but eight DNFs apiece for Red Bull and Toro Rosso from 24 race starts across their respective two cars gives each of them a 33 per cent retirement rate. By contrast, Mercedes and Ferrari's is just 12.5 per cent.
While Brendon Hartley has retired from nearly half of the races so far, five drivers - Hamilton, Vettel, Perez, Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz - have only failed to see the chequered flag once in the opening dozen rounds.
The Qualifying numbers
Hamilton and Vettel cannot be split in this particular category, with five pole positions apiece for the title rivals across the opening 12 rounds.
Highlighting their continued difficulties in qualifying, Red Bull's only pole came in Monaco courtesy of Ricciardo. In fact, Monaco remains the only venue where Red Bull have qualified on pole (2018 and 2016) since their last world title successes in 2013.
Max Verstappen, despite four career race wins, is still awaiting his maiden F1 pole after 72 races.
There may still be nine races to go after the summer break, but Fernando Alonso has already won the 2018 qualifying head-to-head at McLaren with Stoffel Vandoorne.
Alonso is the only driver in the field with a perfect 12-0 record over his team-mate, although Vettel, Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Charles Leclerc are also on course for early Saturday 'wins' at their teams.
The qualifying battles are closest at Mercedes, Renault and Williams, where there is only a couple in it between their respective drivers.
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