Tuscan GP qualifying facts and stats: Hamilton's pole position tally reaches new milestone

Some phenomenal driving, and perhaps a teensy dose of luck, helped Lewis Hamilton take pole position for the inaugural Tuscan Grand Prix – and secure another, quite outstanding, Michael Schumacher related milestone. Here are the juiciest facts and stats from a thrilling qualifying at Mugello.

• Hamilton now has 95 poles to his name – but his 69th pole position for Mercedes means that, in his career with the Silver Arrows alone, he’s now scored more poles than Michael Schumacher, the second-most successful qualifier of all time.

• Mercedes have now secured seven consecutive front row lock-outs, as they chase down their own record of nine, set in 2014-15.

• This is the third time in the last four races that the top three on the grid has been Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen, in that order.

READ MORE: Hamilton credits hard work as reason for beating Bottas to pole around 'insane' Mugello

• Alex Albon secures his joint-best career qualifying position with fourth – having last taken that grid spot for the 2020 season opener in Austria.

• At Ferrari’s 1,000th Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc made a timely Q3 appearance for the first time since the Spanish Grand Prix, while fifth was his best qualifying position since he took P4 at the British Grand Prix.

• Despite ending up P14 on the grid, Sebastian Vettel was just 0.053s away from being eliminated in Q1.

READ MORE: Fifth 'above our expectations' says Leclerc after Ferrari’s first Q3 appearance since Spain

• Thanks to a one-place grid penalty for team mate Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll will make his fifth top-six appearance in the last seven races at the Tuscan Grand Prix.

• McLaren’s Lando Norris failed to reach Q3 for the first time since the Brazilian Grand Prix last year, ending a run of nine consecutive Q3 appearances.

• After winning at the Italian Grand Prix last week, qualifying for the Tuscan Grand Prix saw Pierre Gasly eliminated in Q1 for the first time since the Belgian Grand Prix last year – his first race for Toro Rosso after being demoted from Red Bull.

• Somehow, Williams’ George Russell maintained his 100% record of out-qualifying team mates in Formula 1, managing to go faster on his second run in Q1 despite a lairy off-track moment at Savelli.

• Although his team mate was able to make it through to Q2 at Mugello, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen has now been the slowest qualifier twice in the last three Grands Prix.

• Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi remains the only driver to fail to make it out of Q1 so far this season – while on the other side of the garage, Kimi Raikkonen secured the team’s best qualifying of the year with 13th, 20 years and one day on from his first ever F1 test… at Mugello!