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FACTS AND STATS: Tsunoda makes his point at home as Verstappen matches Schumacher’s Suzuka hat-trick
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It was action all the way in Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix, as the 2024 season witnessed it’s fourth one-two result in as many races. But there were plenty of other fascinating numbers to come from the 53-lap Suzuka encounter. Here’s our round-up of those you need to know…
• Verstappen today won a third straight Suzuka race, something only previously achieved by Michael Schumacher (2000-2002).
• Verstappen won from pole position for the 30th time in his career.
RACE REPORT: Verstappen leads home Perez for Red Bull one-two at Japanese GP after early drama
• Verstappen today became the fourth driver in history to reach 3,000 career laps led (after Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton).
• Today’s was the fifth consecutive Japanese Grand Prix in which the winning margin was over 10 seconds.
• Verstappen made his first F1 weekend appearance at Suzuka in 2014, in a practice session for Toro Rosso.
A strong Suzuka weekend for Sergio Perez puts the Mexican second the standings
• Today marked Red Bull’s 31st one-two finish, only two behind Williams for fourth place on the all-time list.
• Sergio Perez finished second to Verstappen for the second time in the last three Japanese Grands Prix (it also happened in 2022).
• As a result Perez retakes second place in the drivers’ championship from Charles Leclerc.
• No season before this has ever started with four consecutive one-two finishes involving multiple constructors (three for Red Bull and one for Ferrari).
• Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has a 100 percent podium finishing record whenever he has started a race in 2024.
• Sainz now has three podium finishes already this year (he did not finish on the podium in the first 13 races of last season).
• Three of the four races this season have seen a Red Bull one-two with a Ferrari in third place.
• The Japan podium today was identical to the opening race of the year in Bahrain.
• Leclerc hasn’t finished lower than fourth in any race this year.
• Leclerc finished fourth in Japan for the second year in a row.
It was an uncharacteristically poor Japan result for Lewis Hamilton
• Lando Norris took P5 for McLaren and finished 10 seconds further behind Verstappen than he did last year, when he finished second.
• At Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso’s P6 was his best result at Suzuka since 2013.
• Mercedes’ George Russell finished seventh at Suzuka for the second consecutive year.
• McLaren’s Oscar Piastri came home in P8 and now has two fourth places and two eighth places this year.
• P9 for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton marked the first time he has finished outside the top-five at Suzuka since the hybrid era began in 2014.
• With P10 for RB, Yuki Tsunoda became the first Japanese driver to score points in his home race since Kamui Kobayashi in 2012.
• Nico Hulkenberg took P11 for Haas and thus missed out on a third consecutive point-scoring race by only one position.
• With P14, Valtteri Bottas equaled Kick Sauber's best result of 2024.
• Williams’ Alex Albon crashed out at the start after contact with Daniel Ricciardo – two of Albon's four career lap-one eliminations have come at Suzuka (2022, 2024).
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