Portuguese GP qualifying facts and stats: Dominant Mercedes still far off one Williams record

A gripping qualifying session on a not-so-grippy Portimao circuit threw up some interesting facts and stats, including one that shows despite all their recent dominance, Mercedes still have a long way to go to match one long-standing Williams F1 record...

• This was Mercedes’ 13th-consecutive pole position, which is the sixth-longest streak in F1. The record, however, belongs to Williams, who took 24 poles in a row from 1992-93.
• Lewis Hamilton took his 97th career pole position and ninth pole of 2020 for the Portuguese Grand Prix.

READ MORE: Hamilton beats Bottas to Portuguese GP pole with final charging run at Portimao

• Valtteri Bottas lost out to his team mate after topping every practice session – exactly the same as at Mugello.
• Mercedes made it nine front-row lockouts in the last 10 races, only missing out at Sochi.
• Max Verstappen managed third on the grid for Red Bull, the sixth time he has done so in the last nine races.

• Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified fourth for the third time in 2020, and this is the second consecutive race he’s put his SF1000 there.
• Sebastian Vettel was outqualified by Leclerc for the ninth consecutive race.
• In P5 on the grid for this race, Racing Point’s Sergio Perez has now qualified P4, P5, P6, P7, P8 and P9 this season – without a top-three start in his career.

READ MORE: Ricciardo vows to make up for qualifying spin in Portuguese GP after missing out on Q3 run

• Lando Norris managed eighth on the grid for the third race running, but has been outqualified by McLaren team mate Carlos Sainz six times in the last seven races.
• Pierre Gasly took ninth on the grid, reaching Q3 for the seventh time in 12 races of 2020.
• Daniel Ricciardo starts 10th after a mistake at the end of Q2. The last five times he started from P10, the Renault driver has failed to score a point. However, he won from 10th in the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

• Esteban Ocon was outqualified by Ricciardo for the 10th consecutive race.
• Lance Stroll hasn’t made a Q3 appearance since Mugello as he was 12th on the grid for Russia and didn’t start the Nurburgring round with Covid-19.
• Daniil Kvyat starts 13th and has not managed anything but 11th, 12th or 13th on the grid for the last seven races.
• George Russell reached Q2, for Williams, for the seventh time in the last 11 races. He not only outqualified Vettel (Ferrari) but outqualified his Williams team mate for the 33rd consecutive race.

READ MORE: Acting Williams boss Simon Roberts dodges questions on the team’s 2021 driver line up

• Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi are now tied 6-6 in their qualifying head-to-head at Alfa Romeo.
• Outgoing Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen are also tied 6-6 in qualifying this season, and the team have lost both cars in Q1 six times this season. In 2019, that only happened once.