Formula One statistics for Bahrain Grand Prix

Posted at 12:00am on 10 March 2010

March 10 (Reuters) - Formula One statistics for Sunday's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix:

CHAMPIONS

There will be four world champions (Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher) on the starting grid for the first time since 1999 (Mika Hakkinen/Damon Hill/Schumacher/Jacques Villeneuve).

Between them, they account for 11 of the past 12 championships.

McLaren's pairing of Button and Hamilton marks the first time a team has lined up with the two most recent champions and the first time two English champions have been together since Graham Hill and Jim Clark at Lotus in 1968.

McLaren last had two champions together in 1989, when Brazilian Ayrton Senna and France's Alain Prost formed an explosive pairing.

Constructors' champions Brawn are now racing as Mercedes.

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WINS

Red Bull have won the last three races.

Eleven of the 24 drivers have won at least one grand prix in their careers.

Ferrari have won 210 times, McLaren 164, Williams 113.

SCHUMACHER

Schumacher records include: seven world titles, 91 wins, 76 fastest laps, 68 pole positions and 1,369 points.

He also tops the list for highest average points per event of 5.50, most wins per season (13) and most podium finishes (154). He is the only driver to have ever notched up 19 consecutive podiums.

The German also holds the record for most wins at the same circuit (eight in France), most wins from pole position (40) and most hat-tricks (pole, win, fastest lap) with 22.

Schumacher racked up an unmatched 24 successive races in the points between 2001 and 2003.

He is second, behind his former Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello of Brazil, in the all time list of grand prix starts (250).

AGE

At 41, Schumacher is the oldest driver on the starting grid.

The oldest to win a championship remains Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, who was 46 when he took his fifth in 1957.

Two others won titles aged over 40 -- Italian Giuseppe Farina at 43 in 1950 and Australian Jack Brabham at 40 in 1966.

The oldest race winner is Italian Luigi Fagioli who was 53 when he triumphed in France in 1951.

Spain's Jaime Alguersuari, who turns 20 on March 23, is the youngest driver on the grid.

MERCEDES

The German manufacturer has its own works team for the first time since 1955.

POLE POSITION

Nine of last season's 17 races were won from pole position.

Ferrari have not been on pole since the Brazilian Grand Prix of 2008. Last season was their first without a pole since 1993, which is also the last year that Formula One had no refuelling during races.

BAHRAIN

Ferrari have won three of the six Bahrain Grands Prix to date, with their new driver Fernando Alonso taking two of the other victories with Renault.

Half of the races have been won from pole.

On only two occasions has the winner not started on the front row and both times he qualified in fourth place -- Button last year and Alonso in 2006.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Alison Wildey

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