2010 Australian Grand Prix stats and facts

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Vettel led Button until a wheel problem ended the Red Bull driver's race
Vettel led Button until a wheel problem ended the Red Bull driver's race

After the Australian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel has led more laps in 2010 than all the other drivers put together. But unreliability has kept him from winning either of the races so far.

Read on for more stats and facts from round two of the 2010 F1 season.

Jenson Button scored his eighth career victory. He has now won as many races as 1967 champion Denny Hulme and Jacky Ickx.

It was also his second consecutive win in the Australian Grand Prix. The last person to win successive races in Melbourne was Michael Schumacher, who won in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

It was the tenth win in the Australian Grand Prix for McLaren. They first won the event with Alain Prost in 1986 at the Adelaide circuit.

Australian Grand Prix start

Australian Grand Prix in pictures

Vettel started from the seventh pole position of his career, giving him the same number of first-place starts as Button as well as Jacques Laffite.

It was the first one-two start for Red Bull – but the end result of a ninth place and a DNF will have been a huge disappointment.

Fastest lap went to Mark Webber, making him the first Australian driver to set the fastest lap in his home event. But he was once again unable to improve on his best ever finish in the event, fifth place, which he first achieved with Minardi on his Grand Prix debut in 2002.

Robert Kubica reached the podium for the tenth time in his career and ended his recent run of bad luck in the Australian Grand Prix.

Karun Chandhok and HRT achieved their first race finish. The only team yet to get their car to finish a race in 2010 is Virgin. Timo Glock completed 41 laps in Melbourne, 11 short of being classified.

Ten drivers failed to finish the race, including Jarno Trulli who wasn’t even able to start it. That’s the most non-finishers since the 2008 Australian Grand Prix, when 14 drivers failed to reach the chequered flag.

Laps led in 2010

Sebastian Vettel has led more laps than all the other drivers put together but hasn’t won a race this year.

Driver Laps led
Sebastian Vettel 56
Jenson Button 33
Fernando Alonso 16
Mark Webber 2

Podiums in 2010

Felipe Massa is the only driver to have finished on the podium in both races this year.

Driver Podiums
Felipe Massa 2
Fernando Alonso 1
Lewis Hamilton 1
Jenson Button 1
Robert Kubica 1

Have you spotted any more interesting stats and facts from the Australian Grand Prix? Post them in the comments.

2010 Australian Grand Prix

Image (C) Bridgestone / Ercole Colombo

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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180 comments on “2010 Australian Grand Prix stats and facts”

  1. Hamish
    29th March 2010, 11:19

    Just a quick question that sprung to mind. I’m a NZ’er, so obviously I hold in very high regard Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon & Denny Hulme. But would it be fair to say that Hulme is one of the least favourite World Champs ever? Thats not meant in a negative manner, but for some reason he is never really praised and seldom does he come up in conversation when the topic is world champs. Why is that? Bearing in mind he did beat the defending world champ in a team funded founded and named after the defending champ. I’d be interested to know peoples thoughts.

    1. Ned Flanders
      29th March 2010, 13:04

      I don’t know very much about him and I never saw him race, but I’d agree he isn’t exactly highly regarded as an F1 champ. He’s one of the most obscure champions, along with Mike Hawthorn and Phil Hill.

      I’ve just had a look at Autosport’s 100 best drivers feature from last December. Hulme is ranked 62nd, behind the likes of Ricardo Patrese, Tony Maggs and Alex Zanardi (!), and one place in front of Aguri Suzuki. For the record, Amon is 64th and McLaren 61st

      1. steph
        29th March 2010, 13:15

        I don’t knopw much about Hulme either so maybe that says I’m ignorant or that he is overlooked by some for whatever reason.
        I’d say Farina is sometimes forgotten about but maybe that’s because he wasn’t in his prime whenn he won the F1 world title.
        As for Hawthorn, he was never rated as a top driver really and I think he is sometimes more remembered for his personality (he sometimes is regarded as the original F1 playboy before Hunt took that crown) and what happened at Le Mans. Mike only managed 3 wins in F1 I think which were 2 in France and 1 in Spain but I’d have to check. The year he won was perhaps meant to be Stirling’s year too -4 wins to Mike’s 1- and Stirling is a national hero for us which is ironic as he’s probably only loved as much because he didn’t win the title.
        One thing I love about Mike though was that he won the title and became the first Brit WDC with Ferrari so actually I am being patriotic supporting the red team ;)

        1. bob
          29th March 2010, 17:46

          If Moss wont be so friendly, Hawtorn would never become champion, because, as we all remember, they wanted to DQ Hawtorn in Morocco, but Moss was the one who said No, even it cost him WCH
          And about Hulme- He was good only in that as I remember, 1967 year.

          1. Calum
            29th March 2010, 19:42

            Is the rumor I heard true about SM helping MH back into a race, ultimately losing him the championship?

          2. steph
            29th March 2010, 19:49

            Yeah Calum. I think it was at Porto. Hawthorn’s car stopped and he tried to push it which would have him disqualified but Moss said that Mike deserved the 2nd place. I think but I can’t remember exactly so don’t shout if that’s a load of rubbish :P

          3. bob
            29th March 2010, 19:57

            steph it wasnt porto it was Morocco.

      2. bob
        29th March 2010, 17:47

        LOL. What are Zanardi, Maggs and Suzuki doing there?

        1. Harvs
          29th March 2010, 21:22

          Hey Hamish! did you go to the Bruce Mclaren memorial day when they opened hampton downs?

      3. K
        29th March 2010, 21:59

        Phill Hill and Mike Hawthorn aren’t that obscure are they?

        Hulme certainly is as well as Farina.

        I often think Jochen Rindt is more famous for his death rather than winning the title, maybe because he won the title after he died.

        Also I think Jim Clark doesn’t get the recognition he should.

        1. Hamish
          29th March 2010, 22:46

          Hey Harvs. Yea I did make it up to Hampton downs for the weekend. It was pretty awesome and I was amazed by how many people actually in attendance!!

          K – yeah its a very weird one with drivers that die. I think the question is does their death change the way they are viewed and I would say yes. I think its exactly the same as when musicians die. Jim Morrison, Bob Marley, Jim Croche, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain….big when alive, but bigger now they are dead.

          1. Ronman
            30th March 2010, 12:38

            well this is a topic for the book… the forgotten champ… coming to a bookstore near you …. can be the perfect xmass gift.

  2. Patrickl
    29th March 2010, 11:29

    Massa has performed better in the last 2 races than he has in the first two races of the last 4 seasons. In those previous 8 races he only managed 2 fifth places and one sixth. Netting him 11 points (or 28 with the current system)

    Guess he was right that Ferrari could have it’s best season start in years. At least he did.

    1. bob
      29th March 2010, 17:48

      He is 2nd in championship having no led laps

      1. statix
        29th March 2010, 20:23

        And vettel has over 50 led laps hahahaha.
        LED laps = nothing :)

  3. Simon Stiel
    29th March 2010, 11:35

    Button becomes the fifth British driver to win a race for Mclaren.

    He accomplished his first win for Mclaren in his second race for the team. Sooner than the other Britons, Hunt (at fourth race- Spain 1976), Watson (at 28th race- Britain 1981), Coulthard (at 17th race- Australia 1997) and Hamilton (at 6th race-Canada 2007)

  4. david
    29th March 2010, 11:41

    It was the 290th race for Rubens Barrichello
    It was the 30th podium for Felipe Massa

    1. JProc
      29th March 2010, 17:23

      250th race for Schumacher.

      1. bob
        29th March 2010, 17:49

        Isnt it 10th race to Alguersuari?

  5. david
    29th March 2010, 11:42

    and an obvious one : HRT + karun Chandok’s first race finish :)

    1. ajokay
      29th March 2010, 11:55

      So obvious, it’s already mentioned in the article.

      1. bob
        29th March 2010, 17:49

        For the first and last time :D

  6. steph90
    29th March 2010, 11:42

    It is the second time a world champion who has partnered Hamilton at Mclaren has won the second race of the season. Alonso Mal 07.
    Ferrari have now been on every step of the podium this season in descending order too.
    The last time Massa and Robert shared a podium was Monaco 08.

    1. Enigma
      29th March 2010, 12:18

      It was the first time Massa, Kubica and Button were on the podium together.

      It is the second time a world champion who has partnered Massa at Ferrari has won the first race of the season. Raikkonen Aus 07. :)

      1. steph90
        29th March 2010, 12:43

        Massa qualified behind Alonso but finished ahead which was the opposite of last weekend.
        Massa’s first third place since Germany 09 but that was only three race starts ago for him.

      2. Kester
        29th March 2010, 13:11

        Kimi wasn’t a champion then. Also that doesn’t relate the this race in the slightest.

        1. steph
          29th March 2010, 13:22

          I just think we ended up in a mini Massa fact competition :P

    2. sato113
      29th March 2010, 13:45

      guys these are pretty uninteresting facts! lol. we need some more rare or special occurrences.

  7. PeterG
    29th March 2010, 11:42

    There were 11 drivers on the exact same grid position as in the previous race:

    1 Sebastian Vettel
    3 Fernando Alonso
    7 M Schumacher
    9 Robert Kubica
    10 Adrian Sutil
    14 Pedro de la Rosa
    16 Kamui Kobayashi
    20 Jarno Trulli
    22 Luca di Grassi
    23 Bruno Senna
    24 Karun Chandhok

    1. sato113
      29th March 2010, 11:47

      nice one! good spot

    2. Profile Photo

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      29th March 2010, 11:53

      Fancy that – I wonder how unusual that is?

    3. sumedh
      29th March 2010, 15:26

      WOW!! You have got some eye PeterG!!

    4. Phil
      29th March 2010, 16:08

      This is my favourite so far.

      1. bob
        29th March 2010, 17:52

        So who will be the first, who discovers, when it was last time? :D

    5. Enigma
      29th March 2010, 18:51

      good one…I wonder how many of these drivers will qualify there in Malaysia as well.

      1. bob
        29th March 2010, 18:58

        Probably di Grassi, Senna, Karun, Myb Schumacher

        1. sumedh
          30th March 2010, 2:54

          And Vettel as well, I think :)

          1. Mike
            30th March 2010, 4:23

            Most likely, his pace in that car… wow

    6. Enigma
      4th April 2010, 11:00

      Only Senna qualified 23rd again

  8. sato113
    29th March 2010, 11:46

    what a win for jenson. much better than his brawn gp wins. we must remember that massa was still a bit slower than alonso in oz…

  9. PeterG
    29th March 2010, 11:47

    Only 1 driver finished the same position as the previous race:

    5 Nico Rosberg

    1. Xanathos
      29th March 2010, 15:43

      And still, nine of the drivers who finished in the points in Bahrain also scored in Australia. Only change was Vettel out – Kubica in

      1. bob
        29th March 2010, 17:53

        Also Petrov, Senna, di Grassi. But they actually didnt finish at all :D

        1. PeterG
          31st March 2010, 14:22

          But this time they failed in a different order than the previous race :D

      2. MEmo
        30th March 2010, 2:54

        I think that will happen in every race: 8 spots for the BIG4 and two for the others (one Willy and one Renny, or Indy might be there occasionally)…

  10. PeterG
    29th March 2010, 11:57

    Points per engine:
    Points Wins
    Mercedes 91 1
    Ferrari 70 1
    Renault 36 0
    Cosworth 5 0

    1. ajokay
      29th March 2010, 14:06

      I was thinking yesterday that with all the engine suppliers powering more than one team, that they should have an Engines championship. Would be an interesting sidenote.

      1. bob
        29th March 2010, 17:55

        If last year was such point system then comparing to 2009:
        MRC +25,5 points
        FER +58,5
        REN +22
        CSW –
        BMW –
        TOY –

  11. Daniel
    29th March 2010, 12:01

    Like I said in Bahrain with Alonso, Button now is the second active driver to win for three different teams (Honda, Brawn and McLaren), despite all the appropriate discussion if Honda and Brawn can be considered two teams or not… anyway, at least we can say he have won wearing three different overalls :)

  12. Herke
    29th March 2010, 12:04

    Does anyone know what happened to Sutil? I missed that bit.

    Also, why was hamilton’s red light still flashing all through the race? – a really piddly point i know but i was just curious what the rules are on the red lights.

    1. Enigma
      29th March 2010, 12:19

      His engine had loss of power and they stopped.

    2. Karan
      29th March 2010, 14:37

      I am also wondering this. It would have been quite annoying for the cars behind him, I certainly noticed it whenever they showed Hamilton.

      1. Patrickl
        29th March 2010, 15:59

        I think for next race they will quickly switch it off. That red light worked like a red cape on the “Webber Bull”

        1. JProc
          29th March 2010, 17:28

          I was asked why the light was flashing during the race. I was going to say because its wet but it wasn’t.

          1. bob
            29th March 2010, 17:57

            Myb, he forgot to turn it out? :D

          2. Harvs
            29th March 2010, 21:28

            They just forget to turn it off, nothing big. could be strategy, like Le Mans cars driving around during the day with thier headlights on, to distract the competitor infront

  13. TomD11
    29th March 2010, 12:08

    For the second year in a row, Lewis loses a podium finish in Australia from a dodgy team call.

    1. steph90
      29th March 2010, 12:18

      I think it was more that Lewis and Mclaren lied last year. :p

      1. Scribe
        29th March 2010, 12:39

        Well last year they where wrong to make him give up the place, an this year they where wrong to make him pit.

        1. steph90
          29th March 2010, 12:46

          True I guess but I reckon ham would have kept the podium and Trulli moved back after had they not lied. Although his team told him to lie like they told him to pit so there is continuity there I suppose :p

          1. Brakius
            29th March 2010, 23:58

            If HAM passes KUB, they don’t bring him in, he passed every other car on the track, why not Robert? Just as much a driver error to me.

  14. Enigma
    29th March 2010, 12:14

    In last 4 years 4 drivers won with McLaren: BUT, HAM, KOV, ALO. 3 at Ferrari: RAI, MAS, ALO. 2 at Red Bull and Brawn GP.

    1. bob
      29th March 2010, 17:58

      ANd 0 in last 5 years in Williams

  15. GeeMac
    29th March 2010, 12:18

    Does this count: The first time in 2010 I spent the entire race on the edge of my seat?

    1. Its Hammer Time
      29th March 2010, 13:04

      I’ll second that. A race to rival Brazil 09 for excitement…

    2. Karan
      29th March 2010, 14:38

      This is the second worst race of the season!

      1. David A
        29th March 2010, 19:45

        It’s going to fall down the order…

        1. CherieChew
          31st March 2010, 4:08

          Well, I hope not!

  16. Hamish
    29th March 2010, 12:22

    The last 4 years the driver who has won the Aussie GP wins the WDC.

    Alonso – 2006
    Kimi – 2007
    Hamilton – 2008
    Button – 2009

    1. Ned Flanders
      29th March 2010, 13:07

      True, but you can also say that about the opening GP, which in 2006 and 2010 was in Bahrain. So perhaps we can assume the champion this season will be either Jenson Button or Fernando Alonso!

    2. wolguy
      29th March 2010, 13:14

      You can write it also about the 1st race of a season.

      1. bob
        29th March 2010, 17:59

        BTW they all 4 have driven in Mclaren

  17. Jim N
    29th March 2010, 12:31

    Despite points being available for the 1st 10 places, after two races only 11 drivers have scored points.

    1. Tango
      29th March 2010, 13:45

      I like that one