ESPN takes a look at some of the best and quirkiest stats from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
MELBOURNE, Australia -- For the second year in succession Sebastian Vettel claimed the opening race of the season in Australia, this time after benefiting enormously from a Virtual Safety Car period.
The win was Vettel's 47th in Formula One -- nine having come with Ferrari -- and gave the German a seventh trip to the podium from his past eight races in Melbourne. The grand prix also saw Vettel join Hamilton and Michael Schumacher as the only drivers to lead at least 3,000 laps in Formula One.
Stat focus: Hamilton's not so lucky 7
Only 36 drivers in history have managed to secure seven pole position or more during their Formula One career -- amazingly, Hamilton now has that amount at just one circuit after once again setting the fastest lap during qualifying on the streets of Albert Park.
His pole position strike rate Down Under is a remarkable 58.3 percent having taken top spot in qualifying in 2008, 2012, 2014-2018 and now only Ayrton Senna (San Marino) and Michael Schumacher (Japan) have taken more poles at the same grand prix (8). It's also worth noting that Hamilton's tally of 73 career pole positions is now one more than Sebastian Vettel (50) and Fernando Alonso (22) combined.
However, what is concerning for the reigning world champion is his pole-to-win rate in Australia which is a lowly 28.57 percent, significantly down from his career average of 54.79 percent. During his time as a Mercedes driver, those numbers are even worse with Hamilton having won just once from his five P1 starts in Australia.
Something you probably didn't know
Is Kimi Raikkonen on a mini resurgence? We think so.
The Ferrari driver finished third in Australia, and had it not been for the untimely VSC most likely second, to make it four podiums from his past five races - the same amount as he managed through the first 15 races of 2017. Raikkonen has actually not had a better five-race stretch (by points scored) since the opening five races of the 2013 season.
Perhaps it won't be much longer before he snaps his run of 88 races without a win.
Fast facts:
50% - Sebastian Vettel's win in Melbourne was the 100th time he had made a Formula One podium in what was his 200th career race.
P4 - The best finish by an Australian driver at the Australian Grand Prix, achieved once by Mark Webber (2012) and twice by Daniel Ricciardo (2016, 2018).
22 - The amount of points Haas would have scored by holding onto P4 and P5. It would have more than doubled their previous best haul of 10 at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix.
0.709s - The year-on-year gain, relative to Mercedes, for McLaren during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.
26 - The amount of consecutive points scoring finishes for Lewis Hamilton (13 have been wins). The last race he failed to score points at was the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix. He is now one off tying Kimi Raikkonen's all-time record of 27.