Canadian Grand Prix 2007 facts & statistics

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Lewis Hamilton’s maiden F1 pole position and victory were the headlines of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.

But how many other drivers triumphed in their debut seasons? Can Hamilton beat the record for most wins in his first year? Find out…

Lewis Hamilton scored his first win and pole position in his sixth Grand Prix. He is one of only nine drivers to win in his first year of competition – the others being Juan Pablo Montoya (2001), Jacques Villeneuve (1996), Clay Regazzoni and Emerson Fittipaldi (1970), Jackie Stewart (1965), Giancarlo Baghetti (1961) and Giuseppi Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio (1950).

The record for the most Grand Prix wins in a debut season is four by Jacques Villeneuve in 1996. Hamilton has 11 races to beat that target.

The Canadian Grand Prix was also the 18th occasion on which a race has featured a first-time winner and pole sitter – the last being Turkey last year when Felipe Massa won from pole. At Sepang in 2003 Fernando Alonso was the debut pole sitter and Kimi Raikkonen the debut winner – which which the first time a race had seen a new winner and pole man since Ayrton Senna won in Portugal in 1985.

BMW (Nick Hedfeld) and Williams (Alexander Wurz) finally broke the McLaren-Ferrari stranglehold on the podium. Wurz’s podium was Williams’ first since Heidfeld finished second in a Williams-BMW at the Nurburgring in 2005.

The race marked ten years since Wurz’s Formula 1 debut. However that time in sport includes one of the longest ever career gaps. He was out of the cockpit for 71 races from Sepang 2000 to Imola 2005 while a test driver for McLaren.

That is still some way short of the all time record held by Jan Lammers, who missed 162 races between 1982 and 1992. But perhaps even more surprising is that Rubens Barrichello, the active driver with the most starts, has not missed a Grand Prix since his career began.

McLaren kept up its astonishing record of completing every racing lap in 2007, with 768 so far.

Hamilton now leads the drivers’ championship by eight points. The largest lead anyone had managed previously this year was two points. Oh, and he’s now finished his first six races on the podium, and he’s led them all as well.

The top four all scored their best finishes of the year so far – Hamilton, Heidfeld, Wurz and Heikki Kovalainen.

Kovalainen also gained more places from his starting position than anyone else this year – 18, rising from 22nd to fourth.

Jarno Trulli kept up his flawless qualifying record against Toyota team mate Ralf Schumacher.

BMW now have more points this year than they scored in the whole of 2006: 38 vs 36.

Heidfeld has now also passed the 100 career points mark, with 105.

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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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