March 29 (Reuters) – Formula 1 statistics for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, the third of the season’s 23 races:
Altitude: 5,278 km. Total distance: 306,124 km (58 laps)
2022 pole position: Charles Leclerc (Monaco) Ferrari, one minute 17.868 seconds.
2022 winner: Leclerc
Race record: Leclerc (2022) 1:20.260
There are no major races at Albert Park in 2020 and 2021. The circuit has been shortened by 28 meters, with two corners and seven hairpin bends, for last year’s race and is now the new 2019 layout.
A fourth DRS region was added this year.
Start time: 0500 GMT (1500 local time)
AUSTRALIA
McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri is the only Australian in Sunday’s race.
No Australian driver has ever won a race on home soil.
There have been 14 Australian F1 drivers since the 1950s and two world champions – Jack Brabham and Alan Jones.
This year’s race will be the 26th held at Albert Park and at the 37th Australian Grand Prix. It was held in Adelaide, which was the last race of the year, between 1985 and 1995.
Four drivers have now won first in Melbourne: Fernando Alonso (2006), Lewis Hamilton (2008, 2015), Valtteri Bottas (2019), and Leclerc (2022).
Ferrari great Michael Schumacher won a record four times in Australia.
Hamilton has been on the pole eight times in Melbourne (2008, 2012, 2014-2019).
McLaren has won a record 11 times in Australia, with Ferrari in 10th.
The lowest start to victory was Britain’s Eddie Irvine from 11th place in 1999 for Ferrari. Sixteen of the 25 races in Melbourne have been won by the front row.
Leclerc last year achieved his first “grand slam” in Melbourne – pole, lead every lap, win, fastest.
RACE Won
Hamilton has a record 103 career wins from 312 starts, most recently in Saudi Arabia in December 2021.
Red Bull’s two-time world champion Max Verstappen has 36 wins from 165 starts.
Red Bull has won 12 of the last 13 races and 18 of 21 since the 2022 Australian Grand Prix.
Aston Martin’s Alonso has 32 wins, his last at his home race in Spain in 2013 with Ferrari, from 357 starts.
POLE POSITION
Hamilton has 103 career hits.
Sergio Perez’s pole for Red Bull in Saudi Arabia was only the Mexican’s second in F1. The first one, last year, was also in Jeddah.
LAWS LED
Alonso is the only driver outside of the Red Bull pair to have led the race this season.
Alonso is chasing his third consecutive podium. The last time the Spaniard did it was in 2013 (Belgium, Italy, Singapore) with Ferrari.
POINT
Verstappen leads Perez by one point after two races.
SAFETY CAR
The safety car has appeared in three of the last five Melbourne dry races. It was used twice last year.
Destination
This weekend will be Red Bull’s 350th Grand Prix. The team made its debut in Melbourne in 2005. They are looking for a third consecutive goal, something they have never achieved before.
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