Which Formula 1 driver had the biggest lap time advantage over his team mate this year? Who took the biggest haul of their team’s points? And whose car broke down the most?

Here are the statistics which reveal the telling details about every driver’s performance in 2018.

Lewis Hamilton For the fifth year in a row, Lewis Hamilton won the most races of any driver, taking 11 victories. But as well as being fast he was consistent too, covering 1,200 laps, the most of any driver. Valtteri Bottas Out of the six drivers in the top three cars, Valtteri Bottas finished ‘Last of the Best’ the most, doing so seven times.

Sebastian Vettel A series of first-lap blunders meant Sebastian Vettel lost the most places on lap one of any driver, a net total of 34 across the season. Which helps explain why he had the second-most ‘Last of the Best’ finishes, with five. Kimi Raikkonen Kimi Raikkonen reached Q3 at every race in 21. Vettel and Bottas did the same, but Raikkonen extended a 51-race streak dating back to the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix. Keeping that up will be harder at Sauber next year.

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Daniel Ricciardo Reliability wasn’t kind to Daniel Ricciardo. He had the most non-classifications due to technical failures of any driver (seven) and lost the most grid places due to penalties of anyone. Max Verstappen Max Verstappen was a far more regular visitor to the podium than his team mate. He reached the rostrum 11 times to Ricciardo’s two.

Sergio Perez As well as being the only driver who out-scored his team mate despite finishing behind him more often than not, Sergio Perez was also the only driver from outside the ‘big three’ teams to finish on the podium. Esteban Ocon Esteban Ocon made a big step forward in qualifying. Having been out-qualified 13-7 by Perez last year, he led 16-5 in 2018.

Lance Stroll For the second year in a row Lance Stroll gained the most positions on the first lap of any driver, a net increase of 36 places, though he also had the worst average qualifying result. The second-highest climber on lap one was Verstappen, who appropriately made up 33 places. Sergey Sirotkin Despite being out-scored by his team mate, Sergey Sirotkin won the qualifying battle at Williams 12-8.

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Nico Hulkenberg Nico Hulkenberg had the most ‘best of the rest wins’ by a driver not in one of the top three cars, leading the midfield home six times. Carlos Sainz Jnr Hulkenberg may have scored most of Renault’s points, but Carlos Sainz Jnr matched his best finish (fifth) and ran higher than him in a race, holding third for eight laps at Paul Ricard.

Pierre Gasly Pierre Gasly put Brendon Hartley in the shade by scoring the highest percentage of any team’s total points. He took 87.9% of Toro Rosso’s haul. Brendon Hartley However Hartley had to contend with taking the most penalties of any driver. He totalled 11 for the season, just three of which were due to driving infringements.

Romain Grosjean Romain Grosjean made as many appearances in Q3 as Ricciardo – 16 – but less than half of those led to points finishes. Kevin Magnussen The tide turned at Haas after the summer break. Having out-qualified Grosjean seven times up to that point, Kevin Magnussen only managed once more from then on.

Fernando Alonso Fernando Alonso signed of his final F1 season in emphatic style, out-qualifying Stoffel Vandoorne in all 21 of this year’s races. Stoffel Vandoorne Stoffel Vandoorne finished outside the points 15 times to Alonso’s six. Only the Williams drivers finished 11th or worse more times (17 each).

Marcus Ericsson After adjusting for unrepresentative lap times, Marcus Ericsson had the biggest average deficit to his team mate of any driver. He was 0.431s slower than Charles Leclerc. Charles Leclerc Sauber’s five best results were all scored by Leclerc (Alonso did the same at McLaren and Hamilton did so 11 times at Mercedes, though the team orders in Russia which cost Bottas a win should be acknowledged). He also kept his nose clean: he didn’t have a single penalty for a driving infringement all year.

Over to you

Have you spotted any more revealing statistics about the drivers in 2018? Share them in the comments.

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2018 F1 season review