Formula One statistics for the Australian Grand Prix

Formula One statistics for Sundays season-opening Australian Grand Prix at Melbournes Albert Park:

Lap distance: 5.278km. Total distance: 306.124km (58 laps)

2024 pole position: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull one minute 15.915 seconds.

2024 winner: Carlos Sainz (Spain) Ferrari

Race lap record: Sergio Perez (Mexico) Red Bull, 1:20.235, 2023.

NOTE: The circuit was shortened by 28 metres, with two turns taken out and seven corners modified, in 2022.

Start time: 0400 GMT (1500 local)

AUSTRALIA

There are two Australian drivers in Sundays race, McLarens Oscar Piastri and Alpine rookie Jack Doohan.

No Australian driver has won a home grand prix.

This year’s race will be the 28th at Albert Park, and 39th in Australia. The Australian round was held in Adelaide, as the season-ender, between 1985 and 1995. It starts the season for the first time since 2019.

Five current drivers have won in Melbourne: Fernando Alonso (2006),Lewis Hamilton (2008, 2015),Charles Leclerc (2022),Verstappen (2023) and Sainz (2024).

Ferrari great Michael Schumacher won a record four times in Australia.

Hamilton has been on pole in Melbourne a record eight times (2008, 2012, 2014-2019). He made his F1 debut in Australia with McLaren in 2007.

McLaren and Ferrari have both won 11 times in Australia, more than any other team.

The lowest-placed starter to win was Britain’s Eddie Irvine from 11th in 1999 for Ferrari.

Eighteen of the 28 races in Melbourne have been won from the front row but only one of the 28 has seen the top three on the starting grid finish in the same order.

The track is similar to a street circuit, with turn three a good overtaking point, and drivers make 35 gear changes a lap with 71% of the time at full throttle. It has the shortest pit lane at 281 metres.