Bahrain Grand Prix: Hamilton sets a new record
The British driver added the record for the most laps led in a Grand Prix to his list of achievements!
At the dawn of the new season, a few records are still within Lewis Hamilton’s sights. Besides the obvious one of the greatest number of titles he could win with a final victory, that of the greatest number of laps in first position in a Grand Prix was more quickly achievable.
Ranked second in this classification before the start of the race, Hamilton finally surpassed the previous record set by Michael Schumacher after an intense battle with his Red Bull rival Max Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton overtakes Schumacher
He was only 13 laps away from displacing Michael Schumacher from the top spot in the standings with his 5,111 laps led: he now finds himself alone at the top with 5,126 laps. The record began to approach when he took the lead of the race on the 18th lap, passing Max Verstappen and staying in that position for 10 laps before stopping in the pits. He then regained the lead on the 40th lap to officially break the record and extend it even further until the end of the race.
With this objective achieved, Hamilton has now led 5,126 laps in a Grand Prix… out of 15,222 laps completed throughout his F1 career! This represents a percentage of 33.6%, a figure only slightly lower than his pole position ratio (36.7%) and victory ratio (35.96%).
