Drivers News
At this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, Sergio Perez will become the 19th Formula One driver to have started 200 races. On four of these occasions the driver went on to win that race. Laura Leslie takes you through them below.
Michael Schumacher – 2004 European Grand Prix
It was a season of crushing domination for Michael Schumacher, with 13 wins from 18 races and a record-breaking seventh title – his fifth championship in succession. The German started his 200th grand prix from pole and never really looked to be in danger in front of his home support at the Nürburgring. He was helped by Kimi Raikkonen holding up the field in the opening nine laps – the McLaren struggling in 2004, but Raikkonen had made a super start to leap from fourth to second by the end of lap one. This allowed Schumacher to build a significant lead by the time of his first stop on lap 28. He would end up finishing 17s ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello.
Jenson Button – 2011 Hungarian Grand Prix
2009 world champion Jenson Button was arguably having the season of his career in 2011. He was consistently beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton and would end up finishing the title race in second place, only behind a dominant Sebastian Vettel. At the Hungarian Grand Prix though, it was Button who would dominate following a mistake from Hamilton. Button took full advantage of Hamilton spinning while in the lead – and then re-joining the track in front of Paul Di Resta in an unsafe matter. The resulting penalty for Hamilton meant Button has a clear road to victory on a day when the weather couldn’t seem to make it’s mind up on rain or shine. Button held off Vettel by 3.5 seconds to take his 11th career win and second of 2011.
Nico Rosberg – 2016 Singapore Grand Prix
On his way to his first and only world title, Nico Rosberg took perhaps his finest career win at his 200th race start. After utterly destroying team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.647s in qualifying, Rosberg was only really ever threatened by the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian driver would make a late pit-stop to switch to some supersoft tyres and was bearing down on Rosberg in the closing laps. Rosberg held his nerve though and won by just 0.488s. It was to be the penultimate win of Rosberg’s career and his eighth of nine in 2016.
Lewis Hamilton – 2017 Belgian Grand Prix
For Lewis Hamilton his 200th race start came in the Belgian Grand Prix fresh off the back of the summer break. Hamilton had a tough time in the previous race in Hungary and looked to be losing momentum to rival Sebastian Vettel in the championship chase. Hamilton led from pole and would only lose the lead to Vettel during the pitstop phase of the race. The Brit would come under attack from the German later in the race thanks to a safety car period, but Hamilton held Vettel off by 2.358s to win for the fifth time in 2017 and the 58th time in his career.
