Four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel is set to start the German Grand Prix from the pole position. Will he fall victim to a recent trend?
Formula 1 race polesitters have won five of the 10 races that have been contested so far in the 2018 season. Four of those five wins from pole position came in a four-race span starting with the fifth race of the season.
The fifth race of the season, the Spanish Grand Prix, was won by Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton after he started from the pole position and led every lap of the race except when he came into the pits and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen inherited the lead by staying out on the track for eight extra laps.
The sixth race of the season, the Monaco Grand Prix, was won by Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo after he started from the pole position and led every lap of the race. The seventh race of the season, the Canadian Grand Prix, was won by Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel after he started from the pole position and led every lap of the race.
The eighth race of the season, the French Grand Prix, was won by Hamilton after he started from the pole position and led every lap of the race except when he came into the pits and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen inherited the lead by staying out on the track for one extra lap.
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But since then, the races have not been kind to the polesitters. In fact, in the two races that have taken place since then, race polesitters have not led the field past the first turn on the first lap, and they have led a combined zero laps.
In the ninth race of the season, the Austrian Grand Prix, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas started from the pole position. He was quickly overtaken by Hamilton and Raikkonen heading into the first turn on the first lap of the race before Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen also passed him for third place.
In the 10th and most recent race of the season, the British Grand Prix, Hamilton started from the pole position. He was quickly overtaken by Vettel and Bottas before he was spun out by Raikkonen in a battle for third place.
Will Vettel fall victim to this trend in today’s German Grand Prix 17-turn, 2.842-mile (4.574-kilometer) Hockenheimring in Am Motodrom, Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, or will he overcome it? On a side note, the polesitter in the most recent Formula 1 race held at the Hockenheimring, Nico Rosberg, also led zero laps of that race. That race was held in 2016.
The polesitters that have combined to lead zero laps in the last two races are both Mercedes drivers, and it is clear that Ferrari have had an advantage over Mercedes at the start. With Vettel set to start the German Grand Prix from the pole position in his Ferrari alongside Bottas in second place in his Mercedes, it is unlikely that he will fall victim to this trend unless he gets taken out at the start.
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Will Sebastian Vettel fall victim to the recent polesitter trend by failing to lead a single lap of the German Grand Prix, or will he pick up where he left off after winning his most recent pole position in the Canadian Grand Prix in the four-race span during which polesitters won every race and only failed to lead laps while pit stops were taking place?