Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of achieving an extremely rare feat

Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of achieving what only one driver in the history of Formula 1 has ever pulled off over the course of a single season.

It is well-documented that Lewis Hamilton is closing in on the all-time Formula 1 wins and championships records held by 91-time race winner and seven-time champion Michael Schumacher.

Hamilton is a five-time world champion who is only a handful of points away from securing his sixth world championship with four races remaining on the 21-race 2019 schedule. A sixth title would be his fifth in the last six seasons and his third in a row.

With 82 victories to his name, the 34-year-old Briton should have no problem catching and passing Schumacher’s wins record next year as well, given the fact that he hasn’t won fewer than nine races in a season since 2013.

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But Hamilton is also on the verge of achieving an extremely rare single-season feat, one that has only been accomplished once in the history of Formula 1, which goes back to 1950.

Through the first 17 races of the 70th season of the Formula 1 World Championship, which featured the 1,000th world championship race, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport driver has finished every race on the lead lap.

A total of 1,009 laps have been contested, and Hamilton has completed all 1,009 of them.

In fact, since an engine failure ended his Malaysian Grand Prix in 2016, he has only not finished on the lead lap in two of 63 races. He finished one lap off the lead lap in the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix as a result of early contact and an overall lack of pace, and a fuel pressure issue forced him to retire from the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.

He has completed all 1,715 laps over the course of all 29 races that have been contested since then.

If he completes all of the remaining laps on the 2019 schedule, he would become just the second driver to ever complete every lap in a single season. There are a total of 253 laps remaining this season.

Of these 253 laps, 71 are set to be contested in the Mexican Grand Prix around the 17-turn, 2.674-mile (4.303-kilometer) Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course in Mexico City, Mexico this afternoon.

Another 56 of these 253 laps are set to be contested in the United States Grand Prix around the 20-turn, 3.427-mile (5.515-kilometer) Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas next Sunday, November 3.

Two weeks later on Sunday, November 17, another 71 laps are set to be contested in the Brazilian Grand Prix around the 15-turn, 2.677-mile (4.308-kilometer) Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace road course in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The final 55 laps of the season are set to be contested in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix around the 21-turn, 3.451-mile (5.554-kilometer) Yas Marina Circuit road course on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on Sunday, December 1.

Schumacher is the only other driver who has pulled off this feat. He pulled it off back in the 2002 season en route to winning his fifth world championship, tying the record that was held by Juan Manuel Fangio at the time.

In the 2002 season, the German driver was unstoppable en route to completing all 1,090 laps over the course of 17 races. His lowest finish was third place, and he only finished in third in one race. He won 11 races and placed second in five others to record an all-time record average finish of 1.41. He led 561 of these 1,090 laps.

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So far this season, Lewis Hamilton has won nine races and recorded an additional five podium finishes. His average finish is 2.29 with 398 laps led, and he has a great chance of becoming a six-time Formula 1 world champion in this afternoon’s Mexican Grand Prix at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Tune in to ABC at 3:05 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the race.

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