European Grand Prix: Everything you need to know

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European Formula One Grand Prix, European Grand Prix news, European Formula One Grand Prix updates, Baku, Azerbaijan, formula 1, F1, sports news, sports Champions Mercedes have won 38 of the last 45 races and six of this season’s seven. (Source: Reuters)

Statistics for Sunday’s European Formula One Grand Prix, the first to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the eighth race of the 21-round season:
No previous race in Baku

Baku City Circuit: length 6.001km. 20 corners (12 left, eight right). Total distance: 306.51 km (51 laps)
Start time: 1300 GMT (1700 local)

WINS
Champions Mercedes have won 38 of the last 45 races and six of this season’s seven.

After Canada, triple world champion Lewis Hamilton has 45 career victories. The Briton is third in the all-time lists and three wins ahead of Ferrari’s four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Seven-times champion Michael Schumacher holds the record of 91, with Alain Prost on 51.

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso has 32 wins, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen 20, Nico Rosberg 18 and McLaren’s Jenson Button 15.

Championship leader Rosberg, winner of the first four races of the season, has more victories than any other non-champion in the history of the sport.

Ferrari have won 224 races in total, McLaren 182, Williams 114, while Red Bull and Mercedes are level on 51. McLaren last won in 2012 (Brazil).

POLE POSITION
Mercedes have been on pole in 42 of the last 45 races and all but one of this season’s grands prix.

Daniel Ricciardo’s pole for Red Bull in Monaco was the first of his F1 career.

Hamilton has 53 career poles, Vettel 46.

POINTS
The Sauber and Manor teams have yet to score in 2016. Renault’s Jolyon Palmer and Haas’s Esteban Gutierrez have also yet to open their accounts.

EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX
Baku is the newest venue on the calendar but the floating ‘European Grand Prix’ designation has been used 22 times before.

The first was at Brands Hatch in 1983, to distinguish that race from the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

In 1984, it was given to the race at the Nuerburgring in Germany.

Britain’s Donington Park hosted a famous 1993 European Grand Prix, with the late Brazilian triple champion Ayrton Senna dominating in the wet in one of his finest drives.

Jerez hosted it in 1994 and 1997 while Valencia, also in Spain, was the home of the European GP between 2008-12.

BAKU
The circuit is the first anti-clockwise layout of the season and second longest after Spa.

The 2.1 km straight down to turn one is the longest on the calendar and cars will reach a top speed of 340 km per hour, the fastest Formula One has ever gone on a street circuit.

Turn Eight provides a notable feature, the slowest corner running close to the city’s medieval wall and with the track narrowing to the width of two cars.

“I’ve already driven the track on the simulator and there’s certainly a lot that makes it unique — medieval walls close to the edge of the newly-laid asphalt, anti-clockwise corners, minimal run-off,” says McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.

“It seems to have all of the ingredients to give us a bit of drama and the prospect of exciting racing.”

MILESTONES
Hamilton has now led 88 grands prix, more than anyone but Schumacher (142).

The Briton has also now led 2,526 laps during his F1 career.

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