Hamilton eyes a double century as Alonso adds to record haul

Lewis Hamilton added to his impressive haul of F1 accolades with a dominant display at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Hamilton never came under threat at the Losail International Circuit as he closed the gap to Max Verstappen in the drivers' standings to only eight points with two races remaining.

For Fernando Alonso, a trip to the podium was just reward for a stellar performance on a one-stop strategy.

After a dramatic first weekend of racing in Qatar, here are some of the best stats and facts.

Hamilton's around the world success

It seems every weekend Hamilton is adding to his accolades and this time was no different.

With his triumph In Qatar, the seven-time champion claimed victory at a 30th different circuit of his F1 career. The stat only gets more impressive when you consider he has raced at a total of 35 venues!

Since the first win in Canada in 2007, Hamilton has achieved added 101 successes to his name, including at each of the most recent new venues for the sport, with Portimao, Mugello preceding Qatar.

His latest win means his personal tally is greater than that of any nation aside from Germany [179] and Great Britain [306].

Double-century on the horizon for Hamilton

If Hamilton's win rate wasn't impressive enough, his record of leading laps in races ranks even higher.

In Qatar, Hamilton led at least one lap for the 175th time in his career.

This means that at 61 per cent of all of his races in his time in the sport, the Briton has led.

The closest active driver on the grid to this total is Sebastian Vettel on 106 races led.

Alonso's record podium return

Fernando Alonso secured his first podium since the Hungarian Grand Prix back in 2014, with the 105 race interval breaking the record for the largest gap between consecutive podiums.

Highlighting the length of his time between drinks, the last time Alonso was in the top three, he had more world championships than Hamilton and points leader Verstappen had yet to drive an F1 car.

In scoring a top-three finish, Alonso became only the third driver over 40 in the last 35 years to achieve the feat after Michael Schumacher at the 2012 European GP and Nigel Mansell in the 1994 Australian race.

McLaren's milestone ends in pain

McLaren had hoped to bounce back from two disappointing weekends in Mexico City and Brazil to celebrate the occasion of its 900th F1 start in style.

After a late puncture relegated Lando Norris from a top-five position to P9 and with Daniel Ricciardo outside of the points, things were somewhat muted.

McLaren remains the team to have contested the second most grands prix in history with, obviously, Ferrari leading the way on 1028.

Alonso the ever-present

With Alonso taking the podium on Sunday, F1 has now seen 13 drivers stand on the rostrum this season, equalling the amount seen in 2012, 2009 and 2005.

The Spaniard is the only competitor to have secured a top-three spot in each of these four seasons.

Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen have all stood on the podium in three of these four seasons.

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