This Sunday will be the 34th race of the Spanish F1 GP at the Circuit de Barcelona, a track where the importance of pole position is very high due to the enormous number of races that the drivers who started first have won.
How many drivers have won the Spanish GP in Barcelona starting from pole position?
Of 33 F1 races in Barcelona, the driver who started from pole position has won on 24 occasions, that is, 72.7% of the Spanish GP races in Montmeló have been won by the driver who started first. Obviously it does not guarantee that the pole sitter will win this Sunday, but it is very important on a track where overtaking is not a simple matter.
However, be careful, because this aspect however seems to have improved after eliminating the last chicane in 2023, and in fact Hamilton staged a huge comeback last year to finish second. You can take that into account when betting, since the odds are very important in some cases (check here the best F1 odds).
History of pole positions converted into victory in Barcelona F1
The first F1 race in Spain was won by Nigel Mansell after Gerhard Berger had taken pole, but the British man the following year managed to defend pole to win. After ten editions, from 1991 to 2000, the author of the pole won six times on Sunday. From 2001 to 2010, there were ten pole positions in a row converted into victoriessince from 2001 to 2024 Michael Schumacher chained four poles and four victories in a row and then there were another six poles converted into victories in a row, between 2005 and 2010, courtesy of Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button and Mark Webber.
In the last 10 races of the Spanish F1 GP, from 2014 to 2023, the driver who had taken pole on Saturday has won on Sunday seven times, and only Nico Rosberg in 2016 (Max Verstappen won after crashing the Mercedes), Valtteri Bottas in 2019 (Hamilton won) and Charles Leclerc in 2022 (Verstappen won) missed pole position at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Verstappen’s victories in 2022 and Hamilton’s in 2019 were starting from the front row, second, while Verstappen’s in 2016 was after starting fourth. Alonso’s victory in 2013 was coming in fifth, and Vettel’s in 2011 was also coming in second.
