Stats: Modern F1's biggest wins

JUST HOW DOMINANT WAS VETTEL?

Sebastian Vettel's margin over Mark Webber at the finish of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was 30.827 seconds, which makes it the second time the champion has won by half a minute this season, after defeating Fernando Alonso by 32.627s in Singapore.

Winning by such a margin in a dry race is already a major achievement. Doing it twice in a season is very rare, and hasn't happened since Michael Schumacher achieved it three times in 1995, in Spain, Monaco and France. His Benetton team-mate Johnny Herbert was runner-up in the first of those, with title rival Damon Hill the defeated man in the other two events.

Another major achievement for Vettel was that the second-placed driver was his team-mate. The last winner to put more than half a minute over his team-mate was Ralf Schumacher, who won the 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix 39.699s ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya, who had to serve a drive-through penalty for his first-turn collision with Michael Schumacher.

Button made a break in the wet to take a dominant first GP win in Hungary in 2006 © XPB

Speaking of team-mates, Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari failure on the 2002 Spanish GP grid surely helped Michael Schumacher's 35.629s winning margin over Montoya that day. In qualifying, the two Ferraris had already been 0.6s clear of the opposition, led by Williams duo Montoya and Schumacher Jr.

Usually such huge gaps are achieved in wet races: Lewis Hamilton won the sodden 2008 British GP by 1m08.577s from Nick Heidfeld, and Jenson Button won his maiden F1 race in Hungary in 2006 with 30.837s over Pedro de la Rosa in mixed conditions.

In dry races we often associate huge gaps with things going awry: in the 2005 Hungarian GP, Kimi Raikkonen at the end of the race had 35.581s over Michael Schumacher, but Ferrari that year had quite an uncompetitive car and Kimi's main rival, Renault driver Fernando Alonso, had spoiled his race by hitting Ralf Schumacher at the first corner. Montoya, Raikkonen's McLaren team-mate, had retired when leading, due to a suspension problem.

Montoya escapes the startline mayhem at Hockenheim in 2003 © XPB

Raikkonen's maiden race win also came with a healthy cushion - a 39.286s advantage over Barrichello. That was at the 2003 Malaysian GP, in which Michael Schumacher, third on the grid, rammed front-row qualifier Jarno Trulli at the first turn. Alonso had taken his maiden pole, but was slowed by gearbox problems and finished third.

The 2003 German GP was another chaotic race. Montoya won it by 1m05.459s from David Coulthard, but was helped by Ralf Schumacher, Barrichello and Raikkonen getting wiped out in a startline collision and Michael Schumacher retiring with a puncture while second.

A special mention goes to the 1995 Australian GP, the last held in Adelaide. Hill won it by more than two laps over Olivier Panis's second-placed Ligier, which was limping to the line with a smoking engine and about to be caught by Gianni Morbidelli's Arrows.

Adelaide 1995's bizarre podium: Hill's Williams wins by two laps over Panis's Ligier and Morbidelli's Arrows © LAT

All Hill's usual rivals retired from that crazy race. Coulthard crashed in the pitlane while leading, Jean Alesi and Schumacher collided, and Gerhard Berger, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Herbert all suffered mechanical problems while holding second place.

ANOTHER RECORD HAUL FOR VETTEL

As he led the race throughout and won again in Abu Dhabi, Vettel achieved the following milestones:

His seventh win in a row. That ties the all-time record of Alberto Ascari (Belgium 1952-Argentina 1953) and Michael Schumacher (Europe-Hungary 2004).

The 11th race he has led throughout. That matches Jackie Stewart and Michael Schumacher's tallies. The all-time leader is Ayrton Senna on 19, followed by Jim Clark at 13.

His 60th career podium, matching Nelson Piquet at eighth on the all-time list.

Piquet heads for the fourth podium of his F1 career: second place at Brands Hatch in 1980 © LAT

His 11th win of the 2013 season. The record for wins in a single season is Michael Schumacher's 13 in 2004, so that could still be equalled. Eleven is the second-best count, achieved by Schumacher in 2002 and Vettel two years ago.

A ninth straight podium. That's the fourth highest podium streak of all time. Schumacher holds this record, with 19 from Indianapolis 2001 to Suzuka 2002. Vettel has managed to do 11 before, from Brazil 2010 to Britain 2011.

Webber made it a Red Bull one-two, taking his 40th podium from his 13th pole. That means he equals Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, Jacky Ickx, Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve for poles. The Australian also becomes the sixth driver in history to exceed 1000 points - he's now on 1014.5.

This was Red Bull's 15th one-two finish and its 22nd front-row sweep, putting it on the same number as Renault.

ALONSO'S LOW-KEY RUN

This is not a great period in Alonso's career, as his Abu Dhabi stats underline:

He was eliminated in Q2 after 28 straight races of reaching Q3. It was the first time in eight races that a Ferrari had failed to get through Q2.

He's been beaten by team-mate Felipe Massa in qualifying at five of the last six races. The last time Alonso had that experience was back in 2007 against Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, when the rookie outqualified him at six of the seven races from Canada to Turkey.

Alonso did not enjoy being outqualified by Hamilton in 2007 © LAT

This was the first time Alonso had been outqualified by a team-mate in Abu Dhabi.

Alonso has now had four straight races without a podium. The last time that happened was from Abu Dhabi 2010 to China 2011.

Twelve straight races without winning equals Alonso's worst winless streak since joining Ferrari. His last drought was from Hungary last season to Malaysia this year.

One consolation prize for Alonso was the 21st fastest lap of his F1 career. He equals Vettel and Berger at 10th place in the all-time list.

A NEW ROOKIE RECORD

Monteiro heads for the 16th straight finish of his rookie year at Spa in 2005 © XPB

Max Chilton set a new record for consecutive races completed by a rookie with his 17th straight finish. Tiago Monteiro had previously finished his first 16 races in 2005, and Heikki Kovalainen was classified in his first 16 in 2007 (despite retiring with engine failure in the closing stages of the Monaco GP, the fifth race in the string).

Now Chilton has two races to equal the longest run of consecutive finishes without scoring points. Kovalainen holds that one. Last year he was classified from the Malaysian to the Brazilian Grands Prix, posting a 13th as best result. Chilton's best finish so far is a 14th scored in Monaco.

RAIKKONEN'S ACCIDENTS

Raikkonen retired because of an accident for the first time since the 2008 Singapore GP. That's a string of 56 races without incident. Without taking account of his sabbatical, this would be the second longest all-time run. Vettel is in the midst of the record sequence, as he hasn't crashed out of an F1 race since his infamous tangle with Webber in the 2010 Turkish GP, 68 races ago.

Raikkonen's McLaren is craned away after hitting Pizzonia's Jaguar on the 2003 Spanish GP grid © LAT

Abu Dhabi isn't the first time a Raikkonen recovery drive has proved brief. A qualifying mistake in Spain in 2003 left him last on the grid, and his race was over within a few yards as he slammed into Antonio Pizzonia's stalled Jaguar.

ABU DHABI 2013'S OTHER BIG STATS

• Nico Rosberg recorded the 25th podium for Mercedes.

• Romain Grosjean's good form continued with a fourth place following three thirds. He is second to Vettel for points scored in the last five races (57 to 125), despite his retirement in Singapore.

• With Vettel outqualified twice by team-mate Webber this year, the best intra-team record now belongs to Nico Hulkenberg, who is 16-1 up against Esteban Gutierrez.

Hulkenberg outqualified both Ferraris (which share the same engine as Sauber) for the second time this season after Monza. He was therefore able to nail four straight races in the top 10 on the grid, repeating what he achieved from Hockenheim to Monza in 2010 and Valencia to the Hungaroring last year.

• Hamilton has now been beaten in qualifying by team-mate Rosberg seven times this year. That equals the largest qualifying deficits of his career, matching the seven times he was outpaced by Alonso in 2007 and Button in 2011.

• Raikkonen's qualifying exclusion meant he equalled his worst career grid position of 22nd. His last time starting from there was in the 2006 Bahrain GP, when he had a suspension failure in qualifying but finished third in the race.