Post-GP Stats Analysis: Germany

Youngest podium ever

The German Grand Prix featured the youngest podium in Formula One history. Lewis Hamilton, Nelson Piquet Jr and Felipe Massa combined for an average age of 24 years, 7 months and 1 day - narrowly beating the previous record that was set in the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix, with Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya combining an age of 24 years, 7 months and 12 days.

Nelsinho's lucky day

Thanks to a bold strategy and a well-timed safety car period, Renault's Piquet was able to climb up from the 14th place he occupied before the safety car intervention to a second place at the finish. This is Nelsinho's first podium at his tenth race start.

The Brazilian was also able to complete his first six laps in the lead when Heidfeld went in for his second pitstop.

Renault didn't enjoy a podium place since Kovalainen finished second in the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix.

Qualifying notes

• For the first time since last year's Japanese and Chinese Grand Prix, McLaren are able to score back-to-back pole positions.

• Lewis Hamilton scored his ninth pole, going at the 30th all-time spot.

• The second place in grid by Felipe Massa marks the 450th presence of Ferrari on the front row of the grid and the 20th for the Brazilian, that records his best grid position in Germany.

• Massa beat for the sixth time this season his teammate Raikkonen in qualifying and if we exclude the Australian Grand Prix, when the Finn suffered from mechanical problems, the four places that separate the pair are the biggest distance in grid that Massa put between him and his teammate this season.

• Jarno Trulli equalled his best performance in Germany, a fourth he obtained also in 2003.

• The seventh spot recorded by Kubica is his worst result of the season excluded the British Grand Prix when he was 10th but wasn't able to take part in the final session due to mechanical problems. With a 7th by Heidfeld, BMW Sauber recorded their worst average qualifying performance of the season (9,5). Before Germany their worst showing was the French GP (8).

• For the first time in his career Sebastian Vettel is able to record two successive qualifying sessions inside the top-10.

• Nick Heidfeld equalled his worst performance of the year, a 12th place he obtained in Monaco.

• For the third time this season Piquet qualified 17th. He fared worse only in his debut race in Australia when he was 20th.

• Rubens Barrichello obtained the 18th spot in grid, the same he had in his maiden win in Hockenheim in 2000.

Race notes

• This is the first back-to-back win for McLaren since the 2007 European and Hungarian Grand Prix and the first for Hamilton since Canada and U.S.A. last year, his first two career wins. This is the first McLaren win in the German Grand Prix since 1998 (Hakkinen).

• Kimi Raikkonen stopped his sequence of fastest laps to six, one short of the all-time record held by Ascari. It was Nick Heidfeld that set the fastest lap in Germany, his second in career, thus continuing the sequence of fastest laps set by cars with odd numbers, that lasts since the start of the season.

• From the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix to the British Grand Prix, the third step of the podium was always occupied by a different driver, making it ten races in a row. Massa breaks this sequence, being the first to claim back the third spot he gained in Monaco.

The longest sequence with always different drivers on the third step of the podium is 26 years old and goes from Germany 1981 to Great Britain 1982. For 16 straight races the third finisher was always different.

• BMW Sauber are at their 27th straight race in the points, equalling the fourth all-time streak set by Cooper from Monaco 1959 to Monaco 1962. The Top sequence belongs to Ferrari with 55 straight races in the points from Malaysia 1999 to Malaysia 2003.

• Fernando Alonso records his worst performance in Germany. Even in 2001 with Minardi was able to finish in a better position: tenth. Worst performance on German soil also for Coulthard, that before this edition counted an eleventh in 2006 as his worst showing.

• Third retirement for a mechanical failure out of five starts in Germany for Mark Webber. In 2006 he was victim of another engine failure like this year.

• Before this edition, Jenson Button to finish six times in the points out of seven starts in the German Grand Prix. The 17th place is then his worst result in Germany. Jenson in his previous 144 starts was never classified in last position in a Formula One race.

• Ninth retirement out of fifteen starts for Barrichello in Germany.

• As anticipated Giancarlo Fisichella started his 204th race joining Nelson Piquet at the 7th all-time spot.

• With Nico Rosberg 10th and Kazuki Nakajima 14th Williams drought for points in the German Grand Prix continues. The last points for Frank Williams' team in Hockenheim were scored by Montoya (5th) and Pizzonia (7th) in 2004.