Formula One statistics for the Japanese Grand Prix

Statistics for Sunday's Japanese Formula One Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit, round three of the 24-race season:

Lap distance: 5.807km. Total distance: 307.471km (53 laps)

2024 pole position: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull One minute 28.197 seconds

2024 race winner: Verstappen

Race lap record: Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes, 2019: One minute 30.983 seconds.

Start time: 0500 GMT (1400 local)

JAPAN

Sunday's race will be the 39th Japanese Grand Prix in world championship history and 35th at Suzuka. The race was absent in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Honda-owned circuit is an old-style figure-of-eight layout, with fast corners Degner 1 and 2, Spoon and 130R, taken at 295kph.

Of current drivers, Lewis Hamilton has won five times in Japan (2007 at Fuji, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018), Verstappen three (2022, 2023, 2024) and Fernando Alonso twice (2006 Suzuka and 2008 Fuji).

Verstappen is chasing his fourth win in a row in Japan.

Ferrari last won at Suzuka with Michael Schumacher in 2004. The German won the Japanese Grand Prix a record six times, with a total of eight in the country when the Pacific Grands Prix at Aida are included.

In 34 races at Suzuka, the winner has come from the front row on 29 occasions and been on pole in 18. Kimi Raikkonen won from 17th on the grid in 2005 with McLaren.

Yuki Tsunoda, making his first appearance for Red Bull this weekend after his promotion from Racing Bulls, is the only Japanese driver on the race starting grid.

Ryo Hirakawa will be taking part in first Friday practice for Renault-owned Alpine in place of Jack Doohan.

CHAMPIONSHIP

McLaren's Lando Norris leads the drivers' championship, eight points clear of Verstappen.

McLaren are 21 points clear of Mercedes.

RACE WINS

Hamilton has a record 105 career victories from 358 starts. Verstappen has won 63 grands prix and is third on the all-time list after Schumacher on 91.

McLaren have won three races in a row -- the last of 2024 and first two of 2025 -- for the first time since 2012. Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri have won one race each this season.

McLaren have not won four successive races since 2005.

POLE POSITION

Hamilton has a record 104 career poles, his most recent in Hungary in 2023.

ROOKIES

Only two of the six drivers starting a season for the first time have scored so far -- teenagers Andrea Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes and Oliver Bearman for Haas.

Antonelli has scored in both his races so far.

Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber), Doohan (Alpine), Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) have yet to open their accounts.

MILESTONE

China was McLaren's 50th one-two finish since their first in Canada in 1968 while Ferrari had both their cars disqualified from a grand prix for the first time. REUTERS