Alonso is only the sixth driver ever to achieve 100 podiums
General
- GPblog.com
Although it went a bit messy, Fernando Alonso managed his 100th podium at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. This puts the Spaniard in a particularly exclusive group of drivers.
Alonso's performance was somewhat overshadowed by the chaotic way everything went, but in the end, Alonso did manage to capture his 100th podium finish. Only five other drivers have managed that before.
| Lewis Hamilton | 191 |
| Michael Schumacher | 155 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 122 |
| Alain Prost | 106 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 103 |
| Fernando Alonso | 100 |
| Ayrton Senna | 80 |
| Max Verstappen | 79 |
| Rubens Barrichello | 68 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 67 |
Remarkably, as many as four of the other five have been title rivals to Alonso. Only Alain Prost achieved all his podiums before Alonso drove in Formula 1. Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen have all competed against Alonso for the title at some point. In fact, in 2012, all five drivers were on the track, and all five made it to the podium at least once.
Still four active drivers in the top ten
Currently, there are still four active drivers in the top ten: apart from Hamilton and Alonso, Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas are also on the list. While it is not inconceivable that Hamilton will achieve another podium this season, and Verstappen and Alonso are pretty much guaranteed more podiums, it still seems unlikely that Bottas will be able to put several more podiums behind his name given Alfa Romeo's current form. The next-placed drivers currently on track are Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc, who are in spots 37 and 46 with 28 and 24 podiums respectively.