2008 Spanish GP facts and stats

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Here is a round-up of the facts and statistics from the Spanish Grand Prix, including the drivers’ and constructors’ championship tables.

Spotted any more interesting stats? Then post a comment below.

Kimi Raikkonen scored his 17th career win, putting him 13th on the list of drivers with the most wins. He needs to two wins to tie with Fernando Alonso. It was his second career ‘treble’ of a win from pole position (his 15th) with fastest lap (his 26th), his other one coming at Melbourne last year. It was his sixth win from pole position and he passed his 30,000th racing kilometre.

Fastest laps are Raikkonen’s forte – with 26 he has set more than any other driver bar Michael Schumacher (76), Alain Prost (41), Nigel Mansell (30) and Jim Clark (28).

Raikkonen’s first pole position of the year meant we have had four different drivers on pole for the first four races for the first time since 1983, when Keke Rosberg, Patrick Tambay, Alain Prost and Rene Arnoux were the pole sitters.

Felipe Massa scored his eighth second place. That is his second most frequent finishing position – he finished ninth 11 times.

Sebastian Vettel has not completed any racing laps in the last two Grands Prix. He has finished fewer laps this year than any other driver – 39. The next fewest is Adrian Sutil with 68. Only one driver has finished all 237 laps so far – Nick Heidfeld.

Sixth place for Jenson Button gave Honda their first points of 2008 and equalled Button’s best finish in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Anthony Davidson has qualified 21st for every race this year.

McLaren and Ferrari have now won the last 22 consecutive Grands Prix. The last unbroken run of 22 wins by two teams lasted between the 1991 Mexican Grand Prix and the 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix, when McLaren and Williams won 22 races between them.

Thanks to the intervention of the safety car, Nick Heidfeld’s run of five consecutive races in the points came to an end.

The last eight Spanish Grands Prix have all been won from pole position. The last driver not to win from pole was Michael Schumacher in 2000, beaten by Mika Hakkinen. However he did with the next four in a row. Contradictorily, none of the first eight Spanish Grand Prix were won from pole position, but the ninth was, by Niki Lauda.

The Circuit de Catalunya has held twice as many Spanish Grands Prix (18) as any other venue.

It was officially Rubens Barrichello’s 256th Grand Prix presence, putting him level with Riccardo Patrese’s all-time record number of Grand Prix starts.

Giancarlo Fisichella marked his 200th participation in a Grand Prix weekend but only his 198th start. He failed to qualify for Jordan at Magny-Cours in 2002 after being injured in a crash, and did not start the 2005 United States Grand Prix because of the concerns over tyre safety.

Drivers’ championship

Kimi Raikkonen 29
Lewis Hamilton 20
Robert Kubica 19
Felipe Massa 18
Nick Heidfeld 16
Heikki Kovalainen 14
Jarno Trulli 9
Mark Webber 8
Nico Rosberg 7
Fernando Alonso 6
Kazuki Nakajima 5
Jenson Button 3
Sebastien Bourdais 2

Not scored

Rubens Barrichello
David Coulthard
Anthony Davidson
Giancarlo Fisichella
Timo Glock
Nelson Piquet Jnr
Takuma Sato
Adrian Sutil
Sebastian Vettel

Constructors’ championship

Ferrari 45
BMW 35
McLaren 34
Williams 12
Toyota 9
Red Bull 8
Renault 6
Honda 3
Toro Rosso 2

Not scored

Force India F1 Team
Super Aguri

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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22 comments on “2008 Spanish GP facts and stats”

  1. I am a great fan of Kimi. It’s great to see him win the race. I hope he wins the world championship again this year.

  2. "Contradictorily, none of the first six Spanish Grand Prix were won from pole position, but the ninth was, by Niki Lauda."

    First six, then ninth?  I guess you meant first eight.  :)

    This is also Fernando’s first DNF in Barcelona, and his first DNS since 2001 (when he finished 13th in the Minardi).

    I believe this is also Renault’s first front row start since China 2006.  That seems like an eternity ago.

    This is also Lewis Hamilton’s worst Q3 run in his career – assuming one does not count Europe 2007, where he was not able to complete his flying lap.

  3. First eight, yes!

  4. yipee…….force india came 10th

  5. I’m sure that this race could possibly also be the race with the fewest overtaking manouveres throughout the entire race ?

  6. haha Rabi, indeed.

    I was looking at the traffic past my work, and I immediatly thought of yesterdays race.

  7. Interesting facts put together Keith. Nice work.

  8. Keith: just a doubt… was it Rubens’ 256th Grand Prix ENTRY or 256th Grand Prix START? I keep reading contradictory informations on this subject… Formula1.com says "257th GP Entry"… Wikipedia says "257th GP Entry, 253th GP Start"…

  9. Keith, I second Daniel’s question.  I think it is entry as well.

  10. I should have written entry (and I’ll amend it now) but actually it’s not either. Barrichello has been at 257 races but chooses not to count the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix where he was injured and did not qualify and hence did not start. But there are three other races where he failed to start and so he could just as easily be on 253.

    Anyway, he’s calling it 256 presences so I’ll do the same. Fixed now.

    If you want to read more Ollie wrote a very comprehensive post on the whole thing.

  11. It’s also Kubica’s first ever trird place in drivers standings, and a first such one for any East European driver. The season so far is also one with his best scoring record(19 comparing to 39 in the whole last season)and one with the best Q3 runs: AUS: 2, Malaysia: 4, Bahrain: 1, Spain: 4.

  12. Its surprising to know that Kimi never got a ‘triple’ with Mclaren in 5 years.

    Thanks for that fact Keith

  13. No problem Sumedh. Odd that he has so many more fastest laps than wins isn’t it?

  14. Thanks Keith

  15. Kimi’s fastest lap is third fastest lap for Finnland this year (from four races).

  16. McLaren was SO quick and SO unrealiable many years with Kimi. You can do fastest laps but who cares if you cannot bring car home. If Mclaren would have been offered reliable car for Kimi, I think He could have now tree titles. What a pity…

  17. Funnily enough Juhhi I wrote a post on that very subject earlier this year:

    Kimi Raikkonen ‘Should be three-times champion’

  18. Nice article and including facts also…But my opinion still stays "I think He could have now tree titles"…

  19. For the second sucessive year, Ferrari scored one-twos with each driver leading the other home at least once… I know it’s a bit confuse and a bit meaningless, but, anyway, that’s it…

    2007
    Turkey – Massa/Raikkonen
    Brazil – Raikkonen/Massa

    2008
    Bahrain – Massa/Raikkonen
    Spain – Raikkonen/Massa

  20. another fact:
    Coulthard and Vettel can’t get through a race without hitting someone or being hit by someone this season.

  21. Another fact for Kimi fans. He has won 8(total wins so far 17) races in less than 2 years with Ferrari(second year is still going on with about 14 races yet to go). No wonder Kimi says he is happier than ever.

  22. Didn’t he equal Mika’s podium places this time too….

    He’ll be heading up the points table this year… he only has 11 less than Fernando, 34 to Rubens, 42 to DC and…. 125 to Senna….

Comments are closed.