Brazilian GP facts and statistics

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Felipe Massa scored his fourth career hat-trick and second home win

Felipe Massa dominated in Brazil and joined three of his countrymen in becoming a two-time winner of his home Grand Prix.

Here are more facts and stats from the Brazilian Grand Prix.

First thing’s first – Lewis Hamilton won the drivers’ championship and Ferrari won the constructors’ championship. See those two articles for the full statistics on their achievements.

Ignoring the championship, Felipe Massa’s Brazilian Grand Prix was perfect. He started from pole position, set fastest lap and won the race. It is is fourth ‘hat-trick’.

Massa won his home race for the second time. It should have been his third, but he gave the lead to Kimi Raikkonen last year, allowing Raikkonen to be champion. No Brazilian has won his home race more than twice: Massa shares the record with Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna.

With David Coulthard’s retirement, Massa is the only active driver to have won his home race twice. Stirling Moss is the only other driver two have won his home race twice (or more) without winning the championship.

Massa’s 11th win gives him as many as Jacques Villeneuve, who was his team mate in 2005.

Massa’s 15th pole position means he now has one fewer than team mate Kimi Raikkonen. However Massa’s 11 fastest laps are 24 short of Raikkonen’s tally.

Raikkonen set ten fastest laps this year, matching his record of 2005, shared with Michael Schumacher in 2004. Raikkonen also finished third in the final three races.

Fernando Alonso finished on the podium without winning the race for the first time this year.

Jarno Trulli achieved his best qualifying position of the year – second – and his first front-row start since the 2005 French Grand Prix.

More on the championship statistics will follow in the 2008 F1 season review.

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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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27 comments on “Brazilian GP facts and statistics”

  1. Massa finished on podium only on those races where he finished on podium last year.

    Lewis has finished on podium on every track apart from Interlagos after 2 years in Formula 1

    BTW, is DC the first driver not to go past the 1st corner on his last GP?

  2. Hey, Keith,

    This is neither a fact nor a statistic, but at least Lewis had someone (in fact, only one person to be more exactly) at his side that believed he would win this championship before the season start.

    https://www.racefans.net/2008/03/10/2008-predictions/

    What a faith, man… Too much people would lose too much money on their bets.

  3. Heidfeld, I believe, finished every race this season.,

  4. I love the facts and statistics, it’s the thing I look forward to almost as much as the race itself; I always want more! Please tell me there will be a 2008 Season Facts and Statistics coming up Keith!

  5. Terry Fabulous
    3rd November 2008, 22:18

    Is this the first time that the World Championship was decided AFTER the chequered flag was flown?

    At the time Massa passed, he was champion, By the time Lewis came by half a minute or so later, Lewis was champion.

  6. It happened last year as we waited weeks to hear the ruling on the “cool fuel” situation (debacle). BMW had finished ahead of the Mclaren’s and could have been disqualified giving either Hamilton or Alonso the title. I forget which.

    Although we all knew Kimi was champion once Massa made his final pit stop, it took a few weeks to be official.

  7. Heidfeld…..the Iron Man of Formula One!

  8. Hamilton becomes World Champion in his 35th Grand Prix, which is only beaten in the “modern” era by Jacques Villeneuve (33rd Grand Prix).

    The most experienced drivers to win a maiden title are Nigel Mansell and Kimi Raikkonen

  9. well actually, last year was also decided after the flag… when kimi crossed the line, hamilton was also one spot short of winning the championship. But it didn’t change anymore, but not until he crossed the line it was decided. But I’m sure you mean the change was after Filipe Crossed and that was unseen I’m sure!

  10. Something else I just realised, although I doubt its an important statistic. The Mclaren drivers never met each other on the podium this season.

  11. Terry Fabulous
    4th November 2008, 1:40

    @DanM and SoLiD
    Yeah good points. Maybe this the first time the title has changed on the track after the chequered flag on the final lap of the last race.

    @ Oliver
    Outstanding spot!
    That is exactly the sort of interesting, thought provoking stat that I love.

    There is no such thing as unimportant statistics, only boring analysis!

  12. Oliver

    Good spot that. I’ve just checked and the last time a World Champion was never accompanied on the podium by a teammate was 1982 (Rosberg had three teammates that season: Carlos Reutemann, Derek Daly and Mario Andretti)

    The quest for quirky stats is neverending!

    Keith

    How about an offseason super stats quiz?

  13. I’m fairly certain no driver has won the WDC with the number 22 or higher on his car. Is that right? Its added drama to this year that McLaren raced this year with the ignominy of backmarker car numbers and accordingly crappy pit positions.

  14. yorricksfriend
    4th November 2008, 4:14

    Here’s an interesting fact,
    Damon Hill won the last championship covered by the BBC,and Lewis Hamilton won the last championship covered by ITV.
    By that logic, whenever you want a British champion just change broadcasters, heh :P

  15. yorricksfriend
    4th November 2008, 4:24

    @ DMW – Hamilton is not the highest numbered car to win a championship. In 1990 Prost left McLaren for Ferrari and took the number 1 with him. Senna won that year with the car number 27

  16. yorricksfriend
    4th November 2008, 4:37

    sorry to triple post but its also the first time since 1999 that the team of the Drivers’ World Champion hasn’t won the Constructors’ Championship

  17. @ DMW, yorricksfriend
    Alan Jones also won the WDC with #27, at Williams in 1980. And if I’m not mistaking, the next-highest number to win the title — of course since 1974, when the old numbering system was adopted — is #12: Lauda ’74 and Senna ’88, and #11: Hunt ’76, Lauda ’77 and Scheckter ’79.

    @ yorricksfriend
    McLaren took the WDC, but not the WCC in several other seasons, as well: 1976 (to Ferrari), ’86 (Williams-Honda) and ’99 (Ferrari).

  18. Robert Silvestre
    4th November 2008, 11:28

    99th GP win by a Brazilian driver. Can’t wait to celebrate the 100th one next year :)

  19. Robert Silvestre
    4th November 2008, 11:31

    BTW, love the site. It’s become a reference for me. Amazing job Keith!!!

  20. Robert, unless something goes wrong with next year car expect Massa to get the 100th victory in Bahrain.

  21. keepF1technical
    4th November 2008, 12:52

    has anybody else noticed the anomaly between mclaren and ferrari tactics and their statistics:

    maclaren, the ‘team’ outfit allowing drivers to race each other for the benefit of the team have won not so many constructors crowns (8) but more drivers titles (12).

    ferrari, the ‘no.1 driver’ outfit have not faired as well proportionally with their drivers championships (15), and in the constructors table (16)

    ironic? or is there something in these statistics?
    does this suggest ferrari have somehow thrown driver titles by their tactics, or mclaren thrown constructors by their tactics?

  22. @keepF1Technical

    Ferrari have always had equal driver policy except for the 10-year Schumacher era.
    I particularly like their strategy which is supposedly : Drivers can race till the 2nd pitstop after which they are supposed to keep positions. I read in some news article.

  23. Becken, great dig up. I also remember that most people expected Kimi and Ferrari walk it. A lot of people say that McLaren clearly has the better car these two seasons just to belittle Hamilton. But it is closer to the truth to say that Ferraris more often than not has had the edge. Hamilton’s win is massive considering the expectations.

    What word will have the suffix ‘-gate’ added to it? Lewis.

    brilliant:D Mosley comes close though with Spanking-gate

  24. Jian – I´m just waiting to receive any credit for that… lol

    Another point was my prediction about Timo Glock:

    What will be the biggest surprise of the year? TOYOTA WITH TIMO!

    God bless him!

  25. Hamilton fought with Ferrari engines all day, but never once met Kimi or Felipe on the track.

  26. I’m just mulling some all-time stats now the season is over. Poor old Massa is now fourth in the all-time list of “Most Gtand Prix wins without winning a Championshp”

    Stirling Moss 16

    David Coulthard 13

    Carlos Reutemann 12

    Felipe Massa 11

    Ronnie Peterson 10
    Gerhard Berger

    Rubens Barrichello 9

    Jacky Ickx 8

    Rene Arnoux 7
    Juan-Pablo Montoya

    Tony Brooks 6
    Jacques Laffite
    Gilles Villeneuve
    Ricardo Patrese
    Ralf Schumacher

  27. Try InfoRace
    great, but Stats 08 portuguese only

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