Schumacher’s worst ever race result (European GP stats and facts)

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Michael Schumacher recorded his worst ever Grand Prix finish with 15th place in the European Grand Prix.

Meanwhile Red Bull were celebrating their tenth F1 victory.

Read on for more facts and stats from the European Grand Prix.

It was the seventh career win for Sebastian Vettel, giving him as many F1 victories as Juan Pablo Montoya and Rene Arnoux. He also scored his ninth pole position.

Vettel also led every lap of the race for the second time in his career. He only needed fastest lap to secure a perfect result but that went to Jenson Button. This was only the third time Button has set fastest lap.

Red Bull resumed their domination of qualifying. They locked out the front row for the fourth time this year, have now been on pole position for eight of of nine races, and made their 13th consecutive front row appearance.

Vettel’s win was the tenth for the team, all of which have been scored in the last 24 races. They have now won as many races as Alfa Romeo, and seven more wins will place them among the top ten most successful Formula 1 constructors. Not bad for a soft drink manufacturer…

Lewis Hamilton finished in second place for the third year in a row in Valencia.

Rubens Barrichello’s fourth place was Williams’s best result of the year, may have been some small consolation.

Michael Schumacher scored the worst classified finish of his F1 career with 15th place. He was promoted from 16th after Vitantonio Liuzzi’s penalty. His previous worst finish was 12th at China in 2004 and Monaco earlier this year.

There were 16 cars on the lead lap by the end of the race – the most since last year’s German Grand Prix when 17 cars completed the race distance.

Mark Webber’s crash ended his run of ten consecutive finishes in the points.

Laps led

Red Bull have led more laps this year than the other teams put together. An RB6 has headed the field for 69% of the laps raced so far.

DriverLaps led
Mark Webber207
Sebastian Vettel174
Jenson Button74
Lewis Hamilton56
Fernando Alonso20
Nico Rosberg16
Sebastien Buemi1

Podiums

DriverPodiums
Lewis Hamilton5
Jenson Button5
Mark Webber4
Sebastian Vettel4
Fernando Alonso3
Felipe Massa2
Nico Rosberg2
Robert Kubica2

Times out-qualified team mate

Lucas di Grassi out-qualified Timo Glock for the first time this year, leaving Vitaly Petrov the only driver to have started every race behind his team mate:

PosDriverTimes out-qualified team mate
1Robert Kubica9
2Timo Glock8
2Sebastien Buemi8
4Adrian Sutil7
4Nico Rosberg7
6Rubens Barrichello6
6Bruno Senna6
6Fernando Alonso6
6Lewis Hamilton6
10Mark Webber5
10Jarno Trulli5
10Pedro de la Rosa5
13Kamui Kobayashi4
13Heikki Kovalainen4
13Sebastian Vettel4
16Jenson Button3
16Felipe Massa3
16Karun Chandhok3
19Nico Hulkenberg2
19Michael Schumacher2
19Vitantonio Liuzzi2
22Jaime Alguersuari1
22Lucas di Grassi1
24Vitaly Petrov0

Laps completed

After Webber’s shocking crash Robert Kubica is now the only driver to have completed every lap in 2010.

PosDriverLaps completed
1Robert Kubica548
2Felipe Massa547
2Nico Rosberg547
4Jaime Alguersuari546
4Lewis Hamilton546
4Fernando Alonso546
7Michael Schumacher500
8Mark Webber499
9Adrian Sutil498
10Rubens Barrichello496
10Sebastian Vettel496
12Jenson Button472
13Vitantonio Liuzzi444
14Vitaly Petrov430
15Karun Chandhok429
16Sebastien Buemi404
17Nico Hulkenberg398
18Jarno Trulli383
19Heikki Kovalainen371
20Lucas di Grassi352
21Timo Glock303
22Bruno Senna299
23Pedro de la Rosa277
24Kamui Kobayashi226

Have you spotted any interesting stats and facts from the European Grand Prix? Share them in the comments below.

2010 European Grand Prix

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    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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    83 comments on “Schumacher’s worst ever race result (European GP stats and facts)”

    1. Schumi should quit, I expected great things from his comeback but sadly delivered none.

      1. I expect he will only catch to the other drivers late in the season, or possibly only early in the following season.

        1. Schumacher was running 3rd a couple of laps into the safety car period (ahead of Kobayashi) and he was on the hard tyres.

          If Mercedes had left him out with a planned late stop for the soft tyres (like Sauber did with Kobayashi) he could’ve finished 6th or 7th.

          Bringing him in was a ridiculous decision, even without the problem of having to wait at the pit exit line. He was on the hard tyres so had no need to pit, but bringing him in ruined that advantage.

          1. Yeah, I couldn’t believe it when I saw him coming in. I thought it was a terrible decision.

            Given he was faster than Kobyashi, the Sauber driver’s performance only confirmed my initial reaction.

          2. Maybe Michael isn’t what he used to be, but it seems Ross Brawn may be slipping too.

            Mercedes’ race strategy [and bad luck] cost Michael higher positions in Valencia as well as Canada the previous race.

            1. This is what I’m having a hard time with, too. The strategy calls seem to have been bad at more than one race. This is not what I’d expect from Schumacher or Brawn. Bad luck is one thing (red light at pits, for example), but repeated strategy errors is quite another.

      2. Ninad, If everyone quit when things didn’t go well, we wouldn’t have enough drivers or teams to make a race.

        Schumacher was doing very well until the pit stop bungle, where a) he could have stayed out as he was on the more desirable harder compounds and b) that red light.

    2. Fact – Webbers impact with the wall is the largest we have seen in a very long time.

      Obviously hes not on anyones Xmas card list but the fact that Mark Webber was able to walk away from the impact is testament to the stern approach that Max Mosley took to improving safety in F1 and does show that there was some good to come from his time. We are now over 16 years without a fatality in a race weekend – the longest ever. The fact that the effects from this major impact were rather minimal indicates to me that this statistic is no fluke. Last night was one of those moments where you fear the worst but hope for the best, and its not a good feeling. I’ve never been so happy to see someone throw their steering wheel from the car.

      If this accident occured more than 20 years ago I’d hate to think of the final outcome, but I doubt it would have ended the way that it did last night.

      Therefore Mr Mosley I solute you. You may not be everyones cup of tea but it is times like last night where I am grateful for the effort you put into the sport.

      1. Didn’t you see Kubicas crash, or are you just Australian?

        1. Mr Bernie, as an Australian I find that offensive.

          Hamish is right, the collision was the, if not one of the biggest in recent memory.
          I also was happy when he threw the wheel out.

        2. 45 people have died during race weekends since the start of F1 and thats your response?

          And for the record no, I’m not Australian.

        3. Bernification, you should think before you speak

      2. Well written Hamish – but I could not help thinking of a funny side of Mr. Mosely , esp. following the “stern approach” part of your comment – he even applies that approach in his bedroom activities , as we know.

        1. Haha, I’d also like to point of that I my solute to Max is not of any Nazi form.

          1. Oh, you meant salute. You wrote solute, so I was picturing Mosely dissolving in a beaker of water.

            1. I´m pretty sure he´s a witch, so that´s a definite possibility.

      3. Berniefication did kinda ruin his point with that unwarranted Australian point but Hamish your definatley wrong. Kubica’s crash was easily the biggest non fatal crash in F1 an possibly the most violent crash survived ever. Webber’s crash was terrifying, but the impacts had nothing on what happened to Kubica, as well as the fact he’s comeout in better shape than Kubica, just watch this an tell me I’m wrong.

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZqBbLyp6oo&feature=related

        1. Yeah Webber’s crash wasn’t particularly hard, I imagine the landing was worse than when he hit the tyre wall. I think Heikki’s crash from Spain a couple years back was probably worse, and others I cant think of right now.

          1. I agree. Plus, I think that although Mosely did a good job, any man in his position would have ikely done the same,what with a more modern society not so willing to accept F1 fatalities, drivers organising to improve safety, and I’m sure there was a lot of media pressure. So I think his role should be congratulated, but not too much, especially considering that in his final few years he did everything possible to try and reduce F1 down to a handful of new teams and maybe one or two of the current midfielders.

        2. Im not saying you’re wrong, but I don’t agree with you – thats my opinion. While I do acknowledge that Kubicas accident was huge I do think at the same time Webbers accident was just as bad but in a different way.

          Obviously we disagree, and I respect your call, but the man hit the wall going at least 200kph (he would have lost some speed) and went to 0kph in a matter of half a metre. Secondary impact is a huge reason behind motor vehicles deaths on the road. Your body stops, but your internals don’t. Dave Purley has an accident way back in the day where he went from 170kph to 0kph in about the same distance as Webber and for many years this was thought to be the highest g-forces suffered by a human and as a result, he is now shorter than he used to be.

          Don’t get me wrong, Kubicas was massive, but I think some people are fooled into thinking that Webbers accident wasn’t as big as he was able to walk away. Me, I put it down to the improved safety currently active in F1.

      4. anakincarlos
        29th June 2010, 7:26

        Fact – Red bull does give you wings.

    3. Carry on Schumacher- it’s good to see what you’re really made of!
      Maybe you should run off to uncle Jean and ask him to take all those things off the faster boys cars, just like the good old days, so you can win again.

      Seriously, I did expect him to be faster than this, and looked forward to some Alonso/Hamilton /Schumi battles.

      Seems not so.

      1. Yes because a compromised race that ended badly counts out any perceived talent he may have had…

        Schumacher isn’t exactly doing badly. I mean, he was running well until things were bungled.
        He isn’t thaaat far of Rosberg’s qually ace and in the race his pace is quite good.

        1. Schumacher’s performance in this race was also hampered by his car – Mercedes said he had a power steering issue during qualifying, and in any case Nico Rosberg only qualified three places ahead of him, indicating that the car just wasn’t performing well in general.

          Maybe Michael has lost something, but I still think he’s doing alright, his car is clearly lacking and he’s probably doing better than a lot of guys coming out of retirement would.

    4. As Craig said if Schumie and the Mercedes team had not decided to change tyres, then presumably according to his ego, he was in line to finish third.

      Rookie mistake.

    5. This is getting more and more embarrassing for him…

      Do you remember Mansell’s return… he had a similar poor showing and quit before his reputation was damaged too much.

      Maybe Schumie will go the same way as Emerson Fittipaldi and live out the end of his career making up the numbers in the mid/back of the field ?

    6. Craig didn’t say that…

      “If Mercedes had left him out with a planned late stop for the soft tyres (like Sauber did with Kobayashi) he could’ve finished 6th or 7th.”

      So not third, but it was a big mistake.

      Anyway he should retire he’s taking the sit of better drivers.

      Come on Merc you’ve had your sponsorship and publicity. So at the end of the year employ one of the best and not the best of yester-year.

      I was glad to see him back but now its becoming a bit of a joke with the constant excuses…..

    7. Schumi had bad brakes problems.
      I don’t think he could have done much better, even with a different strategy.

      1. If Schumi had break problems how is it he held the fastest lap time after his last change to the options, until Jensen beat it.

        Excuses that don’t add up in real life.

    8. This one and the weaving are two but Ican’t remember the other one?

    9. Wich were the other two? Japan 2007 is one of them i think.

      1. what are you referring to?

    10. Isn’t Schumachers’ worst ever finish his first ever GP with Jordan at Spa where he failed to finish?

      1. You don’t include retirements as finishes, as they wern’t finishes.

      2. wll it’s not his worst finish then…

        i reckon his worst finnish was mika taking the ’98/99 championship and then kimi forcing him into retirement…

        1. LOL. Nico Rosberg is half Finnish too, so he could be shaping up to be Schuey’s worst Finnish yet !

          1. Boom boom!

    11. Seeing that this 15th place is Michael’s worst finish ever prompted me to take a look at his race records on Wikipedia.

      There’s a lot of yellow (1st place) on his results table, but hardly any blue (finishes outside the points)

      In his 259 race starts, in ever race that he has attained a classified finish, he has only ever finished out of the points on 9 occasions! Nine! Thats pretty special.

      They were Portugal 1992 (7th); Hungary 1996 (9th); Monaco 1998 (10th); Australia 1999 (8th); China 2004 (12th); Italy 2005 (10th); Monaco/Canada/Europe 2010 (12th, 11th, 15th)

      1. Thanks aj, interesting stats. So Schumacher had doubled that tally in the last 4 races… It’s also worth pointing out that of 6 original races outside of the points, 5 were actually in the Top 10, so he would have scored points had the points system used now been in place.

        This puts things into perspective- he’s having an absolute shocker!

        1. Even if you take out the dominance years, even when he was driving midfeild cars he constantly scored. Truly he was one of the worlds best drivers.

          Shame he got old though.

    12. At each European Grand Prix in Valencia, Hamilton has finished 2nd… (in 2008 and 2009, behind the person who ended up 2nd in the Championship, also behind the car which won the Constructors….)

      If that all makes sense…

      1. Would be an omen for Vettel… if it were not for the fact that Barrichello wasn’t the championship runner up last season, it was Vettel. D’oh!

        1. Ooooh! Thanks Ned… can’t believe I let that one slip! Obviously it was Vettel who finished 2nd, as you said! Do apologise!

          Please ignore this!

          1. Well, you were still right about the Constructors champions!

    13. im embarrassed for him and i want him to do badly. certainly the bbc crew do, coulthard & brundlefly barely miss a trick to denegrate him. the field is much tougher than before, he hasnt got a team mate who defers to him contractually and hes not gotd dodgy software running his race. There has never been such a successful sportsman that is so badly thought of outside of the fanboys.

    14. Schu. will come good , of that I have no doubt. Whether he will win another WDC or not , I will not bet on , but at least beating Rosberg is what I expect.

      1. 1 more win, I’d just like to see 1 more victory, shift the goal posts to 92. Extend the most astonishing record in Formula 1.

    15. Does this ace set the record for maximum penalties given to drivers?

      11 in total. I don’t seem to remember any other races with that high number of penalties.

    16. I accept with what Craig said,
      If Mercedes followed their original strategy, then it will be like what sauber did for Kobayashi, when Kobayashi came 7th, then MSC will atleast be Sixth in this Race. A very poor strategy change from Mercedes who ruined MSC’s reputation

      1. That doesn’t make much sense.

        Example of such logic: Had Vettel not retired in Melbourne, he’d finish the race in 0th position, as he was faster than Button =)

        Or did you mean he’d finish 6th because with Mercedes’ speed he’d manage to finish ahead of Sutil?

    17. By my reckoning, Webber’s crash was the 14th time a car has flipped upside down at a race meeting in the last 12 years, and the first time since Kubica at Montreal in 2007:

      2010- Webber at Valencia
      2009- N/A
      2008- N/A
      2007- Kubica at Montreal
      2006- Albers at Imola, Heidfeld at Indy
      2005- Klien at Hungaroring
      2004- Trulli at Silverstone
      2003- N/A
      2002- N/A
      2001- Villeneuve at Melbourne, Schumacher at Melbourne, Burti at Hockenheim
      2000- de la Rosa at Monza, Fisichella at Spa
      1999- Villeneuve at Spa, Zonta at Spa, Diniz at Nurburgring

      (I’ve probably missed some out but you get the picture)

      1. Go back 1 extra year and you can add Wurz at Montreal. That’s the one I always remember.

        1. When was Brundle’s crash at Melbourne?

          1. 1996… there were probably quite a few in 1995/96/97 etc but my extensive F1 memory doesn’t quite stretch back that far!

            1. I remember Luca Badoer (I think) being upside down in a Forti in Argentina (I think) in 1996, and the marshalls being very reluctant to help him out. Eventually he released himself and fell to the gravel and crawled out.

            2. I have a vague recollection of Schumacher in a Ferrari flipping during a practice or quali session in Australia…but that’s not a race..

              Here it is:
              http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3674068420524985802#

              What year was that? I can’t put my finger on it.

      2. does fisichella at monaco 2004 flipping over coulthard after satos engine exploded count too ? :)

        1. Yes, I also though Ned forgot this.

          1. Tom M in Australia
            29th June 2010, 1:02

            All of the above were relatively amateurish efforts though…

            Christian Fittipaldi is the only F1 driver to successfully *land* a backflip. That took some skillz.

            1. The Fittipaldi landing as an amateur effort (filming-wise).
              https://www.racefans.net/2010/01/18/christian-fittipaldi-f1-crash-monza-video/

        2. I did indeed forget that. Good call Sam!

    18. probably wasnt a poor strategy by merc.. , if not for the red light when he came out of pits, micheal d ve been much high up the order.

      post 2003, post 2005 everyone had the same opinion..micheal s too old for f1… he should quit..he answered everyone on track….so watch out post 2010..

    19. 2002 begining of the australian grand prix ralf flew into the back of rubens aswell

    20. No one mentioned this as a stat, but i think Webber is the only man to have flipped a car twice and lived to tell the tale…

      or is there a professional driver that has flipped more times?

      1. In F1, Derek Warwick flipped at 1990 Monza and 1993 Hockenheim. Villeneuve is also twice in the list above.

        1. so presumably these two are ahead of Webber, in the car flipping F1 category…

      2. actually, he’s flipped his car at least 3 times – once at Valencia, and twice at Le Mans 1999 (one in qualifying, and once just before the race)

    21. yep Alonso has flipped about 20 times, yesterday was the most recent :)

      1. LOL good one…

    22. Flippy's Pants
      28th June 2010, 13:53

      While DC and co were gleefully listing some reasons why Shumi might having a hard time (lack of torque? Having to change gear lots and lots? Come on david, even an old man can pull on a paddle, surely), I set to wondering if there was something more fundamentally different between the cars of shumi’s era to today’s, and surely the key one is the lack of traction control? Didn’t Shu have a secret TC system on his Benetton (and who was the engineer – wasn’t it Pat Symmonds?) back in the day, and from then on they legalised it until it was banned 3 or so years ago. So I’m wondering if Shumacher has ever had a competitive year in an F1 car that didn’t have TC?

      What do you think – maybe all these years MS has just been flooring it out of the corners, which is why he’s now hitting the limiter so often?

      1. He had great years in 1992-1993 without TC as well. Hill, Villeneuve and Hakkinen are other drivers who only won with traction control- and the first two even struggled with it.

    23. Schumi should go back to Ferrari and replace Alonso who should go to Mercedes.

    24. It was the 3458th time that Ferrari complained about something this season and the first time they actually had a point.

    25. The laps led table makes fascinating reading both Webber and Vettel have led more laps separately then the rest of the non RBR drivers put together.

      Web 207
      Vet 174
      The rest 167

      But could someone possibly tell me; how many laps has the Safety Car led? It is more than Alonso?

    26. SchumacherFan
      28th June 2010, 16:43

      As a fan of Michael Schumacher, I don’t want to sound biased here, but I think that this weekend and possibly Canada, have actually been strong performances. For sure Canada went wrong and I think it was more to do with the stratergy rather than his pace and this weekend saw what some might say as a ‘disappointing’ race but had Webber not of crashed or if Mercedes used their brains more then he could of had a strong finishing position. This is kind of backed up as he set the 2nd fastest lap of the race.

      Thank goodness Mark Webber is okay as well!

      1. Yes schumi was doin well before that safety car incident.

    27. I almost feel sorry for him.

    28. Go on Schumi! Its fun to watch F1 with you. You’re doin well in Valencia before ruined by safety car…

    29. Schumi is too old to handle no TC.

      Well done to Chandhok & HRT – 429 laps, the most of the new boys.

    30. Yeah, I don’t get why Jenson didn’t quit with the ’08 EarthDreams car – oh hang on, that’s because you don’t quit just because things are tough. Good to see the most succesful driver in the history of this sport can still engender childish comments. If Rosberg, whom I rate extremely highly, can only qualify 12th, then that Merc is a pretty average package at the moment. I hold hope still that they can bring an upgrade that allows the race fight to include the two plucky German drivers.

    31. An interesting thing is that when Michael set the fastest lap of the race on lap 54 [immediately eclipsed by Button] that time was about 3 – 4 tenths better than what he did in qualifying.

      Even with a tired car and worn tires he was learning the track and getting his racing blood going.

      1. I doubt he could gain 3-4 tenths in 50 laps after hours of free practices. The track was grippier and he probably lost the power steering problem.

    32. Paul Gilbert
      30th June 2010, 23:23

      Adrian Sutil has finished in each position from 5th through to 12th inclusive exactly once this season.

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