Ferrari suffer worst race finish since 1978 (British Grand Prix facts and stats)
You have to go back to the days of Gilles Villeneuve and Carlos Reutemann (pictured) to find a worse result for Ferrari than their 14th and 15th in yesterday’s British Grand Prix.
Red Bull, meanwhile, have led twice as many laps as everyone else put together this year – yet still aren’t leading the world championships.
Read on for more stats and facts from the British Grand Prix.
Red Bull dominance
Red Bull continue to dominate qualifying in 2010 with their RB6. They’ve now had nine pole positions and five one-twos from ten attempts.
Record-breaking beckons. We’ve seen teams score 15 pole positions in 16-race seasons three times before: Williams in 1992 and 1993 – also with Adrian Newey-designed cars – and McLaren in 1988. Can Red Bull raise the bar over the 19 races of 2010?
They headed every session in Silverstone – all three practice sessions, all three parts of qualifying and the race.
Sebastian Vettel’s tenth career pole position was surely his most controversial. However he’s matched Jochen Rindt’s tally of first-placed starts.
Mark Webber became the first driver this year to score three wins, giving him a career total of five, matching world champions Giuseppe Farina and Keke Rosberg as well as Clay Regazzoni, John Watson and Michele Alboreto.
The last Australian to win the British Grand Prix was Alan Jones at Brands Hatch 30 years ago. This was also the first time Red Bull have won twice at the same venue.
Ferrari’s worst finish in 32 years
Fastest lap went to Fernando Alonso after his late change of tyres. It was the 15th of his career, putting him level with Jackie Stewart and Clay Regazzoni. He is the sixth different driver to set fastest lap in as many races, and established a new lap record for the revised Silverstone Circuit.
But Ferrari suffered their worst two-car finish since the 1978 French Grand Prix, when Gilles Villeneuve and Carlos Reutemann finished 12th and 18th respectively.
After Luca di Montezemolo’s tirades against the new teams Ferrari should have been grateful for them at Silverstone – without the likes of Lotus, Virgin and HRT, Ferrari’s 14th and 15th places would have left them last of the classified runners.
Fast laps
The fastest lap of the new circuit during the weekend was Vettel’s pole position lap of 1’29.615. His average speed of 236.52kph was fractionally slower than what the cars managed on the old track last year – 236.92kph.
Sharp-eyed readers will note those figures don’t correspond exactly with those quoted last week – that’s because the official length of the revised track was given as being ten metres shorter than what was previously declared.
Sakon Yamamoto made his first F1 start since the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix. He started and finished last of the runners, but to be fair his HRT wasn’t up to much more than that.
Pedro de la Rosa enjoyed his best qualifying performance of the year, starting ninth.
Read more: British Grand Prix fastest laps
Laps led
Webber was in front for all 52 laps of the British Grand Prix. Red Bull have led 433 of 600 laps in 2010.
| Driver | Laps led |
| Mark Webber | 259 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 174 |
| Jenson Button | 74 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 56 |
| Fernando Alonso | 20 |
| Nico Rosberg | 16 |
| Sebastien Buemi | 1 |
Podium finishes
Consistent top-three finishes are aiding Hamilton’s quest for the championship. Had it not been for his wheel failure in Spain he’d have seven from ten starts this year.
Nico Rosberg also looks good on this list, with as many podium finishes as Fernando Alonso and more than Felipe Massa.
| Driver | Podiums |
| Lewis Hamilton | 6 |
| Jenson Button | 5 |
| Mark Webber | 5 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 4 |
| Fernando Alonso | 3 |
| Nico Rosberg | 3 |
| Felipe Massa | 2 |
| Robert Kubica | 2 |
Qualifying
Hamilton is increasingly pressing home his advantage in qualifying too. He’s started ahead of Jenson Button in the last six races:
| Pos | Driver | Times out-qualified team mate |
| 1 | Robert Kubica | 10 |
| 2 | Timo Glock | 9 |
| 2 | Sebastien Buemi | 9 |
| 4 | Adrian Sutil | 8 |
| 4 | Nico Rosberg | 8 |
| 6 | Rubens Barrichello | 7 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | 7 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | 7 |
| 9 | Bruno Senna | 6 |
| 9 | Pedro de la Rosa | 6 |
| 11 | Mark Webber | 5 |
| 11 | Jarno Trulli | 5 |
| 11 | Heikki Kovalainen | 5 |
| 11 | Sebastian Vettel | 5 |
| 15 | Kamui Kobayashi | 4 |
| 15 | Karun Chandhok | 4 |
| 17 | Jenson Button | 3 |
| 17 | Felipe Massa | 3 |
| 19 | Nico Hülkenberg | 2 |
| 19 | Michael Schumacher | 2 |
| 19 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | 2 |
| 22 | Jaime Alguersuari | 1 |
| 22 | Lucas di Grassi | 1 |
| 24 | Vitaly Petrov | 0 |
| 24 | Sakon Yamamoto | 0 |
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the British Grand Prix? Post them in the comments below.
2010 British Grand Prix
- Technical review: British Grand Prix
- Liuzzi explains hard tyre struggle
- Ten F1 fans’ stories from Silverstone
- 2010 British Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- Was new Silverstone a success? (Poll)
- Alonso: we’ll catch Red Bull in Germany
- Michael wants Silverstone bumps eased
- Who was the best driver of the British Grand Prix weekend? (Poll)
- Both cars in points (Williams race review)
- Kobayashi takes sixth (Sauber race review)
Image (C) Michelin
SiY said on 12th July 2010, 18:36
Webber was driving Vettel’s old chassis – I wonder when was the last time that a particular chassis has won in the hands of two different drivers?
Nitpicker said on 12th July 2010, 19:02
Good statistics-themed question. It might go all the way back to ye olde Grands Prix in the 1950s where drivers would occasionally ‘donate’ their car to a teammate. Didn’t Stirling do that for Fangio once? What a nice chap.
fordsrule said on 13th July 2010, 7:14
Senna and Prost drove the same car to wins in 1988 I think :)
HounslowBusGarage said on 12th July 2010, 23:11
This is 100% guaranteed the first post from and by HounslowBusGarage since the last one.
Is this a record?
Electrolite said on 12th July 2010, 23:59
I do think Ferrari have had absolutely appauling luck this season, and their results are not representative of their pace. And this isn’t coming from a Ferrari fan at all. Alonso’s been on the recieving end of enough incidents (yes, he is always involved, somehow) and steward decisions and as for poor old Massa, well everyone just loves running into him. I swear his car is like massively magnetic.
Bartholomew said on 13th July 2010, 0:22
Very good Electro, you write in good expressive english also
Cheers
Patrickl said on 13th July 2010, 17:11
How is it “luck” if a driver actually knows the rules or not?
Massa just keeps fighting hard for positions. He hopes he can dive into a gap and the other will let him past. That’s how he ends up getting hit.
Paul Gilbert said on 13th July 2010, 22:41
I believe McLaren also had 15 poles from 16 races in 1989 (the only non-McLaren pole was Riccardo Patrese driving for Williams in Hungary).
For the record, the other clean-sweep-denying poles were:
1988 – Gerhard Berger (Ferrari) in Silverstone
1992 – Ayrton Senna (McLaren) in Canada
1993 – Ayrton Senna (McLaren) in Australia (which frustratingly for Williams was the last race of the season!)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 13th July 2010, 22:46
You’re dead right – very silly of me to miss that.
Enigma (@enigma) said on 14th July 2010, 11:41
Was that the first time 5 Germans scored points in a race?
Feraimperia said on 8th January 2012, 15:15
Akcje GPW