Vettel can win the championship in Singapore

2011 Italian GP stats and facts

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Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Monza, 2011

Sebastian Vettel can win the championship with five races to spare at Singapore.

He matched Kimi Raikkonen’s tally of wins in Italy while Red Bull drew level with Tyrrell.

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

Vettel on course for the title

Vettel’s 18th victory puts him tied for 13th on the list of all-time winners with Kimi Raikkonen.

This was the 23rd win for Red Bull, who have now won as many races as Tyrrell, and are tied for eighth on the list of all-time winners. It was their first victory in the Italian Grand Prix, and the first for a Renault-engined car since Johnny Herbert’s with Benetton in 1995.

Vettel set the 25th pole position of his career meaning he has been on pole position for exactly one-third of the races he has started. He is now eighth on the list of drivers with the most pole positions.

This was Vettel’s tenth pole position of the season. With six races to go he is closing in on Nigel Mansell’s record of 14 in one year, from 1992.

He can win the world championship in Singapore if he leaves with a lead greater than 125 points. He’s currently 112 ahead, so he needs at least a podium finish to achieve it, with his various rivals finishing well behind him.

If he does that, and wins the title with five races to spare, it will be one of the earliest championship conclusions ever. The earliest championship victories in terms of the number of races remaining are:

DriverRaces left
2002Michael Schumacher6
1992Nigel Mansell5
2001Michael Schumacher4
2004Michael Schumacher4

This is particularly impressive given that the relative value of winning in points terms fell when a new points system was introduced in 2003. However, applying the last two championship points systems to this year’s results yields a similar situation each time.

Red Bull, however, will have to wait until at least Suzuka to get their hands on the constructors’ championship trophy.

Vettel has now led 521 laps this year from a total of 778 (66.97%). That means he’s already in the top ten for most laps led in a season.

If he continues at this rate he will beat the record for most laps led in a season, which stands at 694 and was set by Mansell in 1992. The highest proportion of laps led in a season is 71.47%, set by Jim Clark in 1963.

Five champions in the top five

Mark Webber posted Red Bull’s first retirement of the year. That leaves Vettel as the only driver to have completed every race this year, and every racing lap to boot.

Jaime Alguersuari achieved his best finish in an F1 race with seventh place. He is the fifth driver to finish in the points from 18th on the grid this year.

In his second race for Renault, Bruno Senna scored the first points of his F1 career with ninth place.

Vitantonio Liuzzi was out-qualified by his team mate for the first time this year.

Virgin have set a new record for most F1 race starts without scoring a point.

Their cars have started 32 races since the beginning of last year without finishing in the points. See the Belgian Grand Prix stats and facts for more on this.

Vitantonio Liuzzi started his 75th Grand Prix, as did Vettel. One did rather better than the other…

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap, the 11th of his career, putting him level with Mark Webber.

The Italian Grand Prix had the fewest pit stops of a race so far this year: 35. Prior to that the lowest was 44 at Melbourne. The highest was 85 in Hungary.

Finally, the top five finishers in the race were all previous world champions. If anyone can provide any examples of that happening in the past, or any occasions where there have been more world champions in the top finishing positions, please share them in the comments.

Review the year so far in statistics here:

Spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Italian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

2011 Italian Grand Prix

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    93 comments on “Vettel can win the championship in Singapore”

    1. for the sake of the championship i hope this doesn’t happen. hope and reality are 2 different things though. i fully expect it to be all over in 13 days time.

      1. I’m afraid the fun will be in the races themselves, not in the championship result. The championship is done, I think.

        1. I’ve really forgotten about the title this year. It’s fun to watch the races for what they are and they all seem to be amazing this year.

          I don’t think any race other than Valencia has received less than 7/10 on Rate the race.

        2. I’m hopelessly optimistic, but even I gave up on the title after Spa. That was, for me, the nail in the coffin. Just as he’d given us a little bit of hope, he came out and dominated the race that traditionally hasn’t suited Red Bull. And what happened this weekend was terrifying. My focus is fully on 2012 now, unfortunately.

      2. With Alonso’s form in Singapore I think the inevitable will be postponed for two weeks.

        1. Though something about Vettel winning the title in Singapore is very interesting – after winning his first title in Abu Dhabi he would become champion in the dark again – noone has ever done it once, let alone twice.

          1. That’s an interesting observation. I think you’re right about Alonso’s form. If Vettel wins, he needs Alonso to place 4th or worse, which seems unlikely unless something happens in the race. Who knows though, if Hamilton does well and gets 2nd, Webber gets out of his slump and gets 3rd, then it’s done.

      3. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        13th September 2011, 8:19

        The driver championship is over even if Vettel does not start the remaining 6 races he will be champion.

        His lead is 112 points and all season long Webber, Hamilton, Button and Alonso only have been taking points from eachother.

        In the scenario that Alonso finishes 2nd in each race and the other 3 each win 2 races Vettel will be champion regardless of what anyone else does.

        Only twice this year his championship lead decreased that was in China lead shrunk from 24 back to 21 and again 3 points after Germany from 80 back to 77.

        7 – 24 – 21 – 34 – 41 – 58 – 60 – 77 – 80 – 77 – 85 – 92 – 112

        FYI Vettel has more points that all not top 3 team drivers combined, Vettel 284 – all non top 3 team drivers 283

        1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
          13th September 2011, 8:26

          Singapore results => Vettel Champion again
          Vettel 1st
          Button/Webber 3rd or lower
          Alonso 4th or lower
          Hamilton is out if Vettel wins

          So best thing Hamilton can do to keep championship alive is avoid finishing 2nd

        2. I suspect you said “will” there for emphasis, but just to be clear, Vettel can be champion without finishing all the race but it’s not certain – if it was he’d be champion already!

          Vettel has more points that all not top 3 team drivers combined, Vettel 284 – all non top 3 team drivers 283

          That’s a good stat!

          1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
            13th September 2011, 8:46

            Theoratical you are right – in reality there is no chance at all that Vettel loses the championship even if he stays at home.

            None of the chasers have obtained enough points over 6 consecutive races this season to bridge their gap to Vettel.

            Best score over 6 consecutive races:
            Vettel = 143 points (Australia-Monaco)
            Alonos = 103 points (Valancia-Italy)
            Button = 93 points (Malaysia-Canada)
            Webber = 88 points (Canada-Belgium)
            Hamilton = 85 points (Australia-Monaco)

            Alonso is closest contender but still 9 points short and least likely to gain most points as Ferrari is now 3rd fastest team.

            1. Yes, that’s true but there has always been Vettel there. If you are creating a scenario where he isn’t there, then you must assume all other drivers would make a few more points per race.

              Anyhow, it would still be difficult, unlikely even, for anyone to win the championship without Vettel there, and impossible with him racing.

    2. The two Saubers completed together exactly the race distance.

      Kobayashi completed 21 laps (32 to go)
      Perez completed 32 laps (21 to go)

      1. I like this one Bleu!

        1. If only we were in the era where handing over cars was allowed they might have made it with one!

      2. That’s a brilliant stat! :D

    3. Hispania were very briefly in the points when Tonio Liuzzi went off the road before the chicane.

      1. You could almost say he retired from a points paying position if you really wanted to twist things. Or if you were Joe Saward.

      2. Haha, I like this – but technically he had cut the corner and would’ve had to give the position back… ;)

      3. Funny but true.
        A very dangerous crash.
        As something similar has also happened in moto racing at the some spots I think that Monza owners should lay down tarmac where there is the grass. It is too dangerous as it is now.

        1. No they shouldn’t, call me old fashioned, but I hate the tarmac all around the track, where is the punishment if a driver runs wide? If they make a mistake, that should be it. Either out of the race, or having to visit the pits, or at the least lose positions.

          1. In general I tend to agree with opinions like yours (tracks need to be more demanding and punishing).
            But that point is really dangerous. May be another solution could be to start closer to the chicane, so that they get there with a lower speed.
            The problem at Monza is that the foirst corner is exactly perpendicular to the straight, so if you go on the grass and loose control you exactly crash in the group, coming from the side.

            At the end, the cause is that stupid and horrible chicane!!!

            1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
              12th September 2011, 10:07

              So in that case simply build a barrier on the right side of the track before the chicane.

              This barrier would have caught and stopped Luizzi before getting to the chicane or atleast bounced him back onto the racetrack straight.

            2. build a barrier on the right side of the track before the chicane.

              For drivers to hit at 350kph? Can’t see that happening.

            3. For drivers to hit at 350kph? Can’t see that happening.

              It would depend on how they did it. If they had several sets of tyre barriers separated by a few metres, it could slow the car down gradually over a distance of 50 metres or so, rather than a sudden stop like Perez in Monaco. But having said that, I am another one that hates tarmac run-off, but if it’s on the inside of a corner, drivers aren’t going to use it to get away with mistakes. I could just about put up with tarmac on the inside of corners open to t-bone situations.

              On another note, didn’t something very similar happen in free practice back in 2004 with a Jordan and a Minardi at that very corner?

            4. If they had several sets of tyre barriers separated by a few metres, it could slow the car down gradually over a distance of 50 metres or so, rather than a sudden stop

              I don’t think this is realistic.

              If the tyres are sufficiently anchored they’re going to cause very high deceleration in a car hitting them at up to 350 kph. If they’re not, where are the tyres going to go once the car’s hit them? Onto the track? Into the crowd?

              They tried something like this in 1996 at Monza and it was never used again. I think that’s because the idea isn’t right for F1.

              But it’s not an easy one to solve. Gravel increases the risk of a car flipping, tarmac is less useful when a car has a stuck throttle or brake failure.

              There have been some worrying crashes here. Remember Stephane Ortelli and Alain McNish in the LMS race in 2008:

              Only last year they altered the entry kerb to reduce the risk of a driver being launched over the front of another car:

              Kerbs eased at Monza for safety reasons

            5. I propose a giant ramp is built which propels the out of control car into the air and over the circuit. Above the circuit will be a giant net, which will catch the flying car and absorb all of the energy. The car and driver will be unharmed, the net gently lowered to the ground and the driver can make his way back to the pits for repairs.

              Ok, maybe not. As it’s the inside of a chicane and is somewhere very unlikely for a car to end up unless it’s totally out of control, tarmac would be best. Sadly it would also look disgusting, but when safety is involved you can’t worry about the aesthetics, even at a place like Monza.

            6. What about lenghtening the pitwall to the first chicane? That way the crash wouldn’t happen, though Liuzzi would probably still take someone out, but it would be safer. The pit exit should be on the exit of the first chicane.

            7. Honestly I put the onus on Liuzzi more than the track itself. He knew he’d run out of track when it took that far to the right. Hence the deserved penalty. It’s one thing to be opportunistic, it’s another to be foolhardy.

            8. Why can’t it just be a sand trap…..tarmac would be lame

            9. If the tyres are sufficiently anchored they’re going to cause very high deceleration in a car hitting them at up to 350 kph. If they’re not, where are the tyres going to go once the car’s hit them? Onto the track? Into the crowd?

              I was thinking several rows of tyres with those conveyor belt things keeping them together. Only when you hit the first row, it slides back into the second row, and then the third etc. until the all of the rows are stopped by a concrete or armco barrier. I don’t think it would be entirely unsafe, but perhaps a little impractical. But safety isn’t to be taken lightly and I’m sure the FIA are thinking of something as we speak.

    4. Eight wins in a season from Vettel is the highest number of wins for one driver in any season since 2004.

      1. And no driver winning 8 races in the same season has EVER lost the title. That’s a record no one; especially not Seb, wants to be associated with.

        1. I think that record stands mostly because for a long time 8 was half (or more) the total number of races and you’d usually get more than 2 winners a year.

          This year it’s been because Vettel has been so much better than his rivals when he hasn’t won than they have.

          1. Exactly, Icthyes. He’s built on his championship lead at nearly every race this year. That’s consistency.

    5. Well we have seen in history that teams F1 teams go through patches of dominating. We saw it with McLaren and Ferrari… It seems that it’s red bulls time presently, as a McLaren fan it is painful.

      The RB7 is truly a masterpiece of a car, and Vettel has fully capitalised on this.

      Moving away from Vettel and Red Bull, it really has been a great season to watch.

      1. Even with Vettel in the equation its been a good season to watch. Some of his qualifying laps have been simply amazing.

    6. “Mark Webber posted Red Bull’s first retirement of the year.”
      Hah, this surprised me.

      1. Really? Not me! The only reliability problems they’ve had is KERS issues. Other than that, the car has been invincible in the year that their rivals most needed unreliability.

        1. It was the first thought that came in to my mind when Webber hit the wall. Given that you can’t put it down to mechanical failure, it makes you wonder if Vettel can get through an entire season without a single DNF.

    7. I strongly suspect Vettel’s current tally of 284 points will not be matched by any driver this year. In fact, the driver most likely to score 112 or more points from the remaining six races…is Vettel.

      1. True, and with the teams more likely to be a bit closer matched next year, it’s unlikely his 2011 points tally will be bested in the coming years. Wonder how long it will stand.

    8. Vettel has done and is doing an amazing job, hats off to him.

      I can’t help wishing we could have Hamilton or Alonso in the other Red Bull, though, so we could get a really good idea of just how good he really is.

      However, all he can do is the best he can with what he has got, and he has certainly been doing that this year.

      1. It’s just puzzling how Webber fares bad against Vettel or even against Alonso who is driving 3rd quickest team car or supposedly 5th quickest car assuming RBR’s 2 and Mclaren’s 2 cars are quicker.
        And I consider Webber a decent driver who is no worse than Button nor Massa.

        1. I think there’s a lot of mitigating factors if you compare him to others than Vettel. The Pirellis really don’t suit Mark’s driving style, it took him half a year just to get used to them. Then he’s (coincidentally, no conspiracies please) had a lot of the mechanical problems Red Bull have had this year (failing KERS off the line in Malaysia, for one). And then there’s been his bad starts (although his one yesterday was quite good).

          1. Yes, his bad starts have probably cost him second in the championship, at least.

          2. Yes, his bad starts have probably cost him second in the championship, at least. But his only real mechanical problems have been KERS-related, so it hasn’t affected him too much. Well, not as much as an engine failure would, for example. I like the Pirelli excuse though. As a Webber fan, I have to use whatever I can this year. I do think he’ll be back next year though. Okay, I hope he will! :P

          3. I’ve seen a couple people now say Webber had a good start yesterday, and I’m confused. Didn’t he lose two places at the start?

            1. That IS good for Webber!

            2. Robyn, it was a good start in that he got of the line well, he lost position by being stuck behind Button who was slow. Another example of Webbers lucky streak?

          4. Jelle van der Meer (@)
            12th September 2011, 12:20

            The Pirellis really don’t suit Mark’s driving style, it took him half a year just to get used to them.

            I think this is one of Vettel’s strength – he can adapt to rule or tire changes more quickly that most drivers – really the driver feeling/touch that makes the difference.

            Same applies to Button’s amazing feeling how to get the optimum out of a car in changing dry/wet conditions.

    9. Jelle van der Meer (@)
      12th September 2011, 9:55

      Vettel is now ranked shared 3rd of drivers with most wins within a season as he won his 8th race this season.

      1st MSC with 13 wins
      2nd Nigel Mansell with 9 wins
      3rd Sebastian Vettel, Ayrton Senna, Damon Hill and Mika Hakinnen with 8 wins
      7th Kimi Raikonnen, Jacques Villeneuve, Jim Clark, Fernando Alonso and Alain Prost with 7 wins

      In relative terms it shows

      Ranked 1st is Alberto Ascari in 1952 winning 6 out of 8 races => 75.0%
      Ranked 2nd is MSC in 2004 winning 13 out of 18 races => 72.2%
      Ranked 3rd is Jim Clark in 1963 winning 7 out of 10 races => 70.0%
      Ranked 4th is Jim Clark in 1954 winning 6 out of 9 races => 66.7%
      Ranked 5th is MSC in 2002 winning 11 out of 17 races => 64.7%

      Vettel at the moment with 8 out of 13 (61.5%) he is ranked 6th. Counting without further wins his score would be 42.1% which is ranked 27th.

      1. Flying Lobster 27
        12th September 2011, 10:16

        Jelle, ranked 4th is “Fangio in 1954”. He won 6 races from 9 in the season, but he actually won 6 from 8 starts, and, if you don’t discount his 4 worst results (including his DNS at Indy), he had more than double the points Jose Frolian Gonzalez had in second (using that year’s points system)!

    10. In terms of numbers alone (as skewed wonderfully by the 25-18-15 points system) doesn’t Vettel now have the biggest points lead in history, and biggest number of points in a season in history?

      1. That’s true.

        Before the 25-18-15 system it was in 2002 where Schumacher beat Barrichello by 67 points or so…

    11. Jelle van der Meer (@)
      12th September 2011, 10:03

      Ignoring the pollution of the new point system and looking purely at the numbers.

      ALonso broke through the 1000 career point barrier – he is only the 2nd driver to do this. He has 1,001 career points, first is MSC with 1,493.

      Vettel jumped 2 places (Barrichello and Hamilton) to 5th in all time career points with 665 points.

      TOP 10 ALL TIME CAREER POINTS
      M. Schumacher 1,493
      F. Alonso 1,001
      Alain Prost 799
      Jenson Button 708
      S. Vettel 665
      R. Barrichello 658
      Lewis Hamilton 654
      Ayrton Senna 614
      K. Raikkonen 579
      Mark Webber 579

      1. pollution of the new point system

        The points system has always been in flux. It has been changed many times since the championship began and trying to use points totals to compare different drivers or teams over multiple seasons has always been a waste of time unless you adjust everyone’s results to the same points system.

      2. i realise that you realise this, but i hate these ‘all-time’ points stats – totally meaningless ever since they changed the scoring system (for the first time in 1961?).

        similarly, the total wins column is somewhat skewed by the fact there are so many more races per season these days.

    12. Indeed this was the first time when 5 reigning/former F1 world champion finished in the top5.

    13. “Vitantonio Liuzzi started his 75th Grand Prix, as did Vettel. One did rather better than the other…”

      lol

    14. We had 15 race finishers, the lowest number since Australia, where 14 cars finished from 22 starters.

      Force India have overtaken Sauber for 6th place in the constructors championship. Their highest finish was 7th last year.

      Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel have got podium streaks on the go. They are both on 3.

      Red Bull have scored 13/13 poles so far this season, they look on their way to beating 15/16 set by both McLaren and Williams.

      No driver outside of the top 3 teams has set a fastest lap this season.

      If Vettel wins the last 6 races of the season, he will have won 14 out of 19, beating Schumacher’s 13 out of 18 set in 2004.

      Force India drivers have alternated scoring points for the last 4 races, Sutil in Germany and Belgium, Di Resta in Hungary and Italy.

      Alguersuari has also scored Toro Rossos best result since Buemi’s 7th at Brazil in 2009.

    15. Bulletproof reliability of Redbull…

      1. …is very boring !

    16. Vettel can also beat Mansell’s pole position record if he poles in 5 of the last 6. Mansell had 14 poles in 1992 and Vettels currently on 10. Vettel is probably the best qualifier in F1 history, he’ll finish with way more than Senna and Schumacher.

      Surely the RB6 must be one of the greatest F1 cars in history up there the great Clark/Lotus days, the Williams of the early/mid 90’s and the Ferrari 2002 and 2004 cars.

      1. And that’s before you get to the RB(R)7 then? Yes, the RB5,6,7 sequence clearly is a similar sort of greatness. As with the early 2000s Ferrari, it is a combination of a good team/car, and a driver that makes the most of it, even though I think the cars itself are more akin to the Williams cars domination.

    17. I think percentages is the only accurate way to compare drivers of today and in the past. Vettel will definitely surpass many of the “most” records simply because there are more races in a season in this era, not because he’s been any more dominant. Even if he beats Mansell’s record for most poles in a season, it will be no-where near as impressive. If he managed 17 or 18 poles, then it would be about the same.

      It’s very hard to judge Sebastian Vettel, I think. He’s obviously highly talented and extremely quick, but Mark Webber hasn’t been up to much at all this year and it’s really helped him. I believe that modern F1 really favours the younger drivers rather than the older drivers, as it really is becoming more about technology and managing several things at a time, which is of course no less of a skill than muscling an F1 car from the 70s around the track sideways; it’s just completely different. I can’t yet see that Vettel is as good as Hamilton, Button or Alonso, but I think he’s on par with Massa before his accident. I really would love to see Vettel against the others in the same car… But to be honest, I think Vettel will only get better as he matures more (scarily) and he will end up being as good as, if not better than the aforementioned drivers. The only thing we can hope for is that the other teams get their act together next year, because the RB7 is making the rest look like they’re driving GP2 cars.

      Virgin have set a new record for most F1 race starts without scoring a point.

      And I suspect they will continue to do so every Grand Prix weekend until at least 2013. They really do need to do something fast, because they’re almost being forgotten now.

      1. I think Vettel is probably as good as Alonso and Hamilton, it is just very difficult to know, since we don’t really have a comparison with a superstar driver.

        I think Hamilton had very little trouble beating Vellel in F3 Euroseries, in 2005, which is the last time we can get a comparison that is not skewed by large differences in equipment. That is not to say though that it would necessarily be the same now though, in equal F1 cars.

        1. Exactly. Hamilton might be twice as fast as Vettel in a tractor race, but Vettel might be more suited to an F1 car! (Bad example) :P

      2. Even if he beats Mansell’s record for most poles in a season, it will be no-where near as impressive.

        I disagree. If he scores pole position in the 6 remaining races (I wouldn’t bet against that), he would have a 84.2% pole postion rate (the second best in history), which is not that far away from Mansell’s 87.5%

    18. putting hamilton in a redbull wouldn’t necessarily win him a championship and blow vettel or everyone else away. He’s been on a top team since he joined F1, but wasn’t able to maximise it.

      If he was on a redbull, redbull probably will have plenty of DNFs instead of the single DNF webber had so far.

      1. I think that probably there would be far fewer Hamilton incidents if he was in a Red Bull, since he would not have to over-compensate for a car disadvantage.

        Look back to F3 Euroseries, or GP2, and you can see the situation when Lewis had the same equipment as everyone else. It tended to be total domination.

        In F1, of course, the standards are the highest of all,and it is intrinsic to the sport that the cars are all built by the individual manufacturers. It doesn’t stop me pining for equal cars from time to time, just so we could get a really accurate idea of where the drivers stand against each other.

    19. With the most laps led in a season, you have to look at this percentage wise. Vettel will surely beat the record set by Mansell because we have 4 or 5 more races these days. Love the facts and stats anyway! Personally I think the title will end in Japan, doesnt matter when it ends for me, because in my head its already over, just want to see some great racing now!

    20. I don’t think the first 5 being world champions has ever happened before. For a start, it’s been very rare to even have 5 world champions in the field (I’m not sure we’ve ever had that many before this year); usually by the time a 5th champion is crowned the earliest of the 5 leaves the next year (or dies, in the case of Rindt). We came close again in the early 90s but Mansell and Prost had years out. So I think this really was the first time ever.

      I’m going to bring my Hill 1994-1996 v Vettel 2009-2011 comparison back up now because Vettel’s just completed the same amount of races as Hill did in those years. Apologies if my maths is off:

      Hill:
      – 18 wins over 49 races, 36.7%
      – 30 podiums, 61.2%
      – 18 pole positions, 36.7%
      – 35 front-row starts, 71.4%
      – Pole-to-win ratio 7/18, 38.9%
      – Ratio of victories won from not starting on pole 11/18, 61.1%
      – Races won from all non-pole starts 11/31 35.5%
      – Points percentage 257/490 52.4%

      Vettel:
      – 17 wins over 49 races, 34.6%
      – 30 podiums, 61.2%
      – 24 pole positions, 48.9%
      – 33 front-row starts, 67.3%
      – Pole-to-win ratio 13/24, 54.1%
      – Win from non-pole ratio 4/17, 23.5%
      – Non-pole to win ratio 4/25 16%
      – Points percentage 260/490 53%

      The only worrying one is how few times he wins when he doesn’t start on pole but you could put that down to Red Bull being strongest in qualifying – if he’s not on the front row, he might not be on the pace either. And of course 2009 blurs the stats somewhat, where different cars were good at different tracks and neither Red Bull would have a hope of victory.

    21. Finally, the top five finishers in the race were all previous world champions.

      That is well cool!

    22. Checked a few random races, and found a couple of “x number of champions in the top x” places:
      1967 Mexico: Clark, Brabham, Hulme, Surtees.
      1985 Belgium: Senna, Mansell, Prost, Rosberg and Piquet.
      1986 Canada: Mansell, Prost, Piquet, Rosberg and Senna.

      Of course on the two latter instances, a few of those drivers hadn’t won their championship(s) yet.

      There are plenty of four champions finishing in the top 5, but I think 5 in 5 is the new record.

    23. Vitantonio Liuzzi started his 75th Grand Prix, as did Vettel. One did rather better than the other…

      Haha. I liked that one the most.

      1. Liuzzi should get an ‘A’ for effort though ;)

    24. Drivers Championship is over, Vettel will take ! But I hope the constructors will be a great two way battle between Red Bull and Mclaren. I know the Red Bull lead is massive, but it only takes two 1 – 2 finishes for Mclaren and Red Bull DNFs or low scores for both drives to close the constructtors gap !

    25. That’s a great one, with all the champions finishing ahead of the non-champions. I can think of some other, though less impressive examples:

      Alonso’s wins in Malaysia, Monaco, Europe and Italy in 2007 – the only world champion on the grid finished in the top 1 positions. Same goes for Schumacher in the 2004 races he won that Villeneuve didn’t drive.

    26. Hamilton has been beaten by his team-mate every year at Monza. I think this is the only track on the calendar where this is true.

    27. Is that a record? 7 different teams scored points yesterday (Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Toro Rosso, Force India and Renault). Had Perez not had a gearbox failure it would be 8 (Buemi would be 11th instead of 10th but Alguersuari scored for Toro Rosso anyway).

      1. No, at the 2005 Belgian GP, the 8 points positions were occupied by 8 different teams! (And 9th place was different as well…)

        1. Wow, very interesting, top 9 all with different teams. Though 7 from yesterda is impressive for a dry race as well!

    28. That was the third time in a row Button finished the Italian GP in second.

      Each time he was in front of a Ferrari driver (Raikkonen, Massa and Alonso).

      1. Lewis Hamilton managed a similar streak at Valencia in 2008, 2009 and 2010. In both cases, the driver won the Drivers’ Championship in the first of those years, both were beaten by Barrichello in 2009, and both were beaten by Vettel in the third year.

    29. Red Bull now have 14 pole positions in a row – the last driver to beat them on a Saturday was, curiously, Nico Hulkenberg.

    30. Virgin have set a new record for most F1 race starts without scoring a point.

      Their cars have started 32 races since the beginning of last year without finishing in the points. See the Belgian Grand Prix stats and facts for more on this.

      How about the new Lotus-team and HRT?

      1. See the Belgian Grand Prix stats and facts for more on this.

    31. I found it:

      “They have started 31 races, the same as RAM did between 1983 and 1985 without scoring a point. HRT have only started 30 races having failed to qualify in Australia.”

      LOL

      Thanks!

    32. The singapoooor track sucks in that it almost guarantees the pole sitter a win unless something stupid happens in the pits or a back marker takes him out…. The Turk track was one of the best in that it afforded many areas to pass. R & R

    33. I don’t know if it has been mentioned here, but there was an interesting statistic given during the race: Jenson Button has had 49 compeititve overtakes this season, more than anyone else. With passes on Hamilton, Schumacher and Alonso, that’s now 52 competitive overtakes. Since Monza was the thirteenth race of the season, that means Button is averaging four overtakes per race.

    34. This is the second time that Sebastian Vettel has succeeded Fernando Alonso as the winner of the Italian Grand Prix (Alonso 2007, 2010; Vettel 2008; 2011)

    35. I don’t konw where to post this information, so I made it here.

      This is the first time we have 5 champions in the final top 5 of a race in formula 1. Statsf1.com says we had 22 races with 5 champions at the start and after verification, it’s the very first time we have 5 champions in the top 5 of a race.

      http://www.statsf1.com/en/statistiques/pilote/gp/avec-champion.aspx

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