Vettel helps Renault equal Ferrari poles record

2013 Korean Grand Prix stats and facts

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Sebastian Vettel replicated his Singapore ‘grand slam’ in Korea: he started from pole position, led every lap, set fastest lap and won the race.

It’s the fourth time he’s achieved the feat. As detailed in the last Stats and Facts, three other drivers have as many ‘grand slams’ – Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell – and only three others have more: Jim Clark, Alberto Ascari and Michael Schumacher.

Vettel racked up his 34th career win and his third in a row in Korea which, in addition to Singapore, means he has now won three consecutive races at two different venues.

It’s the third time in his career he’s won four races in a row. However he’s yet to win five or more races in a row, something only five F1 drivers have ever done: Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher, Jack Brabham, Jim Clark and Nigel Mansell.

Vettel has now led the last 142 laps in a row – ever since Fernando Alonso pitted from the lead during the Italian Grand Prix. His personal best is 205 consecutive laps in the lead which he achieved last year in the Singapore, Japanese, Korean and Indian Grands Prix. That is fifth in the list of most consecutive laps led by a driver, which is headed by Ayrton Senna on 267.

He has also now led 208 of the 220 laps raced in Korea. In 2010 he retired from the lead with engine failure ten laps from home.

Renault draw level with Ferrari

Vettel’s 42nd career pole position was also the 208th for a car powered by a Renault engine. That puts them level with Ferrari as joint holders of the record for most poles by an engine manufacturer:

FerrariRenault
1st poleJose Froilan Gonzalez
1951 British Grand Prix, Silverstone
Ferrari 375, 4.5-litre V12
Jean-Pierre Jabouille
1979 South African Grand Prix, Kyalami
Renault RS01, 1.5-litre V6 turbo
50th poleJacky Ickx
1970 German Grand Prix, Hockenheimring
Ferrari 312B, 3.0-litre flat-12
Ayrton Senna
1986 Mexican Grand Prix, Mexico City
Lotus-Renault 98T, 1.5-litre V6 turbo
100th polePatrick Tambay
1983 Austrian Grand Prix, Osterreichring
Ferrari 126C3, 1.5-litre V6 turbo
Michael Schumacher
1995 Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal
Benetton-Renault B195, 3.0-litre V10
150th poleMichael Schumacher
2002 Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang
Ferrari F2001, 3.0-litre V10
Fernando Alonso
2006 Spanish Grand Prix, Catalunya
Renault R26, 2.4-litre V8
200th poleKimi Raikkonen
2008 French Grand Prix, Magny-Cours
Ferrari F2008, 2.4-litre V8
Mark Webber
2012 Korean Grand Prix, Korea
Red Bull-Renault RB8, 2.4-litre V8
208th poleFernando Alonso
2012 German Grand Prix, Hockenheimring
Ferrari F2012, 2.4-litre V8
Sebastian Vettel
2013 Korean Grand Prix, Korea
Red Bull-Renault RB9, 2.4-litre V8

This was the 125th pole position for a German driver, meaning they now have as many as Brazilians. Only British drivers have managed more, with 217.

With 272 points, Vettel could surpass his 2011 record total of 392 over a similar 19-race schedule, but he’ll need to win all the remaining races to do it.

For the second race in a row Esteban Gutierrez enjoyed the best starting position of his career so far. He was tenth on the grid in Singapore and eighth in Korea.

Paul di Resta was not running at the end of the race for the fifth event in a row.

It was the busiest weekend for reprimands so far this year with six handed down to four different drivers – all of them from Caterham and Marussia. Jules Bianchi and Charles Pic got two, their team mates had one each.

Review the year so far in statistics here:

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

2013 Korean Grand Prix

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    77 comments on “Vettel helps Renault equal Ferrari poles record”

    1. This is what I noticed:

      – Two Mexicans started in the top 10 for the first time in F1 history.

      – For the first time this season, Fernando Alonso lost a position on the opening lap.

      – Sebastian Vettel scored his second grand slam in a row. The only other drivers to have done so are Alberto Ascari (1952 German and Dutch GP) and Jim Clark (1963 Dutch and Mexican GPs).

      – The Vettel-Raikkonen-Grosjean podium occurred for the fourth time in history, the third time this year. The last time an identical podium occurred three times in a year was in 2006: Alonso-Schumacher-Raikkonen occurred three times.

      – After finishing sixth, Fernando Alonso has finished in every position in the top 8 this season. The last driver who did so was Barrichello in 2009.

      – Force India had their fourth double retirement of the season. In the last five Grands Prix, their drivers retired eight times. For Paul di Resta, it was fifth retirement in a row.

      – Esteban Gutierrez was very close, but still no points for the rookies…

      – If Vettel and Alonso finish first and second in the championship and their respective teammates don’t win a race this season, it will be the first time since 1972 that the top 2 in the championship have a teammate that hasn’t won a race that year. In 1972, Emerson Fittipaldi and Jackie Stewart finished 1-2 in the championship, while their teammates, Walker/Wisell and Cevert/Depailler respectively, didn’t win a single race.

      1. cool stats. Another thing I saw someone mentioning …
        If Vettel secures the WDC in Suzuka he will be younger than Alain Prost when he won his first race.

        1. Now that is a stat! More a reflection of the age drivers start racing in f1 today compared to when they started in the 80’s and 90’s (Damon Hill famously didn’t start a race until he was 32), but still impressive none the less.

        2. Actually, he would also still be younger than Prost was when he won his first race if he clinches his fourth title in India or Abu Dhabi.

          Prost was 9628 days old when he won in the 1981 French Grand Prix. Vettel will be 9628 days old on 11 November 2013.

          @tmf42 @geemac

          1. @mike-dee I found their ages being defined as “9628 days” strangely amusing! :’)

            1. It’s unambiguous! When you use years and months, they can have different number of days.

          2. When you think about it that way life seems really short.

        3. And it means he has secured 4 WDC titles in less than 4 years!

          1. Its more impressive than that! If he wins the title in Singapore he’ll have got four world titles in Two years, 11 months and 29 days (from 14th Nov 2010 till 16th Oct 2013).

            1. Singapore? Do you mean Japan? ;)

            2. @strontium
              Oops, yes, I meant Suzuka.

      2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        7th October 2013, 10:13

        Great stats as usually, we missed you in Singapore stats article

        1. Yeah, sorry about that

          1. @andae23 . Really how do you do this. I mean this is really great getting so many statistics out is something I am amazed at !!!

            Even if there is a software, there needs to be a person who needs to tell the software what stats to look for !!!!.

            You do an incredible job !!!!

      3. how can human being memorize so many facts, stats and occurrences? amaizing

      4. It amazes me how Walker wasn’t able to score a single point (!!) while his teammate won the world championship… I mean… do you even tell people you were once a Formula 1 driver? It’s a bit embarassing, even though he says it was because of how the team treated him.

        1. @roald Yeah, it’s pretty sad. On a similar note, I think Hector Rebaque holds the unwanted record of not even scoring a single podium while your teammate wins the world championship.

          1. F1 rejects has a profile of Dave Walker which is worth a read http://www.f1rejects.com/drivers/walkerd/index.html

            If this is not allowed to be link then please remove.

      5. @andae23 – Grosjean has never finished 3rd without Raikkonen being 2nd.

      6. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
        7th October 2013, 18:18

        Love reading @andae23‘s stats! Pretty amazing job ;)

      7. The final stat stays even if Raikkonen manages to topple Alonso in the standings and Grosjean stays away from P1… anyway I think it is high time for Raikkonen and Alonso to get their 2nd and 3rd win of the season respectively… or It would become another stat for Ferrari.. another year with 3 or less wins of their line-up, from the previous season ..2007 (2) .. 2010 (0 but exception for Massa injury in 2009) and both the seasons were good for the scuderia.. (2007 and 2010)

    2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
      7th October 2013, 10:04

      Vettel has now a higher % win per race start then MSC
      * MSC 91 out of 308 starts = 29.55%
      * Vettel 34 out of 115 starts = 29.56%

      1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        7th October 2013, 10:10

        Additionally with Vettel’s 115th rate start he is in the top 50 of all time of and despite being 26 the 8th most experienced driver on the current grid.
        * Race starts = 115 (50th together with Damon Hill)
        * Points = 1326 (3rd)
        * Wins = 34 (4th)
        * Poles = 42 (3rd)
        * FLAP = 21 (10th)
        * Podiums = 57 (10th)

        1. @jelle-van-der-meer
          It took me a lot longer than it should have to figure out what Vettel’s FLAP meant!

        2. The points one is pretty pointless as the system has changed so much, but it really is amazing to see it laid out like that @jelle-van-der-meer!

      2. I have been following his winning % statistic too – however wikipedia lists Schumacher at 307 starts. If Vettel wins next race, he’ll surpass Schumacher. If he wins two more races, he’ll go into the winter break on top of Schumacher in this stat.

        1. Jelle van der Meer
          7th October 2013, 14:58

          Oh did not know that, maybe I should rephrase it to race entries, formula1.com has MSC at 308 race entries and Vettel at 115. So I presume 1 race MSC was entered in he did not start or was not able to start after a restart.

          1. Silverstone 1999 and France 1996… so I thought he missed 2 starts
            I have 308 entries, 306 starts

            1. He took the start at Silverstone in 99… he caused the race stoppage.

              He didn’t make the green light in France, so that’ll be it I guess…

      3. What about if you get rid of all of Schumacher’s 2010-2012 race starts?

        1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
          7th October 2013, 18:18

          In that case MSC has 58 starts less and still 91 wins => 91/250 (entries) = 36.40%.
          The earliest Vettel could exceed this is 13 races if he wins them all => 47 wins / 128 (entries) = 36.72%

          1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
            7th October 2013, 18:30

            Oh in case you wondering, if he wants to have the best entry/win ratio in history (of those started more than 5 races) he will need to win the next 38 races (72 wins / 153 entries = 47.06%) to tie with the unbelievable Fangio who won an amazing 47.06% of the races he started.

            I keep track of 9 stats:
            MSC leads the 5 absolute stats (points, win, poles, FLAP and podiums)
            Fangio leads the 3 % stats (win %, poles % and %podium)
            The last is lead by Vettel but unfairly as it is points per race.

            Most amazing is that MSC is still 4th in that list and still all time highest point scorer although soon to loose that spot to Alonso who has 1559 points versus MSC 1566.

            1. If you pardon the pun, the rather pointless points/race statistic can be equalised by counting all the results in modern points. As expected, the great Fangio tops that list with 17.12 (and an astonishing 20.79 modern points per finished race). Second is Lee Wallard with 16.50 (but you might prefer to ignore him as he entered only 2 races), 3rd Ascari (13.94), 4th Farina (13.55) and 5th Vettel (13.23). Though Fangio seems beyond reach, Vettel could top Ascari and Farina by next year (say, 7 wins in the next 7 races. Easy enough) and be 3rd ever, 2nd if you ignore Lee Wallard.

            2. And i’m afraid you got the podium stat wrong. Even if you exclude those who started 5 races or less, Luigi Fagioli has more podiums/race than Fangio (5/7, or 71.4%, vs 32/51, or 62.7%). Btw Fagioli was the older pilot ever to win a F1 race, with 53 yr 2 m (I’m 52 yr 9 m so I guess I might still win one yet ^_^). Without the 5-race caveat there are two drivers with a perfect 100% podium stat, George Amick and Dorino Serafini, with one race each. Also the greatest win/race stat ever is Lee Wallard’s, 50% (1 of 2).

            3. I checked on the Fagioli win and it’s peculiar. In fact he finished eleventh, but switched cars midrace with Fangio who went on to win, so the victory was credited to both. Hence Fagioli never really won a race, but got 1 third and 5 seconds in 7 races, not bad. If you count his last race as a win, he got six podiums in 7 races, or 85.7%.

            4. Someone recently posted that in order to be one of the all time greats you need to beat the 40% podiums/race stat (and I agree). Well, Kimi just made it, and excluding one-hit wonders (5 races at least) here is the list
              1- Fagioli, 71.4 (or maybe 85,7, see previous post)
              2- Fangio, 62.7
              3- Froilan Sanchez 53.8
              4- Farina 52.9
              5- Prost 52.5
              6- Schumacher 50.3
              7- Vettel 49.6
              8- Senna 49.4
              9- Ascari 36.9
              10- tied Jim Clark and Jim Rathman,44.4%
              12- Alonso 44.3
              13- Hamilton 43.5
              14- Jackie Stewart 43.0
              15- Kimi Raikkonnen 40.3

              I noticed:
              1) Jim Rathman is the odd man here, not really a F1 driver as he only raced the 500 miles (in 1950-60, when it was part of the F1 championship, but 9 of them)
              2) Many people consider Ayrton Senna the greatest ever, but the stats never support this, he is certainly one of the greats, but nowhere near the top. I grant that he was pretty much unbeatable in the rain, but the Professor (who was never a rainmaster) could run circles around him in the dry.
              3) Ours is a very gifted generation, with 4 pilots among the greats (5 before Schuey quit), unseen since the very early days.

            5. Fagioli never really won a race, but got 1 third and 5 seconds in 7 races

              4 seconds, not 5

            6. the Professor (who was never a rainmaster) could run circles around him [Senna] in the dry

              I reckon staying alive was a bad career move for Alain Prost

    3. With 9 laps (out of 55) of the race spent under safety car it is the 2nd highest number of laps spent under safety car after the Japanese GP 2007 (20 laps under SC).

      1. Doubt it. Korea 2010 and Canada 2011 must have had more.

        1. Korea 2010: 26 laps. [1]
          Canada over 30 laps. [2]
          1st safety: 5 laps.
          2nd: 5 laps
          3rd: 15 laps (race stopped during this time (laps 20-35))
          4th: 3 laps
          5th: 5 laps

          [1] From: http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2011/9/12542.html
          [2] From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Canadian_Grand_Prix

        2. Good point!

          May be 9 laps is the highest amount of SC for a dry race then? It certainly seemed very long

    4. With regards to Vettel leading 142 laps in a row, I might be wrong with this but didn’t Webber lead for several laps after a long first stint?

      1. Jelle van der Meer
        7th October 2013, 11:55

        Webber was ahead of Vettel after Vettel’s stop but never crossed the finish line before Vettel. Webber pitted the lap after Vettel and Vettel passed the finish line before Webber could do so in the pitlane.

      2. I thought so too, however Seb pitted on 11 and left Webber in the lead, who then pitted on 12. Meaning he didn’t lead a whole lap.

        1. That doesn’t matter. The definition of a “lap lead” is crossing the line first. It has, to my recollection, always worked that way and has been the same for everyone. If a driver gets overtaken in one lap and re-overtakes the next the lap lead is attributed to him.

    5. Suzuka preview please.

    6. Regarding di Resta’s DNFs – before this streak he had just five in his earlier career (2011 Turkey&Canada, 2012 Britain&Brazil, 2013 Malaysia) which makes that quite interesting stat.

      Vettel’s recent dominance has brought me the possibility of him winning WCC alone. He is 12 points behind Ferrari and 11 behind Mercedes, so it is possible. Since the WCC has run with both cars counting, following drivers have done it: Jones 1980, Lauda&Prost 1984, Senna&Prost 1988, Mansell 1992, Prost 1993, Hill&Villeneuve 1996, Schumacher 2001&2002&2004.

      Gutierrez’s last four races: 14-13-12-11. A single point in Japan?

      1. Proper respect for Seb if he does win the WCC alone! And I’m rooting for Esteban. He has a point (no pun intended) to prove about his ability, seeing that his future doesn’t look that bright atm

        1. It would look good on Seb too if he won the WDC by more than the team won the WCC… but I think the team is well clear as Ferraris, Lotus and Mercedes 2nd ranked drivers are all faring no better than Webber

      2. I usually feel i have to defend Di Resta but he’s had an absolute shocker the last 3 races, all his errors it would seem (despite his comments in singapore). I can’t remember him crashing out before this at all. Maybe he is beginning to crack under the pressure of not having a secure drive next season… we will see.

      3. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        7th October 2013, 16:37

        1@bleu can you explain wat do you mean when you mention 2 drivers in the same year? (Ex: Senna and Prost 1988). Do you mean that, excluding the other, they had more points than the 2nd team in the WCC?

        1. @omarr-pepper I’m guessing so: sticking with your example, Senna scored 90 (94) points, Prost 87 (105) points. Ferrari scored 65 points as a constructor.

    7. Everytime Grosjean has finished 3:rd, Räikkönen finished 2:nd

      1. A shame really, as this is not the first time where I feel he should have been ahead.

        1. This is pretty much what splits good drivers from the best :)

          1. you mean the safety car?

    8. Vettel has scored more points so far this season than the seven bottom teams combined. If he were a team, he’d be fourth
      – Courtesy Alan Baldwin

      1. Didn’t he “came” second in the WCC in 2011 even in front of Ferrari?

        1. Infinity Vettel Racing. :3

          1. Maybe “SV Infiniti-RBR” like “MW Arden” in GP3 @xenomorph91? :P

            1. @vettel1: Maybe. The slogan for the team would not be “Gives you wings”, it would be “Gives you (victory) fingers”. :P

      2. He’d be 3rd if you took his points away from Red Bull… and but for the Silverstone failure, he’d be leading!
        Kinda reminds me of the scenario where Ferrari in 2002 got 221 pts… the same as everyone else combined! Though with modern points sytems, 43 pts for a 1-2 is less than the sum of those from 3rd down to 10th

    9. Is Vettel’s grand slam really a grand slam? He was the first driver across the line at the end of every lap, but Mark Webber did lead briefly when Vettel made his first stop.

      1. Webber was ahead of Vettel for most of a lap, but he himself pulled into the pits before completing a full lap in the lead.

      2. @prisoner-monkeys

        Is Vettel’s grand slam really a grand slam? He was the first driver across the line at the end of every lap

        That is the definition of a grand slam.

        1. But he didn’t lead every lap. Like I said, Webber led for most of one lap before he pitted. Compare that to Singapore, where Vettel led every moment of the race.

      3. I read somewhere on here that this is the definition of a Grand Chelem, meaning he scored pole position, fastest lap, won the race and he led every lap of the race. Pretty amazing.

      4. @prisoner-monkeys As far as I’m concerned, yes. He was leading at the end of every lap. I’m not aware of anyone who’s kept record of whether drivers led every millimetre of every lap as it would be impossible to compile that data historically. I’m sure if you had a look at previous ‘grand slams’ you could find similar examples to this one.

    10. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      7th October 2013, 16:47

      Wow, Renault has matched Ferrari’s poles in half the time! Ferrari had a 28 year lead from 1951 to 1979 on Renault although they held fewer races back then.

    11. Surprised to see Ferrari have only had 8 poles since mid 2008, which probably means about 4 since the end of 2008!

      1. It is indeed 4 since the end of 2008. They really have struggled in qualifying since the 2009 changes. I think both the car and somewhat the drivers are to blame for that.

        1. And this will not change next year. Kimi has been outqualified by Grosjean consistently since the tyres were changed midseason. Neither Alonso, not Kimi are known as great qualifiers. I don’t get why the Italians have not tried signing Vettel. Having drivers that are subscribed to row 3 on the grid does not exactly make the work of the engineers easy.

    12. Vettel has already managed more podiums in 2013 (11) than in either 2010 or 2012 (10).

      On both occasions that Webber has started outside the top 10 this year he has failed to finish.

      10th top 14 finish for Gutierrez without a point. Bottas has finished all bar one race inside the top 16 and hasn’t scored a point.

      di Resta has not scored for the last 6 races (crashing out of the last 4), having only failed to score once in the first 8 races. A quick check of statsf1.com suggests that Andrea de Cesaris (who was often prone to crashing) never managed to crash out of 4 consecutive races!

      First time Bianchi has started behind Chilton. 4th time in the last 5 races that Marussia have locked out the back row, having not done so previously in 2013.

      Only Webber is yet to start a race ahead of his team-mate in 2013.

      First time since Italy 2012 that there have been 3 classified non-finishers. On that occasion as well, these included both cars from one of the Red Bull owned teams.

      Under the ‘medals’ system, Vettel would have clinched the title (he has 8 wins, no-one else has more than 2, and there are only 5 races left)

      Alonso has now finished in every top 8 position at least once this year (in fact he has finished exactly once in each position from 3rd to 8th).

      Second race in a row that Vettel has led every lap but not actually led the entire race.

      Only current tracks on which Raikkonen has not been on the podium are Greater Noida and Austin (although he has been on the podium in the US at Indy).

      And some from magnetimarelli.com:

      First Korean GP in which neither Mercedes has been involved in a collision.

      Alonso has qualified in 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th in the 4 Korean GPs.

      28th time that Alonso has qualified 5th, equalling Barrichello’s record.

      Both Sauber drivers matched their best finishes to date.

      First time since India 2011 that Alonso lost a place on the opening lap and completed said lap.

      Webber’s joint longest win drought since he started winning.

      Vettel has led all bar 2 of the laps that he has raced in Korea (2 laps during the pitstops in 2011).

      16th time that Hamilton has started 2nd behind a Red Bull – M Schumacher holds the record (23 races starting 2nd behind a Williams).

      20th Vettel-Hamilton front row, equalling Vettel-Webber (in either order in both cases).

    13. …a Chrysler lead a F1 race very briefly…haha

    14. The 2009-2013 regulations have completed a full circle of the two team domination that was started by Brawn GP (now Mercedes) and is being ended by Red Bull Racing. Although Vettel has always proved his worth and made STR stand above RBR in 2008, I think the 2014 regs would bring about another shake-up and bring forth closer racing and new winners. The Ferrari resurgence, mostly fueled by Alonso is all set to continue for the longer term as it always bounces back no matter how regulations change.. And one parting stat for ze German… This would be the first time in the history of F1 that a German would be winning the championship without Michael Schumacher being on the grid.

    15. Regarding the consecutive laps led stat, according to statsf1.com (and the 2012 Korean GP stats page), Ascari leads the Most Consecutive Laps Led table with 304 (also, Senna’s streak is 264, not 267).

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