Ferrari suffer their first ever double lap one retirement

2017 Singapore Grand Prix stats and facts

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The championship situation changed dramatically in Singapore as Lewis Hamilton claimed a maximum 25 points but his principal rival left with none.

Hamilton now leads Sebastian Vettel by 28 points in the drivers’ championship. That’s the biggest lead any driver has enjoyed all season. Vettel’s lead peaked at 25 points after the Monaco Grand Prix, since when Hamilton has enjoyed a net 53-point swing in his favour.

Hamilton has only won from lower than fifth once
It was Hamilton’s third consecutive win, following a period at the beginning of the season in which no driver had won two in a row. It was also his third victory in Singapore: Vettel still holds the record with four.

Hamilton now has 60 career wins yet remarkably this is only the second time he’s won having started outside of the first two rows. He won the 2014 British Grand Prix from sixth place. His other wins have come from pole position (38), second (15), third (three) and fourth (two).

Vettel’s 200th participation in a world championship race weekend was not a successful one. His retirement from the race means Hamilton is now the only driver to have scored points in every race this year. Hamilton and Esteban Ocon are the only drivers to have been classified in every race so far.

With Kimi Raikkonen going out in the same first-lap incident, this was the first time since the 2015 Mexican Grand Prix that Ferrari failed to get either car home.

Not since the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix have two Ferraris failed to get either beyond the first lap, and that was in quite different circumstances. Gilles Villeneuve was killed in a crash during qualifying and Didier Pironi’s car was withdrawn as a mark of respect. This was the first time Ferrari have entered two cars in a race have and both retired on the first lap.

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Vettel at least took his fourth Singapore Grand Prix pole, the most of any driver, and the 49th of his career. It was also the 213th pole position for a Ferrari-powered car. That equals the record number of pole positions for an engine brand, held by Renault.

Vettel’s pole was a landmark for Ferrari power
However it gets more complicated if we include the pole positions for Renault engines branded as TAG Heuer (Daniel Ricciardo, 2016 Monaco Grand Prix) and Playlife (Giancarlo Fisichella, 1998 Austrian Grand Prix), by which count Ferrari are still two behind.

Ricciardo continued his streak of podiums in Singapore. He’s never failed to finish on the rostrum at this track since he joined Red Bull but nor has he been able to win the race. This was his third consecutive second-placed finish. Remarkably, he’s been in second place for 174 of the last 180 laps raced at this track.

However he took his seventh podium finish of the year while team mate Max Verstappen posted his seventh retirement. Four of these have been due to technical failures and three have been caused by first-lap crashes. While Hamilton has completed all 834 laps raced so far this year, Verstappen has only managed 457 (54.8%). Verstappen has only completed 45 more laps than Hamilton has spent in the lead in 2017.

Valtteri Bottas came home third for Mercedes which means Singapore’s record of never seeing a one-two finish by a team has continued for a tenth year. His tenth podium finish of the year means he is now tied with Vettel for the most so far.

One widely-expected statistical landmark was passed by Nico Hulkenberg. His retirement means he has surpassed Adrian Sutil as the driver who has started the most races without ever finishing on the podium:

RankDriverStartsActive yearsTeamsBest
1Nico Hulkenberg1292010-presentWilliams, Force India, Sauber, Renault4th (3)
2Adrian Sutil1282007-14Spyker, Force India, Sauber4th
3Pierluigi Martini1181985-95Minardi, Scuderia Italia4th (2)
4Philippe Alliot1091984-94RAM, Ligier, Lola, Larrousse, McLaren5th
5Pedro Diniz981995-2000Forti, Ligier, Arrows, Sauber5th (2)
6Ukyo Katayama951992-97Larrousse, Tyrrell, Minardi5th (2)
7Jonathan Palmer831983-89Williams, RAM, Zakspeed, Tyrrell4th
8Marc Surer811979-86Ensign, ATS, Theodore, Arrows, Brabham4th (2)
9Vitantonio Liuzzi802005-11Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Force India, HRT6th (2)
10Piercarlo Ghinzani761981-89Osella, Toleman, Ligier, Zakspeed5th

Germany’s last point-less race was in 2008
During the race it briefly looked as though Hulkenberg was going to stop this from happening. He completed lap one in third place and stayed there until he pitted on lap 11. As late as lap 38 he was running fourth, close behind Bottas, when a power unit problem ended his race. But surely the ever-improving Renault will allow him to eventually reach the rostrum and hand this unwanted record back to Sutil?

With Hulkenberg and Vettel failing to score, for the first time in 176 races there were no German drivers among the points-scorers. That streak dates back to the 2008 French Grand Prix, when points were only awarded to the top eight. There were five German drivers in that round and all finished but none in the points. They were Timo Glock (11th), Vettel (12th), Nick Heidfeld (13th), Nico Rosberg (16th) and Sutil (19th).

The absence of several big names missing from the sharp end of the field three drivers took the opportunity to score their best career finishes to date. They were Carlos Sainz Jnr (fourth), Jolyon Palmer (sixth) and Stoffel Vandoorne (seventh).

Review the year so far in statistics here:

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

2017 Singapore Grand Prix

Browse all 2017 Singapore Grand Prix articles

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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79 comments on “Ferrari suffer their first ever double lap one retirement”

  1. Sirs, I don’t remember if the two Ferraris went out in the first lap, but in the years 70 Clay and Lauda beat after the start in the GP of Spain. Right? Regards.

    1. I think I’m right in saying you’re referring to the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix where Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni collided at the start? Lauda indeed went no further than the first lap but Regazzoni returned to the pits, got a new front-right wheel, and continued albeit four laps down. He did 25 laps, so they didn’t both go out on the first lap.

      1. @keithcollantine
        I think he is referring to the 1976 British GP in Brands Hatch. I think this was also portrayed in Rush.
        Interestingly Lauda started from P1 and Clay Regazzoni made a very quick start from P4. They crashed in T1, Lauda lost a wheel and Regazzoni spun and was hit by other cars. Their accident took some other drivers out, so the stewards restarted the race and they were able to rejoin. History does seem to come full circle with the Lauda of today crashing with the Regazzoni of today. Their ages are also a bit similar with Vettel and Raikkonen being 30 and 37 and Lauda and Regazzoni being 27 and 36 y.o.
        Here is the crash
        Also, his british title rival won the race.

        1. But Lauda was allowed to restart and finished the race.

          Reggazoni did also restart his spare car and so did Hunt in his repaired car – though they were not allowed to restart as they ‘had not completed the first lap’ – a fairly dubious ruling by the stewards!
          Reggazoni and Hunt took part in the restart anyway; Reggazoni dropped out but Hunt won the race ahead of Lauda.
          Some teams protested the result but the RAC (responsible for the stewarding at the time) concluded that Hunt was still moving when the race was stopped so the result held.
          Ferrari then appealed to the FIA claiming Hunts car was pushed. McLaren said the car was only pushed after the race was stopped. Nonetheless the FIA went with Ferrari and disqualified Hunt…

          2017 Singapore, Vettel takes out himself and 3 other cars. FIA rules it a race incident.
          If anything has gone full circle here it is bad stewarding!

        2. @redi

          I think he is referring to the 1976 British GP in Brands Hatch.

          As he said Spain I thought not. Besides which Ferrari won that race officially after Hunt was disqualified.

          I think this was also portrayed in Rush.

          Curiously enough, it wasn’t!

  2. Following on from my post-Italy stats!

    Hamilton has now leapfrogged Michael Schumacher with a higher win percentage (29.7% to 29.55%). Of course with it being entry/win percentage rate this can swing back and forth depending on future result. The next best win % rate is 35.25 set by Jim Clark (I’m opting to omit Lee Wallard and Bill Vukovich since they only competed in 3 and 6 races respectively in the WC-credited Indianapolis 500 era).

    Vettel’s streak of consecutive points finishes has come to an end at 18, three away from his previous best. Hamilton has now matched his personal best of 19 consecutive points finishes, previously set from the 2014 Italian GP to the 2015 Italian GP.

    1. How many races in a row would Lewis have to win, to match Jim Clark’s win percentage ?

      1. If he wins the next 18 races he will have a higher percentage of wins

  3. Hulk’s line at the top of the chart is missing Renault, no?

    1. @bainelaker Not any more, thanks!

  4. @keithcollantine If Hulkenberg does get a podium, the record will still be his as “most number of races entered before getting a podium”? The article however says that he will hand back the record to Sutil when he scores a podium.

    1. @malleshmagdum Right but Sutil would have the longest career without a podium.

      1. @keithcollantine to clarify, has any other driver started more races than hulkenberg without a podium until they got their first podium? Or would he still be the driver with most race starts before a podium?

        1. Hulk would take that record. The record for most races before a podium is currently with Martin Brundle who had done 92 races before he got his first official podium at the 1992 French Grand Prix (he was on the podium in Detroit 1984, his eight race, but was later disqualified.

    2. If Hulkenberg does get a podium, the record will still be his as “most number of races entered before getting a podium”? The article however says that he will hand back the record to Sutil when he scores a podium.

      That is because the article is talking about an unrelated stat:

      driver who has started the most races without ever finishing on the podium

      The stat you are referring to may not even belong to Hulk now (if it doesn’t it would be interesting to know who does have it).

  5. I read a tweet that stated Lewis has won the last 8 consecutive rain-affected races stretching back to 2014.

    1. @frogmankouki

      And it would be nine if he hadn’t had to start from the back in Hungary 2014

      1. @philipgb, Thank you Sir. This definitely belongs to the “useless info of the day” category.

        P.S. You tiny amount of impartial people here, notice the difference between “If he hadn’t had to start” and “If he hadn’t started”, which should have been the correct one. Small details can reveal a lot. It is amazing, between others, what elfs and witches can do to our boy.

        1. That’s a little harsh – I think it’s fair to point out that “would be nine” should probably be “might have been nine” but it’s still interesting to note that the last rain-affected race Hamilton didn’t win he finished on the podium after starting from the back.

          1. And had a fuel pump problem, if I recall.

        2. You’re welcome

    2. That is some stat. Phenomenal.

      1. since 2014, meaning since the beginning of Mercedes dominance ? LOL okay

  6. Bottas became the 10th driver to score more than 200 points in a season. The other 9 are Hamilton, Vettel, Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Alonso, Rosberg, Button and Webber.

    1. @retardedf1sh: unfair statistic towards drivers who raced when the point system was different, should re-work all old championships to the current point system and you’d see drivers like schumacher, senna, mansell, prost etc. for sure and also it would still be unfair then cause drivers like fangio and ascari had so few races it would be impossible to reach 200 points.

      1. Well with the current points scoring system Fangio would have scored 177 points in 1954 in just 8 races so he wasn’t that far off.

      2. Perhaps a fairer comparison would be “points per race average, after conversion to modern era points system”.

  7. Michael Brown (@)
    18th September 2017, 22:22

    I think this is the first Singapore Grand Prix in which none of the the top 3 starters were among the top 3 finishers.

      1. Michael Brown (@)
        19th September 2017, 2:06

        @mashiat You’re right. I thought he started 4th.

        1. @mbr-9 Wikipedia currently says Ricciardo was third on the starting grid (behind Vettel and Verstappen). Behind him were Raikkonen (4th) and Hamilton (5th).
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Singapore_Grand_Prix#Qualifying

    1. the Singapore GP has been won by the pole sitter every year except 2012 (Hammy mechanical failure) and now 2017 (Verstappen Ferrari Sandwich) so yeah, that would make sense lmao

  8. Despite Monza and Singapore having totally different characteristics, this is the 6th time (out of 10 Singapore GPs) that the same driver has won both in the same season. Conversely, despite Singapore and Monaco having similar characteristics, only once has a driver won both in the same year (Vettel in 2011, and even then his Monaco win was slightly controversial).

    Hamilton keeps alive his record of finishing 1st, 3rd, 5th, or not at all at Singapore.

    3rd consecutive 2nd-place finish for Ricciardo in Singapore, behind 3 different drivers. First time since joining Red Bull that he has finished a Singapore GP in a different position to which he started.

    Perez keeps alive his record of never starting inside the top 10 in Singapore, but always finishing inside the top 10.

    Ricciardo’s first top 3 start this season, but his 7th podium finish of the season.

    First race since USA 2015 with only 12 finishers.

    With Ferrari not scoring, Red Bull now have the longest uninterrupted points streak with 31 (last no-score was Russia 2016), 1 ahead of Mercedes.

    With no German driver scoring, Great Britain now has the longest unbroken run of points finishes, with 41 (last time no British driver scored was Singapore 2015).

    First front-row start for Red Bull since Singapore 2016.

    No driver has managed back-to-back poles at Singapore.

    Only the second race in the hybrid era not to feature a Mercedes in the first two rows of the grid – the other was Singapore 2015.

    First Singapore GP not to feature a German driver in 1st or 2nd.

    Thanks to magnetimarelli.com, statsf1.com, formula1.com, and fia.com for some of these.

    1. @paulgilb And how exactly was his 2011 Monaco win slightly controversial? He didn’t do anything questionable in that race.

      1. Well… the race was red-flagged towards the end due to a pile-up, while Vettel was leading on tyres that were good for nothing, and Alonso bearing down on him, looking to pass. The red flag allowed him to put on new tyres and ease to the win after the restart.
        While Monaco is notoriously difficult to pass on, Vettel’s tyres were bare and it was seemingly only a matter of time before Alonso would manage to get past. One of those “what could have been” races

        1. That had to be the most anticlimactic finish to a race that I can remember.

          And at Monaco no less, where we barely ever get excitement at all.

        2. @pukktpie Even if they weren’t allowed to change their tyres during the red-flag stoppage, I doubt Alonso would’ve passed Vettel as track position is king in Monaco meaning that it’s easy to keep a driver with a faster car or a driver with fresher tyres behind than on most circuits. The prime example of that is Hamilton who couldn’t get past Vettel in the 2015 race despite having both a significant car-performance advantage and a tyre advantage at the same time against Vettel.

          1. @jerejj but if I remember correctly they were so worn that there was a real risk of tyre failure. They were way over the normal life of the tyre AND he was having to hustle the car to keep Alonso behind.

          2. I remember 2005 when the Renaults were on finished tyres. Eventually drivers got by. Alonso would of at least had a go so either Alonso would of won or they would of both ended up in the Armco.

            Either way the stupid rules ruined that one sadly as already stated.

          3. both Alonso and Button on fresher tires were chasing down Vettel on worn tires in the first year of Pirelli’s fall off a cliff rubber. We never got to see it as a very nicely timed crash by sister Toro Rosso team put an end to it and allowing Vettel a free tire change. I could easily see one if not both of them passing him out of the tunnel

      2. @jerejj I’m guessing with Perez crashing in quali, preventing others from setting fast laptimes. Or so I recall it, there being too little time to set a lap after his crash.

        1. @chrischrill What does Perez crashing in qualifying have to do with what happened in the race itself?

    2. Wasn’t there a Williams front row in Austria?

      1. Oh sorry – first _two_ rows. Pay no heed.

  9. This was the first night race started in the rain / wet tires

  10. Red Bull has finished either 1st or 2nd for the past 8 consecutive Singapore GP’s.

  11. The first Ferrari first-lap double retirement was actually Monaco 1995. Two Ferraris sandwiched Coulthard at St Devote. Very similar to Sunday night.

    But in those days the red flag would come out and everyone could take their spare cars and make the second start. First start was erased from history.

    1. Wow. Didn’t know that.

      A very good race from stats perspective. Lot of good points in the article and in the comments as well.

    2. “First start was erased from history.”

      In terms of the record books, yes. But that doesn’t change my memory of that race and Murray Walker asking the question “who will get the spare car” before remembering that Ferrari brought 2 spare cars so that both Alesi and Berger could take the restart.

      1. I remember that as well! Spare cars got a fair bit of usage in those days.

    3. Another parallel: While he wasn’t involved in the crash, Verstappen could not take part in the restart due to gearbox trouble. Jos Verstappen :)

      1. That is correct about Jos. He was in the Simtek and that was the final GP they competed in.

    4. So, not a retirement? If they ran, regardless of the backup or main car, under the rules it’s NOT a retirement. Thus the stat stands as the first double retirement on lap one as lap one and the start did not happen. It’s not complicated to follow fairly easy rules. It’s similar to coulda, woulda and shoulda wons, he didn’t so all the guessing and speculation doesn’t change the record book.

      1. Read the last 6 words of my original post, they are pretty easy to understand.

        My point still stands that this was not the first time that both Ferrari’s had stopped each other at turn 1.

        The only difference between than and now is that in 1995, teams were allowed to use back-up cars when the race was restarted.

  12. Hamilton now has 60 career wins yet remarkably this is only the second time he’s won having started outside of the first two rows.

    @keithcollantine I tried looking for figures about this but couldn’t find it – do you have a “top” list of drivers who’ve won from outside the first two rows? I was curious since I was thinking about it, and technically Ricciardo has at least this many due to his wins at the 2014 Canadian GP and at the Azerbaijan GP earlier this year.

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      19th September 2017, 2:11

      I saw a list many years ago which showed that Raikkonen had won more races from lower starting positions than the current world champions, at the very least.

    2. @steevkay, Ricciardo has managed to do it a total of three times – apart from the 2014 Canadian GP and 2017 Azerbaijan GP, he won the 2014 Belgian GP from 5th place.

    3. It’s not bad for a driver who has a 4.10 average start position. To win from back you have to start from back…

  13. Verstappen is the youngest driver to collect three world champion driver in a single chain of accident. Had Vettel manage to turn into Hamilton, it could have been four.

    Hamilton wins every rainy night race.

    1. VER didn’t collect anybody. It was RAI that hit him actually, while VET pushed him into RAI, everything being started by VET.

      1. @mg1982, it is clear from @ruliemaulana‘s post history that he is rather biased in favour of Ferrari and Vettel, so he is following Ferrari’s official line by blaming Verstappen.

        It’s rather notable that, by contrast, neither Kimi nor Vettel accused Verstappen of driving into them or threw blame around in the way that their fans are so keen to do, suggesting that they have accepted at least part of the responsibility for the crash themselves.

    2. Hamilton wins every rainy night race.

      @ruliemaulana

      Easily the most impressive stat so far. Love it!!

    3. While this is heavily Ferrari biased (Verstappen collected nobody), the following stat must surely be true:

      This must be the first instance of three world champions (8 titles!) all crashing in the first corner?

      1. Lets break it down then:

        three world champions

        You can only be referring to Vettel, Riakkonen and Alonso (as Hamilton was not involved in an incident)

        (8 titles!)

        Nope 7 ( Vettel 4, Alonso 2, Raikkonen 1)

        all crashing in the first corner

        Nope, only Alonso and Raikkonen were involved in collisions in the first corner. Vettel made it through unscathed, though he did suffer collisions on the straight before turn 1 (Raikkonen) and again on the straight out of turn 3 (the wall).

        the following stat must surely be true

        Not as far as I can see

        1. Vettels car had a terminal radiator failure entering the first corner, it caused his spin..

          1. Vettels car had a terminal radiator failure entering the first corner, it caused his spin..

            So? I fail to see how that is relevant to any of my comment as a terminal radiator failure is not in and of itself a crash, nor did Vettel spin in the first corner.

          2. Martin… um… are you sure you watched the same race as the rest of us?

            Raikkonen collided with the side of Vettel’s car, damaging the radiator. It occurred during the run down to the first corner. Just because he kept going and made it through the next sequence does not mean he wasn’t part of the ‘crash’, plus you assumed alex w said the spin was at the first corner. He never said that. As you know, Vettel spun right in front of Hamilton as he accelerated through Turn 4 (barely a kink on that short straight) – due to radiator issues… because of the damage sustained… in the… you know… that collision at in the run down to the first corner.

            I mean… all you have to do is watch the footage.

  14. Nico Hulkenberg’s third DNF in Singapore in as many consecutive seasons.
    2015: Crashed with Massa
    2016: Got squeezed to the pit wall by Sainz
    2017: Reliability problem/s.
    Vettel’s first DNF since last season’s Malaysian GP.
    Obviously the first ever rain-hit floodlit race regardless of the venue.
    The 100% SC-record of this circuit keeps going.

  15. Only the fourth time the front row have been taken out in the first lap. Watson and Andretti, Zolder 77, Senna and Prost, Suzuka 90, Hamilton and Rosberg, Spain 16, Vettel and Verstappen, Singapore 17.

    1. Wow, I would have thought it happened A LOT more @hollidog

      1. Snap, very surprising stat

    2. great stat
      Brazil 89 came close – collision between the top 3 leaves Berger out, Senna 3 laps down, Patrese unscathed

  16. Lewis has won every wet night race in history. ;)

  17. Right after Marchionne calls Monza an embarrassment.

  18. Not really a stat, but i notice a big similarlity between the first corner crash from this weekend and the first corner crash in Hockenheim 2003.

    Schumacher (Ralf) drifted across the track like Vettel, Barrichello was squeezed like Berstappen, and a quick starting Raikkonen played an identical role in both incidents.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gN1G5q49v0I

    I also remember a huge fuss and wild rumours that Schumacher was almost given a grid penalty for the next race for causing the crash, which was totally unheard of back then. How times change…

    1. Ha, Berstappen. You know what I meant…

    2. VET deserved a penalty but it would ruined the WC . Looking at his list of crimes he would have collected at least a race ban.
      FIArrari would and could not accept that.

  19. First wet night race in F1 history.

  20. 1 Saint Georges Mount
    St Johns Rd

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