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 Hulkenberg | 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
Image (C) Michelin
gabal
12th July 2010, 9:52
Does this average speed mean Silverstone failed to become the fastest track in F1 calendar or do we have to wait for Monza’s average speed to determine that?
This was Williams first double points finish since Singapore 2008. Nothing ”hidden” in it, I just like saying that :)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th July 2010, 10:08
Nope it’ll stay third behind Monza and Spa.
RobR (@robr)
12th July 2010, 10:49
What the new layout is badly lacking, is a more interesting (i.e. faster) way of getting to the start/finish line and Copse section. Simply turning onto the unchanged, boring old Luffield turn, from the old national circuit straight, was terrible. Get rid of that awful Luffield and have a new faster, wider turn into the start/finish section.
That might have done it for them. But obviously it’s too late, it won’t happen now.
miguelF1O (@)
12th July 2010, 12:44
next year after the new pits complex gets finished the british gp will start from the new straight
Chapmondo
12th July 2010, 14:36
I’ll turn woodcote into a sharp right hander and miss out brooklands and luffield. It will mean a longer village straight and more passing opportunities.
Calum
12th July 2010, 18:19
But the race was essentially slowed by a safety car period…
Matt
13th July 2010, 2:39
Fastest lap mentioned in the article was from qualifying
Hare (@hare)
12th July 2010, 10:01
It’s not often that Lotus are going to be able to say they finished just behind both Ferrari’s this season.
Nitpicker
12th July 2010, 18:49
You can see the future?
SoLiDG (@solidg)
12th July 2010, 10:14
They where never going to be faster than Monza.
I just wondered about those fastest laps.
Do the drivers really care about them? Like in canada where vettel wanted to set the fastest lap in the end.
I wondered why? I doesn’t bring prestige or points, or am I missing something?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th July 2010, 10:27
There is a trophy for most fastest laps in a season, Vettel won it last year.
Nitpicker
12th July 2010, 18:53
Fastest laps aren’t so prestigious this year, seeing as any driver can set a fastest lap if they happen to change tyres near the end of the race, such as Petrov in Turkey.
kajaja
12th July 2010, 20:57
Is that sarcasm or are you being for real? If it is real, whats the name of the cup? Do I sound stupid right now?
Red Andy
12th July 2010, 21:24
It’s the DHL Fastest Lap Trophy, or something like that.
Patrickl
13th July 2010, 17:01
Yeah and Kimi won it in 2007 and 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHL_Fastest_Lap_Award
Oliver
13th July 2010, 12:43
More often than not, its the drivers behind who are setting the fastest lap times. Once you have established a sizable lead, you can just sit back, relax and watch the other drivers on the screen.
gabal
12th July 2010, 10:33
basically – bragging rights. Kimi was often called ”fastest driver on the grid” because he had biggest number of fastest laps.
Patrickl
13th July 2010, 17:02
Well in those days it still actually meant something. Not much, but at least something. Nowadays it’s decided by “who made a pit stop last”.
Bleu
12th July 2010, 10:15
Important milestone if my calculations are right.
Because it was 100th safety car deployment for Bernd Mayländer.
2000 AUS, AUT, 2xGER, BEL, ITA, MAL = 7
2001 AUS, MAL, BRA, AUT, GER, BEL = 6/13
2002 2xAUS, 2xAUT, CAN = 5/18
2003 2xAUS, 5xBRA, AUT, 2xGBR, GER =11/29
2004 2xMON, 2xUSA, GBR, 3xBEL = 8/37
2005 ESP, MON, CAN, GBR, BEL, BRA, JPN, 2xCHN = 9/46
2006 4xAUS, RSM, EUR, MON, GBR, 2xCAN, USA, HUN, TUR, BRA = 14/60
2007 BRN, 4xCAN, EUR, ITA, 2xJPN = 9/69
2008 3xAUS, 2xESP, 2xMON, CAN, GER, ITA, BRA = 11/80
2009 2xAUS, MAL, 2xCHN, ESP, BEL, ITA, SIN, JPN, BRA = 11/91
2010 AUS, 2xCHN, 4xMON, EUR, GBR = 9/100
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th July 2010, 10:25
Nice stat Bleu!
DGR-F1
12th July 2010, 11:56
I wonder if he got an award? :-)
Eddie Irvine
12th July 2010, 13:03
I think we are getting far too many safety cars than we should have. The use of doubled wave yellows should be used more often to cover an accident, i think.
Hamish
12th July 2010, 13:16
Valid Edward, but this is the day and age of political correctness and the cotton wool generation. How boring the world is these days.
SiY
12th July 2010, 18:31
Hamish/Eddie: would you rather see a marshal get hit by a car at 99% racing speed while he’s collecting debris off the racing line?
There have been a few spurious safety car calls, but at Silverstone for example it was the right thing to do.
Mike
12th July 2010, 22:25
The safety car is a great thing, it’s just the the rules about how the drivers react or interact with it have always been dodgy.
LewisC
13th July 2010, 11:47
Totally agree that double waved yellows should be used more. Throwing out the safety car can ruin a race if, as Alonso showed, you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.
You could implement a temporary speed limiter for certain sections of the track – the GPS tech exists to make the cars go-slow in a certain sector. That means that the safety of the marshals isn’t compromised and the distribution of the field around the track isn’t affected.
Tom L.
13th July 2010, 22:08
They could have had a safety car to clear Alguersuari’s car away and they didn’t. The thing with the bits of PDLR’s car was, I assume, that the debris was in two very fast places – the pit straight and the Hangar Straight – so presumably drivers would find it harder to react in time and avoid the debris, potentially causing punctures, or worse, causing pieces to be flicked up into the path of following drivers.
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
12th July 2010, 13:13
If this is correct than Bleu definitely deserves a special Stat of the Day award!
MacademiaNut
12th July 2010, 16:46
Agree. Took me by surprise that someone even looked into this.
rampante (@rampante)
12th July 2010, 10:17
It was a very poor weekend for Ferrari but it was all down to circumstance rather than poor car performance. Massa’s race was ruined by the 1st lap contact with Alonso and 3rd was taken away by poor judgement by the team. Alonso asked if he had to give the position back and Kubica retired next lap. The car was quick all weekend and things are not as black as are being made out. 225 points still up for grabs this year with less than 2 wins between Ham and Alo. I am not saying he will win the title but this is not like last year where the car was the problem.
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
12th July 2010, 13:16
The penalty does seem harsh, but Alonso should have had the sense to have given the position nack immeadiately, then there wouldn’t have been a problem.
The points gap for Alonso to make up certainly isn’t too big to recover, but I don’t think they have the car to manage it. Despite their recent improvements, they’re still well off the pace of the Red Bull’s, and once McLaren sort out their diffuser presumably Ferrari will only be the 3rd quickest team again
Bleu
12th July 2010, 10:20
Robert Kubica’s retirement means that there are no drivers left who have driven 100% of the laps. Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa remain as drivers who have finished every race, but both have one race (Rosberg/Barcelona, Massa/Montreal) where they have finished one lap behind the winner. Alonso and Hamilton have driven all but two due to their retirements in the end of Malaysian and Spanish GPs. Jaime Alguersuari also had his first retirement of the season.
sumedh
12th July 2010, 10:35
I knew it!! As early as practice one it seemed that the track is infact slower than last year’s. Dunno why everyone thought it was faster.
BTW, late time for this stat. But has this season set some sort of record for 1-2 finishes by teams?
Bahrain, Malaysia, China, Monaco, Turkey, Canada. That is 6 out of the first 7 races!!
KateDerby
12th July 2010, 10:46
Webber’s 150th Grand Prix, his 5th career win.
Laps led;
Webber…..259
The Rest…341
OzoneVibe
12th July 2010, 10:50
Considering each event as having 7 sessions (FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, Q2, Q3 and the race itself) – only Red Bull have had both drivers in every one of the 70 sessions in 2010.
In sessions where BOTH (main) team drivers have participated, the following are the number of times each has been the faster:
Jenson Button – 18 / Lewis Hamilton – 48
Michael Schumacher – 20 / Nico Rosberg – 48
Sebastian Vettel – 40 / Mark Webber – 30
Felipe Massa – 11 / Fernando Alonso – 52
Rubens Barrichello – 34 / Nico Hulkenberg – 25
Robert Kubica – 53 / Vitaly Petrov – 8
Adrian Sutil – 41 / Vitantonio Liuzzi – 11
Sebastien Buemi – 40 / Jaime Alguersuari – 14
Jarno Trulli – 15 / Heikki Kovalainen – 31
Karun Chandhok – 15 / Bruno Senna – 20
Pedro de la Rosa – 29 / Kamui Kobayashi – 24
Timo Glock – 34 / Lucas di Grassi – 10
Comparing just the 30 qualifying sessions (where the only objective is to be fastest!?), we get:
Jenson Button – 8 / Lewis Hamilton – 18
Michael Schumacher – 5 / Nico Rosberg – 23
Sebastian Vettel – 18 / Mark Webber – 12
Felipe Massa – 3 / Fernando Alonso – 21
Rubens Barrichello – 14 / Nico Hulkenberg – 7
Robert Kubica – 18 / Vitaly Petrov – 3
Adrian Sutil – 15 / Vitantonio Liuzzi – 5
Sebastien Buemi – 12 / Jaime Alguersuari – 6
Jarno Trulli – 5 / Heikki Kovalainen – 5
Karun Chandhok – 3 / Bruno Senna – 6
Pedro de la Rosa – 13 / Kamui Kobayashi – 5
Timo Glock – 9 / Lucas di Grassi – 1
Random – but interesting. :)
DaveW
12th July 2010, 16:26
Great work! This is a great way to compare the drivers. It’s interesting that only the Lotus pair and RBR are truly very close in performance.
When you look at Button’s deficiency, and compare it to the sitution of other drivers being similarly dominated in pace, it’s amazing that he is 2nd in points right behind Hamilton.
Oliver
13th July 2010, 12:12
The top 8 drivers seem to be paired with rookies. :-)
Palle
14th July 2010, 12:09
Webber isn’t exactly a rookie, even though his attack on Kovi could make You think so.
Patrickl
13th July 2010, 17:09
Well Button stayed close on points mostly because of 2 races where he took a gamble on the tyres which turned out right (and Hamilton’s wheel falling off while in P2 in Spain).
Also he benefits a lot from cars and drivers ahead of him failing while Hamilton tends to be battling for the lead on his own strength.
It just shows how the current points favor consistency more than true “racers”.
Nitpicker
12th July 2010, 18:57
Great stat there. Shocking to see the Schu/Rosberg and Massa/Alonso comparisons. Who’d’ve thunk it?
Tom L.
13th July 2010, 22:14
What strikes me is how everyone seems to have overlooked the fact that De la Rosa has been faster overall than Kobayashi, thanks to the latter’s more striking race-day performances…
Palle
14th July 2010, 12:08
Alonso over Massa yes, but not Rosberg so much over Schumi.
Patrickl
13th July 2010, 17:05
Hey clever one. Seems to match pretty much with the feeling we have of who is faster too.
lambsie
12th July 2010, 10:52
Each time an Aussie has won the British Grand Prix, he has gone on to win the World Championship that same year! Happened for Brahbam in 59, 60 and 66; aswell as for Jones in 1980! Hope he continues this trend!
Cmon Mark, GO AUSSIE!
miguelF1O (@)
12th July 2010, 12:52
and since 08 the winner of the monaco gp becames the world champ
Calum
12th July 2010, 18:22
Don’t forget about “winner of Australia” has just about always gone on to win, so Button looks good ;)
Nitpicker
12th July 2010, 18:58
Since 08? So that’s two seasons then.
aa
17th July 2010, 8:45
that’s great, it means alonso won’t be winning this year :)
Icthyes
12th July 2010, 15:03
Mark Webber is the only Australian to have won a Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix but not the Championship itself.
Mike
12th July 2010, 23:42
The only thing worse than if Mark’s luck turns sour, is if everything goes well and he wins, Can you imagine what the stupid Aus commentators will be like? Oh the pain! *groan*
Zaphod
12th July 2010, 15:35
That’s the best stat I’ve seen all season, and I’m Greek!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
12th July 2010, 11:25
It was the first time since the controvertial Singapore 2008 that both Williams scored points!
Enigma (@enigma)
12th July 2010, 12:27
That’s the first time after Europe 2007 (Raikkonen) that a driver made a mistake in the last corner that made him go to the pits or miss the pits.
Tom L.
13th July 2010, 22:16
What about Kubica ending up in the pits after riding up over Trulli in China last year?
Bartholomew
12th July 2010, 13:15
Ferrari is getting their just rewards, by the law of universal justice, for their contempt of the new teams and the tirades of Lou diMonty. Lou sounds like Mussolini after a couple of glasses of wine.
All these new teams are putting limited resources and hope and a lot of work, and Lou looks over his shoulder with contempt.
Until Lou shuts up, Ferari will continue to suffer from the resulting bad karma.
Nitpicker
12th July 2010, 18:59
We bow down to your statistic-crunching greatness.
Mocap
12th July 2010, 14:40
Lewis is currently only 3 points away from the championship record of Michael Schumacher’s 148. (Due to the new point system obviously)
Ads21 (@ads21)
12th July 2010, 20:39
its tragic isn’t it. there is now now way to compare points across different eras now its been so distorted, the title contenders will score more points this year than most drivers did in their entire careers
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th July 2010, 21:37
It hasn’t been possible to make a meaningful comparison on points since they first changed the points system back in 1960:
Every F1 points system 1950 – 2010
At least having had such a major change makes it more obvious why trying to make such comparisons are pointless.
Hakka
12th July 2010, 14:47
Once Massa fixes his qualifying troubles he should be OK. He has to figure out a way to turn on his tyres faster with the current car configuration. He’s generally good once he starts from up near the front of the grid. Only when he has to battle through the midfield does he have problems in the race. This has always been true for him.
Alonso is much quicker at the moment, but the type of problems/errors he’s making is a little more concerning. The errors seem to be different at every race, so much harder to nail down a specific cause and fix it. It seems like a mindset problem, but sometime those are fixed automatically if he can string a couple of good results in a row.
We’ll see how it all plays out. The whole team is due for a change in fortune.
SiY
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
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
13th July 2010, 7:14
Senna and Prost drove the same car to wins in 1988 I think :)
HounslowBusGarage
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
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
13th July 2010, 0:22
Very good Electro, you write in good expressive english also
Cheers
Patrickl
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
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)
13th July 2010, 22:46
You’re dead right – very silly of me to miss that.
Enigma (@enigma)
14th July 2010, 11:41
Was that the first time 5 Germans scored points in a race?
Feraimperia
8th January 2012, 15:15
Akcje GPW