Michael Schumacher officially led a race (by completing a lap in the lead) for the first time since the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix. At 42 years and 279 days old he is the oldest driver to lead a race since Jack Brabham in the 1970 British Grand Prix.
It was the 142nd Grand Prix he’s led and makes him the eighth different driver to lead a race this year.
Here’s all the stats and facts from the Japanese Grand Prix.
Vettel notched up his 27th career pole position to put himself on his own in seventh place on the all-time list. It was his 12th of the year, putting him two short of the all-time record of 14 in a season (which was set when there were 16 races rather than 19).
He finished in third place for the first time this year, having only previously finished in first, second or fourth. This was his 14th podium finish this year, leaving him three short of the all-time record (which was set when there were 17 races).
He held tenth place for one lap during the race which is the lowest position he has occupied in a race all season. To put that into perspective, Vitantonio Liuzzi and both Virgin drivers have started every race this season without completing a lap inside the top ten.
Vettel won the title with four races to spare, which is one of the earliest ever conclusions to the championship:
| Driver | Races left | |
| 2002 | Michael Schumacher | 6 |
| 1992 | Nigel Mansell | 5 |
| 2001 | Michael Schumacher | 4 |
| 2004 | Michael Schumacher | 4 |
| 2011 | Sebastian Vettel | 4 |
For more statistics on Vettel’s second world championship victory, see here:
Jenson Button scored the 12th victory of his career, which was his fifth for McLaren and his first for the team in a dry race.
Button now has as many wins as Mario Andretti, Carlos Reutemann and Alan Jones.
He also set the sixth fastest lap of his career, giving him as many asJose Froilan Gonzalez, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Emerson Fittipaldi, Carlos Reutemann, Jacques Laffite and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
Kamui Kobayashi started from a career-best seventh on the grid – despite not setting a time in Q3.
Mark Webber made his best start to a Grand Prix in seven races. He didn’t make up any places but, more importantly, he didn’t lose any, as he did in the previous six rounds.
The new-era Lotus finished a race with both cars on the lead lap for the first time. The last time they did this in their previous incarnation was at Suzuka’s first Japanese Grand Prix in 1987.
Mercedes were the quickest team in the pits for the sixth time this year. Only Red Bull have done better, achieving the fastest turnaround seven times this year. McLaren and Ferrari have done so once each.
Review the year so far in statistics here:
- 2011 F1 statistics: Championship points
- 2011 F1 statistics: Season records
- 2011 F1 statistics: Races
- 2011 F1 statistics: Qualifying
- 2011 F1 statistics: Retirements
- 2011 F1 statistics: Strategy
- 2011 F1 statistics: Driver form guides
- 2011 F1 statistics: Race information charts
Spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
2011 Japanese Grand Prix
- Rate the race result: 2011 Japanese GP
- Kobayashi greets the fans, Vettel does doughnuts: Suzuka videos
- Hamilton did not have a puncture at Suzuka
- 2011 Japanese Grand Prix: complete race weekend review
- Vote for your Japanese Grand Prix driver of the weekend
- Red Bull: Conservative approach delivers Vettel’s title
- McLaren: Button pleased to win on ‘Red Bull track’
- Ferrari: Alonso edges Vettel for second
- Mercedes: Schumacher closes on Rosberg’s tally
- Renault: Petrov makes progress, Senna slips back
Image ?é?® Mercedes
Antony Butler (@butler_f1)
10th October 2011, 0:08
I was thinking during the Safety Car restart, is Jenson the first driver to do the restart, other than Vettel?
I cant remember the other situations, but i cant remember anyone other than vettel doing the restart.
uan (@uan)
10th October 2011, 1:47
Alonso did the restart in Monza, and I think he did it in Spa (iirc, but I know Vettel pitted during the SC and wasn’t leading).
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
10th October 2011, 4:41
You’re correct on both counts
Antony Butler (@butler_f1)
10th October 2011, 14:16
Yeah your correct, completely forgot that Monza and Spa had a safety car honestly
The Last Pope (@the-last-pope)
10th October 2011, 0:12
It would have been nice if we could have actually SEEN him while he was leading.
snowman (@snowman)
10th October 2011, 0:19
Thought they did show him when he was leading, maybe not! it was an early morning! Considering the way FOM mess up everything they probably didn’t show him leading.
Pity the BBC never showed the usual interview with him afterward. They would rather chase an interview with Paul Di Resta who I am fed up with hearing them go on and on and on about!
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
10th October 2011, 7:58
Yeah, they showed him all the way from the exit of 130R to him entering the pits.
verstappen (@verstappen)
10th October 2011, 10:25
This race is not covered by FOM. They do it themselves, and although it still shows, they’ve improved!
snowman (@snowman)
10th October 2011, 11:57
Never heard that before, you sure? Why? Is there any other races they don’t have?
They are still aggressively taking down youtube videos from the race action so must have some part.
verstappen (@verstappen)
10th October 2011, 12:10
FOM owns all rights, but here and in Monaco locals do all shooting and directing.
As I mentioned in another thread it Has been much worse, when we saw round after round of Takagi driving at back of field.
sato113 (@sato113)
10th October 2011, 15:52
@snowman I believe FujiTV do the japanese GP, someone else does Monaco and all the rest are filmed by FOM.
this is why the japanese gp looks slighlty different on tv.
lubhz (@lubhz)
10th October 2011, 12:08
I think yesterday’s coverage was very poor. They showed some on-board cameras when drivers were alone, missed action and overtakes from mid field drivers, and broadcasted just a few pointless radio conversations.
Maksutov (@maksutov)
10th October 2011, 13:58
That is correct.
javabyte (@javabyte)
10th October 2011, 13:57
it’s funny you should say that, i heard a rumour that Schumy is moving to test driver and Di Resta is taking his spot..
snowman (@snowman)
10th October 2011, 14:20
You know what is even funnier. I heard a rumour Fernando Alonso was to become Ferrari’s test driver so Santa Claus could take his seat for next year.
I think both rumours make the same amount of sense and both have an equal chance of happening!
ButtonFan2012
10th October 2011, 14:56
I saw him leading, but then again I was at the track :D
Bleu (@bleu)
10th October 2011, 0:27
The record of longest time between two lead laps is held by Bruce McLaren, a bit over six years between 1962 Monaco and 1968 Belgium. Schumacher is fifth on this list, also behind Johnnie Parsons who led two Indy 500 with six years between, Riccardo Patrese between 1983 South Africa and 1989 Brazil and Derek Warwick between 1984 Brazil and 1989 Canada.
However what it comes to amount of races between, Schumacher set a new record of 87, beating Warwick’s 85. Of course Schumacher missed 52 of those during his three-year-retirement from the sport.
Warwick also missed couple of races between those two lead laps, because he didn’t have a drive at the beginning of 1986 season. He replaced de Angelis in Brabham after Italian’s fatal accident. Patrese drove in all of the races between his lead laps, a total of 81 which is a record if you count only races where driver has competed.
Mike (@mike)
10th October 2011, 1:33
Great stuff!
bananarama (@bananarama)
10th October 2011, 12:46
Thats really interesting.
Not as interesting but still: Even though its 41 years ago that someone as old lead a lap, Schumacher could have witnessed it himself :-P
Fixy (@)
10th October 2011, 15:48
Nice!
Scary Terry (@hatebreeder)
10th October 2011, 4:22
how many times now have lewis n massa made contact? that has to be some sort of record by now! :D
Adam Tate (@adam-tate)
10th October 2011, 7:25
I think it was the 4th time this year!
alexf1man (@alexf1man)
10th October 2011, 7:36
Monaco, Singapore x2, Japan from 2011.
But I’m sure there have been and will be many more since 2007.
darthparker (@darthparker)
10th October 2011, 8:28
They also made contact at the end of the British grand prix!
OEL F1 (@oel-f1)
10th October 2011, 11:52
Fuji 2008 as well!
Antranik (@antranik)
10th October 2011, 12:33
Has there ever been more contact between two drivers within one year all caused by one of the two drivers?
TheBrav3
10th October 2011, 4:47
Gratz michael next time you’re in the lead lets have a win!
Guelph (@guelph)
10th October 2011, 5:16
All 10 lead changes in the race were the result of the leader entering the pits.
Just like old times.
adaptalis (@adaptalis)
10th October 2011, 7:28
Not much of a stat but another wheel nut failure for Suzuka after Kubica and Rosberg last year for Buemi.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th October 2011, 7:45
I would think it might have been the first GP ever where a total of 7 drivers started without having a time to their name in qualifying (although the ones in Q2 and Q3 naturally did a time in sessions before that.)
topdowntoedown (@topdowntoedown)
10th October 2011, 10:57
I understand why they did it, but this trend of ‘not setting a time’ is getting out of hand and the rules need to be tweaked next year to stop it.
Kobayashi and others getting their grid position determined on the ground of a couple of sector times set? We might as well just draw the grid in random order.
George (@george)
10th October 2011, 17:52
Paul Hembery said Pirelli will push to make a change for next year, so it’ll probably happen.
geo132 (@geo132)
10th October 2011, 20:03
I don’t really understand why some drivers don’t just go out for one lap, not pushing too hard and by that securing a higher position. Will 3 laps (out,”fly”,in) really ruin the tyres when they are basically cruising!?
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
10th October 2011, 8:16
I love these articles. We really are witnessing an era of greatness from several top name drivers.
matthewf1 (@)
10th October 2011, 10:29
6 + 7 + 2 + 2 = 17
How many races have there been this year?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
10th October 2011, 10:39
@matthewf1 Sorry, once each.
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
10th October 2011, 10:59
A bumper crop of weird and wonderful stats in the article and its comments today! This is always one of my favourite F1F features.
What I’d like to know- but am too lazy to figure out for myself- is what the championship would have looked like with the pre 2003 points system. Presumably Vettel would have wrapped things up a couple of races earlier?
Jelle van der Meer (@)
10th October 2011, 11:33
Luckily other people have stat files and championship files that can do the work easily.
Little difference in both pre-2003 as pre-2010 situation only less points – in all cases Driver Championship only decided in Japan and constructors still open.
Pre-2010 with 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 system:
Vettel 132
Button 82
Fernando 78
Webber 74
Hamilton 64
Red Bull 206
Mclaren 146
Ferrari 100
Pre-2003 with 10, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 system:
Vettel 121
Button 66
Fernando 58
Webber 52
Hamilton 52
Red Bull 173
Mclaren 118
Ferrari 70
Jelle van der Meer (@)
10th October 2011, 11:36
Correction in both pre-2010 and pre-2003 situation Vettel would have won championship in Singapore not Japan
SirCoolbeans (@sircoolbeans)
10th October 2011, 13:40
Jenson would have a much better hold of second place too.
hey (@hey)
10th October 2011, 12:38
Here’s a record: Smallest margin ever between a driver and a Perfect Weekend: 0.009s (in qualifying) – Jenson Button.
Journeyer (@journeyer)
10th October 2011, 13:07
I guess it depends on how you define a perfect weekend. For me, that would be a Grand Chelem. In addition to the triple (pole, win, FLap), they also need to lead every lap from start to finish. Given that Button didn’t lead at the start (and was even 3rd for a time), I don’t think he was that close to a perfect weekend.
91jb12 (@91jb12)
10th October 2011, 13:42
Vettel in Japan 2009 must be a shout:
Pole, Lead every lap
But Webber took FL by 0.002s on the last lap
In that race webber had like 5 stops and used it as a test session and did a qualy run after the SC came out with 5 laps left. He beat Sebs best lap by 0.002s to ruin Sebs Grand Chelem.
Vettel also missed out on a Grand Chelem in Singapore when JB went 0.2 fastest than Sebs FL.
Doance (@doance)
10th October 2011, 13:21
Liuzzi hasn’t started every race this year he didn’t start in Australia.
Hotbottoms (@hotbottoms)
10th October 2011, 13:24
This was the 23rd championship race held in Suzuka and 11th time Driver’s Championship was decided there:
2011 Sebastian Vettel
2003 Michael Schumacher
2000 Michael Schumacher
1999 Mika Häkkinen
1998 Mika Häkkinen
1996 Damon Hill
1991 Ayrton Senna
1990 Ayrton Senna
1989 Alain Prost
1988 Ayrton Senna
1987 Nelson Piquet
After Button’s victory, the last champion, who hasn’t won Japanese Grand Prix is Villeneuve. All seven champions after him (Häkkinen, Schumacher, Alonso, Räikkönen, Hamilton, Button and Vettel) have won the Japanese Grand Prix (however, Hamilton’s victory was in Fuji, not Suzuka).
Of the last thirteen champions, eleven has had at least one of his championships decided in either Japanese or Brazilian Grand Prix’s. Only two (Mansell and Villeneuve) haven’t.
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
10th October 2011, 13:38
Button’s last 6 wins have all come in races in which Vettel has been on pole.
Suzuka is the first circuit at which Vettel has been on the podium 3 times.
This is the second time this year that a wheel falling off a Toro Rosso has denied us a 100% finishing record.
Enigma (@enigma)
11th October 2011, 0:06
@paulgilb @hotbottoms Great stats!
Enigma (@enigma)
11th October 2011, 0:09
If Vettel wins the title next year he’ll be the first ever driver to win first three titles back-to-back. Only Fangio and Schumacher won more than two titles in a row, but both won titles before the streak.