[David-A]

…Markus Winkelhock? Everyone will remember that name. He of course, was the driver that led the 2007 German Grand Prix for Spyker, in the monsoon conditions when various drivers, including Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, threw their cars off the road.

Obviously, his performance was aided by circumstance. He qualified 1 second slower than Sutil. But in terms of getting himself noticed, is anyone surprised that despite this race, he never got another chance?

[Anonymous]

A quick google shows since appearing in that race, he’s done a (second) stint in DTM, then moved to the GT1 World championship series, winning the drivers championship last year. As of this year, i’ve got nothing.

[Ludwig]

According to his official site, this year he has been driving an Audi R8 LMS in the Blancpain Endurance Series and the ADAC GT Masters.

[Ben Needham]

I’d forgotten quite how far in the lead he was – 33 seconds by lap 4. Of course he was certainly lucky, but it takes a certain degree of skill to keep it on track in those conditions even on the right tyres.

I remember Mike Gascoyne correctly telling him at the restart that they’d got into the position by gambling and that their only chance was to gamble again if they wanted to stay at the sharp end. He switched to dry’s/inter’s early as I remember, and fell back pretty rapidly.

I wonder how he would’ve got on without the Safety Car and restart…

[Anonymous]

@ben-n Well his car still broke down due to a mechanical failure so we’ll never know.

[xivizmath]

Good thread. Anybody remember Cristiano Da Matta? Christian Klien? Nicolas Kiesa?

[James Brickles]

Am I right in saying that Markus Winkelhock is the only driver to have led every race he’s started?

[R.J. O’Connell]

@xivizmath Last I saw of Da Matta was in the American Le Mans Series driving a Jaguar in the GT class either last year or the year before. It’s really unfair how his single-seater career ended.

[Ratboy]

I recently found a BTCC programme from 1997 that has Nicolas Kiesa racing a formula ford against Rob Collard, Jenson Button and Dan Wheldon. amazing how different all there careers went

[Iestyn Davies]

It would have been entertaining to see Winklehock on the podium if there was no safety car. I think he got a free ride for his home race, maybe for attention to Spyker? They definitely got it with leading the race….

Button and Wheldon were always top class drivers, not sure about the other twos background. Kiesa did alright if I remember correctly? Button/Wheldon at Honda would’ve been interesting..

[Author]

Posts