Most unexpected race classifications

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Ardius

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There have been several races in F1 history which have had rather interesting finishing positions. So, lets discuss, what are the most unexpected race finishes?

The first one that comes to my mind is the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix, Damon Hill, having been booted out of Williams and joining the (at the time) slightly promising TWR Arrows team, managed to get the pathetic Arrows A18 to a great 3rd place on the grid.
Straight from the start, it was a brilliant drive from Damon, taking both Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher by the first corner and went on to almost win the race - almost getting Arrows first ever win. It was not to be (thanks to throttle trouble) but he still came second, giving us the only other time since the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix that an Arrows achieved a 2nd place. A great albeit heart breaking race to watch that still amazes today.

However, as much as many would like to think this was all down to Damon's skill at the wheel, it was not. This season was the first for Bridgestone tyres and they were far superior to the Goodyear tyres half of the teams were using. Arrows were one of the teams to use the Bridgestones, this has been said to contribute to this (almost) race win although I'm not completely sure about the details of why the Bridgestones were so superior to the Goodyears at this weekend.

Another factor to Hill's great finish was the nature of the Hungaroring, which as we all know is a rubbish track for overtaking.

However, I'm still going to stand by this race as one of those great unique races and also give Hill most of the credit really, because that Arrows was an awful car, the Yamaha engine was easily one of the worst F1 engines in history and as was demonstrated by the car, Arrows was being pretty cheap with parts (apparently the throttle linkage problem was because of a part that only cost 50 pence!). I don't think that superior tyres and a favourable track hand such a rubbish car victory without the driver having some pretty good skills behind the wheel.

So, anyone else got any truly great or controversial races?
 
1999 European GP. Herbert, Trulli and Rubens.

One of my favourite races. Hakkinen had a stinker and gave up half way through the race only to realise he could get a point near the end.
 
A few come to mind.

European GP 1999 - Nurburgring where Herbert in the Stewart won


But the most unexpected of all. Spa 1998. This is a year where McLaren would usually dominate every race. Look at these results. I think this is the year when there was that HUGE crash at Spa that took out most of the field or something like that.

1 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda
2 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda
3 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas
4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome
5 Pedro Diniz Arrows
6 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot
 
^Yup, I remember that, that was a good points scoring race for Sauber if I remember correctly? It was amazing how people slowly got taken out.

MustangSVT
A few come to mind.

European GP 1999 - Nurburgring where Herbert in the Stewart won


But the most unexpected of all. Spa 1998. This is a year where McLaren would usually dominate every race. Look at these results. I think this is the year when there was that HUGE crash at Spa that took out most of the field or something like that.

1 Damon Hill Jordan-Mugen-Honda
2 Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Mugen-Honda
3 Jean Alesi Sauber-Petronas
4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Mecachrome
5 Pedro Diniz Arrows
6 Jarno Trulli Prost-Peugeot
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I remember this one too! Amazing just for the spectacular pile up caued by Coulthard at the start!
It was amazing that those Jordans got through that pile-up unscathed, as half the field had to jump into the spare cars (if they had any). Those were the days, lol, when Jordan was actually decent. I suppose you could say the same for Williams at the moment too.
 
1988 Italian Grand Prix

Who'd have guessed we'd get a Ferrari 1-2, in Italy, in a year of unstoppable McLarens, just after Enzo died.

Prost and Senna were just steam rollering the opposition everywhere in 1988. No one else stood a chance. Enzo died in August, then came Monza in September. Another McLaren 1-2 was on the cards, until Enzo mucked about with Prost's engine causing it to fail. He then controlled Jean-Loius Schlesser's Williams, just as Senna was coming up to lap him. Senna made contact with the William's, and spun off.

Berger and Alboreto came through with a totally unexpected 1-2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Italian_Grand_Prix
 
Interesting how the McLaren failure happened at the best place for the Tifosi, Monza. Reminds how at another point in the 80s (maybe '85?), the Ferrari wasn't all too reliable that year, but Alboreto finished on the podium thankfully at Monza against the odds. 👍
 
MustangSVT
Interesting how the McLaren failure happened at the best place for the Tifosi, Monza. Reminds how at another point in the 80s (maybe '85?), the Ferrari wasn't all too reliable that year, but Alboreto finished on the podium thankfully at Monza against the odds. 👍
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Its an FIA conspiracy!!! I tells ya!
:lol:

Impressive work by Ferrari to manage to make a reliable engine for at least their home race, lol, but why couldn't they have done that all the time? Did it really take Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher to shake it up?

Also, is this where Ferrari got the crazy idea to hire Ivan Capelli for 1992?
 
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2006 Hungarian Grand Prix (as much as the circuit is frowned-upon, the Hungaroring seems to have the habit of throwing up a new winner; a different driver has won it every year since 2002). But all those winners have been driving for top-flight teams at the time: Barichello and Schumacher in the Ferraris, Hamilton and Kovalainen for McLaren, but in 2006 is was Jenson Button in the Honda. Sadly, as much as I'm a JB fan, I suspect it may well be his only win unless he manages to move in the near future, or Honda pull their finger our and fire Shuei Nakamoto.
 
daan
1988 Italian Grand Prix

Who'd have guessed we'd get a Ferrari 1-2, in Italy, in a year of unstoppable McLarens, just after Enzo died.

Prost and Senna were just steam rollering the opposition everywhere in 1988. No one else stood a chance. Enzo died in August, then came Monza in September. Another McLaren 1-2 was on the cards, until Enzo mucked about with Prost's engine causing it to fail. He then controlled Jean-Loius Schlesser's Williams, just as Senna was coming up to lap him. Senna made contact with the William's, and spun off.

Berger and Alboreto came through with a totally unexpected 1-2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Italian_Grand_Prix
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I think I remember watching this... I seem to remember the crowds swarming around the cars after the finish.
 
The 1995 Canadian Grand Prix comes to mind, as well.

Schumacher was leading by miles, both Coulthard and Hill were out in the Williams, which meant Jean Alesi was running second in the Ferrari, with the two Jordans 3rd and 4th. Schumacher's gearbox ended up locking in, if I remember correctly, 3rd gear, and Alesi went on to win the race, with Barrichello and Irvine on the podium... Alesi ran out of fuel on the cooldown lap and a limping Schumacher, in an incredible display of sportsmanship, picked him up and taxi'ed him back to the pits. It was such an incredible display that the German probably decided on the spot he'd completely forget about sportsmanship for the rest of his career, but that's another subject completely.

There you had it, a French speaking likeable driver, driving the #27 Ferrari that made Gilles Villeneuve a hero in these parts of the world, on the track that was named after him. The crowd went wild, invading the track while backmarkers were still finishing the race. It was to be Jean's only F1 win, and I'm glad I was there that day to witness it.
 
Well don't know about you guys, but this was almost the most unexpected race finish for me. The 2003 Brazilian GP. 👍

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Brazilian_Grand_Prix

That race was to be the last race Jordan would win.... :(
After that race, the FIA had to reschedule the race and every year after that, the race had to be held at the end of the calendar to avoid the bad weather there. (or so I think it is)
 
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Do you race?
2006 Hungarian Grand Prix (as much as the circuit is frowned-upon, the Hungaroring seems to have the habit of throwing up a new winner; a different driver has won it every year since 2002). But all those winners have been driving for top-flight teams at the time: Barichello and Schumacher in the Ferraris, Hamilton and Kovalainen for McLaren, but in 2006 is was Jenson Button in the Honda. Sadly, as much as I'm a JB fan, I suspect it may well be his only win unless he manages to move in the near future, or Honda pull their finger our and fire Shuei Nakamoto.
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Not to mention Pedro de la Rosa's first podium in 2nd, and BMW's first podium with Nick Heidfeld in third.

This year's Canadian GP (Kubica - Heidfeld - Coulthard) and the 2003 Brazilian GP (Fisichella - Raikkonen - Alonso; sounds dull, but was a suprise in 2003) immediately spring to mind.
 
2000 German GP. Rubens won his first ever race after starting 18th on the grid.
 
Blake
2000 German GP. Rubens won his first ever race after starting 18th on the grid.
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I was 9 at the time and remember watching it, boy did he deserve that win:tup:
 


1990 US Grand Prix at Phoenix

In his first full season of F1 Jean Alesi puts his car 4th on the grid. He promises that he would be leading by the end of the opening lap. He does better than that; he passes pole-sitter Gerhard Berger by the first corner. He leads for 33 laps, before being caught by Ayrton Senna in McLaren's latest offering. The Brazilian passes him; undaunted, he fights back at the next turn and retakes the lead. Finally, with his tyres going off, he has to concede the place and settle for 2nd.
 
I'm surprised that no ones mentioned the 2008 German Grand Prix. With Piquet being second and all...
 
PeterJB
I'm surprised that no ones mentioned the 2008 German Grand Prix. With Piquet being second and all...
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The Renault is car that given the right circumstances could get its drivers on the podium. The fact that Piquet has only finally got to grips with it is the surprising part.
 
PeterJB
I'm surprised that no ones mentioned the 2008 German Grand Prix. With Piquet being second and all...
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The reason I didn't name races such as Canadian GP 2007 and Canadian GP 2008 (BMW 1-2) is because while the results were surprising and they were very exciting races, the people who won were still in very competitive cars, same goes for German GP this year, it was Hamilton - Piquet - Massa.

I don't think anyone in their dreams figured Jordan would get a 1-2 at Spa in 1998 or that Ferrari would manage a 1-2 at Monza in '88 considering how dominating McLaren were in both of those years.
 
2007 Chinese Grand Prix - Hamilton retires on lap 30, followed by the Brazilian Grand Prix where Hamilton finishes 7th to not win the championship
 
1982 Monaco Grand Prix.

The race no one wanted to win.

wiki
By lap 74 (out of 76) when a light rain began, Alain Prost led and crashed. On lap 75 Riccardo Patrese led, spun and stalled at Loews. On the last lap, Didier Pironi led into the tunnel and ran out of fuel, Andrea de Cesaris led and ran out of fuel and Derek Daly was running second and crashed. Patrese, who had managed to restart his car by rolling downhill and bump-starting, won the race. Pironi and de Cesaris were classified 2nd and 3rd.
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1 Riccardo Patrese
2 Didier Pironi Out of fuel
3 Andrea de Cesaris Out of fuel
4 Nigel Mansell + 1 Lap
5 Elio de Angelis + 1 Lap
6 Derek Daly Accident
 
PeterJB
I'm surprised that no ones mentioned the 2008 German Grand Prix. With Piquet being second and all...
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Not to say that any of the new races are unworthy of being surprise results, compared to earlier years, they aren't as surprising because the grids of today are extremely close together, with the Force India's not being that far behind the front.
Still, Piquet's second was an interesting result and is probably worth a mention.

I think a better unexpected result from this year is the 2008 British Grand Prix, Barrichello taking Honda to a 3rd place (almost a 2nd) thanks to very probably some quick thinking from Ross Brawn.
I'm still very confused as to why none of the other teams decided to put on wets after they saw a Honda(!!) blasting away ahead of them? Clearly Hamilton didn't need full wets, but many of the drivers had nothing to lose, just like Honda.

Monaco could have been another one if only Sutil had not been taken out.
Oh, and as has already been mentioned, Canada was an interesting result too, although looking at BMW Sauber's progress recently it was not completely surprising, all it required was the Ferrari's and Mclaren's out of the picture, which they got.
 
I am shocked! No-one has mentioned the US race couple years back that had a 100% start - finish ratio.

:sly: albeit only 6 cars started, but a good solid reliable result for ferrari, Jordon and (I cant remeber the other brigestone runner) :sly:
 
Open Addict
I am shocked! No-one has mentioned the US race couple years back that had a 100% start - finish ratio.

:sly: albeit only 6 cars started, but a good solid reliable result for ferrari, Jordon and (I cant remeber the other brigestone runner) :sly:
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Shame on you! It was Minardi! You know, one of the more well known backender teams??!!?!

That was an unexpected result, I have to admit.
I think now several races from this year can be mentioned...such as the Belgium GP and the Italian GP.
 
Ardius
Shame on you! It was Minardi! You know, one of the more well known backender teams??!!?!

That was an unexpected result, I have to admit.
I think now several races from this year can be mentioned...such as the Belgium GP and the Italian GP.
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I thought it was Minardi (but I did not want to post a name that made me look :dunce:.) I also did not have the time to look it up.

I should have known, being that Paul Stoddart's Australian.
 

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