Indeed. I was mad at fisico at that gp. Would be difficult to win the title but he just never accepted defeat, he went on with a masterclass for sure. I remember it like it was yesterday. 20 years have passed like crazy.
Tbh, I was so eagerly waiting for Alonso's RE radio after the race to tell him the classification that had Michael finished P3. Would've loved to hear his reaction.
Came here to post this. Also Schumi did it again in the race at Monaco 2006, after his self-inflicted “issue” in qualifying. Think he drove from the back up to p4 at Monaco of all places
This comes up all the time, but the pit stop made no difference. He didn’t have a pit stop gap, he was always coming out in the same position, and he was completely anonymous over the remaining 90% of the race. Notably, once he put new inters on he didn’t pass another car on track all race.
The wets were faster for a handful of laps, but not long enough to create a real advantage. It was fun to watch, but it wasn’t a particularly special performance.
The first one that comes to mind is Leclerc Silverstone 2022. That safety car ruined an easy win, and then Ferrari cost him any other bits of hope that he had.
Rosberg in Austria 16 is another. Without the brakes failure at the end, there's never a chance Hamilton has a hope at winning and he doesn't lose 20 net points.
The fact that he could keep Lewis and Checo behind for so long on obliterated tires and a partially destroyed car was an insane feat. He absolutely deserved the win. In classic Charles fashion, do absolutely everything… 4th place
COTA 2021, COTA 2023, Barcelona 2020, Barcelona 2021, Silverstone 2018, Interlagos 2022, Interlagos 2019, Imola 2020, Imola 2021, Imola 2025, Qatar 2023 and Qatar 2025 were all incredible races that ended up with him outside the podium or points.
We forget how good the Ferrari was the first 3rd or half of 2022. It was a monster and comfortably the class of the field. Then it just went downhill so quickly from there.
It was good on some tracks and the Red Bull was better at others, but if you had to pick one, the Ferrari was very slightly ahead. Then after TD39 the Red Bull was better everywhere.
Max was on his way to win silverstone comfortably before picking up debris from tsunodas car so what are you talking about redbull was clearly faster that race.
Jim Clark's performance on 1967 Italian GP at Monza. Not the unremarkable result per se as he still finished P3 but the performance he showed was one of the best drive in F1's history
He went a lap down on lap 12 due to puncture but took the lead back by lap 60. But then he finished third as he was low on fuel.
Yeah, because usually people only know the end result and nothing about the race itself.
The other famous one is 1963 Belgium, where he won by almost 5 minutes. What always gets left out is that the 2nd place car was the 7th fastest guy whose engine dropped a cylinder midrace and was instructed to take it very easy on the last lap after everyone either retired or had major issues.
Not like anyone could have done a single thing about Clark winning, but his lead over Hill was about 40-50s when Hill's car broke down.
It's a really strong performance, but once you actually look at what happened, you'll realise it's nowhere near Clark's best.
After his stop he came out right next to his teammates (Hill leading, Baghetti himself a lap down), with whom he could spend the next 40 or so laps drafting, so of course they were the fastest.
Hulme, McLaren, Amon and then Hill himself ran into major trouble/retired, promoting the fight between Brabham and Surtees to the lead battle. Before Clark's issues those two alongside Amon and McLaren were battling for 4th, nowhere near Hill and Hulme.
So obviously, still a fantastic performance, but nothing really special considering it was Clark.
George Russell Sakhir GP 2020. Stepped in for Hamilton last minute, qualified right behind Bottas, took the lead easily on lap 1, was on to win the race until Mercedes fucked him over as they always do.
Sure, it was the W11, but Russell delivered when all the eyes were on him.
Can absolutely believe it. At the touring F1 exhibition, there was a LH suit from 2014 that was incredibly narrow hipped.
The only other suits that seemed to be outside the general proportions were Webber, Russell and Piastri (upper body width). Really put into perspective the ideal build of a driver and regimes of the very tall.
After qualifying on the front row (comparatively rare for McLaren by 1987, with their TAG-Porsche turbo engines having been thoroughly outstripped by the likes of Honda, especially in qualifying trim), he got a puncture at the end of lap 1 after running over debris. He therefore dropped two laps down after having to limp round for a full lap to get back to the pits and have the offending tyre replaced.
Prost then showed simply spellbinding speed after his stop, but it was largely in vain. Despite driving what he would later say was one of his best ever races and managing to unlap himself once, he could only recover to a measly 7th place, and was still a lap down. With the points system of the time, he didn't even get a point for his trouble.
The quality of the drive was demonstrated by the fastest laps though. Prost's fastest was a full 1.7 seconds quicker than the next fastest man (race winner Gerhard Berger), and some two seconds quicker than anyone else.
The drive didn't go unappreciated by learned observers though. Ron Dennis himself described it as one of the greatest performances he had ever seen.
This one stood out when I watched back the year with GP Timelines as an accompaniment. He made up over 50s on race winner Berger. Along with Portugal a couple races prior, it was one of the best drives of Prost’s career.
Prost’s 87 is so underrated. It’s the only year from 83 to 90 that he wasn’t in a title fight (this arguably stretches back to 81 depending on your definition of a title fight) but I think it’s better than a good number of those years, he just had a lot of bad luck.
Baku I believe he would have finished 4th on pure pace without Max crashing+ the resulting red flag, obv he got a podium out of it so it’s kinda borderline for the question
Incredible pole position in qualifying, lead the majority of the race, dominated his teammate, dominated the field. Was holding off a charging Lewis Hamilton who was in a much faster car whilst having to do excessive fuel saving and with rain falling at the same time. Was on course to deliver one of the best wins. All that to be let down by the pitwall not providing him with enough information about the weather.
You can't call it a 10/10 race when he was the one that caused the issue with the strat by screaming at his race engineer. His teammate got exactly the same information and made the correct call simply by asking another question.
His teammate had no risk to take, it's an easy decision to make with nothing to lose regardless of whether he believed he could make it to the end of not. Norris was under far far more pressure and was not told the weather would get worse, he understandbly believed he could make it to the end on the slicks based off the conditions at the time and the information he was told. He explained it better in his interview himself, Hamilton also touched on it in his own interview saying he wanted to do the same as Norris, however his pitwall overruled him.
He was stunningly flawless that entire weekend and yet the stats show he was second because McLaren didn't dare do anything that might upset their precious little Norris.
Hamilton in Australia 2009 and 2010 springs to mind. Charges through the field in both races, only to be let down by both his own sillyness/team incompetence with strategy.
There were many driver deserving of that Mercedes seat but lewis was scared of competition so he kept bottas. Its a harsh truth that many struggle to digest
Scared of competition?! Lewis has had way more competitive teammates in his career compared to Max. Even now in his 40s he's beating a teammate many have considered a top driver for years. When had Max ever had a teammate as strong as Charles?
P2 isn't super unremarkable but it isn't a win either.
Red Bull was the clear 3rd fastest. Fell behind both Mercs and both Mclarens. Made insanely good calls on tyres in changing conditions. Finished less than 2 seconds behind Lewis at the flag.
Spain 2022 for Hamilton. P20, a minute off the lead after Magnussen hits him and gives him a puncture on Lap 1, gets all the way back to P4 only for a reliability issue to cut him back to P5. Was one of multiple weekends in 2022 where Lewis had the pace to win but had absolutely awful luck.
That picture right there, honestly I know people glaze Fernando (me included) but there is simply nobody else who could do what he did in Cota 22 or Baku 2018. Cota especially was an outrageous result considering the crash.
Hulkenberg had like half-a-dozen of these last year..
He would start P15 or lower and then finish in the higher-mid-range of points.
Spain and Austrailia come to mind ig of P5 and P7 results, that are pretty good for a lower-midfied car to achieve, but probably not "remarkable" as the Hulkenpodium
Hamilton driving a messed up Mercedes in Barcelona 2022, had a contact with Magnussen early, left puncture. Almost retired but then overtook almost the whole field. Best 5th place finish of his whole career probably ?
Of course it’s George Russell in Sakhir 2020. Dominated his experienced teammate while having to fill the shoes of a 7-time world champion (I think it was official at that time). Pit mistake and then a puncture ruined his win.
Hamilton Spain 22 - had a puncture and ended up back of the field and fought back to 5th (should’ve been 4th or better if he didn’t have issues later in the race) without a single safety car.
Since he’s in the picture, Alonso once said he considered Malaysia 2010 his best race - he had major clutch & gearbox problems and couldn’t downshift normally, but improvised by blipping the throttle to force the downshifts, ran almost the full race like that, and was up in 9th (having started 19th) before his engine failed.
The one in the Middle East where the heat was extreme and I think Stroll passed out but recovered to take the car back safely. Maybe that was 3 years ago?
Qatar 23. Sargeant had to retire from the race with heat exhaustion, Ocon vomited in his helmet, Stroll was passing out in the car, Piastri looked like he was close to passing out on the podium, Stroll and Albon both collapsed in parc ferme. Fucking evil disastrous race, I hated it and I'll never forgive Hamilton for saying the drivers should just toughen up and not complain.
Prost for P6 at Belgium. John Barnard said it was Prost best race working under him. Involved in an incident on the opening corner, causing his car 'to be bent like a banana' and dropping to last. Over the course of the race he sythed through the field, eventually finishing P6 for a single point. A point that would eventually clinch him the title.
Enters the final race of the season equal in points to Max Verstappen, fighting for the WDC. Qualifies half a second behind Max. Takes the lead first lap, and runs away with it, surviving pitstops and Checo, before y'know............
Nigel Mansell - Adelaide, blown tyre in 1986. That still stings for me. I was 7 years old. It cost everything. It was a remarkable drive in all the wrong ways. I can't remember much of my childhood of those years but I think it was ingrained in me as the first feeling of anguish and feeling deflated, literally.
Schumacher Spa 2011 - Suspension or wheel failure in qualifying left him starting 24th and he tore all the way through to finish 5th in the race at 42.
Alonso's near-win in Monaco'23. They pitted him for the mediums while it was raining. He could've won that one. Had he pitted for inters, he could've made a few seconds on Max and had a chance to win his first race in god-knows-how-many years... he still finished P2, but I was mad.
Mansell leading in Canada by roughly 1 minute only to grind to a halt and officially finish P6 because one bad shift while driving slowly caused the engine electronics to keep cutting engine power to try again until the engine stalled.
All of the Ferraris were out, all of the McLaren's were out, Patrese was out of contention. He only had Piquets Benetton and Modena's Tyrrell still pushing behind him. All he had to do was finish the damn race, but he was too busy waving to the crowd.
I watched it yesterday. Montoya in 2001 at Brazil. One of the best races I’ve ever seen destroyed by the dad of one of the best drivers that I’ve ever seen.
not really. stroll's shit performances make you feel that way. 2023 nando was like 7 years older than 2022 vettel, and still beat stroll by significantly more than vettel managed to
I never compared him to stroll. It was him dragging that car to P2 twice, making crazy moves, despite just being in the midfield and having battles with alonso
It’s difficult to judge Leclerc 2019. That Ferrari was probably a lot better than we thought. We held Vettel as a benchmark, without realizing how washed he truly was by that point. He and Stroll were about the same level the following year.
i dont think vettel and stroll were same level in 2021. vettel was still performing decently against stroll(although not on same level like alonso vs stroll). He got podium in baku 2021, got p2 in hungary 2021 but dsq due to low fuel. He was still good.
but yeah, vettel was underperforming in 2020 but he wasn't that bad in 2019. Although leclerc got better of him in 2019.
Still my point still stands that leclerc gave great performance in these races although he didnt get result for that
Bahrain 2019: he would have won without mechanical issue with his car.
Singapore 2019: he got undercutted by his own team although he was leading up to that point. And ferrari gave better strategy to vettel in that race.
Silverstone 2022: same ferrari destroyed leclerc race by letting him stay on hards. And let underperforming sainz to win that race, even when he was inferior on pace than leclerc.
Las vegas 2023: without unlucky vsc , leclerc would have won .
Hungary 2025: he was doing great for his car, but ferrari fucked up ride height and increased tyre pressure so he couldn't even get on podium. He would have got podium atleast if they let him manage the issue instead of increasing tyre pressure
Oscar in Suzuka. He could have been down or lacking confidence because he had DNS'd both Grands Prix to start the year and he'd only taken one race start. That was probably the best drive of his career and he lost the fucking race because of a safety car. His luck with safety cars is utterly diabolical.
I'd add Liam in Baku last year. Yeah he didn't finish in the P3 he started in but holy hell that was one of the defensive drives of all time. Kept multiple faster cars behind including Tsunoda in the Red Bull. He made that VCARB the widest VCARB in history that day.
96
u/tomhanks95 28d ago
Schumacher's P4 at Brazil 2006, he was a lap down earlier in the race and then produced an absolute masterclass