Pre-GP Stats Analysis: Italy

Hamilton matches Fangio

He might not have taken the win, but in Belgium Lewis Hamilton clinched his 20th podium and equalled the fastest driver of all times in scoring twenty podiums: Juan Manuel Fangio.

Both Hamilton and Fangio needed only 30 participations to achieve this goal.

Among the current drivers, the first one to stand out in the ranking behind Hamilton is Fernando Alonso, who needed 67 races, paying thus a high price for his year at Minardi, where he ran 16 races without scoring a single point. David Coulthard is just behind, with 68 participations, and Kimi Raikkonen is at 73. The last two among the active drivers are Felipe Massa (93 races) and Rubens Barrichello (138).

Among the drivers with 20 or more podium finishes, the one who needed the highest number of races to reach 20 podiums is Riccardo Patrese, with 214 participations.

This is the top-10 all-time list:

Driver          GPs     20th podium  
J.M Fangio      30      1955-Argentina
L.Hamilton      30      2008-Belgium
N.Farina        33      1955-Belgium
D.Hill          38      1994-Europe
M.Schumacher    41      1994-San Marino
E.Fittipaldi    42      1973-Canada
J.Villeneuve    44      1998-Germany
J.Clark         45      1965- Belgium
J.P.Montoya     48      2003-Italy
J.Stewart       51      1970-South Africa
J.Ickx          51      1972-Monaco

The long road to the tenth win

The other driver who reached a milestone in Spa is Felipe Massa, who was handed a lucky tenth win after Lewis Hamilton was penalised and Kimi Raikkonen slammed his car into the wall.

Felipe needed 101 race participations to score his tenth win and is among the slowest drivers in history to achieve this milestone.

Certainly driving in the Schumacher era (91 wins for the German) didn't help, and several current drivers stand at the bottom of the all-time chart. Fernando Alonso is the best of them with 73 participations, while Raikkonen was slower than Massa, with 106, and Coulthard needed 110. The slowest in history was Gerhard Berger, who clinched his 10th win at his 203rd participation.

Here follows the top-10 list of the fastest ones. Lewis Hamilton won't be able to set another record here as he is past his 30th race and needs two more wins to reach 10.

Driver          GPs     10th win
A.Ascari        20      1953-Netherlands
J.M.Fangio      24      1954-France
J.Villeneuve    30      1997-Austria
J.Clark         33      1963-South Africa
D.Hill          42      1995-Argentina
S.Moss          45      1958-Morocco
J.Stewart       45      1969-Great Britain
E.Fittipaldi    45      1974-Brazil
M.Schumacher    50      1994-Europe
Alain Prost     60      1984-Brazil

The last one for Fernando

Fernando Alonso obtained his last win to date in Monza last year, winning in style with pole position and fastest lap to his credit.

The current winning drought for the Spaniard is thus 17 races and is the longest one since the one that he endured between his maiden win in the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix to the 2005 Malaysian Grand Prix, which amounted to 22 races.

Red Bull target 100 points

After the Belgian Grand Prix, Red Bull count 99 points scored and could become in Monza the 21st team to pass the 100 points milestone. At the top of the chart are Ferrari, with 3982.5 points.

Heidfeld goes for the top

All eyes are on Nick Heidfeld in Monza as he can equal an all-time record, the one related to the highest number of races completed in a row, now held by Michael Schumacher at 24 (Hungary 2001 to Malaysia 2003). Nick has been classified in every race since the 2007 French Grand Prix.

Alain Prost (McLaren MP4/2B TAG Porsche) stole the 1985 Italian Grand Prix win from Keke Rosberg © LAT

The Finnish curse of Monza

In Monza, the country with most wins is Great Britain - with 16 wins, followed by Brazil at 8. Finland, the home country of Kimi Raikkonen, was never able to post a win in Monza and sometimes it seemed that bad luck was the main culprit:

1985: Keke Rosberg's engine failed a few laps to the end when he had a comfortable lead over Alain Prost.

1998: The McLarens were the cars to beat: Coulthard and Hakkinen were able to go in the lead in the first laps in front of local hero Schumacher, but on the 17th lap Coulthard's engine expired at the exit of the first chicane. His teammate Mika Hakkinen was the first to enter the big plume of smoke and had to slow down. Schumacher seized the opportunity and overtook him at the Roggia turn, going in the lead. The bad luck for Hakkinen was not over as in the last laps his brakes failed just as he was closing on Schumacher; the Finn had to slow considerably after an high speed off-track excursion, finishing fourth;

1999: Hakkinen was cruising to a comfortable win when he spun off the race at the first chicane, giving the win to Frentzen.

2005: Kimi Raikkonen started 11th after an engine change but nevertheless he had the pace to win, even if he ran on a one stopper instead of the two stopper used by the majority of his rivals. A tyre problem at the rear left tyre forced him to an additional pit stop and he had to say goodbye to his hopes of importing the race.

In addition there are a couple of events worth remembering, as the 1997 edition, when Mika Hakkinen was able to climb from the sixth position to the lead. At the 33rd lap, he then pulled in the pits for his tyre stop, rejoined in fourth, but a tyre problem forced him again in the pits.

And last but not least the accident in practice that nearly sidelined Raikkonen in 2007. Kimi had to race with a stiff neck that severely dented his winning chances.

Italy personal scorecard

• Kimi Raikkonen climbed on to the podium in second in 2006 and in third in 2007 out of seven races run, but he wasn't too lucky on the Italian circuit as stated above. In addition, it can be said that in 2002 he retired due to an engine failure when the podium was in sight, and in 2006 he led for the first stint but was pipped at his first pitstop by eventual winner Schumacher.

• Felipe Massa never finished a race in the points in Monza, his best result is a 9th in 2005 and 2006 out of five participations. Last year he retired after ten laps for a suspension failure when he was third.

• Nick Heidfeld scored points only in his last two visits in Monza, obtaining his best result last year in fourth out of seven starts.

• Robert Kubica scored his maiden podium in Monza in 2006 at his third start of a Grand Prix race. Last year he was fifth, directly behind his teammate.

• Fernando Alonso was classified only in odd years, retiring in even ones. He was 13th in 2001, 8th in 2003, second in 2005 and won last year while scoring a hat-trick. He retired for a spin in 2004 and for an engine failure in 2006.

• David Coulthard won in Monza in 1997 and scored pole in 1995. He counts seven retirements in 14 races, plus he ran out of fuel on the last lap in his debut there in 1994 when he was second. The last time he scored points in Monza was in 2004 (sixth).

• Mark Webber finished the race in his last five visits in Monza, but gained points only in 2003 with a seventh place. He never qualified inside the top ten in six attempts.

• The home race is not favourable for Jarno Trulli, as he scored points only 3 times (2002, 2005 and 2006) out of eleven starts and retired 4 times.

• Jenson Button finished either in the points (2002 and from 2004 onwards) or retired (2000, 2001 and 2003). He climbed on the podium in third in 2004.

• Rubens Barrichello won the race in 2002 and 2004 and was on the podium from 2001 to 2004. His last retirement dates back 2000, when he was involved in the first lap accident at the Roggia turn.

• Giancarlo Fisichella obtained his worst result last year with a 12th place. He climbed on the podium in his home race only once, in 2005 (third).

• Lewis Hamilton was second last year, and in the GP2 races of 2006 was on the podium as well with a third and a second.

• Heikki Kovalainen was seventh last year. He won the feature GP2 race in 2005.

Other notes on the Italian Grand Prix

• Ferrari are the most successful team in Monza, with 17 wins, followed by McLaren at 9.

• Ferrari's pole count is exactly the double of McLaren: 18 to 9.

• The historical background of the Maranello team is most felt on the podium places conquered in the Italian Grand Prix: Ferrari totalled 58 podiums, which is higher than the sum of their current rivals combined - 48 (McLaren 22, Williams 19, Renault 5, Honda 1, BMW Sauber 1).

• In the last ten editions, Ferrari missed the podium only in 2005, when Michael Schumacher was 10th and Rubens Barrichello was 12th, in a race that saw all the starters make it to the finish.

• In the last three editions, the pole was always set by a McLaren car. Ferrari and McLaren alternated on the pole spot in the last ten editions. The last non-Ferrari/McLaren pole dates 1997, Jean Alesi on a Benetton/Renault. That was the last pole and the last time in the lead to date for a French driver in Formula One.

• Monza hosted the highest number of races in the F1 World Championship, 57, followed by Monte Carlo with 55.

• In the last twenty editions, the reigning world champion was able to win only four times: Ayrton Senna in 1992, Schumacher in 1996 and 2003, and Alonso last year. Not a promising statistic for Kimi Raikkonen, who hasn't won since the Spanish Grand Prix (nine races ago).

Ludovico Scarfiotti (Ferrari 312) won the 1966 Italian Grand Prix, the last time for an Italian driver © LAT

How long since...

The last time an Italian driver won at Monza was 42 years ago - Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966. The Ferrari team in that race fielded Michael Parkes, Scarfiotti and Lorenzo Bandini, who qualified respectively on pole position, second and fifth.

At the start, Parkes and Scarfiotti led the field and were joined by the end of the first lap by Bandini, that soon took the first spot, while Scarfiotti dropped back in seventh place. Bandini was forced into the pits with fuel feed problems. Out in front, the usual Monza slipstream battle developed, with four different leaders in the first four laps. Then Jack Brabham took the lead and kept it until the seventh lap, when he retired in the pits due to an engine failure.

Parkes then was in command, closely followed by six drivers, among them Scarfiotti, who forced his way through the field and took the lead on the 13th lap. One by one the Ferrari rivals were forced to retire because of mechanical problems, and Scarfiotti managed to increase his lead over Denny Hulme, Parkes and John Surtees - the latter retiring on the 32nd lap, giving the world championship to Brabham.

Scarfiotti was able to cruise to a confortable maiden win in Formula One in front of his teammate Parkes, who narrowly beat Hulme on the finish line.