San Marino Preview: Facts & Stats

Imola has been the host of the San Marino Grand Prix since the inception of this race in 1981. However, it was not the first time the track had played host to Formula One, as just the previous September it hosted the Italian Grand Prix - the only time in championship history that the race has ventured away from Monza.

In addition, Jim Clark won the first non-championship event at Imola as early as 1963 - a race that the Ferrari team didn't even attend. They did attend the 1979 Dino Ferrari Grand Prix, won by Niki Lauda in the Brabham. It was Lauda's last F1 race before his sudden decision to retire, although he returned in 1982. The race also featured Giacomo Agostini, multiple world champion motorcyclist, racing a Williams.

Nelson Piquet won the first two championship races at Imola (Italy 1980 and San Marino 1981), coincidentally both from fifth on the grid, both also for Brabham. The 1981 race featured a couple of oddities, as Riccardo Patrese finished second for Arrows. When Thierry Boutsen was also second for them four years later, it marked the first (and only) time Arrows scored multiple podiums at one circuit.

The inaugural San Marino race is also notable for the unfortunate Miguel Angel Guerra. He crashed barely a third of a lap into his debut with Osella, breaking both his wrist and ankle, and ending one of the shortest F1 careers ever.

Imola '82 was as memorable for its off-track politics, as it was for the race itself.

Taking place at the height of the FISA/FOCA feud that threatened to split F1, the FOCA teams boycotted the event, leaving the manufacturer-backed FISA teams largely on their own. This left just fourteen cars lining up for the race - the lowest for any championship race in the past 37 years, Indianapolis 2005 excepted.

Ferrari scored a 1-2 finish in the race, although it is remembered more for the fallout between Didier Pironi and Gilles Villeneuve, in what was tragically to be Villeneuve's final F1 start. The only other time Ferrari have managed a 1-2 at Imola was in 2002, Michael Schumacher leading home Rubens Barrichello.

Patrick Tambay took an emotional win in front of the tifosi in 1983, and with fellow Frenchmen Alain Prost and Rene Arnoux joining him on the podium, it meant that French drivers swept the podium places, something no nation has done since.

By the mid-1980s, this race became more of a race against fuel consumption than a race against other drivers, and when Alain Prost won the 1985 event, he barely made it across the line before running out altogether. However, in post-race scrutineering the car was found to be 2kg underweight, and the McLaren was disqualified, elevating Elio de Angelis to victory, his second and final F1 win.

After Tambay, now driving for Renault, was promoted to third, it would be 18 years before the French constructor appeared on the podium again, when Fernando Alonso was third at Sepang in 2003.

Riccardo Patrese was a very popular winner of the San Marino race in 1990, for both the fans and the statisticians. He had set a record for the longest period between F1 victories - his last triumph, 99 races earlier, was at the 1983 season finale at Kyalami. This is a record that Jacques Villeneuve will beat if he should ever win another race, as it is 123 races and counting for the Canadian heading into this weekend.

Two years later, Nigel Mansell totally dominated proceedings to clinch his fifth successive win to open the season, which eclipsed Ayrton Senna's four opening wins the year before. Schumacher has since tied this record, winning five in a row to open 2004 (including at Imola).

Among the stats forgotten in the tragic 1994 weekend are the only career podium for Nicola Larini, subbing at Ferrari for the injured Jean Alesi, and the last points finish for Karl Wendlinger - the Austrian was critically injured in a crash two weeks later in practice for the Monaco GP.

Because of that weekend, this is a place synonymous with Ayrton Senna, but even by his standards, he dominated qualifying there like nowhere else.

On eight occasions, the Brazilian lined up at the head of the field - the most pole positions for any one driver at any circuit, until Michael Schumacher tied it at Suzuka in 2004. That included 7 consecutive poles from 1985 to 1991, a record that still stands.

Lotus pole sitter Ayrton Senna leads away at the start of the 1987 Grand Prix of San Marino © LAT

In 1987, Senna's pole for Lotus-Honda was the first in history for a car using active suspension, and the last of 107 poles for the Norfolk team. His qualifying time for the 1988 race was a devastating 3.352 seconds quicker than anybody else besides teammate Prost, and even the four-time World Champion couldn't get within 0.771s of Senna's masterclass.

In 1994, he took his 65th and last pole position, alongside Michael Schumacher, who today shares that record-setting mark with the Brazilian. Before his accident in the race, Senna spent all five laps in the lead, which left him with a record 2,987 career laps led. Predictably, it's yet another mark that only Schumacher has since surpassed.

That race was arguably Schumacher's most insignificant victory, and grief overshadowed triumph again in 2003, taking a win the day after the passing of his mother Elizabeth.

For 1995, the track was completely overhauled, with chicanes inserted at Tamburello and Villeneuve, the approaches to Piratella and Rivazza being shortened, and both Acque Minerali and Variante Bassa being reprofiled.

Jenson Button's 2004 pole lap was at an average clip of 222.642 km/h, the first time anyone had surpassed Ayrton Senna's 1994 pole on the pre-chicane Imola, which was 222.504 km/h.

In a similar vein to Patrese's achievement in 1990, Alex Wurz ended the longest period between podiums when he was elevated to third in last year's event, driving for McLaren.

The Austrian's one and only previous podium was at the 1997 British Grand Prix, 129 races earlier. Mario Andretti and Eddie Cheever were the previous co-holders of the record, but both went only 78 races between appearances in the top three.

Fifth on the grid at Imola can sometimes prove a less-than-friendly place to be. In 1994, 1999 and 2003, the driver starting in fifth place stalled at the start (JJ Lehto, Jacques Villeneuve and Mark Webber respectively). Only Lehto was hit by another car, when Pedro Lamy's Lotus smashed into the left-rear of his Benetton.

Despite taking five of the last eight pole positions here, McLaren have only won once in 14 years - when David Coulthard led from start to finish in 1998. It was a race notable for the number of teams running the ugly "X-wings" on their sidepods, and the practice was banned shortly thereafter.

The last time Coulthard started a race from pole was also at Imola, in 2001. He took pole subsequently at Monaco that year, but stalled on the parade lap. He begins this weekend having become the fourth man in history to score 500 championship points, by way of his 8th place finish in Melbourne. He joins the three drivers who dominate F1's all-time statistics - Prost, Senna and Michael Schumacher.

Rubens Barrichello is only nine points adrift of the same landmark, and this weekend would be a timely occasion for the Honda driver to score a win, as Sunday marks the 14th anniversary of the passing of Ronnie Bucknum, who drove for Honda on their Grand Prix debut at the Nurburgring, 42 years ago.