- 15 Nov 11, 09:17#283558
This is how autosport place their top ever qualifiers
10. [u]Damon Hill (16.4 per cent)[/u]
Having started his career desperately trying to haul Brabham machinery onto the grid in 1992 - something he achieved twice - Hill emerged as one of the most effective qualifiers between 1993 and 1996 – beating Jochen Rindt and Alain Prost to 10th in this list by the narrowest of margins.
Driving for Williams, he claimed his first pole at Magny-Cours in 1993, adding a second in Portugal. A further two poles followed in France and Britain the following year, but it was in 1995 and 1996, when he took a total of 16 poles, that he really hit his stride.
During his 1996 championship-winning season he bagged nine pole positions. After that he never again had the machinery to top qualifying, but by taking third on the grid in Hungary and fourth at Jerez for Arrows in 1997, he proved that he could deliver over a lap in weaker machinery as well.
9. Jackie Stewart (17 per cent)
In his 100 qualifying attempts (qualified for what would have been his final grand prix at Watkins Glen in 1973 before withdrawing following the death of his team-mate Francois Cevert), the Scot was at the front 17 times.
What's more, he did it almost without trying, as his focus was always firmly on the race itself, as his 27 per cent win rate demonstrates. Proof, if any were needed, that Stewart was one of the fastest drivers in history to take to the track.
All of his pole positions came between 1969-73. Arguably the most famous was at Kyalami in 1970, when he put the March 701 on pole position for the marque's first F1 race. It was one of three poles that he took in the car that season when it was far from the best package on the grid, with his pole at the mighty Spa-Francorchamps particularly impressive.
8. Lewis Hamilton (22 per cent)
During his first two seasons in F1, Hamilton claimed 13 pole positions, cementing his reputation as the fastest man in the sport over a single lap. After taking his first pole in qualifying for the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, he was F1's leading Saturday afternoon specialist.
In the three seasons that have followed, pickings have been significantly slimmer, as Brawn and then Red Bull have fielded cars that have proved more rapid than McLaren machinery. Even in that time, Hamilton has been able to add a further six poles to his total, including four in the 2009 McLaren, which started the season closer to the back of the grid than the front.
Over the past two years he has been able to add only two poles, in Canada 2010 and Korea a few weeks ago, but he remains king of the qualifying castle at McLaren. With the right car, you can guarantee that his pole rate will start moving in a positive direction again.
7. Michael Schumacher (23.8 per cent)Considering Michael Schumacher was very often willing to play second or third fiddle on Saturday afternoons and let his rivals pick up the pole positions, his qualifying record is outstanding.
He has 68 poles – a world championship record – to his name, and was the heir to Ayrton Senna as F1's greatest one-lap specialist. Appropriately enough, his first pole in F1 came in Monaco in 1994, the first race after the legendary Brazilian's death.
By that time, Schumacher already had five wins to his name. But during 1994 and 1995, when he did not always have the best car, he took his career tally to 10, very often outpacing faster Williams machinery.
The following season, he somehow hauled the unwieldy Ferrari F310 to four poles. It was a glorious start to his career with the Scuderia and soon Schumacher had eclipsed Niki Lauda's record for Ferrari poles – ending his time there with 58.
Whether there will be any more poles, only time will tell.
6. Stirling Moss (24 per cent)
Between Juan Manuel Fangio's retirement at the start of 1958 and Stirling Moss's career-ending shunt in 1962, the Briton was regarded as the fastest man in F1.
But that's not to say that there weren't plenty of poles while he was up against Fangio. His first came at Aintree in 1955 for Mercedes, and he bagged a second British Grand Prix top spot in a Maserati 250F a year later.
But after adding one more pole driving a Maserati, it was his switch to Vanwall that opened the floodgates. In 1957 and 1958 he bagged a total of four poles, then in the following two years he was the fastest man in a Cooper, claiming five pole positions before switching to a Lotus 18.
Four further poles followed, including his final one at Monaco in 1961, before his career was cut short at Goodwood.
5. Sebastian Vettel (35 per cent)
The double world champion claimed his first pole position driving a Toro Rosso in wet conditions at Monza in 2008. It was his 22nd qualifying attempt in F1 and began an astonishing run of 28 pole positions in 58 races – a strike rate of almost 50 per cent. While he has had the best car in the field, courtesy of Red Bull, for the majority of those races, his 27-5 qualifying advantage over Mark Webber, hitherto noted as something of a one-lap ace, from 2009-11 is proof of Vettel's searing single-lap speed.
The German is a joy to watch in qualifying. Ultra-committed, using every nanometre of track available to him, and with the confidence that comes only from sustained success, he is usually capable of pulling something out of the bag during the Q3 top-10 shootout.
At just 24 years of age, Vettel is already the seventh most-prolific pole starter world championship history. If he adds a 29th in Abu Dhabi, he will draw level with the great Fangio, with only Nigel Mansell, Prost, Jim Clark, Senna and Schumacher left ahead of him.
He is certainly at home in that company.
4. Ayrton Senna (40 per cent)
Regarded as the qualifying master, the Brazilian legend set new standards for one-lap mastery during his F1 career and would surely hold the record for pole positions had his career not been tragically cut short.
His first pole came for Lotus at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix, which he famously won in wet conditions. During his three years at Lotus, he racked up a total of 16 poles in cars that struggled to match Williams and McLaren machinery under race conditions. It was during these years that F1 first saw just how ferociously fast he was.
His first season at McLaren (1988), driving the all-conquering Honda-engined MP4/4, yielded 13 pole positions, which was all the more impressive considering that Prost, 33 times an F1 poleman, was his team-mate. He added the same number against the same rival in 1989 to underline his status as F1's greatest qualifier.
Even during the final three campaigns in F1, he was still a factor in difficult cars. He claimed one pole in both 1992 and 1993 driving McLarens that were not a patch on Williams equipment, and strung together three stunning qualifying laps when he moved to the dominant team in 1994, despite the car having an aero-stall problem.
3. Alberto Ascari (44 per cent)
While the Italian lost out on the honour of claiming Ferrari's first pole position in world championship races to Jose Froilan Gonzalez, he made up for it by becoming the Scuderia's first dominant driver in 1952 and 1953.
After claiming a brace of pole positions driving a Ferrari 375 in 1951, Ascari hit form when F2 regulations were used. In 1952 and 1953, Ascari qualified for 14 world championship grands prix. Only three times was he not on pole position.
When F1 rules returned in 1954, Ascari claimed just one pole position in the Lancia D50, in Spain. He would not start at the front again and was killed in a testing crash at Monza a year later.
2. Jim Clark (46 per cent)
The Scot set new standards from 1962-1968, when he bagged a total of 33 pole positions in Lotus machinery prior to his death in an F2 race at Hockenheim. So great was his speed that he was more often than not to be found at the front of the grid.
The fact is that no driver has ever dominated as many races as Clark. Only 22 drivers have led every lap of a race for which they took pole position, and secured fastest lap, in the history of the world championship and Clark achieved that a record eight times – three more than any other driver.
Arguably, it wasn't until Senna came along in the 1980s that F1 found a successor to Clark's mantle as a qualifying maestro.
1. Juan Manuel Fangio (57 per cent)
Although the Argentinian was beaten by senior Alfa Romeo drivers Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Fagioli in qualifying for the inaugural world championship race at Silverstone in 1950, he soon asserted himself as the fastest man during those early years.
It's unlikely that his strike rate – achieved through 29 poles in 51 attempts – will ever be eclipsed. His success would surely have been even greater had Maserati been able to match Ferrari during the F2 years, but even then he was able to bag pole for both the Belgian and Swiss races in 1953 after returning from injury.
When F1 returned in 1954, Fangio was almost unstoppable. From 1954-1958 he claimed 19 poles in Maserati, Mercedes and Ferrari machinery. His penultimate race at the top level, the 1958 world championship-opener in Argentina, also produced a pole, ensuring that he quit at the top.
What would your top 10 be?
10. [u]Damon Hill (16.4 per cent)[/u]
Having started his career desperately trying to haul Brabham machinery onto the grid in 1992 - something he achieved twice - Hill emerged as one of the most effective qualifiers between 1993 and 1996 – beating Jochen Rindt and Alain Prost to 10th in this list by the narrowest of margins.
Driving for Williams, he claimed his first pole at Magny-Cours in 1993, adding a second in Portugal. A further two poles followed in France and Britain the following year, but it was in 1995 and 1996, when he took a total of 16 poles, that he really hit his stride.
During his 1996 championship-winning season he bagged nine pole positions. After that he never again had the machinery to top qualifying, but by taking third on the grid in Hungary and fourth at Jerez for Arrows in 1997, he proved that he could deliver over a lap in weaker machinery as well.
9. Jackie Stewart (17 per cent)
In his 100 qualifying attempts (qualified for what would have been his final grand prix at Watkins Glen in 1973 before withdrawing following the death of his team-mate Francois Cevert), the Scot was at the front 17 times.
What's more, he did it almost without trying, as his focus was always firmly on the race itself, as his 27 per cent win rate demonstrates. Proof, if any were needed, that Stewart was one of the fastest drivers in history to take to the track.
All of his pole positions came between 1969-73. Arguably the most famous was at Kyalami in 1970, when he put the March 701 on pole position for the marque's first F1 race. It was one of three poles that he took in the car that season when it was far from the best package on the grid, with his pole at the mighty Spa-Francorchamps particularly impressive.
8. Lewis Hamilton (22 per cent)
During his first two seasons in F1, Hamilton claimed 13 pole positions, cementing his reputation as the fastest man in the sport over a single lap. After taking his first pole in qualifying for the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, he was F1's leading Saturday afternoon specialist.
In the three seasons that have followed, pickings have been significantly slimmer, as Brawn and then Red Bull have fielded cars that have proved more rapid than McLaren machinery. Even in that time, Hamilton has been able to add a further six poles to his total, including four in the 2009 McLaren, which started the season closer to the back of the grid than the front.
Over the past two years he has been able to add only two poles, in Canada 2010 and Korea a few weeks ago, but he remains king of the qualifying castle at McLaren. With the right car, you can guarantee that his pole rate will start moving in a positive direction again.
7. Michael Schumacher (23.8 per cent)Considering Michael Schumacher was very often willing to play second or third fiddle on Saturday afternoons and let his rivals pick up the pole positions, his qualifying record is outstanding.
He has 68 poles – a world championship record – to his name, and was the heir to Ayrton Senna as F1's greatest one-lap specialist. Appropriately enough, his first pole in F1 came in Monaco in 1994, the first race after the legendary Brazilian's death.
By that time, Schumacher already had five wins to his name. But during 1994 and 1995, when he did not always have the best car, he took his career tally to 10, very often outpacing faster Williams machinery.
The following season, he somehow hauled the unwieldy Ferrari F310 to four poles. It was a glorious start to his career with the Scuderia and soon Schumacher had eclipsed Niki Lauda's record for Ferrari poles – ending his time there with 58.
Whether there will be any more poles, only time will tell.
6. Stirling Moss (24 per cent)
Between Juan Manuel Fangio's retirement at the start of 1958 and Stirling Moss's career-ending shunt in 1962, the Briton was regarded as the fastest man in F1.
But that's not to say that there weren't plenty of poles while he was up against Fangio. His first came at Aintree in 1955 for Mercedes, and he bagged a second British Grand Prix top spot in a Maserati 250F a year later.
But after adding one more pole driving a Maserati, it was his switch to Vanwall that opened the floodgates. In 1957 and 1958 he bagged a total of four poles, then in the following two years he was the fastest man in a Cooper, claiming five pole positions before switching to a Lotus 18.
Four further poles followed, including his final one at Monaco in 1961, before his career was cut short at Goodwood.
5. Sebastian Vettel (35 per cent)
The double world champion claimed his first pole position driving a Toro Rosso in wet conditions at Monza in 2008. It was his 22nd qualifying attempt in F1 and began an astonishing run of 28 pole positions in 58 races – a strike rate of almost 50 per cent. While he has had the best car in the field, courtesy of Red Bull, for the majority of those races, his 27-5 qualifying advantage over Mark Webber, hitherto noted as something of a one-lap ace, from 2009-11 is proof of Vettel's searing single-lap speed.
The German is a joy to watch in qualifying. Ultra-committed, using every nanometre of track available to him, and with the confidence that comes only from sustained success, he is usually capable of pulling something out of the bag during the Q3 top-10 shootout.
At just 24 years of age, Vettel is already the seventh most-prolific pole starter world championship history. If he adds a 29th in Abu Dhabi, he will draw level with the great Fangio, with only Nigel Mansell, Prost, Jim Clark, Senna and Schumacher left ahead of him.
He is certainly at home in that company.
4. Ayrton Senna (40 per cent)
Regarded as the qualifying master, the Brazilian legend set new standards for one-lap mastery during his F1 career and would surely hold the record for pole positions had his career not been tragically cut short.
His first pole came for Lotus at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix, which he famously won in wet conditions. During his three years at Lotus, he racked up a total of 16 poles in cars that struggled to match Williams and McLaren machinery under race conditions. It was during these years that F1 first saw just how ferociously fast he was.
His first season at McLaren (1988), driving the all-conquering Honda-engined MP4/4, yielded 13 pole positions, which was all the more impressive considering that Prost, 33 times an F1 poleman, was his team-mate. He added the same number against the same rival in 1989 to underline his status as F1's greatest qualifier.
Even during the final three campaigns in F1, he was still a factor in difficult cars. He claimed one pole in both 1992 and 1993 driving McLarens that were not a patch on Williams equipment, and strung together three stunning qualifying laps when he moved to the dominant team in 1994, despite the car having an aero-stall problem.
3. Alberto Ascari (44 per cent)
While the Italian lost out on the honour of claiming Ferrari's first pole position in world championship races to Jose Froilan Gonzalez, he made up for it by becoming the Scuderia's first dominant driver in 1952 and 1953.
After claiming a brace of pole positions driving a Ferrari 375 in 1951, Ascari hit form when F2 regulations were used. In 1952 and 1953, Ascari qualified for 14 world championship grands prix. Only three times was he not on pole position.
When F1 rules returned in 1954, Ascari claimed just one pole position in the Lancia D50, in Spain. He would not start at the front again and was killed in a testing crash at Monza a year later.
2. Jim Clark (46 per cent)
The Scot set new standards from 1962-1968, when he bagged a total of 33 pole positions in Lotus machinery prior to his death in an F2 race at Hockenheim. So great was his speed that he was more often than not to be found at the front of the grid.
The fact is that no driver has ever dominated as many races as Clark. Only 22 drivers have led every lap of a race for which they took pole position, and secured fastest lap, in the history of the world championship and Clark achieved that a record eight times – three more than any other driver.
Arguably, it wasn't until Senna came along in the 1980s that F1 found a successor to Clark's mantle as a qualifying maestro.
1. Juan Manuel Fangio (57 per cent)
Although the Argentinian was beaten by senior Alfa Romeo drivers Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Fagioli in qualifying for the inaugural world championship race at Silverstone in 1950, he soon asserted himself as the fastest man during those early years.
It's unlikely that his strike rate – achieved through 29 poles in 51 attempts – will ever be eclipsed. His success would surely have been even greater had Maserati been able to match Ferrari during the F2 years, but even then he was able to bag pole for both the Belgian and Swiss races in 1953 after returning from injury.
When F1 returned in 1954, Fangio was almost unstoppable. From 1954-1958 he claimed 19 poles in Maserati, Mercedes and Ferrari machinery. His penultimate race at the top level, the 1958 world championship-opener in Argentina, also produced a pole, ensuring that he quit at the top.
What would your top 10 be?
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Abe Lincoln
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abe Lincoln
Abe Lincoln
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abe Lincoln
It is seemingly simply a list of the top ten guys with the highest poles/starts ratio (although i thought Mansell would be in 10th). I don't see any opinion in the paragraphs relating to each driver. ANYWAY, that is besides the point:
Ayrton Senna ,Simply mind blowing qualifying laps.Other drivers used to get out of the car stand close to the monitor and watch the highlight of a saturday,Ayrton's lap.
