Despite this weekend's race being the first ever Chinese Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher could clinch another record. The German, however, is not the only driver who will celebrate a landmark this time. Atlas F1's Marcel Schot brings the statistics and anecdotes ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix

After a period of many off-track happenings, the latest on-track events are almost completely forgotten already. However interesting all the 2005 prospects are, Ferrari's one-two at Monza was no mean feat. In fact with the two cars stealing the show from ninth and 11th just after Rubens Barrichello's first pitstop, that's the biggest comeback to score a one-two since McLaren's John Watson and Niki Lauda scored a one-two from 22nd and 23rd on the grid.

Now the European season is over and the circus moves to China for the first time. This will be the first race to allow Michael Schumacher to take yet another record. With his next win, the interval between Schumacher's first and last win will become the longest in the history of the World Championship. Alain Prost is the current record holder with 12 years and 20 days between his first (France 1981) and last (Germany 1993) win.

In and Out

The Chinese Grand Prix sees one name come back to Formula One and another temporarily go. With Jacques Villeneuve replacing Jarno Trulli at Renault, we have two drivers who achieved landmarks this week several years back. For Trulli it's the five year anniversary of his first podium finish, while Villeneuve scored his tenth victory seven years ago.

For the first Austrian Grand Prix in ten years, Jacques Villeneuve was faced with an unfamiliar situation. There were no Ferraris to be found near him. While Michael Schumacher was leading the Canadian by ten points in the Championship, the lack of competitiveness for the Maranello team in Austria was downright painful. Villeneuve grabbed pole narrowly ahead of Mika Hakkinen in the McLaren and the surprising Jarno Trulli in the Prost. In fourth it was Villeneuve's teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen who was followed by the unlikely trio of the two Stewart drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jan Magnussen and Arrows driver Damon Hill. Only then came the Ferraris, with Eddie Irvine beating Schumacher by a mere five thousands of a second.

However, Villeneuve didn't quite maximise on his pole position as a nasty start saw him drop to third place behind Trulli and Barrichello. It took Villeneuve no less than 22 laps to get past Barrichello. However, from then on the Canadian's on fire and with a series of fastest race laps after one another, he closed the gap to Trulli. When Villeneuve then pitted four laps after Trulli had done, the Williams driver came out ahead of the Prost. Schumacher, Frentzen and Coulthard were shortly ahead of the two, but once all pitstops were done, Villeneuve's lead was clear. Even when Coulthard and Frentzen came close in the dying stages of the race, Villeneuve's tenth victory was never endangered. The end result was that the championship became a lot closer again, with the Canadian just one point behind Schumacher, who had finished sixth.

While Jarno Trulli drove a great race on that occasion, his engine failed after 58 laps and he had to wait two more years for his first podium finish at the 1999 Luxembourg Grand Prix at the Nurburgring circuit. After qualifying it didn't look good for Trulli. With a tenth place in his Prost, there wasn't much reason to assume that anything spectacular was about to happen. When at the start the Italian dropped to 12th, despite two cars retiring in front of him any spark of hope for a decent race was gone.

However, Formula One wouldn't be Formula One if things couldn't turn around. When rain started to fall after 19 laps, with Trulli 11th after Sauber driver Jean Alesi had dropped behind him, the Prost driver kept going and going while others pitted for wets. A few laps later the rain stopped and Trulli could change onto new dry tyres as planned on lap 28. This put the Italian up into eighth place after his stop. However, the mayhem continued as rain started to fall once again. By the time Trulli pitted for wets, the race had its third leader, as Frentzen and Coulthard retired in short succession. Ralf Schumacher was the leader in the William, ahead of Benetton driver Giancarlo Fisichella and the Stewart pair of Johnny Herbert and Rubens Barrichello. Jarno Trulli followed shortly behind the Brazilian and in the wet circumstances quickly disposed of the Stewart driver to move into fourth.

As if the weather hadn't changed enough already, things started to dry up again. Another two leaders fall victim to retirement in quick succession as first Fisichella spun off in the Veedol chicane, followed a lap later by Ralf Schumacher suffering a puncture that had him crawling to the pits for new tyres. With all the drama going on around the top spot, this left an unlikely trio in the lead. Johnny Herbert, Jarno Trulli and Rubens Barrichello made it a Stewart, Prost, Stewart podium that had started from respectively 14th, tenth and 15th on the grid. While Barrichello avidly attempted to pass Trulli, the Italian held on to second place to score his first career podium finish.

This Week in History

Back in 1982 this week saw a race in a place that couldn't be more different than China. It was time for the final race of the season in Las Vegas. For both Michele Alboreto and Keke Rosberg it was a unique race. Alboreto won his first race, which was Tyrrell's last and Rosberg clinched his one and only championship after a dramatic season.

When Formula One arrived in Las Vegas for the showdown of the 1982 championship, Keke Rosberg was the leader with 42 points. Behind him was Didier Pironi with 39, but the Frenchman was out for the season and thus no threat anymore. The only formal threat left was John Watson of McLaren, who was nine points behind Rosberg. This meant that Rosberg had to score at least one point to be certain of the title, as a win would put Watson on the same number of points and with the Ulsterman having scored two wins against Rosberg's one, this would be favourable for the McLaren driver.

However, whatever the race results, things could still be changed from the courts. Williams and Brabham still had appeals running against the disqualification of Rosberg and Piquet in round two of the Championship in Brazil, while McLaren had an appeal running against Niki Lauda's disqualification from the Belgian Grand Prix, which had been round five in the Championship. Thus strictly theoretical the options ranged from Rosberg being already World Champion to their being three contenders. And with this somewhat confusing situation, engines were started in the carpark of the Caesar's Palace casino.

First practice on Thursday immediately showed that the turbo runners couldn't take advantage of their power on the tight and twisty circuit. When practice ended, Tyrrell driver Michele Alboreto was the fastest by quite a margin. Marc Surer in the Arrows, which was powered by a Ford Cosworth engine just like the Tyrrell, was six tenths of a second behind the Italian. Third and fourth were Jacques Laffite and Eddie Cheever in the Ligiers with Derek Warwick narrowly beating Niki Lauda for the fastest turbo powered lap.

When qualifying commenced, the Renaults made their usual jump to the front. However, while Rene Arnoux easily took provisional pole, Alain Prost had to settle for fourth behind the normally aspired cars of Alboreto and Eddie Cheever, who gave the home crowd something to cheer about by putting his Ligier in a very good third position. The championship contenders stayed out of the spotlight for the time being. Rosberg set the fifth fastest time, closely followed by Lauda, while Watson was just a tenth away in tenth place.

In the final hour of qualifying on Friday, Prost took care of business and posted the quickest lap ahead of his teammate Rene Arnoux. Behind the two Renaults it was still Alboreto and Cheever doing the job well without the turbos. Meanwhile, Rosberg had to let Riccardo Patrese in the Brabham ahead of him. The McLarens ended qualifying disappointed, with Watson ninth on the grid and Lauda even further back in 13th.

The start of the race on Saturday was cleaner than had been thought beforehand. Only Cheever and Alboreto clashed into the first corner, but the only real damage was a lost place for Cheever. While Rosberg had take the outside to stay out of trouble, losing a single place to Ferrari driver Mario Andretti, both his rivals had horrible starts. Watson dropped from ninth to 11th, while Lauda lost a place to Alfa driver Andrea de Cesaris, who'd had a fantastic start from 18th to 13th.

In the second lap, Watson lost another place to Laffite, but the Frenchman retired soon after that. At the front, Arnoux took over the lead from Prost, with the rest of the field stayed in position. The only real action in the opening phase of the race was John Watson making his way to Rosberg. After ten laps, the McLaren driver had passed Rosberg's teammate Derek Daly, Derek Warwick and Nelson Piquet in the Brabham. This left him near the end of a six car group, lead by Patrese. Arnoux was leading ahead of Prost, while only Michele Alboreto was able to keep up with the Renaults. Patrese was nearly 20 seconds adrift with Cheever, Andretti, Rosberg, Watson and Piquet on his tail.

For Watson the battle was clearly on now. The Ulsterman drove for all he was worth and on successive laps made his way past Rosberg, Andretti and Cheever. The next two positions were handed to him without battle as Patrese's Brabham and Arnoux' Renault retired. After 21 laps Prost was now pulling away from Alboreto, having increased the gap to over eight seconds. Watson in third was no less than 30 seconds behind the leader, with Cheever another two seconds further away. Meanwhile, Rosberg was following Andretti some five seconds behind Cheever's Ligier in sixth place and thus still as virtual champion.

The only thing that changed until lap 26 was that Andretti's lack of speed made the gap between Watson and Rosberg bigger and bigger. However, in that lap Andretti suffered a suspension problem and slid off the track just ahead of Rosberg. In the meantime, Prost's Renault started to lose its edge and bit by bit Alboreto got closer to the Frenchman. Rosberg, in an unthreatened position for the Championship, concentrated on bringing the car home and didn't attempt to attack Cheever. On lap 53 then came the great moment for Alboreto. For the first time in his career, the Italian moved into the lead of a Grand Prix. Watson was also rapidly closing in on the troubled Renault, but it was clear that unless Rosberg broke down, the title was out of reach.

In the final quarter of the race, Prost faded further and not only did Watson pass him, but also his former teammate Eddie Cheever. When the chequered flag was waved, Alboreto took his maiden victory well ahead of John Watson with Eddie Cheever completing the podium. Prost managed to nurse the car home just ahead of an ecstatic Keke Rosberg, whose fifth place meant that he was the World Champion, no matter how the courts would rule.

Contact the Author Contact the Editor