Find out who was the last driver to score his first pole in France, or remember one of the most fascinting duels in Formula One as Marcel Schot brings the answers and more anecdotes on the French Grand Prix

The American Grand Prix saw Takuma Sato take his first career podium finish. This made him the first Japanese driver on the podium since Aguri Suzuki finished third in the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix.

Ahead of Sato things continued as usual. Michael Schumacher claimed his eighth victory, while Rubens Barrichello finished second for the sixth time. That 2004 is nothing like 2003 for Ferrari shows in the number of points. After nine races this year, Schumacher is 13 points short of his season total of last year, while Barrichello needs just three more to equal his score of last season.

However, the Ferrari show isn't quite overshadowing the success of BAR. With six podium finishes by Jenson Button, one by Takuma Sato and a pole position for Button, the team are going through a remarkable season. The team have finished in the points for ten consecutive races, making them the only team besides Ferrari to be in the points for more than the last two races. With 66 points in these last ten races, the turnaround since Jacques Villeneuve left is incredible. The team scored a total of 62 points in their 82 races prior to Japan last season.

Two of a Kind

The last two drivers to achieve their first pole position at the French Grand Prix were Ralf Schumacher in 2001 and Damon Hill in 1993.

In the 2001 season, the duel between the Schumacher brothers in qualifying was not unusual. On three occasions before the French Grand Prix the brothers had shared the front row, every time with Michael ahead of Ralf.

In the qualifying session for the French Grand Prix, Ralf set an early provisional pole with a lap record of 1:13.622. His brother then improved the time by a small margin, after which Ralf responded with an amazing 1:12.989. The rest of the field gave it their best shot, but the time stood. The older Schumacher came close, but ended up one hundredth of a second behind his brother. Finally Ralf had beaten his brother to claim his first ever pole position on his birthday.

In the race, Ralf capitalized on his pole and grabbed the lead until the first round of pitstops. Unfortunately, the Williams driver lost nearly three seconds on his stop, dropping him behind the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher. Halfway through the race, Williams attempted to convince Ralf that he had to let his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya pass him, as the Colombian was clearly quicker. Ralf's radio malfunctions mysteriously, which leads to Patrick Head calling the German in for his second pitstop earlier than planned from the pitwall.

While the team bring Montoya ahead through this, the Colombian then retires after 52 laps with an engine problem. This gives Ralf second place between the two Ferraris.

Eight years before the Williams team were much more dominant than in 2001. Coming to France, Alain Prost had recorded seven straight pole positions, five of which with his teammate Damon Hill occupying the other spot on the front row.

First qualifying showed things the other way around for a change. While Prost was a full second faster than number three Michael Schumacher, his teammate was amazingly another seven tenths quicker. Free practice on Saturday showed things back in their usual order as Prost posted a time two tenths quicker than Hill, who was now 1.2 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. However, that session didn't count. In the afternoon both Williams went faster still. Prost improved from 1:14.758 in the morning to 1:14.524 in the afternoon, but it wasn't enough. Hill took no less than six tenths off his morning time to beat Prost by less than two tenths. Martin Brundle was leading the rest of the field with a 1:16.169, a massive 1.8 seconds off pole.

On Sunday, the two Williams only saw the rest of the field as they came up behind them to lap them. Right from the start they moved away, Hill leading Prost. This remained unchanged until Hill's pitstop after 27 laps. Unfortunately for Hill, Michael Andretti and Karl Wendlinger get his way during the pitstop. During the two laps between their stops, Prost is keeping up his momentum and when the Frenchman comes out of the pits, he's still in the lead. During the remaining 42 laps, Hill constantly puts the pressure on his teammate, much to the annoyance of Prost. However, the Frenchman is poised to win his home Grand Prix and keeps his head cool. Hill, like Ralf Schumacher eight years later, finished the race in second place. Surprisingly, it was the only one-two for Williams that year.

This Week in History

This week it's 25 years ago that the 1979 French Grand Prix took place. This race has gone in to history as a special one for various reasons. First of all it was the first turbo win as well as the first all French win. However, the race is mostly remembered for what happened in the fight for second place.

Of course that's not where the weekend started. When the circus came to Dijon for the French Grand Prix, the battle for the championship was wide open. Ferrari driver Jody Scheckter was leading with 30 points after having won the last two races. He was followed by Ligier driver Jacques Laffite with 24 points. Behind them were three drivers with 20 points: Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve, Lotus pilot Carlos Reutemann and the second Ligier driver Patrick Depailler. However, the latter was out for the season after having suffered serious injuries in a hang gliding accident in the French Alps.

In the first qualifying session the Renaults put things up a notch and managed a one-two with their additional power for the home Grand Prix. Villeneuve qualified third, while behind them it was the Williams of Alan Jones between the Brabhams of Nelson Piquet and Niki Lauda.

In the following qualifying sessions the Renaults stayed ahead to make it a yellow front row. Behind them it was two Ferrari-Brabham rows as Villeneuve and Piquet qualified ahead of Scheckter and Lauda. The other championship contenders were further back, Laffite in eight and Reutemann in 13th, just behind his teammate and reigning champion Mario Andretti.

At the start the Renaults couldn't hold on to their lead as Villeneuve made another of his lightning fast starts. The Canadian rocketed into the lead, taking full advantage of both Renault drivers having trouble getting their turbo-powered cars under way. Behind Villeneuve, Jabouille, Scheckter and Piquet followed, while Arnoux found himself down in ninth place.

In the opening laps there were two drivers especially charging hard and for different reasons. Villeneuve went to the limit in order to increase the gap as much as possible, before the Renaults would really get up to speed, and Arnoux was fighting hard to reclaim the ground he had lost at the start. By the time 15 laps were completed around the 3.8 km circuit, it was all about Villeneuve leading the two Renaults. However, for how long Villeneuve's lead would last remained to be seen. The Renaults were catching up and the Michelin tyres on the Ferrari deteriorating rapidly.

It took another 30 laps before Jabouille finally had enough room left to launch past Villeneuve at the end of the pit straight. After that there was no hope for a Ferrari win anymore. The tyres on both Villeneuve and Scheckter's cars were completely gone. While Scheckter gave up and pitted for fresh rubber, Villeneuve battled on with Arnoux. The Renault driver got closer and closer as he went around the home track fastest of all. However, Villeneuve made his Ferrari very wide and it took Arnoux until three laps from the end to move into second. What followed was one of the most astonishing duels ever seen on a Formula One track.

While Arnoux had clearly been the faster driver throughout the race, the constant pushing had cost him dearly. While the Ferrari was suffering from extremely worn tyres, the Renault was running low on fuel. So once Arnoux made his way past Villeneuve, the Frenchman didn't pull away, but chose to preserve fuel and keep just enough pace to stay ahead of the Ferrari. In the final three laps, Jabouille became an unseen winner as Villeneuve and Arnoux dodged and dived around the circuit. Side by side most of the time, the two cars banged wheels numerous times. In the last lap, Arnoux pushed Villeneuve onto the dirt, but even then the Canadian didn't give up. Braking extremely late into the Virage de la Combe, the Ferrari driver moved back into second. Arnoux launched one final desperate try in the last corner, but to no avail. Villeneuve crossed the finish line in second place.

As the drivers got out of their cars in the pits, they immediately embraced one another. Villeneuve, with a smile from ear to ear, exclaimed that it had been fun, while Arnoux explained that he was not at all sad to be third. Somewhere away from everybody, Jabouille was the unnoticed winner, scoring the first all French win as well as the first turbo win.

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