While all of the last five Nurburgring races have been won from the front row of the grid, only one of the last six has been won from pole position. Here’s everything you need to know about each grid slot’s history at the Nurburgring!
THE STATS
- Second has won 4 of the last 5 races
- Polesitter won one of the last 6 races
- No retirements from 13th since 2001
- Furthest back podium finish from 15th
- All 20 grid slots have previously scored
THE OVERVIEW
| Grid Slot | Last Win | Last Podium | Last Points | Last DNF | Best Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2009 | 2011 | 2013 | 2007 | 1st |
| 2 | 2013 | 2013 | 2013 | 2005 | 1st |
| 3 | 2003 | 2007 | 2013 | 2005 | 1st |
| 4 | 2002 | 2013 | 2013 | 2004 | 1st |
| 5 | 1966 | 2013 | 2013 | 2002 | 1st |
| 6 | 2005 | 2007 | 2011 | 2006 | 1st |
| 7 | - | 2005 | 2007 | 2013 | 2nd |
| 8 | 1985 | 2009 | 2013 | 2006 | 1st |
| 9 | - | 1976 | 2013 | 2009 | 3rd |
| 10 | 1975 | 1999 | 2013 | 2006 | 1st |
| 11 | - | - | 2013 | 2011 | 4th |
| 12 | - | - | 2009 | 2006 | 4th |
| 13 | - | 1985 | 2013 | 2001 | 3rd |
| 14 | 1999 | 1999 | 2004 | 2011 | 1st |
| 15 | - | 1999 | 2009 | 2006 | 2nd |
| 16 | - | - | 1976 | 2013 | 4th |
| 17 | - | - | 2011 | 2007 | 6th |
| 18 | - | - | 2004 | 2007 | 4th |
| 19 | - | - | 1972 | 2013 | 5th |
| 20 | - | - | 2007 | 2006 | 5th |
Points likelihood: 75% Last points: 2013 Last DNF: 2007
The driver starting from pole position at the Nurburgring has scored on the most occasions and has recorded the fewest non finishes of any grid position. Though the polesitter has won only one of the last six races at the circuit, fifteen victories have been recorded from here in total. Though the grid slot has recorded the fewest of any at the track, three of the ten retirements from pole have been recorded in the last nine Grands Prix at the circuit.
Points likelihood: 65% Last points: 2013 Last DNF: 2002
Fifth on the grid has recorded only one win at the Nurburgring. That victory was for Jack Brabham in 1966. Along with third, the driver starting fifth here has had the second-most top ten finishes at the circuit of any grid slot. Fifth on the grid has scored in all but one of the last eight races at the track. The driver starting here has finished on the podium five times in the last thirteen races at the circuit, all five of those occasions being third place finishes.
Points likelihood: 65% Last points: 2013 Last DNF: 2005
With 26 top ten finishes, the driver starting third has had the second-most top ten finishes of any grid slot at the Nurburgring. In all of the last three races at the circuit, the driver starting third has failed to convert their top three grid slot into a podium finish. Since 1985, Mark Webber is the only driver to have recorded a retirement from this grid slot, doing so in the 2005 European Grand Prix.
Points likelihood: 63% Last points: 2013 Last DNF: 2005
The driver starting from second on the grid has won four of the last five Formula 1 races at the Nurburgring. Second on the grid has won thirteen times at the circuit; only two less than the polesitter has won. Since the turn of the millennium, two retirements have been recorded from second on the grid, in consecutive seasons – 2004 and 2005. Stefan Johansson’s ninth place in 1985 is the only time that the driver starting second has reached the chequered flag in a race at the Nurburgring in a position outside of the points.
Points likelihood: 58% Last points: 2013 Last DNF: 2004
The driver starting fourth has finished as runner-up in all of the last four races at the Nurburgring. Fourth on the grid has scored points in all but one of the last thirteen races at the circuit, with Kimi Raikkonen having retired in 2004. Fourth has the longest active streak of points-scoring races at the circuit. The last win from this grid slot was for Rubens Barrichello in 2002.
Points likelihood: 55% Last points: 2013 Last DNF: 2006
Michele Alboreto won from eighth on the grid at the Nurburgring in 1985. That’s the only time a driver starting eighth has won at the circuit, but the grid slot has provided five further podium finishes, the most recent of which was third place for Felipe Massa in 2009. Aside from pole position, eighth on the grid has had the fewest retirements at the Nurburgring of any grid position in the top fourteen. Jarno Trulli’s thirteenth place in 2007 is the last time that a driver starting from here failed to score.
Points likelihood: 53% Last points: 2007 Last DNF: 2013
In both of the last two races at the Nurburgring, the driver starting seventh has retired. Heikki Kovalainen, who finished eighth in 2007, is the only driver to have scored from this position in the last five races at the circuit. Six podium finishes have been recorded from seventh on the grid, most recently in consecutive seasons when Rubens Barrichello finished as runner-up in 2004 and in third place in the following year. Seventh is the only grid slot inside the top eight to have never recorded a victory at the track.
Points likelihood: 50% Last points: 2011 Last DNF: 2006
Sixth on the grid has supplied two podium results in the last six races at the Nurburgring, including victory for Fernando Alonso in 2005. Between 1969 and 2000, the driver starting here finished only four of the fifteen races held at the track. The grid slot’s finish rate has picked up in recent years though, with only two retirements in the last ten races here. In the last race held at the circuit, Daniel Ricciardo failed to score having started sixth, finishing in twelfth place.
Points likelihood: 50% Last points: 2009 Last DNF: 2006
Only the polesitter has had fewer retirements at the Nurburgring than the driver starting from fifteenth. In the forty races at the circuit, only eleven non-finishes have been recorded from this grid slot. While retirements are rare from fifteenth on the grid – the latest in 2006 being the only one in the last fourteen races at the track – points scoring appearances have been rare in recent years too. The last two drivers to score from here were Rubens Barrichello, who finished third in 1999, and Nico Rosberg, who finished fourth in 2009. Barrichello’s podium in 1999 and Jacques Laffite’s second place in 1975 from this grid slot are the furthest back from which a podium finish has been recorded at the track.
Points likelihood: 50% Last points: 2013 Last DNF: 2009
Along with thirteenth and fourteenth, the driver starting ninth on the grid has suffered the most non-finishes at the Nurburgring. The finish rate from this grid slot is less than 50%, with 21 retirements in the forty races held at the track. Points have been scored from ninth in four of the last six races at the circuit. On every occasion that the driver starting ninth has finished a race at the circuit, they have done so in a position inside the top ten.
Points likelihood: 50% Last points: 2013 Last DNF: 2011
No podium finishes have been recorded from eleventh on the grid at the Nurburgring, with the best result for this grid slot being fourth place. Fourth place has been recorded from eleventh on the grid here on three occasions – for Ronnie Peterson in 1971, Carlos Pace in 1973 and Rubens Barrichello in 1995. Since 1995, the driver starting here has finished in the top ten more regularly than not, with four drivers recording sixth place finishes. Last time out at the circuit, Nico Rosberg finished ninth having started eleventh.
Points likelihood: 45% Last points: 2009 Last DNF: 2006
Two top five finishes have been recorded from twelfth on the grid in the last six races at the Nurburgring. David Coulthard and Alex Wurz finished fourth in 2005 and 2007 respectively. Fourth is the best result from this position. In the last eleven races at the circuit, there has been only one non-finish from this grid slot. That was for Coulthard, who retired in 2006.
Points likelihood: 40% Last points: 2013 Last DNF: 2006
The driver starting tenth finished as runner-up twice in three years in the late 1990s at the Nurburgring. That’s the most recent time that podium finishes have been recorded from tenth on the grid here. The only other podium finish from tenth is a win for Carlos Reutemann in 1975. The driver starting tenth has finished in the points in each of the last two seasons and has recorded top ten results in four of the last six races at the circuit.
Points likelihood: 38% Last points: 2013 Last DNF: 2001
Thirteenth on the grid at the Nurburgring shares the record for most non-finishes at the circuit, with 21 non-finishes. However, this grid slot holds the record for the longest time since a retirement, with the last being for Olivier Panis in 2001. There has been one podium finish from thirteenth on the grid. Jacques Laffite finished in third place in 1985. In the last race at the track, the 2013 German Grand Prix, Sergio Perez finished eighth, scoring the first points from this position since Laffite’s podium. In the races between 1985 and 2013, there were a further five top ten finishes, though these were before the positions were points-paying places. The driver starting thirteenth finished tenth in all four races at the track between 2004 and 2007.
Points likelihood: 33% Last points: 2004 Last DNF: 2011
More than half of the Formula 1 races held at the Nurburgring have resulted in retirements for the driver starting fourteenth. Johnny Herbert won having started fourteenth at the 1999 European Grand Prix, which is the furthest back grid slot from which a victory has been recorded at the circuit. Since Herbert’s win, Mark Webber’s seventh place in 2004 is the only time that the driver starting fourteenth has scored points. Vitantonio Liuzzi also finished ninth in 2005, but that was before the position supplied a points-paying result.
Points likelihood: 30% Last points: 1976 Last DNF: 2013
Not since 1976 has the driver starting sixteenth at the Nurburgring scored a point. That year, Gunnar Nilsson finished in fifth place, which is the second-best result from this position, bettered only by the fourth places recorded by Paco Godia in 1956 and Tom Pryce in 1975. Though no points have been recorded from sixteenth since 1976, there have been five top ten finishes from the grid slot. The most recent of those was ninth place for Felipe Massa in 2004.
Points likelihood: 30% Last points: 2011 Last DNF: 2007
Seventeenth is the only grid slot in the top twenty to have never recorded a top five finish at the Nurburgring. The best result from this grid position is sixth, recorded by Roger Laurent in the 1952 German Grand Prix. Though there have been twelve top ten finishes from seventeenth, the grid slot has scored points only once. That was for Kamui Kobayashi, who finished ninth in 2011.
Points likelihood: 30% Last points: 1972 Last DNF: 2013
The driver starting nineteenth at the Nurburgring has retired from four of the last five races at the track. No points have been scored from this position since Brian Redman finished fifth in 1972, though five top ten finishes have been recorded since. The last top ten result from nineteenth on the grid at the Nurburgring was for Gianni Morbidelli who finished ninth in the 1997 Luxembourg Grand Prix.
Points likelihood: 28% Last points: 2004 Last DNF: 2007
Giancarlo Fisichella’s sixth place in 2004 is the only time that the driver starting from eighteenth has scored at the Nurburgring since 1972. In 1972, Howden Ganley recorded the best finish from this grid slot with fourth place, which is also the only other time a driver starting here has scored. Eleven top ten finishes have been recorded from this starting position, though most of those were in earlier races at the track. Aside from the two points scoring appearances, eighth places for Jean-Pierre Jarier in 1974 and Tom Pryce in 1976 are the only other top ten finishes recorded here in the last 24 races at the circuit.
Points likelihood: 21% Last points: 2007 Last DNF: 2006
The twentieth grid slot has finished in the top ten only eight times – fewer than any other grid slots in the top twenty. However, three of those top ten finishes have been in the last eight races at the track. The most recent points-scoring appearance from twentieth on the grid at the Nurburgring was for David Coulthard, who finished fifth in 2007 – the best ever result from the grid slot.