5 Greatest Last Lap Victories in F1

The 2016 Austrian Grand Prix came alive during the closing stages. Lewis Hamilton pitted to get a set of soft tyres. Rosberg, on an alternate strategy, switched to supersofts the next lap and piped the Briton for 1st position. A game of cat and mouse ensued between the teammates. It seemed like Rosberg would be able to hang on to that position. But something far more interesting was on the cards. The duo collided on the last lap as Hamilton executed an overtaking manoeuver. The damage meant Rosberg could only finish 4th. But this gave the viewers an excellent nail-biting finish to what was a pretty decent race. But how many instances of last lap victories are there and which are the greatest?

Top 5 last lap victories in Formula One.

5. Spain 2001

During the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix, the double world champion Hakkinen had seemed destined to ignite his limp championship campaign with a first win of the season, having started the 56th and final lap of the 2001 Spanish Grand Prix with a commanding 42 second lead over chief rival Michael Schumacher.

But lady luck wasn’t smiling on Hakkinen. Midway around Barcelona’s uphill Turn 3 his McLaren-Mercedes MP4-16 suddenly lost drive. A hydraulic leak leading to clutch failure. For several agonising seconds he freewheeled on in vain. He desperately tried to breathe life back into his ailing machine as Schumacher’s Ferrari loomed in his mirrors.

But there was to be no miraculous recovery. Innocuous white smoke turned to bright orange flames and Hakkinen ground to a halt. A grateful Schumacher swept past in one of the luckiest last lap victories.

Schumacher’s joy on winning for the third time in five races was tempered by huge sympathy for his most-respected rival. He even broke parc ferme protocol in order to publicly console Hakkinen after the race.

4. Austria 2002

The race saw a staged finish, in which race leader Rubens Barrichello was to surrender the win to teammate Schumacher. Ferrari wanted their number one driver Schumacher to win the race and collect the maximum points for the Drivers’ Championship. Barrichello let him pass on the last lap at the finish line which greatly upset the spectators.

On the podium, amid the jeering of the crowd, Schumacher insisted that Barrichello take the top spot on the podium. Schumacher took the first place trophy from the Austrian chancellor and gave it to Barrichello. They were fined one million U.S. dollars for failing to adhere to the Formula One Sporting Regulations. Following another incident at the United States Grand Prix, the FIA declared new rules against team orders.

3. 1991 Canada

Nigel Mansell retired from the lead of the 1991 Canadian Grand Prix with less than half a lap to go. The reason behind the failure, gifting victory to his nemesis Nelson Piquet, remains a mystery.

Mansell and Williams claimed that the gearbox had failed coming out of the hairpin. What Mansell didn’t say was that he had been prematurely celebrating moments before his car ground to a halt. Cynics suggested he had in fact allowed the revs from his Renault engine to drop too low, causing the engine to stall.

Mansell refuted the criticism but what he cannot refute is this was a clear case of close but no cigar and one of the strangest last lap victories.

2. 2003 Brazil

Near the end of his 54th lap, Mark Webber crashed while exiting the final corner, bringing out the safety car. Fernando Alonso failed to slow for the waved yellow flags, and hit one of Webber’s tyres at full speed on the 55th lap; his Renault crashed into a tyre wall protecting a guardrail, the impact damaging the barrier and sending car tyres across the circuit, effectively blocking the track and making continuation of the race, even behind the safety car, impossible. The FIA subsequently red flagged the race.

When the red flag was shown, confusion reigned as to which lap the result should be taken from. With Giancarlo Fisichella taking the lead on lap 54, the decision was critical. Race direction needed to make a decision in order for the podium ceremony to go ahead. The circumstances of the race conclusion meant he would not necessarily win the race according to FIA rules. There was considerable confusion at the post-race ceremonies on the part of the race stewards, organisers, the teams and drivers.

Fisichella believed that he had won. The Italian and his team boss, Eddie Jordan celebrated  before being informed that the win was awarded to Räikkönen and McLaren. Adding to the confusion was Fisichella’s car that suddenly caught fire in the pit lane.

The stewards believed that Fisichella was on his 55th lap and had completed 54 laps. They awarded the victory to the race leader at the end of the 53rd lap, namely Räikkönen. Fisichella got second place and Alonso third. Coulthard, who had been leading shortly before the race was stopped, dropped to fourth place after pitting, just ahead of Frentzen, the only driver not to pit.

Several days after the race, it transpired that Fisichella had just started his 56th lap before the red flag signal. This meant that the race results were determined as of the end of the 54th lap.

An FIA court in Paris awarded victory to Fisichella following oral arguments and timing evidence. It was his first Formula One win and the last for the Jordan team. McLaren declined to file a protest. Since Alonso had been unable to take his place on the podium due to injury, it thus emerged that the Brazilian podium ceremony had proceeded without any step occupied by the correct driver. It was one of the most confusing last lap victories in F1.

1. 2011 Canada

The race began behind the safety car, and once it returned to the pits Vettel built a lead over Fernando Alonso. A second safety car deployment caused by the collision of Button and teammate Lewis Hamilton closed the time gaps between cars, but Vettel retained the lead. Heavy rain forced a race suspension by lap 26. Two hours later, we were racing once again. On lap 37, Button and Alonso collided and the Spaniard retired. Button fell to last place as a result. Over the remainder of the race, he dramatically moved from twenty-first place to first, passing Webber and Michael Schumacher, who had started fourth and eighth respectively, for second place on lap 65, and Vettel on the final lap to secure victory.

The win was Button’s first of the season, and put him into second place in the World Drivers’ Championship, sixty points behind leader Vettel, who had extended his lead despite finishing second. Webber remained in third, and Hamilton’s retirement meant he slipped to fourth. It was one of the greatest last lap victories in F1 in the modern era