The F1 wins from the lowest grid position
Max Verstappen's 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix win from 17th on the grid puts him equal fourth - or arguably third - in the rankings for the lowest grid positions from which a Formula 1 grand prix has been won.
Prior to the Interlagos weekend, Verstappen’s previous best on this front was his win from 14th in the 2022 Belgian GP, when he was one of eight drivers taking some form of engine component change penalty but had such a superior Red Bull he was able to take the race lead by lap 12 of 44.
His Brazil 2024 win means Verstappen has now won a grand prix from a lower grid position than either of F1’s statistically all-time greatest drivers Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.
Hamilton’s best on this front so far is his win from 14th in the chaotic mixed conditions of the 2018 German GP while Schumacher’s is winning the 1995 Belgian GP from 16th for Benetton in similarly changeable weather.
WINS FROM LOWEST GRID POSITIONS17th - John Watson - 1982 Detroit Grand PrixMcLaren driver John Watson carved through the field to win F1’s inaugural Detroit street race in 1982 with relatively little help from attrition, though early leader and eventual champion Keke Rosberg’s Williams did wilt in multiple ways including its Goodyear tyres not faring as well on race day as Watson’s Michelins.
A qualifying collision with Chico Serra’s Fittipaldi was part of the reason Watson was so far down the grid.
17th - Kimi Raikkonen - 2005 Japanese Grand PrixThe only entry on this list where the charge to victory was completed on the very last lap of the race.
McLaren and Kimi Raikkonen had dominated much of the 2005 season on raw pace but poor reliability meant Renault’s Fernando Alonso was already champion before the Suzuka race, where ill-timed rain in one of F1’s final ‘one-shot’ single-car qualifying sessions left Raikkonen starting 17th.
Though he made rapid progress from there, catching Alonso’s polesitting and race-leading team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella looking like a tall order - with the Renault still 10.7s clear of Raikkonen when the McLaren rejoined after its final fuel stop (this was the season of no in-race tyre changes) with just eight laps to go.
But Raikkonen still hunted down and passed Fisichella around the outside of the first corner as the very last lap began.
Alex Albon non-starting after his qualifying crash means technically Verstappen was 16th in the line of cars starting the wet Interlagos race, but as Albon’s grid spot was left empty the reigning champion’s Red Bull was officially 17th on the grid.
Yet he was in the top 10 by lap two and the top six by lap 11.
Verstappen did get a stroke of luck when early leaders George Russell and Lando Norris made pitstops for free intermediate tyres during a virtual safety car period and dropped behind him.
That moved Esteban Ocon and Verstappen into first and second - and they were able to change their tyres ‘for free’ during a subsequent red flag for a Franco Colapinto crash.
All Verstappen had to do after that was dismiss Ocon’s Alpine at a later safety car restart and then dominate the race to the finish.
18th - Rubens Barrichello - 2000 German Grand PrixThe electrical problem that left Rubens Barrichello’s Ferrari only 18th on the Hockenheim grid was typical of his luck for much of his stint as Schumacher’s sidekick in the team that dominated the first half of the 2000s.
But the way the race came to him for a famously emotional first F1 win was a career high.
While Schumacher went out in a first-corner crash, Barrichello made good use of a two-stop strategy to charge smoothly into third but far behind the dominant McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard.
Then a track invader protesting against his dismissal from a job at Mercedes prompted a safety car during which Coulthard missed McLaren’s call to pit and tumbled down the order, promoting Barrichello to second.
That became first when he boldly stayed out on slick tyres - against the team’s advice - as rain hit the closing laps, and made it work to secure an extraordinary win.
19th - Bill Vukovich - 1954 Indianapolis 500Here’s the anomalous one - a quirk of F1 counting the Indy 500 as a points-scoring world championship round in its first decade even though it was rare in the extreme for anyone contesting the rest of the F1 season to enter it or for Indy drivers to appear anywhere else on the F1 schedule.
So though IndyCar legend Vukovich’s drive from 19th to eventually control this race was undoubtedly a great one, its status as officially second-best on F1’s all-time list of wins from low grid positions is somewhat awkward.
22nd - John Watson - 1983 USA West Grand PrixWatson’s second appearance on this list may well hold as an F1 record for a long time given the championship having settled at 20-car grids for most of the modern era.
He and McLaren team-mate Niki Lauda were among many Michelin runners unimpressed with the firm’s qualifying tyres around the Long Beach street track as they lined up way down in 22nd and 23rd on the grid, 4s from pole.
But their race pace was the complete opposite, and this time helped by a little chaos up front that included a clash between early lead rivals Keke Rosberg and Patrick Tambay then Riccardo Patrese going off while trying to pass new leader Jacques Laffite, they made it through to first and second by lap 45 of 75 and controlled the race from there, Watson have got back ahead of Lauda along the way after losing out to his team-mate at the start.
