Overtaking for the GP Victory

KekeTheKing

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The 2014 season has been truly amazing for a number of reasons, but there is one aspect that I find incredibly intriguing. In Austin we saw the winner of the race overtake the man that finished 2nd for the Sixth time this year. It's certainly the most we've seen in recent times, and I am going to try and progress as far back in time as the data allows.

Here is the breakdown from 2007-2014.

2007 (Once)
Europe - Alonso on Massa (Lap 56)

2008 (Once)
Germany - Hamilton on Piquet (Lap 60)

2009 (Once)
Belgium - Raikkonen on Fisichella (Lap 5)

2010 (Once)
Turkey - Hamilton on Button (Lap 49)

2011 (Twice)
China - Hamilton on Vettel (Lap 52)
Germany - Hamilton on Alonso (Lap 33)

2012 (Four Times)
Malaysia - Alonso on Perez (Lap 16)
Great Britain - Webber on Alonso (Lap 48)
Italy - Hamilton on Perez (Lap 29)
United States - Hamilton on Vettel (Lap 42)

2013 (Thrice)
Malaysia - Vettel on Webber (Lap 46)
Bahrain - Vettel on Raikkonen (Lap 15)
Spain - Alonso on Raikkonen (Lap 39)

2014 (Six Times)
Bahrain - Hamilton on Rosberg (Lap 19)
Canada - Ricciardo on Rosberg (Lap 68)
Hungary - Ricciardo on Alonso (Lap 68)
Singapore - Hamilton on Vettel (Lap 54)
Japan - Hamilton on Rosberg (Lap 29)
United States - Hamilton on Rosberg (Lap 24)

So in the last 8 years, the Grand Prix winner has only overtaken the second placed man on 19 occasions, with 1/3 of those coming this season. Amazingly, Lewis Hamilton has won 10 of these 19 GP. Alonso, has three wins. Vettel, and Ricciardo have two wins a piece.

I'm probably gonna have to go back to the 70's to find another season featuring 6 races with the victor overtaking P2 on track.
 
Huge credit to the CTA Overtaking Database for assisting me with this data. I've just gone back to 2004, the final season with detailed overtaking info. 1981 and 82 are next up though.

2006 (No occasions)

2005 (Once)
Japan - Raikkonen on Fisichella (Lap 53)

2004 (Once)
United States - Schumacher on Barrichello (L6)

Edit - Adding 81 and 82

1981 (Once)
Monaco - Villeneuve on Jones (Lap 75)

1982 (Twice)
San Marino - Pironi on Villeneuve (Lap 60)
Switzerland - Rosberg on Prost (Lap 79)
 
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1991

French Grand Prix: Mansell overtook Prost for the lead (lap 54)
British GP: Mansell overtook Senna for the lead (lap 1)
German GP: Mansell overtook Alesi (lap 20)u
Italian GP: Mansell passed Senna (lap 33)

Spanish GP is tricky; Mansell passed Berger on lap 20 and romped away; Berger then later had an electrical failure.
 
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The Artist.....

It was decided at the time that Button/Vettel would not be ruled an overtake as Seb was off the circuit. And yes JB passed Lewis at Hungary 2011, but Hamilton did not finish 2nd in the race. There were 4 such occasions in '11 where there was a pass for the lead, but the guy overtaken did not finish P2.

Vet/Mas at Malaysia
But/Ham at Hungary
Vet/But at Belgium
Vet/Alo at Italy
 
KekeTheKing

I'd include all cases where someone has overtaken for the lead, and then gone on to win; firstly, it will make the lap charts easier to fathom, but secondly, what's important is that the race was won by overtaking, not that the driver who was overtake finished the race in second (remember that pre 2000, reliability meant that many more cars retired....)

(PS- I figured Button Vettel might have been discounted for Vettel falling off the track).
 
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You can sort the data any number of ways.

In the non-refueling era there have been a number of inconsequential passes for the lead. Many times the leader has pitted and come out behind an inherently slower car at the end of its tire life and made easy work of them. I'm much more interested in identifying the scenarios where a driver has to earn it by overtaking his closest competition.
 
I remembered that one escecially for the hilarious spectacle of Alonso and Massa telling each to **** off in italian in front of the camera in the pit-lane sfter the race. :snigger:
 
I'm going about this project in a fairly piece-meal way. I just sorted out 1988-1993 and I've decided to make videos of these crucial maneuvers so look for those soon. Here is the raw data.

1988 (Thrice)
Canada - Senna on Prost (Lap 19)
France - Prost on Senna (Lap 61)
Japan - Senna on Prost (Lap 28)

1989 (4 Occasions)
Brazil - Mansell on Prost (Laps 28 and 47)
Germany - Senna on Prost (Lap 43)
Hungary - Mansell on Senna (Lap 58)
Japan - Senna on Nannini (Lap 51)

1990 (5 Occasions)
United States - Senna on Alesi (Lap 35)
San Marino - Patrese on Berger (Lap 51)
France - Prost on Capelli (Lap 78)
Germany - Senna on Nannini (Lap 34)
Portugal - Mansell on Senna (Lap 50)

1991 (Thrice)
Mexico - Patrese on Mansell (Lap 15)
France - Mansell on Prost (Lap 55)
Italy - Mansell on Senna (Lap 34)

1992 (No Occasions)

1993 (Thrice)
South Africa - Prost on Senna (Lap 24)
Brazil - Senna on Hill (Lap 42)
Japan - Senna on Prost (Lap 21)
 
Which is exactly my point, the way you sort data and then display that data as statistics affects the outcome of what the original data means and so stats on their own are in fact totally meaningless but are not surprisingly used extensively by politicians..
 
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