Renault Sport F1 claims new record for pole positions

Filed under: Motorsports, Renault



Racing is all about winning. But beyond winning, it's about records: which drivers have won the most races, which team has racked up the most titles, which country has produced the most champions, and so on. As far as Formula One constructors go, the lion's share of those titles belong to Ferrari, which has won more grands prix and championships than any other team in the sport. But Renault has just taken away one of its records.

When Mark Webber took pole position in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend, he was propelled by Renault, and in turn propelled Renault into the record books for the most pole positions by any engine manufacturer in the history of the sport. The 209 poles achieved over the French manufacturer's 36 years and 514 races in the series to date takes it one past Ferrari's record of 208.

Not only that, but Renault claims a much higher qualifying success rate: since joining the series in 1977, Renault-powered drivers have claimed 40 percent of pole positions, compared to 23 percent for Ferrari and 28 percent for Mercedes. 20 percent of those Renault poles were scored by Sebastian Vettel, with Red Bull's unprecedented 18 poles out of 19 races setting a new record in 2011.

Renault's success in qualifying started way back at the 1979 South African Grand Prix where Jean-Pierre Jabouille placed his Renault RS01 on pole and culminated this weekend with Mark Webber. Over the intervening years, Renault has propelled eight drivers (including Prost, Mansell, Senna, Schumacher, Hill, Villeneuve, Alonso and Vettel) to the world championship. All of which makes for one heck of a winning streak, more of which you can read about in the press release below.Continue reading Renault Sport F1 claims new record for pole positions

Renault Sport F1 claims new record for pole positions originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Oct 2013 18:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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