F1’s longest pole position career spans as Hamilton returns to the top with Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton scored his 105th pole position at the Mexico City Grand Prix, extending his own record as the driver with the longest pole position career span, coming over 19 years after his maiden top spot in Formula 1. We take a look at the top 10 drivers with the longest career spans between their first and last poles.

10. Sir Jack Brabham – 10 years, 9 months, 1 day

Sir Jack Brabham’s first pole position came in Britain, in 1959, back when Aintree Racecourse was a sporadic host of the country’s Grand Prix. Brabham enjoyed prolific success through the 1960s, founding his own team and becoming the only driver to win a World Championship while doing so, and his last pole position came in 1970 at the Spanish Grand Prix, when it was held at the tight and fiddly Jarama track.

9. Sebastian Vettel – 11 years, 29 days

Sebastian Vettel was a renowned Qualifying specialist and dominated entire seasons, taking a record 15 poles from 19 attempts in his high watermark 2011 campaign with Red Bull Racing. His 57 pole positions, third on the all-time record list, were spread across 11 years. His maiden top spot came during the rain-drenched Monza session in 2008, where he stunned for Toro Rosso, and caused an even bigger upset by converting his grid position 24 hours later. Vettel’s last one-lap wonder came with Ferrari, at the classic figure-of-eight Suzuka Circuit in 2019, fittingly a track where he trumped his rivals on five separate occasions.

8. Giancarlo Fisichella – 11 years, 1 month, 4 days

Giancarlo Fisichella spent just two years in title-contending machinery, and consequently a return of four pole positions was a decent accomplishment, and both his first and last pole positions came as something of a surprise. Fisichella fronted a rain-hit session at the Red Bull Ring in 1998 while competing for Benetton, which was entrenched in the midfield, and spent the twilight of his career with backmarkers Force India. But at Spa-Francorchamps in 2009 the upgraded VJM02 was on form, and Fisichella stunned by storming to top spot in Qualifying – bearing in mind up until that stage the team had not scored a point since mid-2007.

7. Riccardo Patrese – 11 years, 5 months, 1 day

Riccardo Patrese competed for Arrows for several years and emerged on top in a closely-fought Qualifying battle against reigning champion Alan Jones at Long Beach in 1981. Patrese and Jones finished three-quarters of a second clear of the pack, and it was the Italian who edged the fight by just nine-thousandths of a second. The lion’s share of Patrese’s success came during his three-year stint with Williams from 1990 to 1992, though he was regularly shaded by Nigel Mansell. In 1992 Mansell took an astonishing 14 poles from 16 attempts in the iconic FW14B, leaving Patrese with just one to his name, in Hungary.

6. Michael Schumacher – 12 years, 2 months, 1 day

Now, this is a contentious one… Michael Schumacher would be bumped up to second place on this list if the criteria was drivers who led Qualifying, rather than drivers who had pole position. Schumacher’s maiden pole came in subdued circumstances in Monaco, in 1994, the first Grand Prix after the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger. His last came in France, for Ferrari, in 2006 – but six years later for Mercedes he set the fastest time during qualifying in Monaco. However, a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision at the previous Grand Prix in Spain denied Schumacher the chance to start from pole position…

5. Alain Prost – 12 years, 2 months, 22 days

Alain Prost was famously more of a racer than a qualifier, particularly in an era where Senna was the one-lap king. Prost’s first pole came with Renault at Hockenheim in 1981, with the turbocharged RE30s flying around the circuit’s high-speed sections. Prost went on to take 13 of his 33 career poles in his final season, and only one in Williams colours, in 1993. The last of those was achieved at Suzuka – which was also his only pole position at the iconic venue.

4. Mario Andretti – 13 years, 11 months, 6 days

All-round racing icon Mario Andretti was due to compete at Monza in 1968 but a clashing commitment, and Italian regulations, denied him the chance to debut. Instead, he returned at Watkins Glen, where he set pole position for his proper debut, though mechanical issues scuppered a tilt at victory. Andretti’s last pole had looked set to be at the same venue, exactly 10 years later, but after he walked away following the 1981 season he made a handful of stand-in appearances in 1982. Replacing the injured Didier Pironi at Ferrari, Andretti scored an emotional pole position at Monza, just 0.035s ahead of Nelson Piquet.

3. Rubens Barrichello – 15 years, 1 month, 20 days

Rubens Barrichello had to wait until 2000 to score a long overdue maiden victory but his first pole position came in only his sophomore season in 1994, as a slick tyre gamble at a wet-but-drying Spa-Francorchamps paid dividends. It gave Jordan a maiden pole position and also ensured Barrichello became the then youngest ever polesitter. For a driver who adored his home Interlagos circuit it’s fitting that Barrichello’s last pole came there, for Brawn, in 2009 – his third at the circuit as the joint record-holder. Though, unfortunately for Barrichello, none of those Interlagos poles were converted into a victory.

2. Kimi Räikkönen – 15 years, 2 months, 4 days

Kimi Räikkönen was fast from the outset in Formula 1 but after three near-misses he finally scored his maiden pole position at the Nurburgring’s European Grand Prix in 2003. More poles followed for McLaren and Ferrari, but after a two-year hiatus, and two years with Lotus, Räikkönen finally ended a nine-year drought in Monaco, in 2017, with a striking lap around the Principality. There was one more flier, on Ferrari’s home turf in 2018, 15 years after his first pole, and it proved to be Räikkönen’s last time atop the leaderboard on a Saturday.

1. Lewis Hamilton – 19 years, 4 months, 22 days

When Lewis Hamilton hammered the McLaren MP4-22 across the final chicane in Montreal and gunned for the line in 2007 he secured his maiden pole at only the sixth time of asking. It was to be the first of 105 – and counting. Hamilton’s peak came in 2016, when he scored 12 of the available pole positions, and he also claimed a double-digit number of pole positions in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2020. It was a leaner return in the ground effect era, with Hamilton topping Grand Prix Qualifying only once, in Hungary, in 2023. Ferrari’s difficult 2025 consigned Hamilton to a frustrating year, but greater competitiveness in 2026 has yielded a stronger campaign, including in Qualifying. Hamilton already held the record for the longest time between first and last – or should we say, most recent – poles, but that now stands at an extended 19 years, 4 months, and 22 days, after his effort in Q3 in Mexico City.