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Formula 1 is, by nature, usually a predictable sport in relation to who wins these days. With cars more reliable than ever and overtaking a difficult venture, the fastest driver in the fastest car wins most of the races in a season.
That being said, unreliabilty, luck and other circumstances can make for some surprise results, even for the top step of the podium. There have been some huge shocks during F1's near-seventy year history, far too many to fully go through on this list.
From a team debut win to Williams' most recent race win, here are five of the most surprising winners in Formula 1 history.
#5 Jody Scheckter (Argentina 1977)
The opening round of the 1977 Formula 1 season was held at Argentina's Buenos Aires circuit and Jody Scheckter started in an unspectacular 11th place in Wolf Racing's first race.
The Argentine track was always a car breaker, especially with it usually hosting the first round of the season.
Polesitter and defending champion, James Hunt, led in the early stages but dropped out due to a suspension failure on Lap 31 of 53. John Watson inherited the lead but he too succumbed to suspension troubles 10 laps later.
Watson's teammate, Carlos Pace took the lead but struggled due to overheating in his cockpit and was coming under attack from Scheckter's Wolf.
The Wolfman pounced and went into P1, a position he'd hold until the checkered flag. He ended up winning ahead of Pace by a huge 43 seconds, hardly a win that the South African limped to the finish for.
This was a real race of attrition, as only five cars finished the race, but don't downplay what Walter Wolf's team achieved that weekend.
Of course, strange results were more common back in the 1970's and before, as Wolf became the fourth constructor to win on their F1 debut.
Three other constructors had achieved the feat of a debut win and Brawn would famously do it again in 2009 but this was the most shocking of all because absolutely nobody expected it.
#4 Johnny Herbert (Europe 1999)
Had it not been for his horrific Formula 3 crash at Brands Hatch in 1988, Johnny Herbert could've been an F1 world champion, that's according to many of his peers from his younger days.
Despite his injuries, the cheery Brit did enjoy a successful Formula 1 career, winning 3 Grands Prix, the most famous of which came at the Nurburgring.
The 1999 Formula 1 driver's championship was being hotly contested between defending champion Mika Hakkinen and Ferrari's Eddie Irvine, but neither would enjoy a good race in Germany.
After an aborted start, the race got underway with Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan leading the pack. Frentzen and David Coulthard led the Grand Prix during the first half of the race, despite the unpredictable weather that caused chaos for the majority of the drivers.
Irvine and Hakkinen had fallen well back thanks to poor tyre choices in the weather changes which meant that Frentzen would be level with the leading pair in the standings if he won the race.
It wasn't to be Frentzen's day, though, as the German came to a halt thanks to an electrical problem on Lap 32 of 66.
Coulthard inherited the lead but this didn't last long as the Brit ran wide with dry tyres on a wet track on Lap 38 and was beached.
Ralf Schumacher then took the lead but he too would suffer tyre issues, a puncture put him out of contention. Giancarlo Fisichella could've got his first win but he too spun out from the lead.
Herbert had switched to the wet tyres at the perfect time, allowing him to sneak up the order unnoticed by most and claim P1.
The Stewart GP team had never won a race before and they'd never stand on the top step of the podium again, as they became Jaguar the following year.
#3 Olivier Panis (Monaco 1996)
The Monaco Grand Prix is one of motorsport's most prestigious and controversial events, the latter is mainly down to the lack of overtaking opportunities available around the tight and twisty streets.
Olivier Panis started an unspectacular 14th on the grid but rose quickly through the order thanks to the high-profile retirements of Michael Schumacher and Gerhard Berger. Panis, for his part, also pulled off an excellent overtaking maneuver on Eddie Irvine at the hairpin.
When Damon Hill retired from the lead in his Williams, Panis was running an incredible second place, with only Jean Alesi standing between him and P1.
Alesi would also retire from a race with only three finishers, a record to this day and one that's unlikely to be broken.
Panis was chased by David Coulthard in the closing stages, but DC never got close enough to challenge and Panis became a Grand Prix winner.
In so doing, Panis broke the record for the win from the lowest starting position on the Monaco gird, another record that's unlikely to be broken anytime soon.
#2 Giancarlo Fisichella (Brazil 2003)
Jordan Grand Prix had four race wins during their 15 years in Formula 1, and this was by far the most surprising.
By 2003, Eddie Jordan's team were struggling under huge financial pressure and looked like making a quick exit from the sport every other month.
The EJ13 was one of the slowest cars on the grid, but Giancarlo Fisichella qualified an impressive eighth for the race, which started behind the Safety Car in wet conditions.
Nobody knew when the race would get underway, the field was unable to go full speed nor overtake under the Safety Car, so Jordan took a gamble.
Despite their high starting position, Fisichella dived into the pits to fill his yellow car to the brim in an effort to complete the Grand Prix without stopping again.
When the race eventually got going, accidents would dominate the action, with six cars spinning out at the bottom of the Senna "S" and retiring with damage. The Safety Car came out repeatedly, allowing Fisichella to keep within a pit-stops deficit of the leaders.
On Lap 54, Kimi Raikkonen was leading the race, but ran wide on his cold tyres and allowed Fisi, who still hadn't stopped again to pass down the inside.
The subsequent hazard posed by both Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso's accident would bring out the red flags and cause a halt to proceedings for the day.
Raikkonen was declared the winner, but a timing error had given the Finn the win on false grounds and Fisichella was correctly awarded the winner's trophy before the next race at Imola.
Even more surprising was that this was Giancarlo's first win in the sport after seven long years of trying.
To show how much of a shock this was, Fisi wouldn't score another point until the penultimate round at Indianapolis, a run of 12 scoreless races.
#1 Pastor Maldonado (Spain 2012)
The most successful Venezuelan Formula 1 driver won his only race in incredible circumstances.
Williams were coming off what was (at the time) their worst season in F1 in 2011, but 2012 was going better, with Bruno Senna picking up decent points finishes in both Malaysia and China.
Pastor Maldonado was lagging slightly behind his Brazilian teammate, but that was about to change in magnificent style in Spain.
Lewis Hamilton had initially qualified on pole for the race, but his McLaren was found to be underweight during Q3, meaning that he had to start from the back.
Amazingly, this meant that Maldonado inherited P1 on the grid, upgrading an amazing qualifying performance into an unbelievable one.
The start, though, didn't go to plan as home-favourite Fernando Alonso stormed into the lead at the first corner.
Maldonado kept the Spaniard within reach in the following laps, much to the surprise of everybody.
By the time the second set of pit-stops came, Maldonado was still within a few seconds of Alonso, meaning that there was potential for the undercut to work.
Alonso was slowed while lapping traffic and Ferrari were too slow to react, meaning that Maldonado was incredibly in the lead.
The Circuit de Catalunya is one of the hardest tracks on the F1 calendar to overtake on, and this showed as, despite Alonso's best efforts, he couldn't get in a position to challenge for the lead.
Maldonado held on to the finish, becoming the only Venezuelan to win a Grand Prix and Williams' most recent race winner, having last won back in 2004 before that.
It was a bittersweet day for Williams, though, as the Grove outfit's garage suffered a fire shortly after the race, although nobody was seriously injured.
But what do you think is Formula 1's most surprising ever race winner? Was it Maldonado or another shock that thrilled you the most? Let us know in the comments below!
