F1: Top 10 One-Off Podium

Every Formula One driver isn't a Senna, Schumacher, Hamilton or Vettel but everyone's dream is a podium finish. Remember Kamui chant? or the controversial United States 2005 Grand Prix when Jordan's Tiago finished at podium?. We mostly remember only the greats who end their career with a good number of podium finishes in their baggage.

The unexpected podium finish from a driver is a shocking surprise to us, but they are extra special to the drivers! It is time to look back a few drivers' special moments, who became nothing less than the other greats when they won their one-off podium finish. A top three finish is always cherished, when these drivers have managed only one of those it is extra special indeed.

Here is the top 10 one-off podium:

#10 Gianni Morbidelli

"When I saw on the board the position number three, it was incredible for me"

were the words from the Backmarker Footwork's Morbidelli after getting to his one and only podium finish. The Italian started the race at 13th and ended up at 3rd going through a lot of chaotic incidents, 14 drivers retired off track during the course of the race.

While Damon Hill finished the race where he started from, at the pole and Olivier Panis finished second after starting the race at the twelfth position. This podium finish also happens to be the one-off podium for Backmarker Footwork as well.

Gianni Morbidelli who is right now competing in TCR International Series at the age of 50, has participated in 70 Formula One Grands Prix with a total of 8.5 championship points. His racing records are vast throughout the motorsport, he has competed in International Formula 3000, British Touring Car Championship, European Car Touring Championship, European Super Production Championship, World Touring Car Championship, International Superstars Series, V8 Supercar Series, FIA World RallyCross Championships, World Touring Car Cup and TCR International Series.

#9 Pedro de la Rosa

Pedro de la Rosa scored the first (and only) podium finish of his career finishing at the second position in the Hungarian Grand Prix 2006. Button won the race despite beginning at the 14th place through relentless driving ahead of de la Rosa and Heidfeld getting BMW Sauber's first ever podium with 3rd. Robert Kubica who finished in seventh place was later disqualified as his car was underweight due to excessive tire wear.

This coincidentally meant that Michael Schumacher earned a point despite not finishing, who was notably seen being overtaken by Pedro during his hunt to the podium finish.

The Spanish driver was signed by the McLaren for the 2006 season in place of Juan Pablo Montoya who departed to NASCAR. His place which was initially uncertain but some successful results led to him being retained.

Before being part of the McLaren he was part of Arrows and Jaguar. After 7 seasons with McLaren Pedro was part of Sauber, HRT, and Ferrari.

#8 Vitaly Petrov

Vitaly Petrov was comfortable right from the start of that race weekend at 2011 Australian Grand Prix, qualified to start the race at 6th with his Renault and went to finish the race at the podium in 3rd spot behind Vettel and Hamilton.

The battle was on for the top spot between Hamilton and Vettel until Hamilton went off track giving away a good lead to Vettel. Petrov held on to his 3rd spot despite the mounting challenges from Alonso and Webber. This maiden win for Petrov also brought some emotional uplift to the entire team after his teammate Kubica's life-threatening injury.

When Renault team signed Petrov for the 2010 season he became the first Russian to compete in a Formula One championship. After 2 seasons with Renault, he was signed by Caterham for the 2012 season. Petrov is very much remembered by Schumacher fans as he was involved in three contacts with Schumacher in 2011 season alone.

#7 Takuma Sato

Takuma Sato became only the second Japanese driver to achieve a podium finish after Aguri Suzuki, a feat not repeated until Kamui Kobayashi in the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix. At 52nd lap, Michael Schumacher went ahead of Barrichello which meant that Montoya and Trulli would be catching them.

Sato was, in turn, catching Trulli for fourth place. While the next two laps saw Montoyo getting disqualified for changing cars too late and Webber's engine getting expired, which aided Sato to move up into the third position.

The Japanese racing driver competed in Formula One racing from 2002 to 2008 for the Jordan, BAR, and Super Aguri teams. For the 2009 season, Sato took part in the test to be part of the Red Bull Racing team, but eventually, Sebastien Bourdais won the race seat.

Sato is a national cyclist champion who happens to be the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar race and also happens to be the first Asian driver to win the Indianapolis 500, having won the 2017 event.

#6 Aguri Suzuki

This race is known for the crash of Senna and Prost at the first turn of the circuit making both the drivers to retire off the race. As this incident happened after Senna wasn't happy with the pole position and acclaimed that second position's advantage can cause an incident at turn one, which happened the same way.

Aguri Suzuki went on to finish the race at the podium with the 3rd spot behind Benetton-Ford drivers after starting the race qualifying at 9th place.

To date, this has been the last race where no European driver has finished the race on the podium, two South American drivers and an Asian driver filled the three podium places for this race.

It was also the only race where the Larrousse team scored a podium finish, during their eight seasons of competing in Formula One. It was also the first and only podium finish for the Lamborghini V12 engine in Formula One.

#5 Michael Andretti

Prior to the 1993 Italian Grand Prix race weekend, the McLaren team had informed Andretti that this race would be his last race with the team due to his poor performances and would be replaced by Mika Hakkinen.

Ironically Andretti's this race happened to be his final Formula One and also turn out to be his best result with a third-place finish. It was indeed a farewell race finishing at podium starting from 9th in the grid.

Michael Mario Andretti currently is the team owner of the Andretti Autosport, which has won four IndyCar Series championships and five Indianapolis 500 races. Statistically, he is one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing. He has amassed 42 race victories, which is the most by any in the CART era and fourth-most all time. Michael's father is a racing legend, Mario Andretti, a race car driver who became a three-time IndyCar champion and the 1978 Formula One World Champion.

#4 Tiago Monterio

"Though it is a weird race, you had to finish to be there"

were the words from Monterio after finishing third in the United States Grand Prix 2005, where only 6 drivers drove the race. This race is one of the most controversial Formula One races in the entire history as 14 cars retired to pits after the parade lap due to the farce tires. All those fourteen were using Michelin tires. The three teams using Bridgestone tires, Ferrari, Jordan, and Minardi competed.

FIA responded to this weird race by summoned the seven Michelin-shod teams to explain further on their failure to participate and also charged specifically on six rules. Michelin tried to nullify the agony by volunteering to compensate all the race fans who had purchased tickets for the Grand Prix.

Within 3 months of time, Michelin issued the refund cheques through the Speedway ticket office. Additionally, Michelin also purchased 20,000 tickets for the 2006 United States Grand Prix to be distributed to spectators who attended the 2005 race.

#3 J J Lehto

Lehto was overjoyed to gain the first podium place of his career for Dallara, with Martini 4th. As prior to this 1991 San Marino Grand Prix, he missed the qualification cut for five consecutive times. It all started happening when Ivan Capelli spun into retirement from 4th to hand over to JJ Lehto's Dallara.

Modena retired with transmission problems which meant that behind the two dominant McLarens, the order was now Roberto Moreno, Lehto, Eric van de Poele for the little Modena team and Martini's Minardi.

Jyrki Juhani Jarvilehto, better known as J J Lehto has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, in 1995 and 2005. Lehto joined the German Touring Car Championship, DTM, in 1995 and 1996. Then moved on to GT and Sports car racing.

On 17th June 2010, Lehto was involved in a boating accident where he injured himself and got his friend killed. Despite facing charges of reckless driving, negligent homicide and driving under influence the Finnish made a return to sportscasting on a Finnish sports-channel Urho TV, commentating on a DTM event.

#2 Kamui Kobayashi

Kobayashi was impressive the entire race weekend during the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix, qualifying third with his Sauber-Ferrari and also went on to finish the race at the podium with a third-place position.

His first (and last) podium happened in front of his home crowd. When notably the crowd was chanting "Kamui" making the moment of Kamui's life even more cherishable.

Kobayashi is a Japanese professional driver who has competed in GP2 series and GP2 Asia series apart from his 5-year career in Formula One racing with Toyota, Sauber, and Caterham. At November 2007 it was confirmed that Kobayashi would replace Franck Montagny as the Toyota F1 team's third driver. He was the team's test and reserve driver during the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

He is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing, in the Super Formula Championship for KCMG and set to compete in Formula E for Andretti Autosport under Monaco racing license.

#1 Pastor Maldonado

Lewis Hamilton was the one to initially qualify to the pole but due to a technical infringement, Williams' Pastor Maldonado inherited the pole and went on to win the race. Before this race, his previous best was just an 8th place. The race is undoubtedly the best one for Maldanodo as he went on to win the race as the first Venezuelan and it happened to be his first and last finish at the podium.

At the final phase of the race, Alonso eventually caught the back of Maldonado but did not have the ability to overtake him. The gap hovered around one second for some time until Alonso started dropping off.

The Venezuelan was competing in Formula One for 5 seasons, 2011-13 for Williams and 2014-15 with the Lotus. Maldonado was set to race for the reformed Renault team (who bought out Lotus) in 2016 alongside Jolyon Palmer, but it was announced on 1 February 2016 that he would not be returning.

Maldonado later became a test driver for Pirelli, testing a GP2 car for the 2017 season. Interesting fact about Maldonado is that he was amassing quite a lot of reprimands, 4 penalty points in 2014, 5 driver related reprimands in 2013 and 5 penalty points in 2012.

Edited by Kishan Prasad