- Ask Steven
Formula One at sixth and seconds
Mark Webber finished second in his final Grand Prix. How many people have won their last one? asked Michael Reynolds
Mark Webber was the only the sixth driver to finished second in his final Grand Prix. The last one to do it before him was Alain Prost, in his last race before retirement in 1993, and before that Jo Siffert finished second in the United States GP in October 1971 before being killed in an accident three weeks later.
In 1958 Mike Hawthorn clinched the world championship by finishing second in his final race, in Morocco in October. He announced his retirement, but was killed in a road accident early the following year. Earlier Paul Frere (1956) and Dorino Serafini (1950) both finished second in their final GP drives.
Two men, though, have gone one better and taken the chequered flag in their last Grand Prix. In 1968 Jim Clark won in South Africa, but sadly died in a crash in a Formula Two race at Hockenheim a few months later, before the next world championship F1 race.
And Luigi Fagioli co-drove the winner of the French GP (with Juan Manuel Fangio) in 1951, and never started another Grand Prix. He was 52 at the time, but died after an accident the following year.
(This answer omits Sebastian Vettel, who won his last Grand Prix to date, and three winners and one runner-up in the Indianapolis 500 when it counted towards the world championship between 1950 and 1960.)
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