Markus Winkelhock

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Markus Winkelhock
In 2008, as a DTM driver.
Nationality	German
Car #	-
Current team	-
Formula One World Championship career
Races	1
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Pole positions	0
Career points	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2007 European Grand Prix
Latest race	2007 European Grand Prix
2007 position	NC

Markus Winkelhock (born June 13, 1980 in Stuttgart Bad Cannstatt, Germany) is a German Formula One racing driver. He is the son of the late Manfred Winkelhock and nephew of Joachim Winkelhock, both of whom were Formula One drivers in the 1980s.^[1]

Contents 1 Early career 2 Formula One 2.1 Leads on Grand Prix debut 3 Post-Formula One career 4 Racing record 4.1 Career summary 4.2 Complete Formula One results 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early career

Markus won races in a string of junior formulae including Formula König, German Formula Renault and the Formula Renault Eurocup from 1998-2000.^[2]

In 2001, Winkelhock joined the German Formula 3 Championship, where he remained until the championship became the F3 Euroseries in 2003. His record was fifth overall in 2001 (three wins), seventh in 2002 (one win) and fourth in 2003 (two wins).^[2]

He switched to touring car racing in 2004, with a season in the DTM in an AMG-Mercedes CLK. But he failed to score a point all year with the Persson team.^[2]

Winkelhock switched back to single-seater racing in 2005, joining the World Series by Renault with Draco. He won three times but there were also some less than shining moments - notably when he crashed at Monaco in qualifying and on the first lap of the race.^[2]

[edit] Formula One

On January 24, 2006, Marcus Winkelhock was confirmed a test and reserve driver in the Midland F1 team, (formerly Jordan Grand Prix) for the 2006 Formula One season.^[3] He participated in Friday test sessions for the team at the Bahrain, Australian, German and Hungarian Grands Prix.^[2]

He was re-signed for 2007 by the team, now in its Spyker F1 guise.^[4] He also made a brief return to the DTM in 2007, starting three races.^[2]

Following Christijan Albers' departure from Spyker after the 2007 British Grand Prix, Winkelhock was confirmed as his replacement for the European Grand Prix on July 18.^[5] The deal was only for one race with Sakon Yamamoto set to race for Spyker for the rest of the season.^[6]

[edit] Leads on Grand Prix debut

Winkelhock qualified last on the 22-car grid alongside team mate Adrian Sutil. But on the formation lap with the rest of the field already on dry-weather tyres, the team made a last-second decision to call Winkelhock into the pits to switch to intermediate tyres. When pouring rain forced almost all the others to pit at the end of the first lap, Winkelhock was able to move into the lead, passing some cars as they pitted, and even passing Kimi Räikkönen on the track as the Finn tip-toed around to the pits, eventually building a lead of 33 seconds.

As the rain got heavier the race stewards first sent out the safety car, and then suspended the race following a series of spin-offs in the first corner behind the safety car. The race re-started after the rain had eased. Winkelhock and his team chose to start on full wet tyres on a drying track in the hope of further showers, as the team expected he would be overtaken by faster cars anyway. The gamble failed and, having re-started the race from pole position, Winkelhock quickly fell down the order. He retired on lap 15 with hydraulic problems that caused a small fire. He had led for a total of six laps.^[7]

According to Bob Varsha of the US SPEED Channel commentary team, Winkelhock is the only driver in Formula One history to start last on the grid and lead the race in his first Grand Prix, and due to the red flag and restart, is also the only driver in Formula One history to start both last and first on the grid in the same Grand Prix.

Despite leading his debut race, the Spyker team eventually opted against giving Winkelhock a drive for the remainder of the 2007 season for sponsorship reasons, and instead decided to give the drive to former Super Aguri driver Sakon Yamamoto.

[edit] Post-Formula One career

Winkelhock returned to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters after he lost his Spyker seat, and has remained in the series for 2008.

[edit] Racing record

[edit] Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final Placing
1998	Formula König	?	9	2	3	161	2nd
1999	Formula Renault Germany	SL Formula Racing Lechner Racing	8	1	2	72	4th
2000	Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup	?	?	?	1	78	6th
	Formula Renault 2000 Italy	SL Racing	4	0	0	8	21st
2001	German Formula Three	Mücke Motorsport	20	2	3	141	5th
	Masters of Formula Three	?	1	0	0	N/A	36th
2002	German Formula Three	Mücke Motorsport	18	2	1	28	7th
2003	Formula Three Euroseries	Mücke Motorsport	20	1	2	71	4th
	Masters of Formula Three	?	1	0	0	N/A	6th
2004	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Team Persson	11	0	0	0	NC
2005	World Series by Renault	Draco Multiracing USA	17	1	3	114	3rd
2006	Formula One	Midland	Test driver
	Porsche Supercup	Porsche AG	1	0	0	0	NC
2007	Formula One	Spyker	1	0	0	0	26th
	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	2	0	0	0	NC
		Futurecom TME	5	0	0	0

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key)

Yr	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	WDC	Points
2006	MF1 Racing	Midland M16	Toyota RVX-06 2.4 V8	BHR TD	MAL	AUS TD	SMR	EUR	ESP	MON	GBR	CAN	USA	FRA	GER TD	HUN TD	TUR	ITA	CHN	JPN	BRA	-	-
2007	Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team	Spyker F8-VII	Ferrari 056H 2.4 V8	AUS	MAL	BHR	ESP	MON	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	EUR Ret	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	JPN	CHN	BRA		26	0

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Markus Winkelhock's career statistics at Driver Database
• Who's Who: Markus Winkelhock at F1Fanatic