The six F1 races where only half points were awarded
F1
Whether it was the tragedy of the 1975 Spanish GP, the controversy at Monaco in 1984, or the farcical scenes at the 2021 Belgian GP, half-point F1 races have become legendary footnotes in F1’s history
Few moments in Formula 1 history stand out quite like the rare occasions when only half points have been awarded.
These unusual events were triggered when races were stopped early — often due to extreme weather or major incidents — and have produced some of the sport’s most dramatic and controversial scenes.
The regulations have changed over the course of the World Championship’s history; current F1 points rules state that reduced points will be awarded if a race is stopped before 75% of the laps have been completed.
The first race to award half points took place half a century ago. Here’s a look at all F1 six rounds that didn’t run long enough to award full points.
1975 Spanish GP – Lombardi scores on tragic day
Lella Lombardi remains the only woman to have scored F1 points
Grand Prix Photo
The 1975 Spanish Grand Prix remains to this day the most tragic of the F1 races where half points were awarded.
Held at the fast, but dangerous, Montjuïc Park street circuit, the fourth round of the 1975 season was the first F1 race stopped before 60% of it had been completed.
Drivers had already expressed concerns about the barriers even before the track action kicked off, as they felt they were not bolted properly. As a result, the members of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association decided to sabotage practice until something about done. Only two drivers — Jacky Ickx and Vittorio Brambilla — jumped onto the track to complete a handful of laps in practice.
Overnight work was carried out, but the drivers were still not happy with the result and called for the race to be cancelled. To avoid that, teams decided to intervene and sent mechanics and personnel to work on the barriers, resulting in the FIA accepting that the circuit was ready for racing.
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Although the drivers were not convinced that the repairs were enough, the threat of legal action from the organisers made the event go ahead as planned.
The starting grid was made up with the times from practice, with world champion Emerson Fittipaldi at the bottom of the field after completing just three slow laps of the circuit as a protest. On the morning of the race, Fittipaldi announced he was going home and that he wouldn’t take part in the grand prix.
Ferrari drivers Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni had started from the front row, but they were early in trouble after Brambilla made contact with Mario Andretti at the start, sending the Parnelli driver into Lauda’s car, which in turn crashed into Regazzoni’s. Lauda was out on the spot while Regazzoni had to pit for repairs.
James Hunt emerged as the leader as, one by one, many drivers began to hit trouble. Jody Scheckter‘s engine blew up on lap four and the oil from it caused Alan Jones, Mark Donahue and later Hunt to crash. Andretti and John Watson also had to retire, leaving Rolf Stommelen in the lead.
But everything went terribly wrong on lap 26 when Stommelen’s rear wing got detached from his Lola, the car flying away, crashing into the barriers and landing in a spectator area. Stommelen was injured and five spectators were killed, with another 10 suffering injuries.
The race was stopped and the top six drivers were awarded half points, with Lella Lombardi becoming the first – and only – female racer to score points after finishing in sixth.
1975 Austrian GP – Brambilla survives rain to beat Hunt
To this day, 1975 is the only season which had multiple half-point races.
Like the Spanish GP that year, the Austrian Grand Prix was also marred by tragedy. It was also a race that was stopped before the end and in which half points were awarded.
While the start of the weekend at the Österreichring had been relatively drama-free, in Sunday’s warm-up Mark Donohue’s March suffered a tyre failure and crashed at the flat-out Vöest-Hügel corner, his car going through the fence.
As a result, a track marshal was killed and another was injured, while Donohue died from his injuries two days after the accident.
The on-track action continued, however, and Lauda – who was on the verge of clinching the title – was on pole position ahead of Hunt and Fittipaldi.
Although the start of the day had been sunny, come the race the weather conditions were appalling. Lauda took the lead from pole and by lap 10 it looked as if the weather was clearing, only for the rain to return heavily moments later.
Lauda had kept a healthy lead up to that point but started to struggle with the handling of his Ferrari. Hunt and Brambilla closed the gap and soon overtook the Austrian as the rain continued to fall hard.
On lap 19, Brambilla passed Hunt to take the lead and started to open a gap as the rain got heavier and heavier.
By lap 26 and with thunder and lightning hitting the circuit, the bosses called for the race to be stopped. The race was over three laps later, and Brambilla scored his first and only grand prix victory.
Brambilla crossed the finish line and then crashed into the barriers. That didn’t stop the Italian, who completed his celebratory lap waving at the crowd in the heavily damaged March.
The 1984 Monaco Grand Prix is still remembered as the day Ayrton Senna confirmed his status as an upcoming start with a sensational drive to second place behind Alain Prost. The race was also the scene of a controversial finish, as it was stopped just as Senna was catching that man who would later become his arch-rival.
Prost, in the McLaren, had started from pole position on an already wet circuit, leading from the Lotus of Nigel Mansell and Ferrari’s René Arnoux.
Senna, for his part, had qualified 12th but quickly began to make progress towards the front as he mastered the tricky conditions onboard the Toleman just six starts into his grand prix career.
By lap 4, the Brazilian had moved up to eighth place, gaining another four positions by lap 16.
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Up in front, Mansell had taken the lead from Prost but the Briton threw it all away when he crashed into the barriers and damaged his rear wing. He quickly began to drop down the order.
That incident allowed Prost back in the lead ahead of Lauda and Senna, who moved into second by overtaking the Austrian McLaren driver on the straight on lap 19.
While Prost’s lead was comfortable, Senna was the fastest man on track by three seconds per lap and kept shrinking the Frenchman’s lead.
By lap 30, still on a very wet track, Prost began to wave his hand asking for the race to be stopped. A lap later, and with Senna seven seconds behind, the red flag was deployed as clerk of the course Jacky Ickx deemed the conditions too poor to continue.
As Prost stopped in front of the red flag, Senna passed him before the finish line, but, as per the regulations, the results from the previous lap were the ones that counted, giving Prost the win.
Ickx was later suspended from his race control duties for not having consulted with the stewards before making the decision to stop the race.
1991 Australian GP – Senna on top amid Mansell fury
The final race of the 1991 season stood as the shortest in Formula 1 history for 30 years and featured a podium in which the second-placed driver was absent because he had crashed out before the finish.
Heavy rain had soaked the Adelaide circuit before the start, with Senna’s McLaren in pole position after the Brazilian had already secured his third title in the previous race in Japan.
The Australian GP didn’t feature Prost, as the Frenchman had been fired by Ferrari after having said that “a truck would be easier to drive than this car”.
At the start of the race, Senna kept first place from team-mate Gerhard Berger as the treacherous conditions made visibility a real problem for the drivers behind.
“Everything was okay other than it was a complete joke”
Berger lost second place to Mansell when he went off track. The British driver quickly closed in on Senna as chaos began to unravel. On lap 5, as Mansell attempted a pass on Senna, they found Nicola Larini’s Modena and Jean Alesi‘s Ferrari stricken on the back straight, and had to take avoiding action.
More crashes followed but Senna managed to keep it under control to stay in the lead.
On lap 14, Mansell crashed and retired, while Berger spun twice and Senna furiously waved his hands asking for the race to be stopped.
The stewards finally listened and halted the race on lap 16. Although both Mansell and Berger had crashed out, they still secured second and third behind Senna on countback.
A furious Mansell was injured and didn’t appear on the podium.
“Everything was okay other than it was a complete joke,” said Mansell after the race.
2009 Malaysian GP – Monsoon hits as Button wins for Brawn
A monsoon made racing impossible at Sepang
Grand Prix Photo
The 2009 Malaysian GP was another incredibly wet race in which the final podium positions were decided on countback.
Jenson Button in the Brawn started on pole position in the dry, but with the threat of rain looming as the sky got darker and darker.
Light rain began to fall at around lap 20 and Button, leading comfortably from Nico Rosberg in the Williams, was one of the first drivers to switch to full wet-weather tyres on lap 22.
With a 15-second lap to Rosberg, Button could take things easy as the sky got darker. The rain, however, got lighter and most drivers had to pit again to switch to intermediate tyres.
But it wasn’t long before they realised that intermediates, which had allowed Toyota’s Timo Glock to move up the order, weren’t the best option anymore as the storm really hit the circuit, flooding it everywhere and creating chaos as drivers aquaplaned off track.
All drivers eventually switched back to full wets but the safety car was deployed as the conditions were too poor. Moments later, the red flag was waved with 33 laps completed.
A wait of over 40 minutes followed as race direction hoped the weather would improve enough for a restart, but as it was getting too dark, it was decided not to resume it.
Button was declared the winner ahead of Glock and Nick Heidfeld, who benefitted from the countback to secure third place, having spun before the red flag.
The 2021 Belgian Grand Prix has the dubious honour of being the shortest ‘race’ in Formula 1 history with only three laps completed.
And as dubious as that honour is, the worst part was that the entirety of those three laps were behind the safety car.
Saturday had already offered a glimpse of what Sunday might look like as qualifying had to be delayed due to poor weather conditions. Max Verstappen secured pole position from the Williams of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.
The race start on Sunday was also delayed several times as race direction waited for better weather that never arrived.
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An attempt to start the race behind the safety car was made 25 minutes past the scheduled time, but it was aborted after two formation laps as the conditions were not suitable for racing.
The cars sat in the pitlane for over three hours before the official ‘start’, again behind the safety car. After the third lap, the race was suspended and Verstappen was declared the winner.
The handling of both qualifying and the race was another episode in the controversial spell of Michael Masi as race director, and it led to a huge backlash from both drivers, teams and fans.
Although fans who attended the race got some compensation, there were no full refunds.
As a result of the chaos, changes were made to the rulebook to avoid a repeat of the Spa farce, with no points awarded unless a minimum of two laps have been completed under green flag conditions.
