Two cars, side by side, doing over 300 km/h, with less time between them at the finish line than it takes you to blink. This is exactly what has happened in (F1) Formula 1’s closest finishes.
While most Grand Prix wins are decided by several seconds, a rare handful of races have been settled by fractions of a second, so tight that even slow-motion cameras have struggled to separate the cars.
The 10 Closest Race Finishes in F1 History
Here is the list of the ten closest winning margins.
| Rank | Grand Prix | Winner | Runner-Up | Winning Margin |
| 1 | 1971 Italian GP | Peter Gethin | Ronnie Peterson | 0.010s |
| 2 | 2002 United States GP | Rubens Barrichello | Michael Schumacher | 0.011s |
| 3 | 1986 Spanish GP | Ayrton Senna | Nigel Mansell | 0.014s |
| 4 | 1982 Austrian GP | Elio de Angelis | Keke Rosberg | 0.050s |
| 5 | 1969 Italian GP | Jackie Stewart | Jochen Rindt | 0.080s |
| 6 (tie) | 1954 French GP | Juan Manuel Fangio | Karl Kling | 0.100s |
| 6 (tie) | 1961 French GP | Giancarlo Baghetti | Dan Gurney | 0.100s |
| 8 | 2000 Canadian GP | Michael Schumacher | Rubens Barrichello | 0.174s |
| 9 | 2002 Austrian GP | Michael Schumacher | Rubens Barrichello | 0.182s |
| 10 | 1967 Italian GP | John Surtees | Jack Brabham | 0.200s |
1. 1971 Italian Grand Prix
This race took place on Monza’s old pre-chicane layout, a flat-out, slipstream-heavy configuration that no longer exists in its 1971 form because this exact race is a big part of why the FIA added chicanes the following year.
Chris Amon looked set to win with ten laps to go until his car developed problems, throwing the race wide open. That left five cars, Peter Gethin’s BRM P160, Ronnie Peterson’s March 711, Francois Cevert’s Tyrrell 002, Mike Hailwood’s Surtees TS9, and Howden Ganley’s BRM, fighting for a maiden win apiece.
Coming out of the final Parabolica corner for the last time, all five drivers were essentially drag racing wheel to wheel down the pit straight.
Gethin got the cleanest exit out of the corner, tucked into a perfect slipstreaming position, and held on by 0.010 seconds over Peterson at the line. Cevert was third, Hailwood fourth, and Ganley fifth, with all five cars covered by just 0.610 seconds total.
2. 2002 United States Grand Prix
Michael Schumacher had comfortably dominated the Indianapolis race and, coming down the final straight, tried to stage a deliberate dead heat with teammate Rubens Barrichello as a show of Ferrari unity, appearing to want the two cars to cross the line side by side for a photo finish.
But this move backfired. Schumacher lifted off the throttle just a fraction too early, and the timing system recorded Barrichello crossing the line 0.011 seconds ahead, making him the official winner of the race.
It’s widely believed the gesture was also Schumacher’s way of repaying Barrichello, who had been ordered to hand him victory at the Austrian Grand Prix earlier that same season.
3. 1986 Spanish Grand Prix
At Jerez, Ayrton Senna led the entire race in his Lotus-Renault, but Nigel Mansell’s Williams-Honda had fresher tyres and was closing the gap lap after lap in the closing stages. On the final lap, Mansell tucked into Senna’s slipstream down the pit straight and timed his move perfectly.
It came down to inches. Mansell’s Williams drew level, but Senna’s Lotus held the racing line just enough to cross the line 0.014 seconds ahead.
It remains one of the most replayed finishes in F1’s archive footage
4. 1982 Austrian Grand Prix
This race gave Elio de Angelis his maiden Grand Prix win, but he had to earn every inch of it. Keke Rosberg’s Williams FW08 got a tow off de Angelis’s Lotus 91 in the closing laps and launched a final attack out of the last corner.
De Angelis, driving defensively but fairly, held his line and crossed the finish just 0.050 seconds ahead, registering his first win in F1.
5. 1969 Italian Grand Prix
Jackie Stewart’s Matra MS80, Jochen Rindt’s Lotus 49B, Jean-Pierre Beltoise’s Matra, and Bruce McLaren’s own McLaren M7A were in nail-biting competition as they came out of the final Parabolica corner on the last lap.
Beltoise actually led first, only to drift wide exiting the corner, which let both Stewart and Rindt slip past him on the run to the flag.
Stewart crossed the line first, 0.080 seconds ahead of Rindt, with Beltoise a further 0.09 seconds back in third and McLaren just 0.02 seconds behind him in fourth.
In total, the top four finishers were covered by only 0.19 seconds.
6. 1954 French Grand Prix
Mercedes-Benz returned to Grand Prix racing at Reims after a 15-year absence following the Second World War, debuting the radical, fully-enclosed streamlined W196, a car which was built specifically to exploit Reims’ long, flat-out straights.
Juan Manuel Fangio and teammate Karl Kling immediately proved the car’s pace, pulling away from the entire field together and lapping every other car at least once.
For most of the race, the two Mercedes ran in close formation, drafting off each other exactly the way Reims always encouraged. It got so tight that a German radio commentator mistakenly announced Kling as the winner during the second-to-last lap, not realising there was still one more lap to run.
When the actual chequered flag fell, it was Fangio who held on, winning by 0.1 seconds.
7. 1961 French Grand Prix
Giancarlo Baghetti, an Italian amateur racer entered by a private consortium called FISA, was driving a Ferrari 156 fitted with an older, less powerful engine than the factory cars.
All three factory Ferraris retired before the finish, which left Baghetti, on his World Championship debut, fighting wheel to wheel with two more experienced Porsche drivers, Dan Gurney and Jo Bonnier, over the closing ten laps at Reims.
The lead changed hands repeatedly in the final laps. Gurney led onto the last lap, but coming down the finishing straight for the final time, Baghetti timed his exit from the slipstream perfectly, pulled out from behind Gurney’s Porsche with roughly 200 metres to go, and drew level right at the line. The margin was just 0.1 seconds.
8. 2000 Canadian Grand Prix
At Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Michael Schumacher led from pole but was managing a rear-end issue with his Ferrari for a significant chunk of the race, meaning he couldn’t simply drive away and control the gap the way he normally would.
Teammate Rubens Barrichello, running second, was instructed by the team to hold station rather than attack, but as the laps wound down and Schumacher’s pace visibly dropped, Barrichello began closing the gap regardless.
By the final lap, the two Ferraris were really close, and Schumacher had to nurse his ailing car home rather than simply cruise to the flag. He crossed the line just 0.174 seconds ahead, with his fifth win in eight races that season and the 40th of his career.
9. 2002 Austrian Grand Prix
Rubens Barrichello had led comfortably for almost the entire distance and looked set for a deserved victory at the Osterreichring). On the run to the finish line, Ferrari instructed him over team radio to slow down and let championship leader Michael Schumacher through, purely to help Schumacher’s title bid.
Barrichello complied right at the very last moment, meaning the two cars crossed the line just 0.182 seconds apart despite one having led the entire race.
The podium ceremony that followed became infamous; a clearly unhappy Schumacher pushed Barrichello up onto the top step in an attempt to share the moment, and the crowd booed loudly throughout the anthem.
10. 1967 Italian Grand Prix
Jim Clark’s Lotus 49 was leading comfortably when a puncture on lap 12 forced an unscheduled pit stop and cost him an entire lap. Jim Clark carved his way back through the entire field and retook the race lead outright on lap 60 of 68.
On the final lap, a fuel pump pickup problem starved Jim Clark’s engine of the last few gallons still sitting in his tank, and his pace collapsed.
That let John Surtees, driving the brand-new Honda RA300 and Jack Brabham through into first and second.
Surtees had qualified only ninth, but a strong, consistent race brought him into contention. At the final Parabolica corner on the last lap, Brabham dived down the inside and briefly took the lead, but ran slightly wide on the exit and Surtees held on by 0.2 seconds.
