Most F1 Front Row Starts
Lewis Hamilton leads on 178 front row starts, ahead of Michael Schumacher on 116.
Counts races started from first or second on the grid.
Record holder
178front row starts
| # | Driver | Front rows |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Lewis Hamilton | 178 |
| 2nd | Michael Schumacher | 116 |
| 3rd | Sebastian Vettel | 101 |
| 4th | Max Verstappen | 90 |
| 5th | Ayrton Senna | 87 |
| 6th | Alain Prost | 86 |
| 7th | Nico Rosberg | 60 |
| 8th | Nigel Mansell | 56 |
| 9th | Charles Leclerc | 48 |
| 10th | Damon Hill | 47 |
| 11th | Valtteri Bottas | 46 |
| 12th | Nelson Piquet | 44 |
| 13th | Kimi Räikkönen | 43 |
| 14th | Fernando Alonso | 42 |
| 15th | Jim Clark | 41 |
| =16th | Juan Fangio | 39 |
| =16th | Mika Häkkinen | 39 |
| =18th | David Coulthard | 37 |
| =18th | Mark Webber | 37 |
| =20th | René Arnoux | 34 |
| =20th | Rubens Barrichello | 34 |
| =22nd | Jackie Stewart | 33 |
| =22nd | Lando Norris | 33 |
| 24th | Gerhard Berger | 32 |
| =25th | Graham Hill | 31 |
| =25th | Niki Lauda | 31 |
How this is measured
- Pole is credited to the driver who started first on the grid. Session-by-session qualifying data only exists from 1994, so grid position is used across the whole of history; it also matches the official record when a grid penalty promotes another driver to P1, and for the 2021 sprint weekends. The one exception is the 2022 sprint weekends, where the official pole went to the fastest qualifier rather than the sprint winner: Kevin Magnussen, not George Russell, holds pole for the 2022 São Paulo Grand Prix.
- The 1950–1960 Indianapolis 500 rounds counted towards the world championship but were run to American rules with roughly 33-car grids and almost no overlap in entrants. They are excluded from every leaderboard on this site.
- The current season is included, so these figures change after every Grand Prix.
Most F1 Pole Positions
104pole positions
Most F1 Poles by a Constructor
254pole positions