What remarkable performances do you recall from past races in the United States? Which (yet another) record Ferrari are set to equal this weekend? And why is Juan Pablo Montoya likely to become a World Champion? Marcel Schot brings these answers and more, in the United States edition of 'Facts & Stats'

Almost 23 years ago to the day, on Friday, October 5th 1979, those few who bothered to go out in the torrential rain of Watkins Glen witnessed one of the most unique sights ever seen in a US Grand Prix or any Grand Prix for that matter.

The rain was so bad that most of the drivers didn't even think about going out. The few that did go out didn't do more than a single timed lap. Vittorio Brambilla, once victorious in similar circumstances in Austria, stepped on it, completing a lap just below 2 minutes and 25 seconds. Ferrari's freshly crowned World Champion Jody Scheckter fullfilled his duty to the fans, rounding the circuit no less than 14 seconds faster than Brambilla.

However, that wasn't as fast as it got. Out came Scheckter's teammate, Canadian Gilles Villeneuve, and at a speed nobody thought possible, he threw his car around the circuit to set a time of 2:01.437 - 10.6 seconds faster than the World Champion, in the same car. Moreover, Villeneuve completed the lap in an average 12kmh faster than anybody. He went on to win the race two days later - his fourth career win, and a third win in North America.

Another remarkable drive on US soil was seen in 1990, when a young and unproven Jean Alesi, in the midfield Tyrrell, managed to keep 1988 World Champion Ayrton Senna, in the overpowering McLaren, behind him for half the race.

After the Indianapolis 500 was scratched from the Formula One calendar, just six drivers have won in both. So far, five have become Formula One World Champions.

                   Years  Wins   F1 WC   I500    I500
                   in F1  in F1  titles  Starts  Wins
Jim Clark            9     25      2       5      1
Emerson Fittipaldi  11     14      2      11      2
Graham Hill         18     14      2       3      1
Mario Andretti      14     12      1      29      1
Jacques Villeneuve   6     11      1       2      1
Juan Pablo Montoya   2      1      0       1      1

Not much of a record watch this time, since there have been so few races on the Indianapolis circuit. However, there's a record to tie for Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. If they score a one-two this weekend, they'll have scored 14 for a tie with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. The sworn enemies at McLaren accomplished their feat in 27 races, while Schumacher and Barrichello drive their 50th race together this weekend.

Past Performance in the US by Current Drivers

	1996		1997		1998		1999		2000		2001		Average Qualifying Position
	Qual	Race	Qual	Race	Qual	Race	Qual	Race	Qual	Race	Qual	Race
M.Schumacher	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	2	1.000
Barrichello	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4	2	5	15	4.500
Coulthard	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	5	7	3	4.500
Raikkonen	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	11	M	11.000
R.Schumacher	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10	M	2	R	6.000
Montoya	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	M	3.000
Heidfeld	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	16	9	6	6	14.000
Frentzen	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	7	3	15	10	11.000
Fisichella	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	15	M	12	8	13.500
Sato	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Villeneuve	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	8	4	18	M	13.000
Panis	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	13	11	13.000
Trulli	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5	R	8	4	6.500
Button	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6	M	10	9	8.000
Irvine	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	17	7	14	5	15.500
de la Rosa	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	18	M	16	12	17.000
Yoong	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	22	M	22.000
Webber	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Salo	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	14	R	-	-	14.000
McNish	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-