Singapore will be Formula One’s first night race, the first to be held in the island state and first on an Asian street circuit. The track is expected to be the second slowest of the season, after Monaco.This GP will also be the 800th round of the Formula One world championship since the first at Silverstone in 1950. Formula One’s previous landmark races are:

1 — Britain 1950, Giuseppe Farina (Alfa Romeo)

100 — Germany 1961, Stirling Moss (Lotus)

200 — Monaco 1971, Jackie Stewart (Tyrrell)

300 — South Africa 1978, Ronnie Peterson (Lotus)

400 — Austria 1984, Niki Lauda (McLaren)

500 —Australia 1990, Nelson Piquet Sr. (Benetton)

600 — Argentina 1997, Jacques Villeneuve (Williams)

700 — Brazil 2003, Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan)

Germany’s Sebastian Vettel, triumphant at the previous Italian GP in Monza for Toro Rosso, was the third first-time winner of the season after Poland’s Robert Kubica (BMW-Sauber) and Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren). All three were on the podium at Monza.

Vettel, at 21, was the youngest driver to win a Formula One race. He was also the youngest to start on pole, having already been the youngest to score a point and to feature in a GP weekend.

Of the 20 drivers on the starting grid in Singapore, 12 are now race winners. BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld (146 races) is the active driver who has done most starts without winning.

Ferrari have won seven races to McLaren’s five this year. Since 1950, the Italian team have won 208 races. McLaren have 161 wins and Williams 113.

Ferrari and BMW-Sauber are the only teams to have scored points in every race this year. Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil are the only drivers yet to score a point in 2008 (not including Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson from now-defunct Super Aguri).