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Sebastian Vettel completed his first marathon in London, finishing with a time of 2:59:08, which was enough to win the celebrity category. He ran for charities including the Brain & Spine Foundation and The Grand Prix Trust.
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A four-time Formula 1 world champion who spent two decades training his body to sit very still inside a very loud machine has, it turns out, also been quietly putting in the running miles. Sebastian Vettel completed his first ever marathon on Sunday in London, and he did it in 2:59:08, which was enough to top the celebrity field at the 2026 race. That sub-three was the number he’d told everyone he wanted before the start. He cleared it by 52 seconds.
Vettel ran alongside F1 journalist Tom Clarkson, with the marathon being a first for the retired driver. The pair were running for two causes that sit close to the sport: the Brain & Spine Foundation and The Grand Prix Trust.
The Grand Prix Trust was founded by Sir Jackie Stewart in the 1980s and has spent four decades helping F1’s trackside and factory personnel get back on their feet, while the Brain & Spine Foundation was set up in 1992 by former F1 safety and medical delegate Professor Sidney Watkins and neurosurgeon Peter Hamlyn.
The fundraising goal was modest enough that they blew through it.
Clarkson and Vettel had aimed to raise £5,000 for the two charities, and at the time of writing the pair had exceeded their target with a total of £8,873. The race itself was the real story. Wearing number 45294, the 38-year-old started at 09:35 local time and crossed the line at roughly 12:04.
That pace works out to a little over 4 minutes 14 seconds per kilometre, which is the kind of consistent number you only hit if you’ve been running properly for years rather than just turning up in good shoes. Vettel beat former Arsenal and Cardiff City midfielder Aaron Ramsey, who came in at 3:00:30, and cricketer Sir Alastair Cook, who finished in 3:05:15 raising money for the Ruth Strauss Foundation.
Sebastian Vettel completed the London Marathon in a time of 2:59:08.
Vettel ran for the Brain & Spine Foundation and The Grand Prix Trust.
Vettel aimed for a sub-three-hour marathon and exceeded his goal by 52 seconds.
Vettel ran alongside F1 journalist Tom Clarkson.
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The day’s headline belonged to Kenyan runner Sabastian Sawe, however, after he won the men’s race in 1:59:30, the first official sub-two-hour marathon ever recorded in competition, with Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha also dipping under the mark on his debut at 1:59:41. Two men under two hours on the same day, in normal racing conditions, on a course that thousands of amateurs were running at the same time.
Speaking to BBC Sport at the finish, a visibly tired but smiling Vettel said the race had felt long and that he hadn’t known what to expect going in, but the crowd support had carried him through. He told reporters: “I always wanted to do a marathon. I obviously always kept fit and did a lot of running, cycling. So I thought it’s about time, and obviously I set myself an ambitions goal which I managed to achieve.
“I wanted to be just below three hours, which I did, so I’m very happy with that. But even more so happy that I finished and having lived the experience I can only recommend for people to sign up and try to do it.”
For a first-time marathoner of any age that time is seriously impressive, and for a 38-year-old retired racing driver it’s the kind of number you don’t hit by accident. Vettel also described running in a group the whole way, and seeing Tower Bridge for the second time and realising he still had a long way to go, but said the crowd was so supportive that it really helped.
His parting advice was that anyone reading this should sign up and try one themselves. Easy for the man who just ran 2:59 to say. Then again, he did spend twenty-odd years getting paid to make difficult things look effortless, so this tracks.
Vettel won four successive drivers‘ titles between 2010 and 2013 and retired from F1 at the end of the 2022 season. Three and a bit years out of the cockpit, he’s picked up a new finisher’s medal, a charity total approaching £9,000, and a marathon time most weekend runners spend a decade chasing. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning in London.