Hamilton becomes the driver to have led the furthest distance, Renault take their biggest ever points haul and Ferrari fail to score at Spa for the first time since 1998. Here are the facts and statistics from the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix!
HAMILTON WINS
Lewis Hamilton won the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix, taking the 89th victory of his career, and his fourth win at Spa Francorchamps. He equals Jim Clark and Kimi Raikkonen for the third-most wins at the circuit. Lewis Hamilton recorded Mercedes’ fifth victory at Spa Francorchamps, equalling Lotus’ tally of victories at the circuit and putting them third in the all-time list of most team wins at the track.
Lewis Hamilton equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of most Belgian Grand Prix podiums. Both drivers have finished on the podium at Spa nine times.
Prior to this weekend, Lewis Hamilton was tied with Sebastian Vettel as the driver to have scored the most points at Spa Francorchamps. With Vettel not scoring, Hamilton is now the outright record holder, having scored 177 points at the circuit.
For the second time in his career, Lewis Hamilton led the Belgian Grand Prix from start to finish. He had previously done so in 2010. This was the 22nd race which Hamilton has led from lights to flag, and in doing so he becomes the driver to have led the furthest distance in Formula 1 history, taking the record from Michael Schumacher. Hamilton has now led 24,297km of races in his career.
For the first time in his career, Lewis Hamilton has finished in the same position as he started at six consecutive races. Five of those races have been wins from pole position.
ON THE PODIUM
Valtteri Bottas recorded his best Belgian Grand Prix result with second place, having previously finished third in 2014 and 2019. Bottas becomes the 21st driver to have finished on the podium at Spa Francorchamps three or more times.
Bottas equalled Mika Hakkinen as the Finnish driver with the second-most podiums in Formula 1. Only Kimi Raikkonen has more podiums than the 51 scored by Bottas and Hakkinen.
With Hamilton winning and Bottas second, Mercedes recorded their third 1-2 finish at the Belgian Grand Prix. Their other 1-2 finishes here were in 1955 and 2015. This was Mercedes’ 50th 1-2 finish since their return to the sport.
With both drivers finishing on the podium, Mercedes notched up their fourteenth and fifteenth podium finishes at Spa Francorchamps, overtaking Williams for third most podium finishes at the circuit.
Max Verstappen finished on the podium for a sixth consecutive race, matching his personal record of most consecutive podium finishes. He previously finished on the podium at six successive races between the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix and the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. This was Verstappen’s 37th podium finish in total, equalling Riccardo Patrese’s total of top three finishes.
The 2020 Belgian Grand Prix is the tenth time that Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen have finished in the top three together. They are the fifth most frequent podium trio in Formula 1’s 70 year history.
This is only the second time at Spa that the top three have finished in the order they started. It also happened in 2007. In both 2007 and 2020, the driver who started fourth finished fourth, the driver who started fifth finished sixth and the driver who started sixth finished fifth.
THE TOP TEN
Both Renault drivers finished in the top five. This is the first time since the 1983 Belgian Grand Prix – when Alain Prost won and Eddie Cheever finished third – that both Renault drivers have finished in the top five at Spa Francorchamps. It is also only the second time since the team’s last win (at the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix) that both drivers have finished in the top five. Both Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg finished in the top five at the 2019 Italian Grand Prix.
On the final lap of the race, Daniel Ricciardo set the Fastest Lap with a time which was 1.2 seconds away from the Lap Record at the circuit. Ricciardo is the first Renault driver to record the fastest lap of a race since Robert Kubica at the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix.
While Renault take their largest ever points haul from a Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo scores the most points for a Renault driver at a single race since Nick Heidfeld finished third at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix.
With fifth place, Esteban Ocon equals the best result of his career. He also finished fifth twice in 2017, at the Spanish and Mexico Grands Prix.
Alex Albon finished sixth, and with team-mate Max Verstappen on the podium, this is the first time since 2016 that both Red Bull drivers have reached the chequered flag and the first time that both of the team’s drivers have scored at the event since 2014.
Lando Norris finished in seventh place, making this the first Belgian Grand Prix in which a McLaren driver has scored since 2016. In that race, just as in 2020, one driver finished seventh while the other failed to finish.
Pierre Gasly’s eighth place made this the eighth Belgian Grand Prix in the last nine years in which the Red Bull junior team have scored points. Gasly recorded his best Spa finish, having finished ninth on his previous two appearances.
For a third consecutive year, both Racing Point drivers scored points at the Belgian Grand Prix. Lance Stroll recorded his best Spa result with ninth place, having a previous best of tenth in 2019.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
For the first time since the 2010 British Grand Prix, both Ferrari drivers finished a race in positions outside of the points. This was the first Belgian Grand Prix since 1998 in which neither Ferrari driver has scored.
For the first time since 2015, Sebastian Vettel failed to score at the Belgian Grand Prix. Despite this, Vettel did equal a record this weekend. He equalled Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa as the drivers to have completed the Belgian Grand Prix on the most occasions. Schumacher, Massa and Vettel have now all crossed the finish line at Spa twelve times in their careers.
The 2020 Belgian Grand Prix was the 1000th World Championship F1 race to feature a Ferrari-powered car. There wasn’t much to celebrate though, as this race was only the third time in the last five years that no Ferrari-powered cars scored.
Every driver who finished the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix completed all 44 laps of the race. This is the highest number of drivers to have completed every lap of a race at Spa Francorchamps, beating the previous record of sixteen drivers finishing on the lead lap in 2017.
THE NON FINISHERS
Carlos Sainz failed to start the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix, recording the first DNS of his career and McLaren’s first DNS since Fernando Alonso at the 2017 Russian Grand Prix. This is the second consecutive year in which Sainz has failed to complete a lap of the Belgian Grand Prix. This was the fourth time in six appearances at the Belgian Grand Prix that Carlos Sainz has failed to reach the chequered flag. Sainz was McLaren’s first DNS at Spa since Niki Lauda in 1985.
The 2020 Belgian Grand Prix was the first race which no Spanish drivers started since the 2005 United States Grand Prix.
Sainz is only the second driver to record a DNS at the Belgian Grand Prix in the last seventeen years. Before Sainz, the most recent time a driver record a DNS here was Nico Hulkenberg in 2015.
Antonio Giovinazzi retired from the Belgian Grand Prix for a second consecutive year. This was the Italian driver’s first retirement since he crashed out of last year’s Spa race. He made it the fifth consecutive year in which an Alfa Romeo/Sauber driver retired from the Belgian Grand Prix.
George Russell recorded Williams’ first retirement at the Belgian Grand Prix since Pastor Maldonado failed to finish in 2012.
With Nicholas Latifi finishing sixteenth and George Russell retiring, this was Williams’ worst weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix since both drivers retired in 2004.