Hamilton inherits victory from his team-mate, McLaren record their best combined Spa result since 2007 and Red Bull endure their longest win-less streak since 2020. Here are the facts and statistics from the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix.
RUSSELL DISQUALIFIED, HAMILTON WINS 2024 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
At the conclusion of the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, George Russell lead team-mate Lewis Hamilton over the line by just over half a second to bring home his third Grand Prix victory and Mercedes’ first 1-2 result since the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. However, after the race, Russell was disqualified from the result due to his car being 1.5kg underweight – handing victory to his team-mate.
Lewis Hamilton, therefore, claimed the 105th victory of his Formula 1 career at the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, winning at Spa-Francorchamps for the fifth time. It puts him one victory short of equalling Michael Schumacher’s record for the most wins at the track. This was Hamilton’s first win in Belgium since 2020.
Hamilton’s 2024 Belgian Grand Prix victory came 11 years to the day since his first win with Mercedes, at the 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton became the first driver other than Max Verstappen to record multiple victories in the 2024 season.
Hamilton won the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix from third on the grid, meaning that as many wins at Spa have come from third or further back than have come from pole position.
Lewis Hamilton was voted Driver of the Day for the second time in three races, winning the accolade for the 16th time in his career.
Hamilton took victory by just 0.647 seconds – the smallest winning margin in Spa’s history on the Formula 1 calendar.
Hamilton’s win marked the 150th podium finish for car number 44 in Formula 1. Hamilton has recorded all but three of those podiums, with Piero Taruffi, Maurice Trintignant and Olivier Gendebien recording the others.
This was Hamilton’s 13th points-scoring appearance at Spa-Francorchamps, overtaking Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel as the driver who has scored points on the most occasions at the track.
Five different drivers led at least one lap of the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix. It was the first F1 race to feature as many as five different lap leaders since the 2023 Italian Grand Prix, as well as the first race at Spa to feature that many different leaders since 2011.
This is the first time since the first five races of 2013 that four or more drivers have led laps in three consecutive Formula 1 races. It’s only the fourth time that three races in a row have had as many as four different leaders.
This was the first time since 1998 that the driver who started third won the Belgian Grand Prix.
ON THE PODIUM
Oscar Piastri finished as runner-up to Lewis Hamilton at the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix. Piastri’s podium made this the tenth consecutive race in which McLaren have recorded a podium finish. It is McLaren’s longest streak of podiums since taking them at 13 races in a row between the 2011 German Grand Prix and the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix.
This was Piastri’s fourth top two finish in the last seven rounds.
Piastri led four laps of the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, making this the fourth successive race in which he has led at least one lap.
This was McLaren’s first podium finish at the Belgian Grand Prix since Jenson Button’s victory in 2012.
With both Hamilton and Piastri on the podium, Mercedes became the second engine manufacturer, after Ferrari, to power 600 podium finishes in Formula 1. Mercedes also become the third manufacturer – after Ferrari and Renault – to score points in 500 Grands Prix.
Finishing third having started from pole position, Charles Leclerc failed to convert pole into a win for the 20th time in his career. He is only the fifth driver – after Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel – who’ve failed to convert as many as 20 poles into victory.
The 2024 Belgian Grand Prix was the sixth consecutive race which the polesitter failed to win. This marks the first time that the polesitter has failed to take victory at six races in a row since the six races between the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix and the 2010 Chinese Grand Prix.
Leclerc has failed to convert 80% of his pole positions into race victories.
This was the third year in a row that a Ferrari driver finished the Belgian Grand Prix in third place having started from pole.
This was Leclerc’s first podium finish since his Monaco Grand Prix victory.
Leclerc recorded his 36th podium finish with Ferrari, equalling Felipe Massa as the driver who has recorded the sixth most top three finishes with the team.
This was the third Formula 1 race in which the driver starting third won, with the driver starting fifth finishing as runner-up and the polesitter finishing third. It’s the first time it has happened since the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix (a race also won by Lewis Hamilton), and happened previously at the 1961 German Grand Prix.
IN THE POINTS
With Max Verstappen finishing fourth in the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix and Sergio Perez seventh, Red Bull failed to win four consecutive races for the first time since 2020. This is Verstappen’s longest win-less streak since failing to win 11 races in a row between the 2020 Spanish and Sakhir Grands Prix.
This was Verstappen’s first fourth place finish in almost five years, since the 2019 Russian Grand Prix. It was the first time since 2019 that Verstappen did not finish on the Belgian Grand Prix podium.
Verstappen gained seven positions in the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix – the most places he has gained in a race since moving up eight places at the 2023 Miami Grand Prix.
Perez finished in seventh place for the third time in the last four races.
Perez lost five positions from where he started – the most places he’s lost in a race which he has finished since losing nine places in the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Red Bull head into the summer break with a 43-point advantage in the Constructors’ Championship, having led by 256 points before the summer break in 2023.
Lando Norris’ fifth place finish in the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix marked the first time he has finished a race – excluding his DNF in Austria – outside of the top four since the Japanese Grand Prix in early April.
This was Norris’ best ever result at the Belgian Grand Prix, having had a previous best result of seventh, recorded in both 2020 and 2023.
With Piastri second and Norris fifth, this was McLaren’s first double top five result in Belgium since 2007.
Both Ferrari drivers scored points in the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc third and Carlos Sainz sixth. The points scored by Ferrari this weekend saw them become the first team to have scored 10,000 points in Formula 1 history.
Fernando Alonso’s eighth place finish in the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix made this the 16th consecutive season in which the Silverstone-based team has scored a point at Spa.
Esteban Ocon finished the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix in ninth place, recording his best finish of the season to date – and his best result since finishing fourth in the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Ocon’s ninth place marks his seventh consecutive points-scoring appearance at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Daniel Ricciardo’s tenth place finish made this the fourth consecutive race in which the RB team has scored a point. It’s also the eighth consecutive season in which the Red Bull junior team has picked up a point at the Belgian Grand Prix.
This was the first time Ricciardo scored a point at the Belgian Grand Prix since finishing fourth in 2021.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
Finishing 13th, Pierre Gasly continued his 100% finish record at the Belgian Grand Prix – but this was his worst result to date at the track.
This was the first time Gasly finished the Belgian Grand Prix in a worse position than where he started.
For only the second time in 2024 – and for the first time since the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix – Kevin Magnussen finished ahead of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg. Magnussen finished 14th, while Hulkenberg was four places further back, in 18th.
Magnussen’s 14th place marks Haas’ best result at Spa since 2019, when he finished 12th.
Logan Sargeant finished 17th in the Belgian Grand Prix for the second year n a row. Both times, he gained one position from where he started.
THE RETIREES
Zhou Guanyu was the only driver to retire from the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix. This marked his second DNF of the 2024 season – his first since the Japanese Grand Prix.
Original race winner George Russell recorded the first disqualification of his career. It marked the second time he failed to score a point in the last three races.