As after each Grand Prix, it is time to discover the most striking statistics, the records that have been broken, the remarkable series still in progress or that stopped net during the last weekend …
Qualifications
The first line locked by McLaren F1 during the qualifications of the GP of Belgium was the 68th in its history, which allows the Woking team to match Ferrari, behind the first 82 lines of Mercedes.
McLaren signed its 12th pole at Spa-Francorchamps, one length from the Ferrari record, and this is the first time that a team of the team was rushed since 2012, when Jenson Button had signed the pole position.
Thanks to this pole position, Norris equal Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen, who also have four pole positions this season. George Russell signed only one, during the Grand Prix of Canada.
In the top 3 on the grid for the seventh consecutive time, Oscar Piastri was launched second, and he now had as many victories when he started from this place as in pole position.
Max Verstappen was fourth, a place that has never allowed the pilots occupier from the start of triumphing at Spa-Francorchamps.
This is his best position at the start since his 2021 pole – transformed into a victory after the fiasco of the organization of the race – because he had taken penalties on the grid during the three previous editions. And it is the first time that he has not signed the best time for qualifying since 2020.
With fifth place, Alex Albon equaled his best position on the grid in Belgium, since his previous fifth place at the start at Spa dates back to 2020, when he ran under the colors of Red Bull. With his eighth appearance in Q3 in 13 races, he already equaled his total of the entire 2024 season.
Yuki Tsunoda signed his best qualification at Spa-Francorchamps with seventh place, while Isack Hadjar, eighth, has still not been eliminated in Q1. He is the only pilot on the grid to have never undergone this affront.
The 11th place of Esteban Ocon was the best qualification of Haas at Spa since 2019, even if it had done much better during the Sprint qualification by placing itself in fifth position.
Nico Hülkenberg was 14th at the start and he still hasn’t reached Q3 this season. With the exception of Jack Doohan and Franco Colapinto, who did not play the whole season, he is the only one who did not get there.
The elimination of Lewis Hamilton in Q1 was the first for Ferrari from Carlos Sainz at the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2023. For Hamilton unfortunately, it was the second in 24 hours – even if it had not counted – since he had also undergone the same fate during the SQ1 for the sprint.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli had not tasted the elimination in Q1 since his first race in Australia, but he did not cross it in Belgium, any more than the SQ1 the day before.
Franco Colapinto was eliminated in Q1 for the fourth time in the last six races, while Stroll launched did not cross it for the ninth time of the season. This is the first time since Miami that the two Aston Martin are eliminated in Q1, and it is all the less flattering for the Canadian than between Miami and Spa, Alonso made a Q2 and five Q3.
The race
By winning for the sixth time this season, the eighth of his career, Oscar Piastri became the first Australian to win six races in a year. His series of 31 races in the points is the longest for a pilot being neither Lewis Hamilton nor Max Verstappen.
Lando Norris finished second, and it was the first time that he had reached the top 4 of a race in Belgium. This is the sixth double of McLaren this year, a first since 1988 with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.
This is the 13th victory of McLaren in the Belgian Ardenne, and the first since Jenson Button in 2012. It is also the first double of the team in Belgium since 1999, or 26 years, a race that David Coulthard had won in front of Mika Häkkinen and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
Charles Leclerc signed his third consecutive third place in Belgium, and he reached the five podiums this season. This is as much as Max Verstappen, and far behind Norris and Piastri, who have 11 each in 13 races.
Fourth, Max Verstappen only climbed on the podium during the last six races. It was the first time since 2019 that he has chained three consecutive races without going on the box.
For Alex Albon, it is the fourth race of the season which ends in the Top 6. And if we do not count the second place of Russell after the 2021 masquerade, it is the best result of Williams at Spa since 2015.
The two points scored by Gabriel Bortoleto, which brings its total to six units, are the first arrival in the Top 10 for Sauber from Marcus Ericsson in 2018.
With four consecutive arrivals in 11th position, Oliver Bearman is the first pilot to chain such a series of results which are not a victory.
With 20 pilots on arrival, this is the second time of the season that there is no recorded abandonment. This is done on selective circuits, since the first similar case was in Suzuka.
