2021 Belgian Grand Prix News

For a race which promised so much, yet delivered so little, you’d be forgiven for thinking there would be nothing to deduce from the weekend as a whole. Wrong. Laura Leslie takes you through the most interesting stats from a bizarre Belgian Grand Prix.

It’s hard not to start with the big one, the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix is officially the shortest Formula One race in history. It lasted just 1 lap and was only 3m 27s long. Technically the race didn’t complete a full lap of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit either – the opening lap of the race was always destined to be shorter than the rest thanks to the start and finish lines being in different places. As a result the only lap completed was 6.88km long rather than the full 7.004km.

Max Verstappen scored his 6^th win of 2021 after crossing the line behind the Safety Car while peeling back into the pits. Verstappen closed down the gap to Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship, though not by the number of points he would have liked to. Rather than leaving with a 2 point lead, Verstappen instead remains 3 points behind Hamilton in the title chase owed to the decision to award half points. The Dutchman has also now gone level with Stirling Moss on the all-time wins list – 16. Both drivers are the two who have won the most grands prix without winning a world championship title.

This is the 6^th time in F1 history a race has awarded half points, the most recent occasion being Malaysia in 2009. It also means Red Bull only closed in on Mercedes in the constructors’ championship by 5 points rather than 10.

This race marked Honda’s 50^th grand prix as a power unit supplier for Red Bull. Just like it did when it hit this milestone with Alpha Tauri in last year’s Italian Grand Prix, it celebrated the occasion with a win. It was also the 50^th consecutive grand prix points finish for Honda power.

Half points meant Mercedes came away with its lowest points total from a race since the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix when it scored 6 points. The team scored 7.5 points because of Hamilton’s 3^rd place finish in Spa. Valtteri Bottas finished a race outside of the points for the 4^th time as a Mercedes driver. All 4 of these races have come in the previous 2 seasons.

Mercedes were outscored by satellite team Williams for the first time since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. Williams came away from Spa with 10 points and its 1st podium finish since the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix a whopping 83 races ago. Second place was Williams’ best race finish since the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Strangely enough this was also the last time a race wasn’t given ‘normal’ points – Abu Dhabi 2014 was a double points race.

It was the 1st podium finish in F1 for George Russell and his 2^nd points finish of 2021. Russell’s podium also means that every British driver in the 2021 field has had a podium this season – the first time this has happened for the Brits since the 2010 season, when both Jenson Button and Hamilton finished on the podium on numerous occasions. Nicholas Latifi scored a solitary point for 9^th place and helped earn Williams it’s 2^nd successive double points finish – the first time it has done this since the 2016 Belgian and Italian Grands Prix.

Russell is the 25^th driver to take a podium finish for Williams and the 215^th driver in F1 history. A total of 11 different drivers have now stood on the podium in 2021, just 2 drivers shy of the 13 from 2020. Russell’s front-row start meant it was the first time since 2010 that all the British drivers in the current field had been on the front-row in that particular season since 2010. This was Williams first front-row since the 2017 Italian Grand Prix and first at Spa since 2001.

Daniel Ricciardo came away from Spa with his best weekend result for McLaren since joining the team at the start of 2021. Qualifying in 4^th was his best effort on a Saturday since last year’s Belgian Grand Prix. In the other McLaren it was a tough weekend, with Lando Norris suffering a huge crash during Q3 and the resulting damage left him with a gearbox penalty. Norris finished out of the points for just the 2^nd time in 2021 and the 2^nd race in succession.

Sebastian Vettel gave Aston Martin its best grid position for an F1 race since the 1959 British Grand Prix – Roy Salvadori qualified in 2^nd – with 5^th place. Of course this meant he also finished the race in 5^th, his 5^th on the road points finish of 2021, in car number 5

Alpha Tauri continued its fantastic run of points finishes following Pierre Gasly’s 6^th place. It’s the 15^th consecutive race the team have scored points and a run which is the 2^nd best of any team on the grid – Red Bull are currently on a run of 16. This is the team’s best points run in any of its previous guises. F1’s most recent new winner, Esteban Ocon, finished 7^th to take his own points scoring run to a 3^rd race and Alpine’s to 11.

Meanwhile Ferrari scored double points and a total of 1.5 thanks to Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finishing in 8^th and 10^th respectively. Sainz becomes the first driver to score just half a point since Nico Rosberg did so in the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix.