The disqualification of an on-the-road winner is a rare event in Formula 1. It happened for the sixth time on Sunday in the 1,115th round of the world championship.
George Russell was the unlucky driver to lose their victory. As on two of the other previous occasions this was for falling below the minimum weight limit, in his case by 1.5 kilograms.Like Russell, Alain Prost lost a win when his car was found to be underweight. He fell 2kg shy after running out of fuel as he crossed the finishing line at the end of the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix. Three years earlier, Prost inherited victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix when original winner Nelson Piquet and second-placed Keke Rosberg were also disqualified for failing the minimum weight check.
Russell’s disqualification came 30 years to the race since the last time a driver was disqualified after winning. Michael Schumacher lost his Belgian Grand Prix win in 1994 when his car’s floor plank failed a post-race thickness check, under a rule introduced two races earlier.
The only other driver to be disqualified after winning was Ayrton Senna’s controversial penalty in the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix. He was disqualified for rejoining the track via an escape road after tangling with team mate Alain Prost.
The following year Senna inherited victory in the Canadian Grand Prix from his team mate Gerhard Berger, who took the chequered flag first but received a one-minute penalty for jumping the start. Until last weekend, that was the only occasion a driver inherited a win from his team mate after they were penalised.
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Lewis Hamilton can now lay claim to the same. Not only that, he’s also inherited a win from a rival at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve due to a time penalty, in his case for Sebastian Vettel in 2019. He also previously lost a Belgian Grand Prix victory due to a penalty, in 2008.
Hamilton recorded the 105th grand prix win of his career and became the first driver this year to win more than one round other than Max Verstappen.
The Red Bull driver should have had pole position last weekend, but a 10-place grid penalty left him 11th. For the second year in a row at this race, Charles Leclerc inherited pole position and Sergio Perez was promoted to the front row. This was Leclerc’s 25th pole position, putting him on his own in 12th place in the all-time ranking. Perez set the fastest lap of the race, the 12th of his career, giving him as many as Alberto Ascari, Jack Brabham, Rene Arnoux and Juan Pablo Montoya.
For the fourth race in a row, Verstappen did not win. This is now his longest win-less streak since 2020, when he went 11 rounds without a victory. He also failed to reach the podium for the first time in consecutive races since the 2021 British and Hungarian grands prix.
Over to you
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Belgian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
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2024 Belgian Grand Prix
- Belgian GP was “still a win” for Russell despite disqualification
- High plank wear also a factor in Russell’s disqualification, say Mercedes
- Russell is sixth F1 driver to be disqualified after winning a grand prix
- Unheard radio shows why Hamilton missed Russell’s (almost) race-winning strategy
- 2024 Belgian Grand Prix weekend F1 driver ratings
An Sionnach
31st July 2024, 7:53
The Prost disqualification was interesting because a number of other drivers ahead of him ran out of fuel. Prost had been short shifting and measuring his pace in anticipation of such an eventuality, so it must have been extra frustrating that he lost the win after driving such a smart race because his team made a minor miscalculation.
SteveP
31st July 2024, 7:54
Hunt, Prost, Senna, Schumacher, and now Russell.
He has august company, if nothing else.
I’m sort of feeling that he won’t be highlighting it in his memoirs, though.
BTW. Did I miscount? I make Russell the fifth driver on the list
Tjitse
31st July 2024, 8:04
From what I found elsewhere:
1976 – James Hunt – British GP. (Failing to complete a full lap after a red flag).
1982 – Nelson Piquet – Brazilian GP. (Underweight car).
1985 – Alain Prost – San Marino GP. (Underweight car).
1989 – Ayrton Senna – Japanese GP. (Illegally rejoining).
1994 – Michael Schumacher – Belgian GP. (Illegal skid block wear).
Tjitse
31st July 2024, 8:05
August company? (in your text, mean something else?)
Tommy Scragend
31st July 2024, 10:20
Used correctly.
august
/ɔːˈɡʌst/
adjective
respected and impressive.
SteveP
31st July 2024, 20:15
You get the prize, Bullfrog gets a raspberry, mostly for the bad calendar joke.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
31st July 2024, 10:40
Used incorrectly, he’ll be in August company tomorrow.
Sumedh
31st July 2024, 8:38
Piquet is the other driver. Still an August company
stefano (@alfa145)
31st July 2024, 17:13
well, the statistic is heavily biased towards driver that won races… you are in good company by design
Jere (@jerejj)
31st July 2024, 8:06
The first minimum car+driver weight disqualification since the 2005 San Marino GP when both BAR drivers got disqualified for their cars being underweight (4.99 kg below on that occasion) & overall, the first post-race disqualification since the last US GP.
Additionally, besides the 1994 & 2008 editions, this year’s Belgian GP is the third where on-the-road winner lost victory post-race.
The third entirely lapping-free 2024 race & the second consecutive lapping-free Belgian GP, with Nico Hulkenberg coincidently the lowest finisher on both occasions.
With 1:44.701 on the final lap, Sergio Perez set a new official lap record, bettering the previous record of 1:46.286, set by Valtteri Bottas in the 2018 race, by more than 1.5 seconds.
This means that the outright record from 2020 would’ve been bettered as well had qualifying been entirely dry, meaning that’ll happen by an even greater relative margin in next season’s qualifying if it’s dry, given 2025 pole lap times will generally be faster than this season’s equivalents via the same factor of general evolution through stable technical regulations.
Ferrari became the first team to reach 10,000 points in F1 history.
The first race where all twenty started on the grid since the Monaco GP.
Jonathan Parkin
31st July 2024, 11:54
I’m not sure F1 should be proud of that last one
Simon
31st July 2024, 23:57
Yet again, no quoting original source. If I quote, at least I quote my source
Flying Lap
31st July 2024, 8:22
Plus Hamilton, who also lost a Spa win in 2008. August company for Russell indeed.
Flying Lap
31st July 2024, 8:24
This comment was meant as a response to SteveP.
slowmo (@slowmo)
31st July 2024, 10:14
Hamilton was penalised, not disqualified.
Ajaxn
1st August 2024, 12:38
I was expecting to see Riccardo on that list, but i guess he was also penalised when he lost out on his ‘Win’.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
31st July 2024, 8:42
Has it ever happened that both pole and the race were won by people that were penalized afterwards?
Sumedh
31st July 2024, 8:43
For the 2 hours until Russell’s disqualification, this season had got 4 different teams scoring a 1-2. While I have not checked, but I don’t think we have ever got more than 3 teams scoring 1-2s in any season (2010, 2022 had 3 teams)
Given Mercedes form, I hope this stat will be achieved this season
MichaelN
31st July 2024, 9:24
1960 had four. There are a bunch of others with three.
Webbo (@webbo82)
31st July 2024, 9:30
The best stat I saw and can’t take credit for was that for the first time in Formula 1 history the top 10 finishers were all previous Grand Prix winners
notagrumpyfan
31st July 2024, 10:23
I give you credit for reposting it here ;)
John Beak (@johnbeak)
31st July 2024, 10:39
The winner on the road was also disqualified in the 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix. Both Ferrari cars were found illegal due to a technical infraction. Irvine lost the win, giving Häkkinen and McLaren the titles with a round to spare…
…or so does say a magazine released the week after the race that I still have at home somewhere. Ferrari appealed and had the decision overturned, reinstating the 1-2 and extending the championship battle to the final race.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
31st July 2024, 10:55
I’ve got a magazine like that, reporting the 1995 Brazilian Grand Prix as a 1-2 for Ferrari, with appropriate photos and headlines. Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard finished ahead of them, went up on the podium, were excluded hours later for using illegal fuel, then reinstated a couple of weeks afterwards…
JoshJ81
31st July 2024, 17:48
Kimi Raikkonen’s first win that was removed. However, he was not disqualified for an infraction, rather it was a scoring error by the FIA with the 2003 French GP being cut short. Handing the win to Giancarlo Fisichella and the mighty Bees!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
31st July 2024, 19:52
It was Brazil, and it would have been his second win as he won the previous round in Malaysia. But it was indeed won by Fisichella and bees.
JoshJ81
31st July 2024, 22:44
ahhh, memory was a little off…so long ago, thank you
Don gorgon
31st July 2024, 19:42
did mercedes make a deliberate mistake, on Russell’s car..being underweight in this day and age seems an odd mistake to make
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
31st July 2024, 22:23
Just like last year, a grid penalty for Verstappen resulted in Leclerc, Perez and Hamilton inheriting the top 3 spots on the grid.
3rd Belgian GP in a row where Verstappen has topped Q3 by over 0.5s but a Ferrari has started on pole.
First time since Monaco 2023 that both Haas cars have been knocked out in Q1.
Hamilton’s 2 official victories in 2024 have both been races where he has led 15 laps, and they are the only 2 races he has led this year.
The last 2 occasions where the Spa winner has changed after the race both saw the ‘official’ winner lead more laps than the on-track winner.
Second time Russell has stepped on the podium at Spa, but he has only scored 9 points (which would be 0 points under today’s rules) from those two races.
Closest on-track top 3 (excluding late safety cars) since Abu Dhabi 2016.
6th consecutive race where the polesitter has not won – longest since Brazil 2009 to China 2010.
All of Ocon’s points so far this year have come in races where he finished 10th on track.
First time Perez has started ahead of Verstappen this year. Bearman is the only driver not to have started ahead of his team-mate at least once in 2024.
13 of the starters were race winners – the first time this has happened since Italy 1980 (not counting future winners). In contrast, the aforementioned 1994 Belgian GP only had 4 drivers who had won races (Schumacher, Hill, Berger, Alboreto).
Thanks to statsf1 and the official F1 site for some of these.
Electroball76
3rd August 2024, 19:42
Duncan Hamilton apparently did it the other way around: got disqualified and then won (Le Mans 1953)