2009 Belgian Grand Prix stats and facts

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Felipe Massa's 100th Grand Prix start saw his tenth career win

Felipe Massa is, for now at least, the winner of the Belgian Grand Prix. Taking the results as they stand, here’s a look at the stats and facts from yesterday’s race.

Lewis Hamilton scored his 11th career pole position. He has started the last four races from the front row – no other driver this year has started on the front row for more than two consecutive races.

He was also stripped of his victory after the race had finished. This is the first time this had happened since the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix where Kimi Raikkonen (ironically, given Raikkonen’s involvement in Hamilton’s penalty), lost his win after the stewards corrected the results of the race. Giancarlo Fisichella took the win, his first and Jordan’s last.

Felipe Massa was given the win, the tenth of his F1 career. That puts him level with James Hunt, Jody Scheckter, Gerhard Berger and Ronnie Peterson. It was also Massa’s 100th Grand Prix start.

Nick Heidfeld was promoted to second, the seventh time he has finished in that position in his F1 career, extending his record for most second places without a win.

He also finished his 23rd race in a row in a streak going back to last year’s French Grand Prix. Another finish at Monza this weekend will put him level with Michael Schumacher’s record of 24 (Hungary 2001 – Malaysia 2003).

Kimi Raikkonen’s run of three consecutive Belgian Grand Prix wins came to an end, despite him leading 37 of the 44 laps.

For the second race in a row Sebastien Bourdais improved on his best-ever qualifying position, taking ninth.

Adrian Sutil scored his best finished of the year with 13th.

Mark Webber scored his and Red Bull’s first point since the French Grand Prix.

David Coulthard has now gone 100 races since his last Grand Prix win (Australia 2003).

Questions for stats fans

I haven’t been able to find answers to these questions – can you help me out?

Nick Heidfeld started the last lap eighth and ended it third, before being promoted to second. When was the last time someone gained six or more places on the final lap?

Felipe Massa’s final lap took 2m 45.209s. When was the last time a driver won a race having driven a lap as slowly as that?

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “2009 Belgian Grand Prix stats and facts”

  1. > Felipe Massa’s final lap took 2m 45.209s. When
    > was the last time a driver won a race having
    > driven a lap as slowly as that?
    Depends on the length of the circuit, I guess, so a wet race at Spa or Hockenheim could see something similar.

    Otherwise it might be quite some time ago, on the Nordschleife or old Spa or something.

  2. Hamiltons received a penalty for the fifth time in thirteen races! How’s that for a statistic?

  3. Keith – with regards to the slowest last lap, has there been an f1 race finished under the safety car?

  4. If Kimi had won, how far would he be from the most Spa wins ever? in a row?

  5. You should compare the winning lap to the fastest lap. Nobody’s ever lapped the Nordschleife in 2.45s ;).

  6. Just a thought Keith, try back to the 1982 Monaco Grand Prix. Did Patrese spin on the last lap? then to be gifted back the lead when everyone had retired? That must surely have been a long last lap!

  7. Hamilton deserves to win in Spa.

  8. Felipe Massa is the first brazilian to win five races on the same season since Ayrton Senna in 1993;

    It’s also the first time Massa wins in a ‘classic’ european track (Silverstone, Spa, Monaco, Monza and Nurburgring), since most of his wins came on Hermann Tilke tracks (3x Turkey, 2x Bahrain, 1x Europe – Valencia, 1x Brazil, 1x Spain – Barcelona, 1x France – Magny-Cours)

  9. Is this Massa’s first win in a “wet” race, or a race involving wet weather?

  10. Piquet has scored a ‘hat trick’ in this seasons wet races, managing to crash in all 3 (Monaco, Silverstone, Spa).

  11. @Daniel
    Great point mate!

    Massa’s second ‘lucky’ victory this year (with Magny Cours). He earned wins at Bahrain, Turkey and Valencia. He has been ‘robbed’ once at Hungary.

    Lewis on the other hand has been ‘robbed’ for the first time this year. And has earned all his victories at Albert Park, Monaco, Silverstone and Hockenheimring. The only ounce of luck was the minor crash on the way to winning at Monaco.

    I have the feeling that Lewis will win this title since he is a better driver.

  12. Canada ’99 finnished under the saftey car so I would imagine the last lap would be pretty slow.

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