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Belgian GP Facts & Stats: Renault take their first fastest lap for a decade

30 August 2020

SPA, BELGIUM - AUGUST 30: Daniel Ricciardo of Australia driving the (3) Renault Sport Formula One

Lewis Hamilton takes another Schumacher record, Kimi Raikkonen is the best ‘Ferrari’ finisher, and Daniel Ricciardo’s fastest lap helps make it a very special day for Renault. Here’s your top trivia from Sunday’s Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps…

• Until today, Spa was the only circuit on which Lewis Hamilton had more retirements (4) than wins (now also 4).

• Hamilton finished in the points for a 40th consecutive race.

• Hamilton today surpassed Michael Schumacher's all-time record of 24,244km in the lead of Grands Prix today. He still trails Schumacher in terms of laps led.

• Mercedes led a lap for the 30th consecutive race, the 2nd-longest streak of all time behind Williams' 31 in 1995-97.

• Valtteri Bottas – 31 years old on Friday – secured his best-ever finish at Spa (his previous best was 3rd in 2014 and 2019).

• It was Mercedes’ 3rd 1-2 finish at Spa, following Fangio/Moss in 1955 and Hamilton/Rosberg in 2015.

SPA, BELGIUM - AUGUST 30: Second placed Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP looks on in parc — He was soundly beaten, but it was still Bottas's best-ever Spa result

• Max Verstappen today tied his best career run of 6 consecutive podium finishes.

• Daniel Ricciardo has now finished 4th twice in the last 4 races, though a podium still eludes Renault – their last was Malaysia 2011.

• Ricciardo gave Renault the fastest lap in a Grand Prix for the first time since Robert Kubica in Canada in 2010.

• With Ricciardo’s team mate Esteban Ocon 5th, Renault scored 23 points today, their most in any race ever as a constructor.

• Ocon’s P5 tied his career-best results from Spain 2017 and Mexico 2017.

• Lando Norris was 7th for McLaren on what would have been team founder Bruce McLaren's 83rd birthday.

SPA, BELGIUM - AUGUST 30: Kimi Raikkonen of Finland driving the (7) Alfa Romeo Racing C39 Ferrari — Ferrari finished behind customer team Alfa Romeo and their former champion Raikkonen

• Pierre Gasly’s P8 for AlphaTauri means he has never finished lower than 9th in his 3 Belgian GP starts.

• Racing Point finished 9th and 10th – surprisingly, given their recent good form, a worse Spa result than they scored in 2019 (6th and 10th) or 2018 (5th and 6th).

• Raikkonen's Alfa Romeo was the top Ferrari-powered finisher in what was the 1,000th world championship F1 event for Ferrari engines.

• Team mate Antonio Giovinazzi has now had heavy crashes in the middle sector at Spa in the last 2 Belgian Grands Prix.