The action-packed 2024 Belgian Grand Prix saw the top four teams competing quite closely with each other and an anti-climatic result. Apart from that, the 2024 edition of the race at Spa-Francorchamps also became a unique milestone. The race saw all the top ten spots occupied by previous race winners, which happened for the first time in F1 history.
Lewis Hamilton became the Belgian GP winner, extending his race wins tally to 105. George Russell was the biggest loser with his disqualification. Even after Russell’s DSQ, everyone in the pecking order till P10 was all race winners. Two of the top ten are the McLaren duo, who became maiden race winners in 2024.
Apart from the two, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was the only other one-time race winner. The rest like Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, and Sergio Perez are multiple race winners, but have their tallies in single digits. Besides Hamilton, only Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso have double-digit wins tallies from the Spa top 10.
In all, the top 10 combined have 224 race wins under their belt, out of which the outgoing Mercedes man made up for 105 wins alone. With Russell not disqualified, the top 11 spots would’ve been occupied by previous race winners. However, there are more winners on the grid.
The Belgian GP marked the first time in F1 history that all top finishers in the Grand Prix were previous winners in the series!
Lewis Hamilton: 105 wins
The rest of the Belgian GP top ten: 119 pic.twitter.com/c4QBqCrcVA— Autosport (@autosport) August 2, 2024
Currently, there are a total of 13 Grand Prix winners on the grid. The two who did not make it in the top 10 apart from Russell were Pierre Gasly (1 win) and Valtteri Bottas (10 wins). This scenario itself is a milestone in Formula 1.
The current F1 grid is history-making with most race winners on the grid
With Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri adding their name to the list of race winners in the sport, the current grid is the most accomplished in F1 history. Back in 1980, the sport also featured over 10 race winners on a single grid. Since then the current grid is the only one that features previous race winners in double digits.
After Carlos Sainz won his first race in 2022, the grid featured 11 race winners and Russell increased that list with his maiden win in Brazil. However, in the same year, Sebastian Vettel retired and brought back the tally down to 11. Now, thanks to the McLaren men, the tally is back up to 13.
This is one of the reasons why the 2024 season is shaping up to be one of the most exciting championships in the sport’s history. With seven different race winners in this season, the second half promises a lot of excitement.
It will be interesting to see if there’s room for an eighth different race winner in the season. If not, who among the seven will finish with the most wins in the season, will be worth watching.
