Schumacher still breaking records at Spa

Michael Schumacher celebrated his 20 years in Formula 1 with a great comeback drive at the Belgian Grand Prix to finish fifth after starting 24th - the worst starting position of his career - and last. But it's not the first time he's blasted through the field at Spa; the Ardennes circuit having been the scene of some of his finest performances in the past.

The most famous of these was his victory for Benetton in 1995 from 16th on the grid, although he recovered 14 places last year as he finished seventh from 21st on the grid, and did even better this time around after gaining 19 spots during the 44-lapper.

His achievement last Sunday set a new Belgian GP record for most number of positions gained during a race, beating the 17 spots made up by Emanuele Pirro in 1991 on his way to eighth from 25th on the grid. In F1 history, Schumacher is the only driver to have taken a top-five finish at Spa after starting lower than 20th.

Schumacher's recovery drive also made him the biggest position-gainer in a grand prix since Kimi Raikkonen took third spot from 22nd on the grid in Bahrain in 2006.

Race notes

• Red Bull maintained its impressive form of recent F1 history, having failed to let any of its rival teams win more than three races in a row since Brawn's four consecutive victories early in 2009. Belgium marked the team's 10th one-two finish.

• Sebastian Vettel continued to rack up the numbers in Belgium as he took his 30th career podium, moving him alongside Juan Pablo Montoya and into joint 29th position in the all-time list. It was his 11th top-three finish of 2011 - one more than he managed in all of his title-winning campaign last year. He has also scored three more points this time around than he took during last season. Only his team-mate Mark Webber is now within 100 points of him in the world championship.

Hill was the last non Ferrari or McLaren winner at Spa in 1998 © LAT

• For the first time in Belgian Grands Prix, the Spa winner was not driving a Ferrari or McLaren. The last man to break the stranglehold was Damon Hill in 1998.

• Vettel's win was the 120th for a German driver in F1, 91 of them having been scored by Michael Schumacher.

• Webber set a new - and unwelcome - record at Spa, the Australian breaking the old mark for fastest laps in a year - five - without a victory. He has seven races left to address the situation.

• Jenson Button's pass on Fernando during the closing stages of the race gave him his 37th career podium, elevating him to 17th place in the all-time list alongside Riccardo Patrese. Not only did the Briton equal his best result at Spa from 2005, he also ended Alonso's run of four straight rostrum finishes.

• Pastor Maldonado scored his first F1 point at Spa, the Williams driver becoming the first Venezuelan to score since Johnny Cecotto at the 1983 Long Beach Grand Prix. Following his controversial incident with Lewis Hamilton in qualifying and his subsequent five-place grid penalty, his point came from his lowest career starting position.

• Grid places apparently mean little in 2011, as the Belgian GP was the sixth race in a row in which at least one driver eliminated in Q1 finished in the points.

• Despite his first corner accident, Bruno Senna took the best finish of his F1 career in 13th.

• Toro Rosso endured its first double retirement since the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix.

• Lewis Hamilton's last four retirements came from collisions with other drivers. Before his Spa collision with Kamui Kobayashi there was contact with Button in Canada, with Webber in Singapore last year and with Felipe Massa at Monza in 2010. He also spun at the Hungaroring and had two collisions at Monaco but kept going.

Qualifying notes

• Vettel scored his 24th F1 pole position, equalling the achievement triple world champions Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet. It was also the first time he'd qualified on the front row at Spa and means there are only four tracks he has started a grand prix at without starting inside the top two. Of those, only the Nurburgring remains on the calendar. Vettel was also the eighth different pole-sitter at Spa in the last eight years.

Senna took his career-best grid spot with seventh in Belgium © LAT

• Hamilton's second spot on the grid completed the same front row as in Hungary. It was the seventh time he had qualified second since his last pole in Canada last year.

• Jaime Alguersuari recorded his best career grid spot in sixth. It was the best starting position for a Toro Rosso since Sebastien Buemi qualified there at the 2009 Brazilian GP.

• Senna's seventh spot on the grid was the best of his career, taking the pace of his previous best - 18th - from last year's Spa race.

• Alonso's worst starting spot of 2010 came in Belgian, and he repeated the feat last weekend by taking a season's worst eighth place.

• Ninth spot on the Spa grid marked the best starting position of Sauber driver Sergio Perez's career.

• For the first time since Brazil last year, Button failed to make Q3, continuing a trend that has featured only a single top-10 grid spot at Spa in the last five years.