Post-GP Statistical Analysis: Belgium

Kimi Raikkonen

The Ferrari driver registered his 14th career pole position, placing him on the all-time records at 16th, alongside Alberto Ascari, James Hunt and Ronnie Peterson.

It's the first time that Kimi starts from pole position in Belgium, his best result beforehand was a second place in 2002 and 2005.

In the race, Raikkonen was able to snatch his 13th F1 career win, equalling David Coulthard and Alberto Ascari at the 17th spot on all-time table. Among the active drivers, though, Raikkonen is only behind Fernando Alonso (19 wins) in the winners chart.

Matching Coulthard, however, also comes along a second-place ranking among the drivers who won most races without winning a championship title.

Raikkonen now has in front of him only Stirling Moss, who from 1955 to 1961 won 16 times but was never able to win a championship, coming second for four times, in 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1958.

Raikkonen's win is the 38th for Finland, matching Argentina for 7th in the all-time wins-per-country chart. The last win for Argentina was also posted in Belgium (Zolder), when Carlos Reutemann won the 1981 Grand Prix.

Pointless No. 1

Rubens Barrichello is going through the second longest point-less streak of his career. the Brazilian has not scored points his home Grand Prix last year, for a total of 14 races.

His longest streak of races outside the points dates back to the 1997/1998 seasons, when he drove for the Stewart team and endured a 16-race string of, literally, pointless races. From Spain 1997 to San Marino 1998 he was classified outside the points twice, suffered 11 mechanical failures and spun off the race 3 times.

The actual sequence equals the one that Barrichello posted at his Formula One debut: from the 1993 South African Grand Prix to the 1993 Portuguese GP, Rubens suffered 6 mechanical failures, 3 accidents and was classified outside the points 5 times, for a total of 14 races.

Pointless No. 2

Giancarlo Fisichella ran in Spa his fifth straight race without scoring points. The last time he endured a similar streak was at Jordan and Sauber, in the 2003 and 2004 seasons: from Japan 2003 to Spain 2004, Fisichella was outside of the points for five races as well.

In the last two seasons, 2005 and 2006, Fisichella scored points in 27 races out of 37, for a scoring percentage of 72.9%. This year, he scored points in six races, for a percentage of 42.8%.

Winds of Change

Four straight races in the points might not seem a major achievement, since the absolute record is 24 (Michael Schumacher), but for Nico Rosberg this may be a sign for things to come.

The young German was never able to finish two back-to-back races in the points up until Hungary this year, when he started this current scoring sequence. In the last four races, Rosberg scored more points than in the 28 races that he ran before them.

Something similar is happening to Nick Heidfeld, who has been scoring points since France for a total of seven races in a row, his best sequence ever.

For Heidfeld, the winning weapon is his BMW Sauber: since he joined the team last year, he scored points in 22 races out of 32 (scoring percentage of 68.7%). In comparison, he scored points 21 times out of 99 races run with Prost, Sauber, Jordan and Williams, for a scoring percentage of 21.2%.

Quick Notes

• In Spa, Ferrari filled the front row for the first time since the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix. McLaren, in contrast, were able to fill the front row this year four times (Monaco, Canada, USA, and Italy).

• The average speed recorded by Raikkonen in the race, 229.174 km/h, is the highest recorded in Spa since 1970, when Pedro Rodriguez with his BRM P153 on the old track won at 241.300 km/h;

• The only drivers that were able to score at least three straight wins in Spa before Kimi Raikkonen (2004, 2005 and 2007) are Jim Clark, with four wins from 1962 to 1965; Ayrton Senna, with four from 1988 to 1991; and Michael Schumacher, with three from 1995 to 1997;

• The list of fastest laps appears in the order of two Ferraris, two McLarens and then the two BMW Saubers. This is the second time this has happened in 2007, with the previous occasion being the British Grand Prix.

And, out of interesting, Ferrari and McLaren have now monopolised the first four positions on the fastest laps sheet on eight occasions this year (Malaysia, Bahrain, USA, France, Great Britain, Europe, Turkey and Belgium).