Racing | Formula 1 | 2004 Belgian Grand Prix — Räikkönen Wins as Schumacher Secures His Seventh Title

On 29 August 2004, the Belgian Grand Prix returned to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for round 14 of the eighteen-race Formula One World Championship. The grid placed Renault’s Jarno Trulli on pole, Michael Schumacher second, and Kimi Räikkönen’s McLaren-Mercedes only tenth.

Räikkönen moved through the field during an opening phase disrupted by a multi-car first-lap incident and a safety-car deployment. The independent Grandprix.com report records him passing Schumacher and teammate David Coulthard before the Renaults’ races unravelled, putting the McLaren into a lead it could defend through two further safety-car periods.

After the last restart, Räikkönen completed 44 laps in 1 hour 32 minutes 35.274 seconds. Schumacher finished 3.132 seconds behind, Rubens Barrichello was third at 4.371 seconds, and the official Formula 1 archive records no later penalty or exclusion changing that podium.

Räikkönen had not merely won from tenth: on lap 42 he set the race’s fastest lap, 1 minute 45.108 seconds. It was McLaren’s only victory of the 2004 season and a recovery for the revised MP4-19B after a difficult opening half of the year.

Second place still made Spa decisive for Schumacher. He left the race with 128 championship points to Barrichello’s 88, a forty-point lead with four races—and therefore forty points—remaining; even a tie could not overturn Schumacher’s overwhelming advantage in victories, so the result secured his seventh World Drivers’ Championship and his fifth consecutive title.

The place is the 6.976-kilometre, clockwise Spa configuration used in 2004 and 2005, with 22 corners and the period Bus Stop chicane before the start-finish straight. It predates the 7.004-kilometre layout introduced for Formula One’s 2007 return, so a modern circuit map would misstate the geometry of this race.

The accompanying diagram was drawn for the 2004 course and labels its major sections, including Eau Rouge, Raidillon, Kemmel, Les Combes, Pouhon, Blanchimont, and the Bus Stop. It is a circuit illustration, not a photograph of the race.

Sources: Formula 1, “Belgian Grand Prix 2004 — Race Result” (https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2004/races/766/belgium/race-result), “Starting Grid” (https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2004/races/766/belgium/starting-grid), “Fastest Laps” (https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2004/races/766/belgium/fastest-laps), and “2004 Drivers’ Standings” (https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2004/drivers); Grandprix.com, “Belgian GP, 2004” (https://www.grandprix.com/races/belgian-gp-2004.html); Motor Sport, “2004 Belgian Grand Prix” (https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/database/races/2004-belgian-grand-prix/); Wikimedia Commons, “Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps 2004–2006” (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Circuit_de_Spa-Francorchamps_2004-2006.png).

Image: Jiří Žemlička, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spa_2004.jpg).