1959 Portuguese Grand Prix

 1959 Portuguese Grand Prix

Racing data
7th of 9 races in the 1959 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	VIII Portuguese Grand Prix
Date:	23rd August 1959
Place:	Lisbon , Portugal
Course:	Circuito de Monsanto
Length:	337.28 km in 62 laps of 5.44 km
Weather:	sunny, dry, hot
Pole position
Driver:	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax
Time:	2: 02.89 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax
Time:	2: 05.07 min
Podium
First:	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax
Second:	Masts Gregory	Cooper-Climax
Third:	Dan Gurney	Ferrari

The 1959 Portuguese Grand Prix took place on August 23, 1959 on the Circuito de Monsanto near Lisbon and was the seventh race of the 1959 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

After the Portuguese Grand Prix had taken place in Porto last year, a race was held on the Circuito de Monsanto in 1959. As in the previous race at the AVUS, the level of safety was only low, so this Grand Prix was the only Formula 1 race on the track; at the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix , it was again in Porto. The route in Parque Florestal de Monsanto was difficult because it consisted of different road surfaces and some of them ran over tram tracks. The temperatures on the race weekend were very high, which is why it was decided to drive in the evening. The race started very late and it was already dusk at the finish line.

With three races before the end of the season, both championship titles were still open. Cooper was just ahead of Scuderia Ferrari in the constructors 'championship, while Cooper driver Jack Brabham led Ferrari driver Tony Brooks in the drivers' championship . In the previous races, the front-engined cars were superior in several ways due to the high-speed tracks that were favorable for this concept, but a phase began at the Portuguese Grand Prix in which the rear-engine concept became more and more established and victories for the other cars were rare.

In addition to Brabham, Bruce McLaren and Masten Gregory drove for Cooper. For Gregory it was the last race on the Cooper works team. Due to an injury, he was unable to take part in the last two races of the season and from the next season drove for various teams in private cars. He later failed to build on the success of the 1959 automobile championship. Ferrari started with only three vehicles, Cliff Allison paused for a race, Phil Hill and Dan Gurney drove alongside Brooks . At BRM , Ron Flockhart returned after a race break and started alongside Harry Schell and Jo Bonnier . Also, Aston Martin again took part in the race, the drivers for the team were Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby . This was the third of four races of the season for Aston Martin. Three drivers took part in private cars. Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant started again for the Rob Walker Racing Team . The Scuderia Centro Sud announced Mário de Araújo Cabral , the first Portuguese Formula 1 driver in history. Cabral made his debut in this race and occasionally took part in other Grand Prix in the following years.

training

The training was dominated by the Cooper T51 , the drivers of this car made up the first four places. The Rob Walker Racing Team dueled with the Cooper works team. The pole position generated Moss, Brabham qualified with two seconds behind the second place before his teammate Gregory. Trintignant came fourth. For Moss it was the second pole position of the season, he was already on the first grid position in Monaco . For the designer Cooper it was the third pole position in the 1959 automobile championship.

The fastest time of the front-engined cars was achieved by Bonnier on BRM. With fifth place he was ahead of the two Ferraris from Gurney and Phil Hill. McLaren, Schell and Brooks completed the first ten. Aston Martin qualified in 12th and 13th position in the back field, the gap to Moss' time being more than ten seconds. Cabral finished 14th on the grid on his debut, ahead of the two Lotus drivers Graham Hill and Innes Ireland , who finished last.

run

Stirling Moss (picture from 2008) dominated and scored a Grand Slam

After the start, Moss kept the lead and built up a lead over the competition on the first lap of the race. Brabham also defended his starting position and remained second. Behind him, McLaren improved from eighth on the grid to third. Gregory lost one position but stayed on Ferrari ahead of Gurney, putting four Cooper cars in the lead. While Moss continuously increased his lead over Brabham every lap, the battles for positions behind were mainly characterized by accidents and technical defects. Ireland retired after just three laps with a gearbox failure. Phil Hill turned and pitted to have his car checked for damage. When he was back on track, Graham Hill spun in the second Lotus, ramming Phil Hill in the process. Both were uninjured, but the race was over for both drivers and therefore also for Lotus. On lap ten, Bonnier also retired with engine failure.

A serious accident then occurred on lap 23. When trying to overtake the Cabral, which had already been lapped twice, the runner-up Brabham spun off the track and collided with a telegraph pole. The car overturned and Brabham was thrown out of the vehicle. The following Gregory avoided Brabham, who was lying in the middle of the lane and thus survived the accident unharmed. Brabham was admitted to a local hospital but released a few hours later. The failure gave Brooks a chance to catch up on points in the drivers' championship against his opponent, but engine malfunctions that occurred throughout the race weekend did not allow him to achieve the points.

After the accident, Gregory was behind Moss, who managed to lap the entire field of drivers. McLaren was the new third, but he retired on lap 38 with a technical defect, which moved Gurney to third. The temperatures were so high at this point that, for example, fourth-placed Trintignant made a pit stop to have cool water poured over his head.

Moss dominated the rest of the race and lapped the entire field twice except for Gregory and Gurney. In addition to the pole position and the fastest race lap, he led every lap of the Grand Prix, so he managed a Grand Slam . Moss was the fifth driver in the seventh race to win, for Cooper it was the third win of the season. Gregory achieved the best result of his career with second place, but this was also the last podium finish for him. Shortly before the end of the race , Gurney braked himself and drove into the rear of Trintignant. Both drivers reached the destination with damaged cars. Trintignant came fourth, Schell finished fifth for the last time in the points. Aston Martin again just missed the points, Salvadori finished sixth, Shelby eighth. The team improved the reliability compared to previous races, but with three or four laps behind the car was not competitive. Flockhart classified himself in seventh place, Brooks only finished ninth with engine problems. Cabral finished his debut six laps behind in tenth place.

In the drivers' championship, Brabham retained a four-point lead over Brooks, with Moss improving to third, nine points behind Brabham. In the two remaining races, all drivers with at least ten points still had theoretical chances for the drivers' title, Brabham had the opportunity to become world champion early in the next race. Cooper extended the lead in the constructors 'championship to six points over Ferrari and was also able to win the title early in the penultimate race of the season, Ferrari was the only remaining competitor in the constructors' championship.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Cooper Car Company	01	Jack Brabham	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	02	Masts Gregory
	03	Bruce McLaren
RRC Walker Racing Team	04th	Stirling Moss	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	05	Maurice Trintignant
Owen Racing Organization	06th	Harry Schell	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	D.
	07th	Jo Bonnier
	08th	Ron Flockhart
David Brown organization	09	Carroll Shelby	Aston Martin DBR4	Aston Martin 2.5 L6	A.
	10	Roy Salvadori
Team Lotus	11	Graham Hill	Lotus 16	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	12	Innes Ireland
Scuderia Ferrari	14th	Tony Brooks	Ferrari Dino 246F1	Ferrari 2.4 V6	D.
	15th	Phil Hill
	16	Dan Gurney
Scuderia Centro Sud	18th	Mário de Araújo Cabral	Cooper T51	Maserati 2.5 L4	D.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax	2: 02.9	159.35 km / h	01
02	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	2: 04.9	156.80 km / h	02
03	Masts Gregory	Cooper-Climax	2: 06.3	155.06 km / h	03
04th	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	2: 07.4	153.72 km / h	04th
05	Jo Bonnier	BRM	2: 07.9	153.12 km / h	05
06th	Dan Gurney	Ferrari	2: 08.0	153.00 km / h	06th
07th	Phil Hill	Ferrari	2: 08.0	153.00 km / h	07th
08th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	2: 08.2	152.76 km / h	08th
09	Harry Schell	BRM	2: 09.1	151.70 km / h	09
10	Tony Brooks	Ferrari	2: 11.0	149.50 km / h	10
11	Ron Flockhart	BRM	2: 11.0	149.50 km / h	11
12	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin	2: 13.3	146.92 km / h	12
13	Carroll Shelby	Aston Martin	2: 13.6	146.59 km / h	13
14th	Mário de Araújo Cabral	Cooper Maserati	2: 15.3	144.75 km / h	14th
15th	Graham Hill	Lotus Climax	2: 15.6	144.43 km / h	15th
16	Innes Ireland	Lotus Climax	2: 18.5	141.40 km / h	16

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax	62		2: 11: 55.41	01	2: 05.07
02	Masts Gregory	Cooper-Climax	61		+ 1 lap	03	2: 07.33
03	Dan Gurney	Ferrari	61		+ 1 lap	06th	2: 07.85
04th	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	60		+ 2 rounds	04th	2: 08.05
05	Harry Schell	BRM	59		+ 3 rounds	09	2: 11.37
06th	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin	59		+ 3 rounds	12	2: 12.56
07th	Ron Flockhart	BRM	59		+ 3 rounds	11	2: 10.17
08th	Carroll Shelby	Aston Martin	58		+ 4 rounds	13	2: 14.99
09	Tony Brooks	Ferrari	57		+ 5 rounds	10	2: 11.55
10	Mário de Araújo Cabral	Cooper Maserati	56		+ 6 rounds	14th	2: 16.91
-	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	38		DNF	08th	2: 07.53	Power transmission
-	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	23		DNF	02	2: 06.98	accident
-	Jo Bonnier	BRM	10		DNF	05	2: 13.17	Engine failure
-	Graham Hill	Lotus Climax	05		DNF	15th	2: 12.4	Lathe operator / accident
-	Phil Hill	Ferrari	05		DNF	07th	2: 09.8	accident
-	Innes Ireland	Lotus Climax	03		DNF	16	2: 31.43	transmission

World Cup stands after the race

The first five of the race got 8, 6, 4, 3, 2 points. The driver with the fastest race lap received an additional 1 point. Only the five best results from nine races counted. Only the points of the best placed driver on a team counted in the constructors' championship.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax 27 02  Tony Brooks Ferrari 23 03  Stirling Moss Cooper-Climax / BRM 17.5 04th  Phil Hill Ferrari 13 05  Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Climax 12 06th  Jo Bonnier BRM 10 07th  Masts Gregory Cooper-Climax 10 08th  Dan Gurney Ferrari 10 09  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 8.5

Item driver constructor Points 10  Rodger Ward Watson-Offenhauser 8th 11  Jim Rathmann Watson-Offenhauser 6th 12  Johnny Thomson Lesovsky-Offenhauser 5 13  Harry Schell BRM 5 14th  Tony Bettenhausen Epperly-Offenhauser 3 15th  Innes Ireland Lotus Climax 3 16  Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 3 17th  Paul Goldsmith Epperly-Offenhauser 2 18th  Jean Behra Ferrari 2

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  cooper 34 (37) 02  Ferrari 28 03  BRM 18th 04th  lotus 3

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: Portuguese GP, 1959 at grandprix.com
• 'Superior' Moss dominates in the heat at espnf1.com