1959 Dutch Grand Prix

 1959 Dutch Grand Prix

Racing data
3rd of 9 races of the 1959 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	VIII Grote Prijs van Nederland
Date:	May 31, 1959
Place:	Zandvoort , the Netherlands
Course:	Circuit Park Zandvoort
Length:	314.475 km in 75 laps of 4.193 km
Weather:	sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Jo Bonnier	BRM
Time:	1: 36.0 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax
Time:	1: 36.7 min
Podium
First:	Jo Bonnier	BRM
Second:	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax
Third:	Masts Gregory	Cooper-Climax

The 1959 Dutch Grand Prix took place on May 31, 1959 at Circuit Park Zandvoort near Zandvoort and was the third race of the 1959 World Cup .

Reports

background

Aston Martin DBR4

Just one day after the Indianapolis 500 in 1959 , the Dutch Grand Prix took place. The European teams saw the Indianapolis 500 as a deletion, making the Dutch Grand Prix the second race of the season for many drivers. The British team Aston Martin made their debut in this race with an Aston Martin DBR4 , a front-engined car that was significantly heavier than the competition. Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby started for Aston Martin . The team's tire manufacturer was Avon , who returned to Formula 1 after a break of several years. All other teams drove with Dunlop tires.

While Ferrari continued to rely on its four regular drivers Jean Behra , Tony Brooks , Phil Hill and Cliff Allison , Cooper only drove with two cars. In addition to the winner of the season opener, Jack Brabham drove Masten Gregory for the Cooper works team. Bruce McLaren, on the other hand, paused for a race. Also BRM sat only two blocks one, Harry Schell and Jo Bonnier drove Ron Flockhart paused.

Lotus announced the contract with Pete Lovely , new ordinary driver alongside Graham Hill was Innes Ireland , who made his Formula 1 debut denied. The rest of the field was filled by drivers with private cars. The Rob Walker Racing Team competed with Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant , Ecurie Maarsbergen had registered a car for Moss, which Carel Godin de Beaufort then drove. For the first time in several years, with the exception of the Indianapolis 500, no Maserati 250F took part in a Formula 1 race.

In the weeks leading up to the race, Moss carried out extensive test drives for BRM, improving the car's performance and helping to fix the car's braking problems.

In the driver standings, Brabham led together with Rodger Ward , who, however, only started again at the 1959 US Grand Prix , the season finale, in the automobile world championship. Moss was the only driver in the field who had previously won the Dutch Grand Prix; only Ferrari had previously won the teams.

training

The training was a balanced duel between many teams and drivers. Four different cars qualified for the top 5 after only Ferrari and Cooper had a chance of pole position at the season opener . With Bonnier on BRM and Brabham, two drivers dueled for first place who had not previously had a pole position in their careers. Both set the best practice time, 1: 36.0 minutes, but Bonnier got first place on the grid because he had driven this time earlier than Brabham. This was the first pole position in team history for BRM, and the only one for Bonnier.

After the rear-engined Cooper was the fastest car in practice in Monaco, a front-engined bolide again prevailed at the Dutch Grand Prix with BRM. Cooper was still competitive because they finished second and third. Third on the grid was Moss, who drove for the Rob Walker Racing Team. At Ferrari, Behra was again the fastest. He qualified for fourth place, ahead of Graham Hill on Lotus. Schell in the second BRM was sixth ahead of Brooks and Debutant Ireland. Aston Martin qualified in tenth and thirteenth place in the midfield, Beaufort on Porsche came in 14th.

Allison did not drive any time in practice, but still qualified as the field of drivers was relatively small with only 15 vehicles.

run

Only victory and only pole position for Jo Bonnier

Bonnier used the pole position and won the starting duel against the Cooper. While Moss got off badly and fell back to midfield, the best start was Gregory, who improved from the third row to second place. During the first lap, Moss overtook several vehicles and dueled Behra for third place. Bonnier finished the first lap of the race in first place, leading a Formula 1 Grand Prix for the first time in his career. Gregory achieved the same when he overtook Bonnier one lap later and kept him behind him in the subsequent duel until lap 11. During this time Bonnier drove his personal fastest race lap, which brought him closer to Gregory. Then Gregory got gearbox problems, which Bonnier used to take the lead again. Brabham also benefited from Gregory's technical problems and overtook him and caught up with Bonnier. On the following laps of the race, Bonnier and Brabham battled for the lead, with eight cars battling it out for third place.

For Aston Martin, the first race in team history was over after 25 laps. After Salvadori had retired at the beginning of the race with engine failure, Shelby retired on lap 25 for the same reason. The car therefore not only had performance problems, but also difficulties with reliability. For these reasons, Aston Martin decided not to start the next race, the French Grand Prix .

Brabham overtook Bonnier on lap 30, but held the lead for only three laps before Bonnier took first place back. Behind it, Behra spun, putting Moss in third position and catching up on the front. He drove the fastest lap of the race on lap 42 and passed Brabham six laps later. Shortly before the end of the race, Moss took the lead before a gearbox damage ended his race. Brooks and Schell also retired due to technical defects, and all the other drivers crossed the finish line.

Before the end of the race, Bonnier extended his lead over second-placed Brabham to 14 seconds and became the first Swedish Grand Prix winner. Towards the end of the race, Brabham was missing the second gear of his car to attack Bonnier. For Bonnier, however, it was the only victory in his Formula 1 career, which was very long at the time. BRM, who have been involved in motorsport for several years, saw their maiden win in the automobile world championship and the start of a successful time for the team. Brabham extended his lead in the drivers' standings to seven points with second place, with Ward Bonnier as the new runner-up. Despite transmission problems, Gregory finished in third place and achieved the second of three podium finishes in his career. Ireland, who scored straight away in his debut race, finished fourth, ahead of Behra in fifth. Ferrari only scored two points and slipped to third place in the constructors' championship, behind Cooper and BRM Cooper's lead over BRM was six points after the third race.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Scuderia Ferrari	01	Jean Behra	Ferrari Dino 246F1	Ferrari 2.4 V6	D.
	02	Tony Brooks
	03	Phil Hill
	016	Cliff Allison
David Brown organization	04th	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin DBR4 / 250	Aston Martin 2.5 L6	A.
	05	Carroll Shelby
Owen Racing Organization	06th	Harry Schell	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	D.
	07th	Jo Bonnier
Cooper Car Company	08th	Jack Brabham	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	09	Masts Gregory
Rob Walker Racing Team	10	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	11	Stirling Moss
Ecurie Maarsbergen	15th	Stirling Moss	Porsche RSK	Porsche 1.5 B4	D.
		Carel Godin de Beaufort
Team Lotus	12	Innes Ireland	Lotus 16	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	14th	Graham Hill

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Both drivers were registered, Carel Godin de Beaufort drove the car in practice and in the race.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jo Bonnier	BRM	1: 36.0	157.24 km / h	01
02	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	1: 36.0	157.24 km / h	02
03	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax	1: 36.2	156.91 km / h	03
04th	Jean Behra	Ferrari	1: 36.6	156.26 km / h	04th
05	Graham Hill	Lotus Climax	1: 36.7	156.10 km / h	05
06th	Harry Schell	BRM	1: 37.3	155.14 km / h	06th
07th	Masts Gregory	Cooper-Climax	1: 37.6	154.66 km / h	07th
08th	Tony Brooks	Ferrari	1: 37.9	154.19 km / h	08th
09	Innes Ireland	Lotus Climax	1: 38.3	153.56 km / h	09
10	Carroll Shelby	Aston Martin	1: 38.5	153.25 km / h	10
11	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	1: 38.7	152.94 km / h	11
12	Phil Hill	Ferrari	1: 39.2	152.17 km / h	12
13	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin	1: 39.7	151.40 km / h	13
14th	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	1: 44.5	144.45 km / h	14th
15th	Cliff Allison	Ferrari	no time		15th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jo Bonnier	BRM	75		2: 05: 26.8	01	1: 37.2
02	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	75		+ 14.2	02	1: 38.4
03	Masts Gregory	Cooper-Climax	75		+1: 23.0	07th	1: 38.6
04th	Innes Ireland	Lotus Climax	74		+ 1 lap	09	1: 38.6
05	Jean Behra	Ferrari	74		+ 1 lap	04th	1: 39.6
06th	Phil Hill	Ferrari	73		+ 2 rounds	12	1: 38.3
07th	Graham Hill	Lotus Climax	73		+ 2 rounds	05	1: 38.7
08th	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	73		+ 2 rounds	11	1: 38.4
09	Cliff Allison	Ferrari	71		+ 4 rounds	15th	1: 41.8
10	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	68		+ 7 rounds	14th	1: 46.4
-	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax	62		DNF	03	1: 36.6	transmission
-	Harry Schell	BRM	46		DNF	06th	1: 38.3	transmission
-	Tony Brooks	Ferrari	42		DNF	08th	1: 38.9	Oil leak
-	Carroll Shelby	Aston Martin	25th		DNF	10	1: 39.9	Engine failure
-	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin	03		DNF	13	1: 40.2	Engine failure

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 15th 02  Rodger Ward Watson-Offenhauser 8th 03  Jo Bonnier BRM 8th 04th  Tony Brooks Ferrari 6th 05  Jim Rathmann Watson-Offenhauser 6th 06th  Johnny Thomson Lesovsky-Offenhauser 5 07th  Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Climax 4th 08th  Masts Gregory Cooper-Climax 4th

Item driver constructor Points 09  Phil Hill Ferrari 3 10  Tony Bettenhausen Epperly-Offenhauser 3 11  Innes Ireland Lotus Climax 3 12  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 2 13  Paul Goldsmith Epperly-Offenhauser 2 14th  Jean Behra Ferrari 2 15th  Stirling Moss Cooper-Climax 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  cooper 14th 02  BRM 8th 03  Ferrari 8th 04th  lotus 3

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• 1959 Gp Holanda at youtube.com
• First success for Bonnier and BRM at espnf1.com
• Grand Prix Results: Dutch GP, 1959 at grandprix.com