Belgian Grand Prix 1939

The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in its busy version.

The VIII. Belgian Grand Prix took place on June 25, 1939 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps . As Grande Épreuve , the race was part of the European Grand Prix Championship in 1939 and, according to the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (mainly racing cars up to 3 liters with a compressor and up to 4.5 liters without a compressor; minimum weight 850 kg ; Race distance at least 300 km) over 35 laps of 14.5 km each, which corresponded to a total distance of 507.5 km.

The winner was Hermann Lang in a Mercedes-Benz W 154 , which was his first success in an official International Grand Prix . However, the race was overshadowed by his teammate Richard Seaman's fatal fire accident .

run

After the victories in the spring races in Pau , Tripoli and the Eifel race at the Nürburgring , Mercedes-Benz traveled to Spa-Francorchamps with Hermann Lang as the clear favorite to kick off the official Grand Prix season . In addition, the reigning European champion Rudolf Caracciola , the experienced but often somewhat unhappy acting Manfred von Brauchitsch and the young Briton Richard Seaman , who celebrated his first Grand Prix success in the previous year at the German Grand Prix, were three more regular drivers of the team Mercedes-Benz W 154 , which were all entered into the race with two-stage turbocharging for the first time.

Auto Union had only entered the racing season for the Eifel race, where Tazio Nuvolari was able to build on the strong performance at the end of last year with the Auto Union Type D and finished second. As usual, his team partners were Rudolf Hasse , who had won the Belgian Grand Prix in 1937 , and the young Hermann Paul "HP" Müller , who had developed from a youngster to a regular driver at Auto Union in 1938 . Because Hans Stuck was currently contesting a few races on a trip to Romania, the popular motorcycle star Georg “Schorsch” Meier was the team's junior driver for his first Grand Prix outing in the fourth car .

The only serious competition for the German army introduced the completely revised again over the winter Alfa Romeo Tipo 316 from Giuseppe Farina is, who went into the race for the team was the only driver. In the group of private drivers - some of whom had been invited to the race for the first time in a long time - on the other hand, Raymond Sommer with his older Tipo 308 still had some outsider chances.

On the day of the race it was rainy and the track conditions were accordingly changeable, which made it difficult for the drivers to adjust to the course. From the starting grid, which was traditionally still determined by lottery at Spa, Farina made use of his good position in the front row to be the first to get through the newly designed passage of Eau Rouge. Due to the performance disadvantage of the Alfa Romeo compared to the German Silver Arrows , however, he had to give up position after position and - although still the best-placed participant on a non-German make - had already been lapped twice in the second half of the race at the time of his retirement.

In the meantime, Müller had come out of the first lap as the leader, closely followed by Lang on Mercedes, who was unable to overtake because of the spray of the Auto Union driving in front of him. Although Müller was shown blue flags several times as a sign to let a subsequent participant pass, the angry Mercedes driver had no chance to pass, so that he later even accused his competitor of intentionally blocking. On the ninth lap, Lang finally had enough and let his team-mates Caracciola and Seaman pass so that they in turn could take on the battle with the leading Auto-Union driver. However, Caracciola got off the track while attempting to overtake the La Source hairpin and stalled the engine, so that he had to give up the race.

One lap later, however, Müller made an early refueling stop so that Seaman was able to take the lead with a few seconds ahead of Lang. As the rain subsided, the lap times got faster and faster and although the track conditions remained deceptive, the two Mercedes drivers at the front fought a thrilling long-distance duel. Shortly before the end of the 22nd lap, however, the accident happened when Seaman got off the track on the slippery surface and his Mercedes was thrown sideways against a tree. With a broken hand and trapped by the steering wheel, he was unable to free himself from the car, which went up in flames immediately after the impact. By the time he was pulled out of the cockpit, he had already suffered severe burns, which he succumbed to in the hospital that same night.

Lang, who had noticed the accident right in front of him, stopped briefly at the pits to inform the team, but then started the race again, visibly shocked. Nuvolari was now second, but his attempt to catch up was abruptly ended by a take-off into the lane. However, under the impression of the events, they had forgotten to bring the leader in again to refuel, so that at the end of the penultimate lap he ran out of gas. With the engine already at a standstill, he just managed to pits, but by the time he got back on the track, Hasse, who was second at the time, had just driven through with Auto Union. In a dramatic finale, however, Lang fought his way back to win the first Grand Prix victory of his career.

Registration list

No.	driver	constructor	vehicle	team	comment
02	Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
04th	Rudolf Hasse	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
06th	Hermann Paul Muller	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
08th	Georg Meier	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
10	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 316	G. Farina
12	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 308	R. summer
14th	Robert Mazaud	Delahaye	Delahaye 135CS	R. Mazaud
16	Toulo de Graffenried	Maserati	Maserati 6C-34	Ecurie Autosport?	not started
18th	Louis Gérard	Delahaye	Delahaye 135CS	L. Gérard
20th	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
22nd	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
24	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
26th	Richard Seaman	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
28	Adolfo Mandirola	Maserati	Maserati 8CM	A. Mandirola

Starting grid

1		2		3
Müller		Long		Farina
	4th		5
	Nuvolari		Seaman
6th		7th		8th
Meier		Caracciola		Hate
	9		10
	von Brauchitsch		summer
11		12		13
Mazaud		Gerard		Mandirola

Race result

Item	No.	driver	constructor	Round	time	Failure reason	EM points
1	22nd	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	35	3: 21: 21.0 h		1
2	04th	Rudolf Hasse	Auto Union	35	+ 0016.9 s		2
3	24	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	35	+ 01: 53.0 min		3
4th	12	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo	33	+ 2 rounds		4th
5	14th	Robert Mazaud	Delahaye	31	+ 4 rounds		4th
6th	18th	Louis Gérard	Delahaye	30th	+ 5 rounds		4th
DNF	02	Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	28		accident	4th
DNF	06th	Hermann Paul Muller	Auto Union	26th		Valve	5
DNF	26th	Richard Seaman	Mercedes Benz	21st		deadly accident	5
DNF	10	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	20th		compressor	5
DNF	28	Adolfo Mandirola	Maserati	19th		suspension	5
DNF	08th	Georg Meier	Auto Union	13		accident	6th
DNF	20th	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	7th		accident	7th

Fastest race lap : Hermann Lang ( Mercedes-Benz ), 5: 19.9 min = 163.2 km / h  

Web links

Commons : Automobilsport 1939  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• VIII Grand Prix de Belgique. www.teamdan.com, accessed on August 3, 2014 (English). 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: VIII GRAND PRIX DE BELGIQUE. www.kolumbus.fi, May 4, 2014, accessed on August 3, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The type designation of the Auto Union racing cars was only introduced later by specialist authors to differentiate between the individual models