Belgian Grand Prix 1947

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The 10th Belgian Grand Prix  - and also the 8th European Grand Prix  - took place on June 29, 1947 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps . The race was named Grande Épreuve according to the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula  - later Formula 1  - (racing cars up to 1.5 liters displacement with a compressor or up to 4.5 liters displacement without a compressor; racing distance at least 300 km or at least three hours Race duration) over 35 laps of 14.066 km each, which corresponded to a total distance of 507.5 km.

The winner was Jean-Pierre Wimille in an Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 "Alfetta" .

The race

After the triple victory in the Grand Prix of Switzerland that was factory team of Alfa Romeo with its four towering Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 and the excellent occupied driver quartet of Jean-Pierre Wimille , Achille Varzi , Carlo Felice Trossi and Consalvo Sanesi also on the fast track of Spa -Francorchamps  - one of the great Grand Prix classics - clearly favored again. On top of that, the Belgian automobile club Royal Automobile Club de Belgique (RACB) invited a total of only six Maserati 4CLs to take part in the race, which was also held for the third time in its history under the honorary title of Grand Prix of Europe however, only three copies with Raymond Sommer and the two Swiss Christian Kautz and Emmanuel de Graffenried at the wheel appeared for the race. Together with the only real Grand Prix monoposto from Lago-Talbot that existed at the time , the so-called Monoplace Centrale of Ecurie France with old master Louis Chiron at the wheel, these were the only competitors in the field who had at least outsider opportunities. After all, in view of the circumstances in the post-war years, in contrast to the usual practice of the RACB, private drivers were invited to take part in the race in order to get an adequate field of participants.

The dominance of the "Alfettas" was so clear that race director Giovanbattista Guidotti, as usual, had already made the decision before the race as to which of his drivers should be entitled to victory. In view of the strong rivalries between his drivers, he wanted to prevent overly violent duels on the track so as not to endanger the race victory. After Wimille had been given precedence in Bern, Achille Varzi was now destined to achieve the third success of his career in a Grande Épreuve here in Belgium .

A special feature of the Belgian Grand Prix was that the starting grid was not determined on the basis of the lap times achieved in training, as is otherwise now common practice, but - like the list of participants itself - was determined by the organizer at their own discretion. However, this did not have too much of an impact on the course of the race, with Wimille and Varzi, the two fastest Alfa Romeo drivers starting next to each other from the front row.

Immediately after the race was open, however, to everyone's surprise, it was Raymond Sommer who, with his defeated Maserati, was able to line up in second place behind the leading Alfa Romeo from Varzi and maintain his position in the group of Alfetta for many laps. During this phase, Trossi was hit by a stone in the face and had to go to the pits for medical treatment, where he therefore handed his Alfa Romeo over to Guidotti, who was personally registered as a reserve driver, for a few laps. In the meantime, in the fourth and fifth laps, Wimille and Sanesi were finally able to fight their way past Sommer, who, however, immediately countered and at least recaptured third place from Sanesi. On the 14th lap, however, he finally had to end his race with a break in the chassis, so that the Alfa Romeo drivers were once again able to fully negotiate the race victory among themselves. At the latest, the given stable order should actually have taken effect. Nevertheless, Wimille began to attack Varzi, who was supposed to be the winner, and eventually took the lead on lap 16. A little later, Varzi also lost a whole lap due to a repair stop due to a broken oil line, so that he had no way of achieving the success he was actually entitled to. Instead he had to admit defeat and be content with second place behind Wimille in front of the Trossi who had returned to the cockpit. He maintained his annoyance about his unfaithful teammate until his death in training for the 1948 Swiss Grand Prix .

For Alfa Romeo a four-fold victory would have been possible in Belgium if the third-placed Sanesi had not been stopped by a technical defect on the penultimate lap. Fourth place in a total of only seven participants went to the British driver pairing Bob Gerard and Cuth Harrison , who took turns at the wheel of their venerable ERA during the race.