1951 Belgian Grand Prix

 1951 Belgian Grand Prix

Racing data
3rd of 8 races of the 1951 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XIII Grote Prijs van Belgie
Date:	June 17, 1951
Place:	Spa Francorchamps
Course:	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Length:	508.32 km in 36 laps of 14.12 km
Weather:	sunny
Pole position
Driver:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo
Time:	4: 25.0 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo
Time:	4: 22.1 min (lap 10)
Podium
First:	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo
Second:	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari
Third:	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari

The 1951 Belgian Grand Prix took place on June 17th on the Spa Francorchamps circuit in Spa and was the third race of the 1951 World Automobile Championship .

background

Only 13 drivers had registered for the race. 3 factory cars each from Alfa Romeo and Ferrari , the remaining seven were distributed among various private drivers who all competed with Talbot . The Alfa Romeo drove without the additional tanks and were also worried that a gear ratio that was too short could over-rev the engines on the long sloping Masta straight. Larger 19-inch rear wheels were then available for the race, which should compensate for the problem. Due to the lack of additional tanks, the Alfa-Romeo had to stop twice, while the Ferraris managed with one stop. This made for a certain leveling of the chances. The Talbots even managed without a refueling stop, but were on average half a minute slower per lap, so this advantage did not have any effect.

training

The training session was dominated by the Italian works teams, with Fangio securing pole position in the Alfa-Romeo. He was 3 seconds faster than the second Farina in the same car, 11 seconds ahead of the slowest works car ( Sanesi in the Alfa Romeo) and almost a minute faster than the last starter in the field. The first five undercut the official lap record from the previous year.

run

Villoresi won the start and was able to stay at the front of the field for two laps. Then he fell back lap by lap to fourth place, Farina took the lead in front of the poorly started Fangio, who could only fight his way to second place from lap 6. A few laps later the Ferrari started having problems. Taruffi retired on the ninth lap with a broken rear axle and Villoresi had to make a short stop one lap to fix a loosened oil pipe. On lap 11, Sanesi was eliminated due to an overheated engine. Shortly before half-time, the regular pit stops began with Farina as the first pit guest, which brought Fangio to the top, but who also stopped a lap later. However, Fangio's pit stop was anything but problem-free, as the wheel nut at the rear left could not be loosened from the hub. One spoke of the wheel was wedged into the hub so that the entire hub had to be replaced. The repair cost him over 15 minutes and he was then four laps behind the front. Farina drove towards an undisputed victory and won ahead of Ascari and Villoresi. The best Talbot driver was Louis Rosier in fourth.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Alfa Romeo Motorsport	2	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo 159	Alfa Romeo	P
	4th	Giuseppe Farina
	6th	Consalvo Sanesi
Scuderia Ferrari	8th	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari 375	Ferrari	P
	10	Luigi Villoresi
	12	Piero Taruffi
Ecurie Rosier	14th	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago T26C-DA	Talbot	D.
	18th	Louis Chiron
Ecurie Belge	16	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago T26C-DA	Talbot	D.
Team Philippe Etancelin	20th	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago T26C-DA	Talbot	D.
Team Yves Giraud-Cabantous	22nd	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot-Lago T26C	Talbot	D.
Ecurie Belgique	24	André Pilette	Talbot-Lago T26C	Talbot	E.
Team Pierre Levegh	26th	Pierre Levegh	Talbot-Lago T26C	Talbot	D.

classification

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	km / h	Starting row
1.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	4: 25,000	191.819	1L
2.	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	4: 28,000	189.672	1M
3.	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	4: 29,000	188.967	1R
4th	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	4: 30,000	188.267	2L
5.	Piero Taruffi	Ferrari	4: 32,000	186.882	2R
6th	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	4: 36,000	184.174	3L
7th	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	4: 45,000	178.358	3M
8th.	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot-Lago	4: 52,000	174.082	3R
9.	Louis Chiron	Talbot-Lago	5: 01,000	168.877	4L
10.	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago	5: 04,000	167.211	4R
11.	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago	5: 09,000	164.505	5L
12.	André Pilette	Talbot-Lago	5: 16,000	160.861	5 M
13.	Pierre Levegh	Talbot-Lago	5: 17,000	160.353	5R

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	time	km / h	s. Rd.	guide
1.	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	36	2: 45: 46,200	183.46		33
2.	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	36	2: 48: 37,200	180.36
3.	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	36	2: 50: 08,100	178.76		2
4th	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	34			4: 46.900
5.	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot-Lago	34			4: 47.600
6th	André Pilette	Talbot-Lago	33			4: 56.200
7th	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago	33			4: 56.200
8th.	Pierre Levegh	Talbot-Lago	32			5: 04,900
9.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	32			4: 22,100	1
DNF	Louis Chiron	Talbot-Lago	28	engine		4: 45.900
DNF	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	11	cooling
DNF	Piero Taruffi	Ferrari	8th	Rear axle
DNF	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago	0	Power transmission

World Cup stand after the race

The first five got 8, 6, 4, 3 and 2 points respectively; there was a point for the fastest lap. Only the four best results from eight races count. (*) includes the point for the fastest lap, fields marked in the same color indicate a vehicle pick-up (point sharing).

Item	driver	constructor									Points
1.	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	4th		8th						12
2.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	9 *		1*						10
3.	Lee Wallard	Kurti's power		9 *							9
4th	Piero Taruffi	Ferrari	6th								6th
	Mike Nazaruk	Kurti's power		6th							6th
	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari			6th						6th
7th	Luigi Villoresi	Alfa Romeo			4th						4th
8th.	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	3								3
	Andy Linden	Sherman		3							3
	Louis Rosier	Talbot			3						3
11.	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Alfa Romeo	2								2
	Bobby Ball	Schroeder		2							2
	Jack McGrath	Kurti's power		2							2
	Manuel Ayulo	Kurti's power		2							2
	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot			2						2

Web links

• Results

Individual evidence

• Lang, Mike: Grand Prix! 1950-1965 ; Haynes Publishing Group, Sparkford Sommerset 1981, ISBN 978-0-85429-276-9 .