1960 Belgian Grand Prix

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Flag of Belgium (civil) .svg 1960 Belgian Grand Prix
Racing data
5th of 10 races of the 1960 Automobile World Championship
Route profile
Surname: XXI GROTE PRIJS VAN BELGIE
Date: June 19, 1960
Place: Spa , Belgium
Course: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Length: 508.32 km in 36 laps of 14.12 km

Weather: dry, sunny
Pole position
Driver: AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax
Time: 3: 50.0 min
Fastest lap
Driver: AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham Innes Ireland Phil Hill
United KingdomUnited Kingdom 
United States 49United States 
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax Lotus-Climax Ferrari
United KingdomUnited Kingdom 
ItalyItaly 
Time: 3: 51.9 min
Podium
First: AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax
Second: New ZealandNew Zealand Bruce McLaren United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax
Third: BelgiumBelgium Olivier Gendebien United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax

The 1960 Belgian Grand Prix took place on June 19, 1960 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps near Spa and was the fifth race of the 1960 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

After a year break, the Belgian Grand Prix took place again in 1960. The race weekend was overshadowed by several serious accidents in which two drivers were fatally injured during the race. Stirling Moss had an accident during training and had to take a break for several months with serious injuries. Mike Taylor suffered life-threatening injuries in another training accident that ended his career. Alan Stacey and Chris Bristow died in racing accidents. This was the third race in a row with fatal incidents after spectators had been killed at the 1960 Indianapolis 500 and the Dutch Grand Prix . It was not until the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix that a similar number of serious accidents occurred again. The race distance was increased from 24 laps to 36 laps. This led to a high failure rate; only six drivers made it to the finish.

The top teams Cooper-Climax , Lotus and BRM drove with the same drivers as in the previous race, Ferrari, however, replaced Richie Ginther with Willy Mairesse , who drove it his debut race. In addition, Phil Hill and Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips continued to drive for Scuderia Ferrari, Ginther returned to the team at the 1960 Italian Grand Prix . In the following race, however, Ginther initially moved to Scarab for a race , who again participated in the Belgian Grand Prix with Chuck Daigh and Lance Reventlow . Several teams and drivers used private Lotus 18s and Cooper T51s . Moss drove a Lotus for the Rob Walker Racing Team , Taylor for the Taylor-Crawley Racing Team . Lucien Bianchi drove a Cooper for the Equipe Nationale Belge in his first of three races of the season . In addition, the Yeoman Credit Racing Team with Cooper was entered for Olivier Gendebien , Tony Brooks and Bristow.

With Brooks, a former winner of the race took part; Ferrari had previously been successful three times with the designers. In the drivers' standings, McLaren was three points ahead of Moss, with Jim Rathmann and Jack Brabham third . Cooper led the constructors' championship ahead of Lotus and Ferrari.

training

Moss, who had reached pole position six times in a row in the last six races in which he participated, had a serious accident in practice. On the straight in front of the Burnenville curve, he lost his left front wheel, causing his Lotus to spiral out of control. The car spun off the track and collided with a hill off the track. Moss was thrown out of the car and lay unconscious on the track. The hospital was diagnosed with multiple broken ribs and vertebrae, a broken nose, and broken legs and other injuries. Moss healed his injuries in the following months and returned a few months later at the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix in the automobile world championship. Many drivers stopped at the accident site to help Moss. Due to the size of the track, it took a long time for an ambulance to arrive at the scene of the accident, which was one reason why shorter race tracks were established in the automobile world championship over the next few decades. Taylor was instructed by the other drivers to drive to the pits to inform the medical staff about the accident. On the way back to the pits, Taylor suffered a similar accident when his handlebar broke and he was thrown out of the car. When he hit a tree, Taylor suffered serious spinal injuries that ended his career. He remained paralyzed for years after the accident, but later managed to fully recover from his injuries. Taylor later sued Colin Chapman , the Lotus team boss, for the unsafe construction of the car. This first lawsuit against a designer was successful and Taylor received a large amount of compensation for pain and suffering.

Due to the Moss accident, Brabham no longer had any competition in training and he dominated the pole position with more than two seconds ahead of the runner-up. Brooks achieved second place, so two Cooper started from the front row. The track with the long straights suited the front-engined Ferrari better than the previous tracks and Phil Hill qualified in third place. Another Cooper from the Yeoman Credit Racing Team from Gendebien was in fourth place. The BRM of Graham Hill and Jo Bonnier started behind . The best Lotus driver was Innes Ireland in seventh place ahead of Bristow and Jim Clark . The first ten were completed by Graf Berghe von Trips. The Scarab was not competitive, the team finished 15th and 17th on the grid. The two drivers were 19 and 28 seconds slower than Brabham.

run

Alan Stacey's burned-out racing car

Brabham won the starting duel and was leading after the first lap ahead of Gendebien, who had improved by two positions. However, when Gendebien spun, Lotus driver Ireland took second place behind Brabham. Brooks, who started in second place, retired at the start of the race with a gearbox damage, after Reventlow had previously had an engine failure. Gurney also parked his BRM on lap four with engine failure. Brabham extended his lead over the competition, as the immediate pursuer Ireland had an accident on lap 13 due to a technical defect. Phil Hill then took second place and caught up with Brabham in the following racing laps, who defended his lead. Meanwhile, the series of failures due to engine damage continued in the rear field. The second BRM with Bonnier's car was affected on lap 14, two laps later Daigh retired in the second Scarab with engine failure.

In the midfield there was a duel between Bristow and Mairesse for sixth place. In the “Malmedy” section of the route, Bristow and his Cooper went off the track while attempting to attack Mairesse. The car collided with a mound of earth and Bristow was thrown out of the car. He got caught in a barbed wire barrier that severed his head. Bristow was the second fatality among drivers in 1960 after Harry Schell had previously had a fatal accident at a Grand Prix that was not part of the automobile world championship. Just a few laps after Bristow's accident, Mairesse, with whom he had dueled, retired with no power transmission to his Ferrari, as did his team-mate Graf Berghe von Trips. On lap 24, just five laps after Bristow's fatal accident, Stacey was hit in the head by a bird. As a result, Stacey lost control of his car in the “Masta” section and also collided with a mound and was thrown out of the car like Bristow. The Lotus burned out completely after the accident. Stacey did not survive the accident and became the second fatality in the Belgian Grand Prix. This was the last Grand Prix to date in which two drivers died during the race. At the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, there were again two fatal accidents during a racing weekend.

Only seven vehicles remained in the race, with Brabham still leading in front of Phil Hill and McLaren. A petrol line broke on Phil Hills Ferrari and he had the damage repaired on the pit. As a result, McLaren finished second and Graham Hill moved up to third. Brabham won the race with a one-minute lead over his team-mate McLaren. This was Brabham's second win in a row as well as a Grand Slam , as he had led all laps starting from pole position and had set the fastest race lap. Ireland and Phil Hill set the fastest race lap at the same time, the only one in Ireland's career. In third place, Graham Hill retired on lap 35 with engine failure. According to the rules, he should have pushed his car across the finish line to be classified. Since that did not happen, Gendebien, who finished the 35th lap only after Graham Hill, was classified as third. This was Gendebien's first of two podium finishes. Phil Hill finished fourth, Clark scored his first points in fifth. Bianchi completed the points scoring eight laps behind in sixth place and thus also received his first point in the drivers' world championship.

McLaren continued to lead the drivers' standings after the race, four points ahead of new runner-up Brabham. In the constructors' championship, Cooper extended the lead over Lotus to 13 points, while Ferrari came back to within two points of Lotus. For both Brabham and Cooper it was the only victory on this circuit. Due to the many serious accidents, the organizers of the automobile world championship came to the conclusion that the cars were too fast and too dangerous. The result was a reduction in the size of the engines to 1.5 liters in the following season. The two fatally injured drivers, Bristow and Stacey, were remembered with a minute's silence at the award ceremony.

Registration list

team No. driver chassis engine tires
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper Car Company 02 AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham Cooper T53 Climax 2.5 L4 D.
04th New ZealandNew Zealand Bruce McLaren
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Owen Racing Organization 06th SwedenSweden Jo Bonnier BRM P48 BRM 2.5 L4 D.
08th United States 49United States Dan Gurney
10 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Graham Hill
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Rob Walker Racing Team 12 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Stirling Moss Lotus 18 Climax 2.5 L4 D.
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Team Lotus 14th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Innes Ireland Lotus 18 Climax 2.5 L4 D.
16 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Alan Stacey
18th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Jim Clark
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Taylor-Crawley Racing Team 20th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mike Taylor Lotus 18 Climax 2.5 L4 D.
ItalyItaly Scuderia Ferrari 22nd BelgiumBelgium Willy Mairesse Ferrari Dino 246F1 Ferrari 2.4 V6 D.
24 United States 49United States Phil Hill
26th GermanyGermany Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips
United States 49United States Reventlow Automobiles Inc. 28 United States 49United States Lance Reventlow Scarab Type 1 Scarab 2.4 L4 D.
30th United States 49United States Chuck Daigh
BelgiumBelgium Equipe Nationale Belge 32 BelgiumBelgium Lucien Bianchi Cooper T51 Climax 2.5 L4 D.
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Yeoman Credit Racing Team 34 BelgiumBelgium Olivier Gendebien Cooper T51 Climax 2.5 L4 D.
36 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Chris Bristow
38 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Tony Brooks

Classifications

Starting grid

Item driver constructor time Ø speed begin
01 AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 3: 50.0 221.01 km / h 01
02 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Tony Brooks United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 3: 52.5 218.63 km / h 02
03 United States 49United States Phil Hill ItalyItaly Ferrari 3: 53.3 217.88 km / h 03
04th BelgiumBelgium Olivier Gendebien United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 3: 53.5 217.70 km / h 04th
05 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Graham Hill United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 3: 54.2 217.05 km / h 05
06th SwedenSweden Jo Bonnier United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 3: 54.8 216.49 km / h 06th
07th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Innes Ireland United KingdomUnited Kingdom Lotus Climax 3: 55.4 215.94 km / h 07th
08th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Chris Bristow United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 3: 56.4 215.03 km / h 08th
09 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Jim Clark United KingdomUnited Kingdom Lotus Climax 3: 57.5 214.03 km / h 09
10 GermanyGermany Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips ItalyItaly Ferrari 3: 57.8 213.76 km / h 10
11 United States 49United States Dan Gurney United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 3: 58.3 213.31 km / h 11
12 BelgiumBelgium Willy Mairesse ItalyItaly Ferrari 3: 58.9 212.78 km / h 12
13 New ZealandNew Zealand Bruce McLaren United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 4: 00.0 211.8 km / h 13
14th BelgiumBelgium Lucien Bianchi United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 4: 00.6 211.27 km / h 14th
15th United States 49United States Lance Reventlow United States 49United States Scarab 4: 09.7 203.57 km / h 15th
16 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Alan Stacey United KingdomUnited Kingdom Lotus Climax 4: 17.6 197.33 km / h 16
17th United States 49United States Chuck Daigh United States 49United States Scarab 4: 18.5 196.64 km / h 17th

run

Item driver constructor Round Stops time begin Fastest lap Failure reason
01 AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 36 2: 21: 37.3 01 3: 51.9
02 New ZealandNew Zealand Bruce McLaren United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 36 +1: 03.3 13
03 BelgiumBelgium Olivier Gendebien United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 35 + 1 lap 04th
04th United States 49United States Phil Hill ItalyItaly Ferrari 35 + 1 lap 03 3: 51.9
05 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Jim Clark United KingdomUnited Kingdom Lotus Climax 34 + 2 rounds 09
06th BelgiumBelgium Lucien Bianchi United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 28 + 8 rounds 14th
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Graham Hill United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 35 DNF 05 Engine failure
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Alan Stacey United KingdomUnited Kingdom Lotus Climax 24 DNF 16 deadly accident
- BelgiumBelgium Willy Mairesse ItalyItaly Ferrari 23 DNF 12 Power transmission
- GermanyGermany Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips ItalyItaly Ferrari 22nd DNF 10 Power transmission
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Chris Bristow United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 19th DNF 08th deadly accident
- United States 49United States Chuck Daigh United States 49United States Scarab 16 DNF 17th Engine failure
- SwedenSweden Jo Bonnier United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 14th DNF 06th Engine failure
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Innes Ireland United KingdomUnited Kingdom Lotus Climax 13 DNF 07th 3: 51.9 accident
- United States 49United States Dan Gurney United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 04th DNF 11 Engine failure
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Tony Brooks United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 02 DNF 02 transmission
- United States 49United States Lance Reventlow United States 49United States Scarab 01 DNF 15th Engine failure
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Stirling Moss United KingdomUnited Kingdom Lotus Climax 00 DNS Training accident / injury
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mike Taylor United KingdomUnited Kingdom Lotus Climax 00 DNS Training accident / injury

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. Only the six best results from ten 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 New ZealandNew Zealand Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 20th
02 AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax 16
03 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Stirling Moss Lotus Climax 11
04th United States 49United States Jim Rathmann Watson-Offenhauser 8th
05 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Innes Ireland Lotus Climax 7th
06th United States 49United States Phil Hill Ferrari 7th
07th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cliff Allison Ferrari 6th
08th United States 49United States Rodger Ward Watson-Offenhauser 6th
09 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Graham Hill BRM 4th
10 United States 49United States Paul Goldsmith Epperly-Offenhauser 4th
11 BelgiumBelgium Olivier Gendebien Cooper-Climax 4th
Item driver constructor Points
12 GermanyGermany Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips Ferrari 4th
13 ArgentinaArgentina Carlos Menditeguy Cooper Maserati 3
14th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Tony Brooks Cooper-Climax 3
15th United States 49United States Don Branson Phillips-Offenhauser 3
16 SwedenSweden Jo Bonnier BRM 2
17th United States 49United States Johnny Thomson Lesovsky-Offenhauser 2
18th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Jim Clark Lotus Climax 2
19th United States 49United States Richie Ginther Ferrari 2
20th United States 49United States Eddie Johnson Trevis-Offenhauser 1
21st BelgiumBelgium Lucien Bianchi Cooper-Climax 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points
01 United KingdomUnited Kingdom cooper 30th
02 United KingdomUnited Kingdom lotus 17th
03 ItalyItaly Ferrari 15th
04th United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 6th

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