1960 Belgian Grand Prix
Racing data | ||
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5th of 10 races of the 1960 Automobile World Championship | ||
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
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Weather: | dry, sunny | |
Pole position | ||
Driver: | Jack Brabham | Cooper-Climax |
Time: | 3: 50.0 min | |
Fastest lap | ||
Driver: |
Jack Brabham Innes Ireland Phil Hill |
Cooper-Climax Lotus-Climax Ferrari |
Time: | 3: 51.9 min | |
Podium | ||
First: | Jack Brabham | Cooper-Climax |
Second: | Bruce McLaren | Cooper-Climax |
Third: | Olivier Gendebien | 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
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
Classifications
Starting grid
Item | driver | constructor | time | Ø speed | begin |
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1 | Jack Brabham | Cooper-Climax | 3: 50.0 | 221.01 km / h | 1 |
2 | Tony Brooks | Cooper-Climax | 3: 52.5 | 218.63 km / h | 2 |
3 | Phil Hill | Ferrari | 3: 53.3 | 217.88 km / h | 3 |
4th | Olivier Gendebien | Cooper-Climax | 3: 53.5 | 217.70 km / h | 4th |
5 | Graham Hill | BRM | 3: 54.2 | 217.05 km / h | 5 |
6th | Jo Bonnier | BRM | 3: 54.8 | 216.49 km / h | 6th |
7th | Innes Ireland | Lotus Climax | 3: 55.4 | 215.94 km / h | 7th |
8th | Chris Bristow | Cooper-Climax | 3: 56.4 | 215.03 km / h | 8th |
9 | Jim Clark | Lotus Climax | 3: 57.5 | 214.03 km / h | 9 |
10 | Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips | Ferrari | 3: 57.8 | 213.76 km / h | 10 |
11 | Dan Gurney | BRM | 3: 58.3 | 213.31 km / h | 11 |
12 | Willy Mairesse | Ferrari | 3: 58.9 | 212.78 km / h | 12 |
13 | Bruce McLaren | Cooper-Climax | 4: 00.0 | 211.8 km / h | 13 |
14th | Lucien Bianchi | Cooper-Climax | 4: 00.6 | 211.27 km / h | 14th |
15th | Lance Reventlow | Scarab | 4: 09.7 | 203.57 km / h | 15th |
16 | Alan Stacey | Lotus Climax | 4: 17.6 | 197.33 km / h | 16 |
17th | Chuck Daigh | Scarab | 4: 18.5 | 196.64 km / h | 17th |
run
Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
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1 | Jack Brabham | Cooper-Climax | 36 | 2: 21: 37.3 | 1 | 3: 51.9 | ||
2 | Bruce McLaren | Cooper-Climax | 36 | +1: 03.3 | 13 | |||
3 | Olivier Gendebien | Cooper-Climax | 35 | + 1 lap | 4th | |||
4th | Phil Hill | Ferrari | 35 | + 1 lap | 3 | 3: 51.9 | ||
5 | Jim Clark | Lotus Climax | 34 | + 2 rounds | 9 | |||
6th | Lucien Bianchi | Cooper-Climax | 28 | + 8 rounds | 14th | |||
- | Graham Hill | BRM | 35 | DNF | 5 | Engine failure | ||
- | Alan Stacey | Lotus Climax | 24 | DNF | 16 | deadly accident | ||
- | Willy Mairesse | Ferrari | 23 | DNF | 12 | Power transmission | ||
- | Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips | Ferrari | 22nd | DNF | 10 | Power transmission | ||
- | Chris Bristow | Cooper-Climax | 19th | DNF | 8th | deadly accident | ||
- | Chuck Daigh | Scarab | 16 | DNF | 17th | Engine failure | ||
- | Jo Bonnier | BRM | 14th | DNF | 6th | Engine failure | ||
- | Innes Ireland | Lotus Climax | 13 | DNF | 7th | 3: 51.9 | accident | |
- | Dan Gurney | BRM | 4th | DNF | 11 | Engine failure | ||
- | Tony Brooks | Cooper-Climax | 2 | DNF | 2 | transmission | ||
- | Lance Reventlow | Scarab | 1 | DNF | 15th | Engine failure | ||
- | Stirling Moss | Lotus Climax | 0 | DNS | Training accident / injury | |||
- | Mike Taylor | Lotus Climax | 0 | 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
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Constructors' championship
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Web links
- Results at motorsportarchiv.de
- Photos at f1-facts.com
- Grand Prix Results: Belgian GP, 1960 at grandprix.com
- Tragic day overshadows Brabham victory at en.espnf1.com