1964 Belgian Grand Prix

 1964 Belgian Grand Prix

Racing data
3rd of 10 races of the 1964 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	XXIV Grote Prijs van Belgie
Date:	June 14, 1964
Place:	Spa , Belgium
Course:	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Length:	451.2 km in 32 laps of 14.1 km
Weather:	sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax
Time:	3: 50.9 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Dan Gurney (Round 27)	Brabham-Climax
Time:	3: 49.2 min
Podium
First:	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax
Second:	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax
Third:	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax

The 1964 Belgian Grand Prix took place on June 14, 1964 on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps near Spa and was the third race of the 1964 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

Last pole position of Dan Gurney (picture from 1965)

Third win in a row for Jim Clark at the Belgian Grand Prix

The Lotus 33 was ready for the race in Belgium and was registered for Jim Clark for the first time after Lotus had already used different parts of the new car on the Lotus 25 in the first two races of the season . However, the car was not as fast as its predecessor, which is why Clark drove the old Lotus 25 both in training and in the race. The Lotus 33 only made its debut at the German Grand Prix .

After a race break, British Racing Partnership returned to the World Automobile Championship . Innes Ireland drove the BRP Mk1 , his team-mate Trevor Taylor drove the successor model BRP Mk2 . This was the first time the new car was used. At Reg Parnell Racing , Peter Revson replaced Mike Hailwood for one race and then contested two other Grand Prix for the team as the third driver alongside Hailwood and Chris Amon . The Scirocco Belge team , which was still called Scirocco-Powell in the previous season, registered André Pilette for the race, who drove a Scirocco 02 . Pilette and Scirocco-Powell qualified for a Grand Prix for the last time during the World Automobile Championship; a start at the German Grand Prix failed due to qualification.

Both Graham Hill and Clark had each won a race and led the drivers' standings with equal points from Peter Arundell . In the constructors' championship, Lotus was one point ahead of BRM and seven points ahead of Ferrari . With Jack Brabham , Phil Hill and Clark three former winners participated, Clark won in the two previous years. Ferrari was four times victorious among the constructors, Lotus twice and Cooper once.

training

For the second time in a row, Dan Gurney took pole position for Brabham. He was 1.8 seconds faster than the runner-up Graham Hill. Gurney started from first place for the third and final time in his career. A Brabham vehicle did not reach pole position again until the 1966 British Grand Prix . Gurney remained the last American pole setter for several years before Mario Andretti qualified first at the 1968 United States Grand Prix .

Gurney's team-mate Brabham was third in training, a tenth of a second behind Graham Hill, at the same time as Arundell. Clark was sixth behind John Surtees . After having difficulties with the new Lotus 33, he switched to the previous model and was more than five seconds behind pole time. Bruce McLaren finished seventh ahead of Richie Ginther and Lorenzo Bandini . Phil Hill was the only driver from the top teams to qualify outside the top ten. Instead, Revson completed the first ten as the best driver with a customer vehicle. BRP finished twelfth and 16th after the practice session, while Pilette in a Scirocco was far behind. With more than half a minute behind Gurney's best time, his car was no longer competitive.

run

Arundell started from fourth place and took the lead at the start, but was overtaken by Gurney, Surtees and Clark on the first lap. Then Arundell fell back to fifth behind Graham Hill. Surtees overtook Gurney and took the lead on lap two, but fell back one lap later with an engine malfunction and parked his car on lap four. At the same time, Amon also retired with engine failure. Even Bob Anderson had an engine failure and could not participate in the race.

Gurney built himself a head start on the competition. Behind him, Graham Hill and Jim Clark fought for second place. In doing so, they overtook each other several times. McLaren caught up with the two drivers after overtaking Arundell and Brabham. Graham Hill won this three-way battle, and the gap between the first positions increased in the following rounds. Gurney's lead on Graham Hill was more than half a minute at this point. Bonnier gave up on lap eight due to physical exhaustion. Other drivers retired with further engine damage. Pilette, Phil Hill, Siffert and Bandini were affected, which meant that both Ferrari were out of the race.

Clark pits four laps before the end of the race to top up the water. He came back on track in fourth behind McLaren. As a result, Gurney ran out of fuel and he also drove to the pit to refuel. However, Brabham had no fuel available, so Gurney continued the race with a nearly empty tank. He caught up with McLaren, whose engine sputtered, but then stopped because he was finally out of gas. Gurney was ranked sixth within the points. But the remaining drivers at the top also had problems with the fuel supply shortly before the finish. With a defective pump, the leader Graham Hill stopped on lap 31 and was then classified as fifth. McLaren took the lead, but his engine died from lack of fuel and he slowly rolled to the finish. This gave Clark the opportunity to overtake McLaren and win the race by three seconds. In the lap of honor, Clark stopped with an empty tank.

For Clark it was the second win of the season in a row. He took the lead in the drivers' championship ahead of Graham Hill and Ginther. Clark won the Belgian Grand Prix for the third time in a row; Ayrton Senna only succeeded in doing this again on this racetrack from 1988 to 1990. McLaren crossed the finish line in second, Brabham completed the podium finishes in third. Ginther finished fourth, Taylor and Baghetti missed the points and were one lap behind. The race management disqualified Revson because he had been pushed. This was the only disqualification in his career in the automobile world championship.

During the race, McLaren was hit by a blown stone and bled from his face. On the outcome of the race, McLaren later said he thought Clark was still in the pits and was surprised when he was overtaken by him before the finish line. However, he would not have been able to defend himself without fuel. McLaren described this situation as the most fantastic he would have ever seen in a race.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Owen Racing Organization	01	Graham Hill	BRM P261	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	02	Richie Ginther
British Racing Partnership	03	Innes Ireland	BRP Mk1	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	04th	Trevor Taylor	BRP Mk2
Scuderia Centro Sud	06th	Giancarlo Baghetti	BRM P57	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	07th	Tony Maggs
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	10	John Surtees	Ferrari 158	Ferrari 1.5 V8	D.
	11	Lorenzo Bandini
Brabham Racing Organization	14th	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT7	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	15th	Dan Gurney
Rob Walker Racing Team	16	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham BT11	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
			Cooper T66	Climax 1.5 V8
Siffert Racing Team	17th	Joseph Siffert	Brabham BT11	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
DW Racing Enterprises	18th	Bob Anderson	Brabham BT11	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
Cooper Car Company	20th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T73	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	21st	Phil Hill
Team Lotus	23	Jim Clark	Lotus 25	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
			Lotus 33
	24	Peter Arundell	Lotus 25
Reg Parnell Racing	27	Chris Amon	Lotus 25	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	29	Peter Revson	Lotus 24
Equipe Scirocco Belge	28	André Pilette	Scirocco 02	Climax 1.5 V8	D.

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Joakim Bonnier drove the Brabham with the number 16 in the training sessions and in the race.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Jim Clark drove both cars in practice, the Lotus 25 with the number 23 in the race.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	3: 50.9	219.84 km / h	01
02	Graham Hill	BRM	3: 52.7	218.13 km / h	02
03	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	3: 52.8	218.04 km / h	03
04th	Peter Arundell	Lotus Climax	3: 52.8	218.04 km / h	04th
05	John Surtees	Ferrari	3: 55.1	215.91 km / h	05
06th	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	3: 56.2	214.90 km / h	06th
07th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	3: 56.2	214.90 km / h	07th
08th	Richie Ginther	BRM	3: 57.2	214.00 km / h	08th
09	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari	3: 58.8	212.56 km / h	09
10	Peter Revson	Lotus BRM	3: 59.9	211.59 km / h	10
11	Chris Amon	Lotus BRM	4: 00.1	211.41 km / h	11
12	Trevor Taylor	BRP-BRM	4: 00.2	211.32 km / h	12
13	Joseph Siffert	Brabham-BRM	4: 02.7	209.15 km / h	13
14th	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham-BRM	4: 02.7	209.15 km / h	14th
15th	Phil Hill	Cooper-Climax	4: 02.8	209.06 km / h	15th
16	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	4: 04.0	208.03 km / h	16
17th	Giancarlo Baghetti	BRM	4: 07.6	205.01 km / h	17th
18th	Tony Maggs	BRM	4: 07.8	204.84 km / h	-
19th	Bob Anderson	Brabham-Climax	4: 08.5	204.27 km / h	-
20th	André Pilette	Scirocco-Climax	4: 22.9	193.08 km / h	18th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	32	1	2: 06: 40.5	06th	3: 50.9
02	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	32	0	+ 3.4	07th	3: 50.8
03	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	32	0	+ 48.1	03	3: 56.0
04th	Richie Ginther	BRM	32	0	+1: 58.6	08th	3: 57.3
05	Graham Hill	BRM	31	0	+ 1 lap	02	3: 49.9
06th	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	31	1	+ 1 lap	01	3: 49.2
07th	Trevor Taylor	BRP-BRM	31	0	+ 1 lap	12	4: 00.2
08th	Giancarlo Baghetti	BRM	31	0	+ 1 lap	17th	4: 04.0
09	Peter Arundell	Lotus Climax	28	0	+ 4 rounds	04th	3: 55.0
10	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	28	0	+ 4 rounds	16	4: 04.7
-	Peter Revson	Lotus BRM	28	0	DSQ	10	4: 01.2	were pushed
-	Joseph Siffert	Brabham-Climax	14th	0	DNF	13	4: 03.3	Engine failure
-	Phil Hill	Cooper-Climax	13	0	DNF	15th	3: 54.9	Engine failure
-	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari	12	0	DNF	09	4: 01.9	no oil / engine damage
-	André Pilette	Scirocco-Climax	11	0	DNF	18th	4: 28.6	Engine failure
-	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham-BRM	08th	0	DNF	14th	4: 11.2	Engine failure
-	Chris Amon	Lotus BRM	04th	0	DNF	11	4: 09.8	Engine failure
-	John Surtees	Ferrari	04th	0	DNF	05	3: 52.5	Engine failure
-	Bob Anderson	Brabham-Climax	00	0	DNS			Engine failure
-	Tony Maggs	BRM	00	0	DNS			ignition

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. Only the six best results from ten races counted. In the constructors' championship, only the points of the best placed driver on a team counted.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jim Clark Lotus Climax 21st 02  Graham Hill BRM 14th 03  Richie Ginther BRM 9 04th  Peter Arundell Lotus Climax 8th 05  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 6th 06th  John Surtees Ferrari 6th 07th  Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 4th 08th  Joakim Bonnier Cooper-Climax 2 09  Chris Amon Lotus BRM 2 10  Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 1 11  Mike Hailwood Lotus BRM 1 12  Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Lotus Climax 22nd 02  BRM 15th 03  Cooper-Climax 8th 04th  Ferrari 6th 05  Brabham-Climax 5 06th  Lotus BRM 3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Clark's luck is in at Spa" (en.espnf1.com on April 21, 2015)

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: Belgian GP, ​​1964 on grandprix.com