1961 Belgian Grand Prix

The 1961 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 18 June 1961 at Spa-Francorchamps. It was race 3 of 8 in both the 1961 World Championship of Drivers and the 1961 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.

The organizers of the race invited 25 entries, but were only going to pay starting money to 19: sixteen pre-selected cars plus the 3 fastest of the remaining 9. Three of the cars without starting money decided not to race after practising. A fourth entry was a single car for Cliff Allison and Henry Taylor. UDT Laystall decided to let the fastest driver in practice compete, but Allison wrecked the car on his first practice lap. The Emeryson cars were also discarded by Equipe Nationale Belge after discovering terminal chassis damage on one of them, although Willy Mairesse gained the use of a Team Lotus spare machine to post a better time on Saturday. The team eventually reached a deal for Mairesse and Lucien Bianchi to compete in the race with the older, yet proven, Lotus 18s of non-starters Marsh and Seidel.

The race was completely dominated by the Ferrari team, with the four works drivers finishing 1-2-3-4. This was the last time any constructor achieved this score in a F1 race. Of the four works Ferraris, three cars were painted red in the tradition of rosso corsa, the national racing colour of Italy, and Gendebien's car was painted in a Belgian racing yellow. Apart from two NART entries in the Template:F1 season this was the last time a Ferrari car wore other than the traditional red colour in Formula One. While Graham Hill took the lead at the start from sixth on the grid, he could not hold off the Italian cars and all had passed him by the end of the first lap. Hill fought with John Surtees for fifth place until he retired with an oil leak on the 24th lap.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Template:Nowrap		Gap
				Q1	Q2
1	4	Template:Flagicon Phil Hill	Ferrari	4:06.3	3:59.3	—
2	2	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	4:04.0	4:00.1	+0.8
3	8	Template:Flagicon Olivier Gendebien	Ferrari	4:05.8	4:03.0	+3.7
4	24	Template:Flagicon John Surtees	Cooper-Climax	4:09.1	4:06.0	+6.7
5	6	Template:Flagicon Richie Ginther	Ferrari	4:10.5	4:06.1	+6.8
6	36	Template:Flagicon Graham Hill	BRM-Climax	4:07.6	unknown	+8.3
7	38	Template:Flagicon Tony Brooks	BRM-Climax	4:09.8	4:07.9	+8.6
8	14	Template:Flagicon Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	4:14.3	4:08.2	+8.9
9	18	Template:Flagicon Jo Bonnier	Porsche	4:12.3	4:08.3	+9.0
10	20	Template:Flagicon Dan Gurney	Porsche	4:08.4	4:10.9	+9.1
11	28	Template:Flagicon Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	4:12.2	4:08.6	+9.3
12	44	Template:Flagicon Masten Gregory	Cooper-Climax	4:13.5	4:10.2	+10.9
13	40	Template:Flagicon Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	4:18.0	4:11.1	+11.8
14	22	Template:Flagicon Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	4:18.7	4:16.7	+17.4
15	30	Template:Flagicon Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	4:22.9	4:17.4	+18.1
16	34	Template:Flagicon Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	No time	4:17.7	+18.4
17	46	Template:Flagicon Lorenzo Bandini	Cooper-Maserati	4:20.8	4:19.0	+19.7
18	32	Template:Flagicon Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	No time	4:20.0	+20.7
19	10	Template:Flagicon Willy Mairesse	Lotus-Climax	4:27.3	4:20.6	+21.3
20	26	Template:Flagicon Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Maserati	8:54.2	4:21.4	+22.1
21	42	Template:Flagicon Tony Marsh	Lotus-Climax	4:26.8	4:23.2	+23.9
22	12	Template:Flagicon Lucien Bianchi	Emeryson-Maserati	4:27.3	4:49.3	+28.0
23	48	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang Seidel	Lotus-Climax	4:33.0	4:27.4	+28.1
24	50	Template:Flagicon Ian Burgess	Lotus-Climax	4:57.2	4:34.6	+35.3
DNS	16	Template:Flagicon Cliff Allison	Lotus-Climax	No time	No time
Source:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Color box Drivers that were not guaranteed full starting money: only the top 3 non-guaranteed drivers would receive it. Despite this, Godin de Beaufort and Bandini chose to compete anyway.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Template:Flagicon Phil Hill	Ferrari	30	2:03:03.8	1	9
2	2	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	30	+0.7 secs	2	6
3	6	Template:Flagicon Richie Ginther	Ferrari	30	+19.5 secs	5	4
4	8	Template:Flagicon Olivier Gendebien	Ferrari	30	+45.6 secs	3	3
5	24	Template:Flagicon John Surtees	Cooper-Climax	30	+1:26.8	4	2
6	20	Template:Flagicon Dan Gurney	Porsche	30	+1:31.0	10	1
7	18	Template:Flagicon Jo Bonnier	Porsche	30	+2:47.1	9
8	14	Template:Flagicon Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	30	+3:55.6	8
9	40	Template:Flagicon Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	29	+1 Lap	13
10	44	Template:Flagicon Masten Gregory	Cooper-Climax	29	+1 Lap	12
11	22	Template:Flagicon Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	28	+2 Laps	14
12	34	Template:Flagicon Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	24	+6 Laps	16
13	38	Template:Flagicon Tony Brooks	BRM-Climax	24	+6 Laps	7
Ret	36	Template:Flagicon Graham Hill	BRM-Climax	24	Ignition	6
Ret	26	Template:Flagicon Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Maserati	23	Gearbox	20
Ret	46	Template:Flagicon Lorenzo Bandini	Cooper-Maserati	20	Wheel Bearing	17
Ret	28	Template:Flagicon Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	12	Engine	11
Ret	30	Template:Flagicon Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	9	Ignition	15
Ret	32	Template:Flagicon Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	9	Engine	18
Ret	12	Template:Flagicon Lucien Bianchi	Lotus-Climax	9	Oil Leak	21
Ret	10	Template:Flagicon Willy Mairesse	Lotus-Climax	7	Ignition	19
DNS	42	Template:Flagicon Tony Marsh	Lotus-Climax		Start Money Dispute
DNS	48	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang Seidel	Lotus-Climax		Start Money Dispute
DNS	50	Template:Flagicon Ian Burgess	Lotus-Climax		Start Money Dispute
DNS	16	Template:Flagicon Cliff Allison	Lotus-Climax		Car Damaged in Practice
WD	16	Template:Flagicon Henry Taylor	Lotus-Climax		Car Damaged by Allison
Source:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
File:1uparrow green.svg 2	1	Template:Flagicon Phil Hill	19
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	2	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang von Trips	18
File:1downarrow red.svg 2	3	Template:Flagicon Stirling Moss	12
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	4	Template:Flagicon Richie Ginther	12
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	5	Template:Flagicon Jim Clark	4
Source: <ref name="champ">Template:Cite web</ref>

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos	Constructor	Points
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	1	Template:Flagicon Ferrari	22
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	2	Template:Flagicon Lotus-Climax	12
File:1uparrow green.svg 1	3	Template:Flagicon Cooper-Climax	4
File:1downarrow red.svg 1	4	Template:Flagicon Porsche	3
Source: <ref name="champ"/>

• Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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