1961 French Grand Prix

The 1961 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 2 July 1961 at Reims. It was race 4 of 8 in both the 1961 World Championship of Drivers and the 1961 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.

By winning the race, Giancarlo Baghetti became only the third driver to win his first World Championship race, the other two being Nino Farina, who won the first World Championship race (the 1950 British Grand Prix) and Johnnie Parsons, who won the 1950 Indianapolis 500 (the Indianapolis 500 was part of the World Championship from 1950 to 1960), though both Farina and Parsons had competed at future World Championship races before the creation of the championship, while this was Baghetti's first start at a major Grand Prix. This was Baghetti's only World Championship race win. He would never finish in the top 3 again.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Template:Nowrap			Gap
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	16	Template:Flagicon Phil Hill	Ferrari	2:24.9	No time	2:30.0	—
2	20	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	2:26.4	No time	2:28.7	+1.5
3	18	Template:Flagicon Richie Ginther	Ferrari	2:27.4	2:27.0	2:26.8	+1.9
4	26	Template:Flagicon Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	2:27.6	2:31.0	2:32.3	+2.7
5	8	Template:Flagicon Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	2:30.3	2:33.7	2:29.0	+4.1
6	22	Template:Flagicon Graham Hill	BRM-Climax	2:29.1	2:30.4	2:32.0	+4.2
7	40	Template:Flagicon John Surtees	Cooper-Climax	2:33.3	2:32.2	2:29.1	+4.2
8	4	Template:Flagicon Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	2:31.3	2:30.4	2:29.4	+4.5
9	12	Template:Flagicon Dan Gurney	Porsche	No time	2:31.1	2:29.6	+4.7
10	6	Template:Flagicon Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	2:30.2	2:30.5	2:29.8	+4.9
11	24	Template:Flagicon Tony Brooks	BRM-Climax	2:32.3	2:31.6	2:29.9	+5.0
12	50	Template:Flagicon Giancarlo Baghetti	Ferrari	2:30.9	2:30.9	2:30.5	+5.6
13	10	Template:Flagicon Jo Bonnier	Porsche	No time	No time	2:30.5	+5.6
14	2	Template:Flagicon Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	2:31.0	2:33.1	2:33.0	+6.1
15	42	Template:Flagicon Roy Salvadori	Cooper-Climax	2:31.2	2:31.3	2:35.3	+6.3
16	36	Template:Flagicon Masten Gregory	Cooper-Climax	2:31.9	2:31.3	2:33.0	+6.4
17	14	Template:Flagicon Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	No time	2:33.2	2:31.8	+6.9
18	44	Template:Flagicon Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	2:33.0	2:32.0	No time	+7.1
19	28	Template:Flagicon Lucien Bianchi	Lotus-Climax	2:33.8†	2:33.4	2:34.2	+8.5
20	48	Template:Flagicon Willy Mairesse	Lotus-Climax	No time	No time	2:35.8	+10.9
21	52	Template:Flagicon Bernard Collomb	Cooper-Climax	2:39.1	No time	2:36.8	+11.9
22	46	Template:Flagicon Michael May	Lotus-Climax	No time	2:40.2	2:37.9	+13.0
23	32	Template:Flagicon Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Maserati	No time	2:38.8	No time	+13.9
24	38	Template:Flagicon Ian Burgess	Lotus-Climax	2:44.7	2:40.9	2:39.7	+14.8
25	30	Template:Flagicon Henry Taylor	Lotus-Climax	No time†	3:14.2	2:40.3	+15.4
26	34	Template:Flagicon Giorgio Scarlatti	De Tomaso-Osca	No time	2:47.3	2:47.1	+22.2
Source:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

† Bianchi was absent for the first day of qualifying. Taylor qualified on Day 1 with Bianchi's car, but French timekeepers only tied the laptimes of a given car to the driver listed alongside in the programme, and his laptime was attributed to Bianchi.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	50	Template:Flagicon Giancarlo Baghetti	Ferrari	52	2:14:17.5	12	9
2	12	Template:Flagicon Dan Gurney	Porsche	52	+0.1	5	6
3	8	Template:Flagicon Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	52	+1:01.0	9	4
4	6	Template:Flagicon Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	52	+1:10.3	10	3
5	4	Template:Flagicon Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	52	+1:41.8	8	2
6	22	Template:Flagicon Graham Hill	BRM-Climax	52	+1:41.9	6	1
7	10	Template:Flagicon Jo Bonnier	Porsche	52	+3:15.4	13
8	42	Template:Flagicon Roy Salvadori	Cooper-Climax	51	+1 Lap	15
9	16	Template:Flagicon Phil Hill	Ferrari	50	+2 Laps	1
10	30	Template:Flagicon Henry Taylor	Lotus-Climax	49	+3 Laps	25
11	46	Template:Flagicon Michael May	Lotus-Climax	48	+4 Laps	22
12	36	Template:Flagicon Masten Gregory	Cooper-Climax	43	+9 Laps	16
13	32	Template:Flagicon Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Maserati	42	+10 Laps	23
14	38	Template:Flagicon Ian Burgess	Lotus-Climax	42	+10 Laps	24
15	18	Template:Flagicon Richie Ginther	Ferrari	40	Oil Pressure	3
Ret	26	Template:Flagicon Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	31	Brakes	4
Ret	48	Template:Flagicon Willy Mairesse	Lotus-Climax	27	Engine	20
Ret	14	Template:Flagicon Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	23	Overheating	17
Ret	28	Template:Flagicon Lucien Bianchi	Lotus-Climax	21	Overheating	19
Ret	20	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	18	Engine	2
Ret	34	Template:Flagicon Giorgio Scarlatti	De Tomaso-Osca	15	Engine	26
Ret	2	Template:Flagicon Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	14	Oil Pressure	14
Ret	52	Template:Flagicon Bernard Collomb	Cooper-Climax	6	Engine	21
Ret	40	Template:Flagicon John Surtees	Cooper-Climax	4	Accident	7
Ret	24	Template:Flagicon Tony Brooks	BRM-Climax	4	Overheating	11
Ret	44	Template:Flagicon Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	4	Overheating	18
DNS	46	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang Seidel	Lotus-Climax		Practice only - May's car
DNS	28	Template:Flagicon Juan Manuel Bordeu	Lotus-Climax		Practice only - UDT Laystall T-car
WD	46	Template:Flagicon Olivier Gendebien	Emeryson-Maserati		Entry taken by May
WD	14	Template:Flagicon Hans Herrmann	Porsche		Car taken by de Beaufort
DNA	54	Template:Flagicon Brian Naylor	JBW-Climax		Car not ready
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 }}

Notes

• This was the first Formula One World Championship podium for Porsche as a constructor and engine supplier.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	1	Template:Flagicon Phil Hill	19
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	2	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang von Trips	18
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	3	Template:Flagicon Stirling Moss	12
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	4	Template:Flagicon Richie Ginther	12
File:1uparrow green.svg 25	5	Template:Flagicon Giancarlo Baghetti	9
Source: <ref name="champ">Template:Cite web</ref>

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos	Constructor	Points
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	1	Template:Flagicon Ferrari	30
File:1rightarrow blue.svg	2	Template:Flagicon Lotus-Climax	16
File:1uparrow green.svg 1	3	Template:Flagicon Porsche	9
File:1downarrow red.svg 1	4	Template:Flagicon Cooper-Climax	6
File:1uparrow green.svg 1	5	Template:Flagicon BRM-Climax	1
Source: <ref name="champ"/>

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

References

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