1961 Belgian Grand Prix

1961 Belgian Grand Prix
Race details
Date	18 June 1961
Official name	XXI Grote Prijs van Belgie
Location	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Spa, Belgium
Course	Street circuit/Racing facility
Course length	14.1 km (8.761 miles)
Distance	30 laps, 423.0 km (262.8 miles)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Phil Hill	Ferrari
Time	3.59.3
Fastest lap
Driver	Richie Ginther	Ferrari
Time	3.59.8 on lap 20
Podium
First	Phil Hill	Ferrari
Second	Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari
Third	Richie Ginther	Ferrari
Lap leaders

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 1964 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	Qualifying times		Gap
				Q1	Q2
1	4	Phil Hill	Ferrari	4:06.3	3:59.3	—
2	2	Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	4:04.0	4:00.1	+0.8
3	8	Olivier Gendebien	Ferrari	4:05.8	4:03.0	+3.7
4	24	John Surtees	Cooper-Climax	4:09.1	4:06.0	+6.7
5	6	Richie Ginther	Ferrari	4:10.5	4:06.1	+6.8
6	36	Graham Hill	BRM-Climax	4:07.6	unknown	+8.3
7	38	Tony Brooks	BRM-Climax	4:09.8	4:07.9	+8.6
8	14	Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	4:14.3	4:08.2	+8.9
9	18	Jo Bonnier	Porsche	4:12.3	4:08.3	+9.0
10	20	Dan Gurney	Porsche	4:08.4	4:10.9	+9.1
11	28	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	4:12.2	4:08.6	+9.3
12	44	Masten Gregory	Cooper-Climax	4:13.5	4:10.2	+10.9
13	40	Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	4:18.0	4:11.1	+11.8
14	22	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	4:18.7	4:16.7	+17.4
15	30	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	4:22.9	4:17.4	+18.1
16	34	Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	No time	4:17.7	+18.4
17	46	Lorenzo Bandini	Cooper-Maserati	4:20.8	4:19.0	+19.7
18	32	Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	No time	4:20.0	+20.7
19	10	Willy Mairesse	Lotus-Climax	4:27.3	4:20.6	+21.3
20	26	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Maserati	8:54.2	4:21.4	+22.1
21	42	Tony Marsh	Lotus-Climax	4:26.8	4:23.2	+23.9
22	12	Lucien Bianchi	Emeryson-Maserati	4:27.3	4:49.3	+28.0
23	48	Wolfgang Seidel	Lotus-Climax	4:33.0	4:27.4	+28.1
24	50	Ian Burgess	Lotus-Climax	4:57.2	4:34.6	+35.3
DNS	16	Cliff Allison	Lotus-Climax	No time	No time
Source:

  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	Phil Hill	Ferrari	30	2:03:03.8	1	9
2	2	Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	30	+0.7 secs	2	6
3	6	Richie Ginther	Ferrari	30	+19.5 secs	5	4
4	8	Olivier Gendebien	Ferrari	30	+45.6 secs	3	3
5	24	John Surtees	Cooper-Climax	30	+1:26.8	4	2
6	20	Dan Gurney	Porsche	30	+1:31.0	10	1
7	18	Jo Bonnier	Porsche	30	+2:47.1	9
8	14	Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	30	+3:55.6	8
9	40	Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	29	+1 Lap	13
10	44	Masten Gregory	Cooper-Climax	29	+1 Lap	12
11	22	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	28	+2 Laps	14
12	34	Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	24	+6 Laps	16
13	38	Tony Brooks	BRM-Climax	24	+6 Laps	7
Ret	36	Graham Hill	BRM-Climax	24	Ignition	6
Ret	26	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Maserati	23	Gearbox	20
Ret	46	Lorenzo Bandini	Cooper-Maserati	20	Wheel Bearing	17
Ret	28	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	12	Engine	11
Ret	30	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	9	Ignition	15
Ret	32	Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	9	Engine	18
Ret	12	Lucien Bianchi	Lotus-Climax	9	Oil Leak	21
Ret	10	Willy Mairesse	Lotus-Climax	7	Ignition	19
DNS	42	Tony Marsh	Lotus-Climax		Start Money Dispute
DNS	48	Wolfgang Seidel	Lotus-Climax		Start Money Dispute
DNS	50	Ian Burgess	Lotus-Climax		Start Money Dispute
DNS	16	Cliff Allison	Lotus-Climax		Car Damaged in Practice
WD	16	Henry Taylor	Lotus-Climax		Car Damaged by Allison
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
2	1	Phil Hill	19
	2	Wolfgang von Trips	18
2	3	Stirling Moss	12
	4	Richie Ginther	12
	5	Jim Clark	4
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos	Constructor	Points
	1	Ferrari	22
	2	Lotus-Climax	12
1	3	Cooper-Climax	4
1	4	Porsche	3
Source:

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