1960 Belgian Grand Prix

1960 Belgian Grand Prix
Race details
Date 19 June 1960
Official name XXI Grote Prijs Van Belgie
Location Spa-Francorchamps, Francorchamps, Belgium
Course Grand Prix Circuit
Course length 14.12 km (8.774 miles)
Distance 36 laps, 508.32 km (315.864 miles)
Pole position
Driver Cooper-Climax
Time 3:50.0
Fastest lap
Driver Australia Jack Brabham
United Kingdom Innes Ireland
United States Phil Hill
Cooper-Climax
Lotus-Climax
Ferrari
Time 3:51.9
Podium
First Cooper-Climax
Second Cooper-Climax
Third Cooper-Climax
Lap leaders
The remains of Alan Stacey's car after his fatal accident in the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix. In the inset, Stacey before the race.

The 1960 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on 19 June 1960. It was race 5 of 10 in the 1960 World Championship of Drivers and race 4 of 9 in the 1960 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. Stirling Moss and Mike Taylor were seriously injured in crashes during practice, and Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey were killed in accidents during the race. With the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, it is one of two occasions in which two driver fatalities have occurred at a Formula One race meeting, and the only one where both occurred during the race itself.

Practice and race laps 1-19

Practice for the event saw Stirling Moss and Mike Taylor injured in separate accidents, with Taylor suffering injuries after a crash at Stavelot which ended his racing career, and Moss injured seriously enough (two broken legs) after crashing at Burnenville to keep him out of racing for a number of months including the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the race itself, the Lotus drivers Innes Ireland and Jim Clark got off to good starts before Ireland eventually spun out with clutch trouble on lap 14.

Fatal accidents

On lap 20 Chris Bristow, driving a year-old Cooper for the British Racing Partnership, went off line at Malmedy while battling for sixth place with the Ferrari of Mairesse. Bristow lost control, crashing into a four-foot high embankment and was thrown from his car, and landed on a barbed wire which beheaded him.

Five laps later, Alan Stacey was hit in the face by a bird at Masta, causing his car to crash, then somersault off the track and land in a field. The car then caught fire, and Stacey, still trapped inside, was burned to death. It was the only Formula One race meeting in which two drivers were killed until the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Race conclusion

The race distance had been lengthened to 36 laps from 24 laps. The results highlight an unusual quirk in the rules regarding classification of non-finishers. Under modern rules, Graham Hill would have been classified third, since he completed lap 35 before the lapped Olivier Gendebien. Hill then retired, in the pits, but was not classified since he did not push his car over the line after the winner took the finish (as required by the rules of the time). In fact the rule about crossing the finishing line was inconsistently applied – at the 1959 German Grand Prix, Harry Schell was classified seventh despite only completing 49 of the race's 60 laps.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 2 Australia Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax 3:50.0
2 38 United Kingdom Tony Brooks Cooper-Climax 3:52.5 +2.5
3 12 United Kingdom Stirling Moss Lotus-Climax 3:52.6 +2.6
4 24 United States Phil Hill Ferrari 3:53.3 +3.3
5 34 Belgium Olivier Gendebien Cooper-Climax 3:53.5 +3.5
6 10 United Kingdom Graham Hill BRM 3:54.2 +4.2
7 6 Sweden Jo Bonnier BRM 3:54.8 +4.8
8 14 United Kingdom Innes Ireland Lotus-Climax 3:55.4 +5.4
9 36 United Kingdom Chris Bristow Cooper-Climax 3:56.3 +6.3
10 18 United Kingdom Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 3:57.5 +7.5
11 26 Germany Wolfgang von Trips Ferrari 3:57.8 +7.8
12 8 United States Dan Gurney BRM 3:58.3 +8.3
13 22 Belgium Willy Mairesse Ferrari 3:58.9 +8.9
14 4 New Zealand Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 4:00.0 +10.0
15 32 Belgium Lucien Bianchi Cooper-Climax 4:00.6 +10.6
16 28 United States Lance Reventlow Scarab 4:09.7 +19.7
17 16 United Kingdom Alan Stacey Lotus-Climax 4:17.6 +27.6
18 30 United States Chuck Daigh Scarab 4:18.5 +28.5
Source:

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 2 Australia Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax 36 2:21:37.3 1 8
2 4 New Zealand Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 36 + 1:03.3 14 6
3 34 Belgium Olivier Gendebien Cooper-Climax 35 + 1 Lap 5 4
4 24 United States Phil Hill Ferrari 35 + 1 Lap 4 3
5 18 United Kingdom Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 34 + 2 Laps 10 2
6 32 Belgium Lucien Bianchi Cooper-Climax 28 + 8 Laps 15 1
Ret 10 United Kingdom Graham Hill BRM 35 Engine 6  
Ret 16 United Kingdom Alan Stacey Lotus-Climax 24 Fatal accident 17  
Ret 22 Belgium Willy Mairesse Ferrari 23 Transmission 13  
Ret 26 Germany Wolfgang von Trips Ferrari 22 Transmission 11  
Ret 36 United Kingdom Chris Bristow Cooper-Climax 19 Fatal accident 9  
Ret 30 United States Chuck Daigh Scarab 16 Engine 18  
Ret 6 Sweden Jo Bonnier BRM 14 Engine 7  
Ret 14 United Kingdom Innes Ireland Lotus-Climax 13 Spun Off/Clutch 8  
Ret 8 United States Dan Gurney BRM 4 Engine 12  
Ret 38 United Kingdom Tony Brooks Cooper-Climax 2 Gearbox 2  
Ret 28 United States Lance Reventlow Scarab 1 Engine 16  
DNS 12 United Kingdom Stirling Moss Lotus-Climax Accident 3
DNS 20 United Kingdom Mike Taylor Lotus-Climax Accident
Source:

Additional information

This was the Formula One World Championship debut race for Belgian driver Willy Mairesse.

Championship standings after the race

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

This page was last updated at 2024-02-27 05:19 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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