1960 Belgian Grand Prix

  1960 Belgian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 5 of 10 in the 1960 Formula One season
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 mi)
Distance	36 laps, 508.32 km (315.864 mi)
Pole position
Driver	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax
Time	3:50.0
Fastest lap
Driver	Jack Brabham Innes Ireland Phil Hill	Cooper-Climax Lotus-Climax Ferrari
Time	3:51.9
Podium
First	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax
Second	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax
Third	Olivier Gendebien	Cooper-Climax

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 the fifth race of the 1960 Formula One season. It is remembered as one of Formula One's darkest days due to the deaths of Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey and the serious accidents of Stirling Moss and Mike Taylor.

Practice and race

Practice for the event saw Stirling Moss and Mike Taylor injured in separate accidents, Taylor suffering injuries which would end his racing career and Moss injured seriously enough to keep him out of racing for a number of months. In the race, Chris Bristow, driving a year-old Cooper for the British Racing Partnership, got off line at Malmedy, crashed into an embankment there four feet high and was hurled into some barbed wire which beheaded him, killing him instantly. Five laps later, Alan Stacey was hit in the face by a bird at Masta and crashed fatally. It would be the darkest weekend for the sport until the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

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.^[1]

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	36	2:21:37.3	1	8
2	4	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	36	+ 1:03.3	14	6
3	34	Olivier Gendebien	Cooper-Climax	35	+ 1 Lap	5	4
4	24	Phil Hill	Ferrari	35	+ 1 Lap	4	3
5	18	Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	34	+ 2 Laps	10	2
6	32	Lucien Bianchi	Cooper-Climax	28	+ 8 Laps	15	1
Ret	10	Graham Hill	BRM	35	Engine	6
Ret	16	Alan Stacey	Lotus-Climax	24	Fatal accident	17
Ret	22	Willy Mairesse	Ferrari	23	Transmission	13
Ret	26	Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	22	Transmission	11
Ret	36	Chris Bristow	Cooper-Climax	19	Fatal accident	9
Ret	30	Chuck Daigh	Scarab	16	Engine	18
Ret	6	Jo Bonnier	BRM	14	Engine	7
Ret	14	Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	13	Spun off	8
Ret	8	Dan Gurney	BRM	4	Engine	12
Ret	38	Tony Brooks	Cooper-Climax	2	Gearbox	2
Ret	28	Lance Reventlow	Scarab	1	Engine	16
DNS	12	Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	0	Accident	3
DNS	20	Mike Taylor	Lotus-Climax	0	Accident	19
Source:[2]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Bruce McLaren 20 2 2 Jack Brabham 16 1 3 Stirling Moss 11 1 4 Jim Rathmann 8 5 Innes Ireland 7

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Cooper-Climax 30 2 Lotus-Climax 17 3 Ferrari 15 4 BRM 6 5 Cooper-Maserati 3

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

References