1951 British GP

## Track Facts

* Name – Silverstone
* Location – UK
* Corners – 8
* Base (Worst) Lap Time – 2:00.000
* Lap Record (Real Life) – 1:44.000 (Giuseppe Farina)
* Lap Record (F1R) – 1:39.120 (Yves-Girard Cabantous)
* Pit Lane Length – 20 seconds
* Fuel Consumption – Low
* Tyre Wear – Medium

## Qualifying 1

The early pace has been set by Cabantous, who is on a real role thanks to a points finish last time out. Fischer is looking strong here as well, with Walker in a surprise 3rd for ERA as it stands. Pietsch and de Graffenried are separated by current points leader Gerrard in 4th, 5th and 6th and yet again Farina and Gonzalez are the main men to miss out on a Q1 time, which will cost them dearly if they do elect to take part in the race.

**Qualifying 1 Results**

* 1st – Yves-Girard Cabantous [AR] – 1:49.802 (7)
* 2nd – Rudi Fischer [AR] – 1:50.636 (7)
* 3rd – Peter Walker [E] – 1:51.279 (4)
* 4th – Paul Pietsch [F] – 1:51.477 (8)
* 5th – Bob Gerrard [AR] – 1:51.896 (4)
* 6th – Toulo de Graffenried [EP] – 1:51.948 (4)
* 7th – David Murray [T] – 1:52.095 (5)
* 8th – Piero Taruffi [AR] – 1:52.185 (3)
* 9th – Georges Grignard [A] – 1:52.320 (6)
* 10th – Johnny Claes [T] – 1:55.132 (4)
* 11th – Alberto Ascari [F] – 1:55.797 (2)
* 12th – Onofre Marimon [T] – 1:55.813 (2)
* 13th – Luigi Fagioli [O] – 1:56.644 (3)
* 14th – Maurice Trintignant [EG] – 1:58.057 (1)
* 15th – Juan Manuel Fangio – 1:58.369 (1)
* 16th – Toni Branca [EP] – 2:01.968 (2)
* 17th – John James [EG] – 2:04.525 (1)
* 18th – Giuseppe Farina – No Time Set
* 19th – Jose Froilan Gonzalez [SA] – No Time Set
* 20th – Reg Parnell [EG] – No Time Set
* 21st – Louis Rosier [E] – No Time Set
* 22nd – Prince Bira [SA] – No Time Set
* 23rd – Franco Rol – No Time Set
* 24th – Stirling Moss – No Time Set

## Qualifying 2

All 17 drivers from Q1 take part in the 2nd qualifying session, which is dominated by the Alfa Romeo's and it seemed at one point that little or nothing could stop them from claiming a 1-2-3-4 on the grid! The challenges of Grignard and de Graffenried faded away, though Walker made a decent push towards the end at his home race.

However it was defending champion Pietsch who nipped in ahead of Fischer on his final lap to halt the domination…and with different weather conditions in Sunday's race will we see some cars perform differently to how they have here?

**Qualifying 2 Results**

* 1st – Yves-Girard Cabantous [AR] – 1:39.100 (10)
* 2nd – Bob Gerrard [AR] – 1:39.420 (7)
* 3rd – Piero Taruffi [AR] – 1:39.820 (9)
* 4th – Paul Pietsch [F] – 1:39.886 (9)
* 5th – Rudi Fischer [AR] – 1:40.342 (8)
* 6th – Georges Grignard [A] – 1:40.419 (8)
* 7th – Peter Walker [E] – 1:40.432 (8)
* 8th – Toulo de Graffenried [EP] – 1:41.096 (8)
* 9th – Johnny Claes [T] – 1:41.568 (9)
* 10th – Alberto Ascari [F] – 1:42.204 (6)
* 11th – Toni Branca [EP] – 1:42.328 (6)
* 12th – David Murray [T] – 1:42.443 (4)
* 13th – Luigi Fagioli [O] – 1:42.799 (6)
* 14th – Juan Manuel Fangio – 1:43.334 (4)
* 15th – Maurice Trintignant [EG] – 1:44.754 (1)
* 16th – Onofre Marimon [T] – 1:44.986 (5)
* 17th – John James [EG] – 1:46.629 (2)

## Overall Qualifying Results

A great performance from Cabantous sees him gain Pole Position, and with every Pole-Sitter thus far going on to win the race his confidence must be sky-high at this point! Watch out for Pietsch, Grignard, Walker and de Graffenried taking the fight to the less reliable though quicker Alfa Romeos…it's also worth mentioning the exploits of Johnny Claes in claiming not only a Top 10 grid slot but the scalp of a Ferrari too!

## Race Commentary

*Lap 1* - Cabantous holds his lead into the 1st corner, as the attention goes further back in the field to Fagioli, who tangles with James and finds himself in the wall at Woodcote and out of the proceedings…James is a fair way back already as a result of that too.

In 2nd place is Taruffi, who does well to inch past team-mate Gerrard off the start and behind them Pietsch does not stall and maintains 4th place ahead of Fischer, Grignard, Walker and de Graffenried.

Branca has a good start up to 9th place with Murray tracking him into 10th from Claes, Fangio, Trintignant and Marimon. Ascari has a torrid beginning to the race after bogging down on the start line, and will now have to race hard to get his Ferrari back into position…

*Lap 10* - Cabantous is building his lead over the others, as Gerrard passes Taruffi without too much trouble ("team orders" is the whisper around the stands) to move back into 2nd position. One of the men on the move is Fischer though, who passes not only Pietsch but also the ailing Taruffi.

The other driver making inroads into the opposition is Branca of Enrico Plate, who passes his team-mate de Graffenried, Walker and Grignard…who is heavily disadvantaged by being passed and loses a place to Walker as well.

Marimon is now inside the Top 10 after doing well to pass Murray, Fangio, Trintignant and Claes (the latter who has been dropping back ever since) and is now putting pressure on de Graffenried too!

*Lap 20* - Gerrard is slowly clawing back the time to the leader, but it's only a tiny amount each lap. The focus at the moment is on the battle for the final step of the podium as the Alfa Romeo's of Fischer and Taruffi scrap tooth and nail to avoid being the slowest Alfa on the day.

Pietsch is slipping back from the dominant Alfa Romeo's, with Branca yet further behind and just holding his own against the resurgent Grignard and de Graffenried and the ailing Walker. Marimon is doing well to keep the gap down given his sub-standard machinery, with Murray losing a fair amount of time on his team-mate now.

*Lap 30* - As many drivers pit for their 1st stops and the rain intensifies, Fischer comes in early and puts in some sensational out-laps to steal a march on Taruffi and open up a small gap back to his Alfa rival.

Meanwhile Gerrard gets into the groove as he really narrows the gap back to Cabantous, and after very similar pitstops there is less than 1 second between the two. However because there is less in-fighting going on directly on track between the Alfa Romeo's the drivers behind them are starting to really lose out as they fight for the final points paying position.

Pietsch currently occupies 5th place, with Walker now up to 6th though yet to stop…Grignard sits 7th and has Branca right on his tail after their respective pitstops.

*Lap 40* - Cabantous is starting to pull away again as the rain gets even worse…the man really losing out is Taruffi though, who is now only a couple of seconds ahead of Pietsch where before there was more than 10 seconds between them.

Grignard, Branca and de Graffenried are now in a scrap for the 7th position, though Walker in 6th place has done 1 stop less than those in front of them.

*Lap 50* - Gerrard is yet again encroaching on the lead as he takes a second out of Cabantous in this latest stint. Taruffi's fortunes have improved recently, with Fischer making his 2nd pit stop and him putting some daylight between himself and the determined Pietsch.

Walker now has Branca right behind him after the Brit makes his only stop in the race…and both will now be pushing hard to get on pace with the Alfa Romeo's and Ferrari in front.

*Lap 60* - As the rain gets ever heavier the Ferrari of Pietsch seems to become more competitive, and this theory is borne out by his team-mate Ascari moving up to 12th position. Pietsch is still 4th and did have Fischer pass him, but the Swiss does have another pit-stop to make, so a podium is not out of the question for the German.

Walker is actually gaining on the leaders, incredibly enough, though probably by virtue of not pitting when they have done and thus having less fuel on board.

*Lap 70* - Taruffi gets a move on, as he senses that Pietsch could start to move away if he does not pick up the pace. What is interesting is that now Fischer has made his 3rd and final stop he is only a few seconds down on both Pietsch and Taruffi and does still have a shot at the podium he will feel he deserves.

Branca is now looking quite strong in 7th position, now that Grignard and de Graffenried have a deficit of around 10 seconds or so.

*Lap 80* - Gerrard is once again encroaching on Cabantous' lead, but it looks too little too late now. Meanwhile Taruffi seems to have pegged the gap back to Pietsch, with Fischer not keeping up as well as one would have expected but he seems to be having difficulties getting heat into the tyres.

Though Branca seemed to be calm and in control a spin sees Grignard catch and pass him, and de Graffenried hone in on his position too.

*Lap 90* - In a race of torrid conditions the Alfa Romeo's take a stunning 1-2 with Cabantous taking a hat-trick the weekend after Gerrard did exactly the same thing! Gerrard must settle for 2nd, but this does help his title chances quite a lot.

Pietsch claims a brilliant podium, by holding off Taruffi for the last few laps…but the other points positions are all claimed by the Alfa Romeo's meaning that messieurs Walker et al are left point-less after today's race.

In the battle for 7th de Graffenried showed some of the resilience he had last season to stun both Branca and Grignard by passing both with only a couple of laps to go…the Frenchman lost too much time there and as a result can only finish 9th.

A respectable Top 10 performance from Marimon will be a confidence boost, whilst Fangio, Trintignant and Claes must simply settle for finishing the race. Ascari has a massive crash at Stowe corner, ending up in the in-field section…but despite this taking place on Lap 83 he still finishes ahead of James, who really had a day to forget as he was nearly 1 lap every 10 slower than the leaders!