1962 Belgian GP

## Track Facts

* Name – Spa-Franchorchamps
* Location – Belgium
* Corners – 13
* Laps – 32
* Base (Worst) Lap Time – 5:00.000
* Lap Record (Real Life) – 3:50.000 (Jack Brabham)
* Lap Record (F1R) – 3:56.704 (Wolfgang von Trips – T Wagner)
* Pit Lane Length – 40 seconds
* Fuel Consumption – High
* Tyre Wear – Very High

## Qualifying & Grid

Lotus are right on the pace here, with Gurney on Pole Position and Siffert in 3rd place. Gilby are also strong here, with Graham Hill 2nd, Love 5th and Vaccarella 6th...while Bonnier the qualifying specialist out-performs his car by putting his Cooper into 4th place.

McLaren is 7th for Cooper and does well to stay ahead of the Ferrari duo, with Gregory 8th and von Trips 9th. Baghetti qualifies 10th for Emeryson, with Rodríguez 11th after struggling for pace early in the session in particular.

Maggs is 12th for Brabham, with the BRMs of Salvadori and Surtees right behind him. The Porsche trio of Trintignant, de Beaufort and Clark are next up ahead of Phil Hill in the Brabham, who can't quite replicate his pace from last time around.

Mairesse in the Lola and Lippi in the BRM also qualify inside the Top 20, with Ireland's Lola 21st and Greene's LDS having a horrendous session but at least making the grid...unlike the other LDS duo of Bianchi and Bandini, who are not present - along with Ginther's Emeryson and Burgess's Lola who are also not here.

## Race Link

https://race.f1revisited.co.uk/results/spa/1962/54a491e2-dada-40de-874a-d0fef6446af9

## Race Results

Von Trips crosses the line for his 1st victory of the season and his first win since the German GP last season! Gurney is 2nd for Lotus, underlining his title credentials, while Gregory completes the Podium with the American's consistency once more keeping him in Championship contention.

Baghetti finishes in the points again in 4th place, with Graham Hill 5th (but it could have been so much better if it wasn't for his damage - as he demonstrates by setting the Fastest Lap of the race and becoming the first person to break the 3:54 barrier!) and Bonnier rounding out the points scorers after being the best 2-stopper on the day.

Love finishes 7th after a race of 'what could have been for Gilby if he had chosen a faster strategy, while Rodríguez in 8th will be thinking exactly the same thing as the Coopers really seemed to disregard the sheer length of the Spa pit-lane!

Vaccarella comes home 9th after his damage denied him a chance at points today, while McLaren rounds out the Top 10 for Cooper.

Surtees comes home a respectable 11th ahead of Trintignant, Siffert and Clark - with Salvadori making a last lap pass to take 15th off the ailing Maggs.

Phil Hill comes back down to earth with a bump after finishing 17th, while Lippi, Mairesse and de Beaufort round out the Top 20. Completing the finishers are Ireland and Greene in a race they would likely sooner forget!

The next race will be the French GP at Rouen-Les-Essarts...

## Milestones

* Bonnier and von Trips both move into the Top 10 for Most Race Entries ever, at the expense of Jack Brabham
* 30th race entry for Phil Hill
* 20th race entry for Ian Burgess, Jim Clark, Keith Greene, Willy Mairesse and John Surtees
* 10th race entry for Roberto Lippi
* de Beaufort makes his 40th Race Start
* Surtees makes his 20th Race Start
* Lippi and Vaccarella make their 10th Race Start
* Bonnier moves ahead of Jack Brabham and into 9th for the Most Race Starts Ever
* After Burgess is let go by Lola, Clark moves ahead of him to 8th for Most Races without Points ever
* Von Trips wins the Belgian GP this season, while Ireland won the race in 1960, though the most successful driver here is Bob Gerard (retired), who won the Belgian GP in 1951, 1953 and 1956, while Brian Naylor (retired) won in 1961 and Hans Herrmann (retired) won in 1954 and 1958. Other past winners are Paul Pietsch (’50 - retired), Franco Rol (’52 - retired) and Ken Wharton (’55 – retired).
* Bonnier finishes in the points, and so moves up to 3rd for Most Races Finished in the Points ever, at the expense of Salvadori
* Gregory finishes in the points, and so moves into the Top 10 for Most Races Finished in the Points ever, at the expense of Jack Brabham
* A points finish for Bonnier makes it his 5th consecutive points finish, something only 8 drivers – including himself – have achieved before
* A points finish for Gregory makes it his 3rd consecutive points finish
* A points finish for Gurney makes it his 2nd consecutive points finish
* FL for Graham Hill moves him up to 4th in Most Fastest Laps, at the expense of Salvadori and Giuseppe Farina
* FL for Graham Hill makes it 2 Fastest Laps in succession, which makes him only the 10th driver to achieve that particular feat
* Von Trips set FL in Belgium in 1961 and Gregory in 1960, but the most successful driver by this metric was again Bob Gerard (retired), who set FL in Belgium in 1950, ’56 and ‘58 (making Belgium his 3rd best track on the calendar for setting Fastest Lap!), while Peter Collins (retired) managed FL in 1956; other past Fastest Laps are held by Ken Wharton (’55 – retired), Onofre Marimón (’54 – retired), Sergio Mantovani (’53 – retired), Toulo de Graffenried (’52 – retired) and John James (’51 – retired)
* Pole for Gurney moves him up to 4th in Most Pole Positions ever, at the expense of Salvadori, Yves-Girard Cabantous and Paul Pietsch
* Bonnier secured Pole Position here in 1960, while von Trips secured his 1st ever Pole Position here in ’58. Bob Gerard (retired) has achieved Pole in Belgium in 1951 and ’56; other past Pole Sitters were Paul Pietsch (’50 – retired), Élie Bayol (’52 – retired), Sergio Mantovani (’53 – retired), Onofre Marimón (’54 – retired), Ken Wharton (’55 – retired) and Stirling Moss last time out (’61 – retired)
* Podium for Gregory moves him into 7th for Most Podiums ever, at the expense of Toulo de Graffenried
* Podium for Gurney makes it two consecutive Podium finishes for him