1961 French GP

## Track Facts

* Name – Reims
* Location – France
* Corners – 7
* Laps – 50
* Base (Worst) Lap Time – 4:00.000
* Lap Record (Real Life) – 2:16.800 (Jack Brabham)
* Lap Record (F1R) – 2:12.411 (Onofre Marimon – Harrison Whitworth)
* Pit Lane Length – 45 seconds
* Fuel Consumption – Low
* Tyre Wear – Medium

## Qualifying & Grid

It's a Lotus 1-2-3 at the front, but do they have the race pace to match this impressive qualifying effort?!? Gurney leads Allison and Moss, with the Ferrari's next up, as von Trips leads Fairman, Naylor and Greene in a 4-5-6-7 for the Italian marque thus far.

Bonnier lines up 8th for JBW, with Rodríguez 9th and Scarlatti 12th (though Bianchi has technical issues that prevent him from qualifying), while Emeryson are again punching above their weight and start 11th for Brooks, 15th for Baghetti and 18th for Marsh - while the might of Porsche can only manage 10th for Salvadori, 13th for Ireland, 16th for Mairesse and a lowly 22nd for de Beaufort.

De Tomaso are another team out-performing their expectations, with Maggs 14th, Bandini 17th, Herrmann 23rd and Vaccarella 26th after his crash in qualifying - as the former Championship contenders Cooper and BRM sees them only line up in 19th, 20th and 21st for Cooper (Surtees, then Clark, then Lippi) and 24th and 25th for Gregory and Phil Hill at BRM, with Graham Hill not even on the grid!

Hall at Lotus isn't there, along with Trintignant at Cooper - who makes it no French driver on the French GP grid for the 2nd season in a row as he registers a DNS two seasons in a row.

## Race Link

https://race.f1revisited.co.uk/results/reims/1961/10bb5f2e-276c-4e7b-8846-f1ef5ae8a5eb

## Race Results

Von Trips claims the race victory (plus the Fastest Lap), managing to keep Baghetti at arms' length, with the Italian securing an impressive 2nd place here! Bonnier finishes 3rd for JBW, with Surtees a strong 4th for Cooper ahead of Brooks (who gets his own Championship challenge back on track) and Rodríguez, who almost did enough to catch those in front of him - but just not quite.

Marsh, Mairesse, Fairman (who was best of the 2-stoppers) and Gurney round out the Top 10 - with Allison in 11th the last of the 1-stoppers (which was clearly the better strategy today) in a day where Lotus failed to realise their true pace thanks to the amount of battles they were embroiled in!

Best of the remaining 2-stoppers was Bandini, from Salvadori, Herrmann, Moss, Scarlatti, Clark, Greene (after a reasonable effort to catch up the time lost in the early collision), Vaccarella and the luckless Naylor rounding out the Top 20.

Ireland runs out of fuel on the final lap, which sees Maggs, Lippi and de Beaufort pass him with only the BRMs of Gregory and Phil Hill behind, in a race to forget for the British manufacturer.

F1R will return for the British GP at Aintree...

## Milestones

* 30th race entry for Gregory
* Herrmann moves up to 9th for most race entries ever!
* 40th Race Start for Bonnier
* 20th Race Start for Allison
* Scarlatti up to 9th for Most Races without a Win, at the expense of Umberto Maglioli
* The French GP had seen three debut winners in five seasons, after Peter Collins in ’56, Jean Behra in ’57 and Trintignant in ’59!
* Von Trips makes it two wins in a row at the French GP (having won here both in 1960 and this year), Maurice Trintignant (in 1959) and Roy Salvadori (in 1954) are the only active winners of the French GP on the grid this time, while other former winners are Bob Gerard (retired) in 1958, 1953 and 1951, Jean Behra (’57 – retired), Peter Collins (’56 – retired), Giuseppe Farina (’52 – retired) and Toulo de Graffenried (’50 - retired).
* Bonnier moves up to 8th for most Points of all-time, at the expense of Brabham
* 30th Points Finish for von Trips here
* Points finish for Bonnier moves him up to 6th for Most Races Finished in the Points
* A points finish for Bonnier makes it his 7th consecutive points finish and move him up to 7th in the all-time list of Most Consecutive Points Scores (at the expense of Paul Pietsch’s 3 separate attempts and Toulo de Graffenried’s 1 attempt)
* Points finish for von Trips and Baghetti make it their 2nd consecutive points finish
* FL for von Trips moves him up to 2nd in Most Fastest Laps, at the expense of Salvadori and Peter Whitehead
* FL for von Trips records consecutive Fastest Laps for the 1st time since 1959
* Von Trips set FL at the French GP in 1960 and this season in 1961, while in 1950, 1951, 1957 and 1958 it was Bob Gerard (retired); other past FLs were André Testut (’59 – retired), Peter Collins (’56 – retired), Onofre Marimón (’54 – retired), Chico Landi (’53 – retired) and Piero Taruffi (‘52 – retired)
* That makes it only the 7th time in F1R history that a driver has secured more than 1 Fastest Lap at the same Grand Prix!
* Gurney secures his 1st ever Pole Position here at the 1961 French GP!
* Pole at the French GP in 1960 was Gregory, in 1959 was von Trips and in 1958 was Bonnier, while past Pole-Sitters were Bob Gerard (’51, ’52 and ’57 - retired), Toulo de Graffenried (’56 – retired), Hermann Lang (’54 – retired), Umberto Maglioli (’53 – retired) and Yves-Girard Cabantous (’50 – retired).  Pole this time was Gregory for BRM.
* Podium for Bonnier moves him into 6th for Most Podiums ever, at the expense of Toulo de Graffenried
* Podium for von Trips makes it two consecutive Podium finishes for him