1961 British GP

## Track Facts

* Name – Aintree
* Location – UK
* Corners – 8
* Laps – 75
* Base (Worst) Lap Time – 3:00.000
* Lap Record (Real Life) – 1:57.400 (Stirling Moss/Bruce McLaren)
* Lap Record (F1R) – 1:58.030 (Bob Gerard – John Ibbotson)
* Pit Lane Length – 20 seconds
* Fuel Consumption – Low
* Tyre Wear – Medium

## Qualifying & Grid

Another race where Ferrari looked to have the pace in qualifying, but are denied by an incredible lap...on this occasion by Bonnier in the JBW, who is something of a master at British GP qualifying, with this being his 3rd Pole Position here (making him only the 2nd driver to achieve this feat after Bob Gerard at the German, Italian and French GPs).

He is not the only JBW making himself relevant for this race though, with Bianchi an impressive 4th and Rodríguez 6th...although Scarlatti in 21st only managed a single lap in qualifying and so may struggle to move himself into play.

Ferrari meanwhile still look like the team to beat, with von Trips 2nd, Greene 3rd, Fairman 5th and Naylor 8th with a whole hatful of points looking likely for them...with only the Lotus of Gurney in 7th and the JBWs in a position to deny them, presuming the race is straightforward!

Emeryson have an interesting qualifying session, with Brooks in a strong 9th place, while Baghetti doesn't get out of the pits in time to finish his laps and so starts from 18th...and Marsh fails to make the grid entirely! Porsche line up in 10th-12th places, with Salvadori, Ireland and Mairesse all looking in decent shape to mount a challenge for points - though de Beaufort fails to make the grid unfortunately.

De Tomaso continue to be a thorn in the side to the larger underperforming teams (and they do so without even running their full compliment of laps!!!), with Herrmann 13th, Bandini 15th, Maggs 16th and Vaccarella 17th - indeed they are the only team apart from JBW and Ferrari to get all four drivers on the grid! Cooper meanwhile do have Surtees in 14th, but Lippi is down in 24th, while both Trintignant and Clark fail to set a lap in qualifying.

BRM meanwhile have both Graham Hill and Gregory on the grid, but no Phil Hill here means that 19th and 20th is all the two BRMs can manage respectively, with their season rather in tatters as it stands...

## Race Link

https://race.f1revisited.co.uk/results/aintree/1961/0b4a9041-677d-4438-b62d-b9988f6f8031

## Race Results

Von Trips claims his 2nd consecutive victory to extend his Championship lead, while Fairman makes good on his potential with a 2nd place, from Naylor in 3rd, who comes home with the Fastest Lap he set way back on Lap 20! Bonnier does claim best of the rest in 4th, with Ireland's first points of the season in 5th place!

Surtees makes it consecutive points finishes for Cooper with 6th place, as he holds off the charge of the final Ferrari of Greene, who records a seasons' best finish of 7th here.

Brooks is a solid 8th for Emeryson, ahead of the impressive De Tomaso duo of Bandini and Herrmann, who round out the Top 10.

Bianchi, Salvadori, Gurney, Maggs, Vaccarella, Baghetti, Moss, Lippi (with his joint best season result), Scarlatti and Mairesse all finish inside the Top 20 - though Allison, Graham Hill, Rodríguez and Gregory will look to come back stronger next time...

...and speaking of next time, we are at the fearsome Nürburgring for the 1st round where 'dropped scores' will begin to impact the standings. Join us there!!!

## Race Setups

**How close setups were to perfect - WET**

## Milestones

* 50th race entry for Herrmann
* Fairman moves up to 7th for most race entries ever, at the expense of the now contract-less Brabham
* 50th race start for Fairman
* 20th race start for Bianchi
* This was von Trips’ 10th race win – making him only the 2nd driver (after Bob Gerard) to achieve that feat, which also moves him up to 3rd for the best % of victories achieved also.
* It is also his 2nd consecutive race victory – something he has achieved once before and that only the great Bob Gerard managed to do more than once!
* 7 of the 12 British Grand Prix ever have been won by just three drivers; Brabham in 1959 and 1960, Bob Gerard (retired) in 1954, 1956 and 1957 preceded by Paul Pietsch (retired) in 1950 and 1953; while other former winners are Yves-Girard Cabantous (retired) in 1951, Élie Bayol in 1952 (retired), Ken Wharton in 1955 (retired) and Dick Gibson (retired) in 1958.  Von Trips adds his name to this list for 1961.
* Von Trips passes the 150 points mark this race, with just Bob Gerard’s incredible 304 point total still to catch…
* Fairman more than doubles his career points total this race
* Bonnier moves up to 5th for Most Races Finished in the Points, at the expense of Peter Whitehead
* Naylor moves up to 6th for Most Points without being World Champion, at the expense of Trintignant
* A points finish for Bonnier makes it his 8th consecutive points finish and move him up to 4th in the all-time list of Most Consecutive Points Scores (at the expense of Bob Gerard’s 7 consecutive scores in 1951-52, von Trips’ 7 consecutive scores in 1957-68 and Gregory’s 7 consecutive scores last season)
* A points finish for von Trips makes it his 3rd consecutive points finish
* A points finish for Surtees makes it his 2nd consecutive points finish
* FL at the British GP last time out was Brabham, with von Trips claiming it in 1959 and in 1958 it was Graham Hill (the latter pair being the only current drivers on the grid to have achieved that particular feat), while in 1956 and 1957 it was Bob Gerard (retired) and other past FLs were Peter Whitehead (’53 and ‘54 – retired), Ken Wharton (’55 – retired), Élie Bayol (‘52 – retired), Yves-Girard Cabantous (’51 – retired) and Giuseppe Farina (’50 – retired).  Naylor adds his name to this list in 1961.
* Pole at the British GP for 3 consecutive seasons was Bonnier, while in 1958 it was Salvadori, with other past Pole-Sitters being Yves-Girard Cabantous (’50 & ’51 – retired), Bob Gerard (’56 and ’57 – retired), Ken Wharton (’55 – retired), Herrmann Lang (’54 – retired), Peter Whitehead (’53 – retired) and Paul Pietsch (’52 – retired)
* Bonnier claims Pole Position and becomes only the 2nd driver to manage 3 Poles in the same GP (Bob Gerard being the 1st)
* 1st ever Podium for Jack Fairman
* Podium for von Trips makes it 3 Podium finishes in a row, which is only the 2nd time that he has achieved that particular feat