Belgian GP 1950

Belgian GP, 1950

The fifth World Championship event within five weeks, the Belgian GP followed on the heels of the British, Monaco, Indianapolis and Swiss races and the toll was beginning to tell with only 14 cars arriving at Spa.

These included the dominant Alfa Romeos of Giuseppe Farina, Juan-Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli. Ferrari was down to two 125s for Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari - although Ascari had a new V12 engine to try out.

The factory Talbot Lago team had three cars for Louis Rosier, Yves Giraud-Cabantous and Philippe Etancelin (standing in for Eugene Martin, who had been injured at the Swiss GP).

The rest of the field was made up of Talbot Lagos, notably one for Raymond Sommer, a single Alta for Geoffrey Crossley and one Maserati for Antonio Branca.

Farina and Fangio were fastest as usual in practice with Fagioli unable to match them. Sommer split the Ferraris in his old Talbot Lago. The race would be a similar story: the Alfas went off on their own and Sommer battled with the two Ferraris. When the Alfas stopped for fuel Sommer found himself in the unlikely position of being race leader. Unfortunately his engine blew up.

Ascari took the lead but he had to stop for fuel and that meant that the Alfas went ahead again with Fangio leading Farina and Fagioli. Farina suffered transmission trouble in the closing laps and dropped to fourth behind the best of the surviving Talbot Lagos being driven by Rosier. Ascari finished fifth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 10 Juan-Manuel Fangio Alfa Romeo 158 35 2h47m26.000s  2 
2 12 Luigi Fagioli Alfa Romeo 158 35 2h47m40.000s  3 
3 14 Louis Rosier Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-DA 35 2h49m45.000s  8 
4 8 Giuseppe Farina Alfa Romeo 158 35 2h51m31.000s  1 
5 4 Alberto Ascari Ferrari 125/275 34  6 
6 2 Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 125 33  4 
7 22 Pierre Levegh Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C 33  10 
8 24 Johnny Claes Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C 32  14 
9 26 Geoffrey Crossley Alta GP 30  12 
10 30 Antonio Branca Maserati 4CL 29  11 
r 20 Eugene Chaboud Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C 22 Engine 13 
r 6 Raymond Sommer Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C 20 Engine 5 
r 16 Philippe Etancelin Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-DA 15 Overheating 7 
r 18 Yves Giraud-Cabantous Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-DA 2 Engine 9