Swiss GP 1951

Swiss GP, 1951

With Monaco not being held in 1951 it was not until the end of May that the first two events took place: the Swiss Grand Prix on Sunday May 27 and the Indianapolis 500 on Wednesday May 30. Once again there was no overlap of drivers ± the World Championship regulars sticking to Europe and not going to America.

The non-championship European season had seen Gigi Villoresi unchallenged at Syracuse and Pau and his Ferrari teammate Alberto Ascari victorious at San Remo. The Alfa Romeo team did not appear until the International Trophy on May 5 and at Silverstone the new 159s won the heats (two short races held before the final longer one). The final was run in torrential rain and Reg Parnell won in the Thinwall Special although the event was stopped after only six laps.

There was no beating the Alfas at Bremgarten although Villoresi qualified his Ferrari on the front row alongside Fangio, who was on pole, and Farina. Behind them on the 3-2-3 grid were Sanesi and Emanuel de Graffenreid (both in Alfas).

It was raining for the race and Fangio took off into the lead, chased by Farina. Piero Taruffi, driving for Ferrari, came through the field to run third and challenged for the lead. Although Fangio pitted Farina had decided to go through without a stop but Fangio was quicker and retook the lead to win by nearly a minute from Taruffi, who eventually got the better of Farina.

Sanesi and de Graffenried finished fourth and fifth with Ascari - who was suffering from burns he had suffered in a Formula 2 race in Genoa the previous weekend - was sixth. Seventh place would have gone to Stirling Moss in an HWM F2 car but he ran out of fuel on the last lap and so the place went to Louis Chiron's Maserati.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 24 Juan-Manuel Fangio Alfa Romeo 159 42 2h07m53.640s  1 
2 44 Piero Taruffi Ferrari 375 42 2h08m48.880s  6 
3 22 Giuseppe Farina Alfa Romeo 159 42 2h09m12.950s  2 
4 28 Consalvo Sanesi Alfa Romeo 159 41  4 
5 26 Emmanuel de Graffenried Alfa Romeo 159 40  5 
6 20 Alberto Ascari Ferrari 375 40  7 
7 30 Louis Chiron Maserati 4CLT/48 40  19 
8 14 Stirling Moss HWM-Alta -51 40  14 
9 8 Louis Rosier Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-DA 39  8 
10 4 Philippe Etancelin Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-DA 39  12 
11 38 Rudolf Fischer Ferrari 212 39  10 
12 32 Harry Schell Maserati 4CLT/48 38  17 
r 16 Peter Whitehead Ferrari 125 36 Accident 9 
13 2 Johnny Claes Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-DA 35  18 
14 40 Guy Mairesse Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C 31  21 
r 10 Henri Louveau Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C 30 Accident 11 
r 12 George Abecassis HWM-Alta -51 23 Magneto 20 
r 6 Yves Giraud-Cabantous Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C 14 Ignition 15 
r 18 Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 375 12 Accident 3 
r 42 Froilan Gonzalez Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-GS 10 Mechanical 13 
r 52 Peter Hirt Veritas METEOR 0 Fuel Pump 16