Belgian GP 1955

Belgian GP, 1955

When the Grand Prix teams gathered at Spa the Lancia team was missing. Alberto Ascari had been killed on May 26 while testing a Ferrari sportscar at Monza but in addition the Lancia company had run into financial trouble and had been sold. The new owner was not interested in Grand Prix racing. Eugenio Castelotti managed to persuade the company to let him race a D50 in Belgium and he impressed everyone by setting the fastest time in qualifying ahead of Juan-Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss in the their Mercedes-Benz W196s. Behind them Giuseppe Farina's Ferrari shared the second row with Jean Behra's Maserati 250F.

In the race Fangio took the lead at the start and Moss was up to second soon afterwards and the pair drove away from the remainder of the field, while Karl Kling (in the third Mercedes) battled for fourth position with Farina, Behra and Belgian racer Paul Frere in a Ferrari. Behra soon crashed heavily but was unhurt and later took over Roberto Mieres's car. At half distance Castellotti disappeared with gearbox failure and so Farina moved up to third place. The race order remained the same all the way to the finish.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 10 Juan-Manuel Fangio Mercedes-Benz-Mercedes W196 36 2h39m29.000s  2 
2 14 Stirling Moss Mercedes-Benz-Mercedes W196 36 2h39m37.100s  3 
3 2 Giuseppe Farina Ferrari 555 36 2h41m09.500s  4 
4 6 Paul Frere Ferrari 555 36 2h42m54.500s  8 
5= 24 Roberto Mieres Maserati 250F   13 
5= 24 Jean Behra Maserati 250F 35   
6 4 Maurice Trintignant Ferrari 555 35  10 
7 22 Luigi Musso Maserati 250F 34  7 
8 26 Cesare Perdisa Maserati 250F 33  11 
9 28 Louis Rosier Maserati 250F 33  12 
r 12 Karl Kling Mercedes-Benz-Mercedes W196 21 Mechanical 6 
r 30 Eugenio Castellotti Lancia D50 16 Gearbox 1 
r 40 Mike Hawthorn Vanwall VW (55) 8 Gearbox 9 
r 20 Jean Behra Maserati 250F 3 Accident 5 
ns 38 Johnny Claes Maserati 250F  Engine 14