Belgian GP 1963

Belgian GP, 1963

A fortnight after the BRM 1-2 at Monaco the Formula 1 teams gathered at Spa for the second round of the World Championship and there was plenty of technical interest with the first appearance of three new cars: the BRP (with Innes Ireland driving), the ATS (with Phil Hill and Giancarlo Baghetti) and the Scirocco (with Tony Settember and Ian Burgess). None of the newcomers offered any major threat to Team Lotus and BRM, although Ireland qualified the BRP-BRM in seventh position. Chris Amon qualified a Lola to become the second youngest F1 driver in history.

Qualifying resulted in Graham Hill taking pole in his BRM with Dan Gurney's Brabham second quickest and Willy Mairesse third in the fastest Ferrari. Tony Maggs and Bruce McLaren shared row two in their Coopers with Maggs the faster of the two, while Jack Brabham (Brabham), Ireland and Jim Clark (Lotus) were on the third row, Clark having had gearbox trouble in qualifying. His team mate Trevor Taylor suffered a rear suspension failure and crashed heavily although Taylor emerged unscathed.

The weather changed on race day and conditions were damp at the start with Clark making an extraordinary start to to lead the field. He was followed by G Hill and Gurney. While the two front-runners pulled away from the field Gurney fell victim to Brabham and then Mairesse but eventually it was Surtees who emerged as the strongest in the group and he moved into a strong third place. Mairesse dropped back with engine trouble and Brabham ran into electrical trouble so Gurney was able to make up the lost places again. Surtees then suffered a problem with an injector and pitted, leaving Gurney third with Ginther fourth, McLaren fifth and Maggs sixth. A storm then broke over the track and as this was happening Hill's BRM faltered with gearbox failure, promoting Gurney to second while Ginther was third until Maggs passed him, McLaren having dropped back. Maggs spun off on lap 27 and with McLaren passing Ginther and then Gurney Cooper was able to salvage second place. Gurney finished third.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 1 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 25 32 2h27m47.600s  8 
2 14 Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax T66 32 2h32m41.600s  5 
3 18 Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax BT7 31  2 
4 8 Richie Ginther BRM P57 31  9 
5 12 Jo Bonnier Cooper-Climax T60 30  13 
6 29 Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 718 30  18 
7r 15 Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax T66 27 Spin 4 
8r 24 Tony Settember Scirocco-BRM SP 25 Spin 19 
r 9 John Surtees Ferrari 156 19 Fuel Pressure 10 
r 7 Graham Hill BRM P57 17 Gearbox 1 
r 22 Lucien Bianchi Lola-Climax MK 4 17 Accident 16 
r 5 Jim Hall Lotus-BRM 24 16 Accident 12 
r 28 Jo Siffert Lotus-BRM 24 16 Spin 14 
r 26 Phil Hill ATS 100 13 Transmission 17 
r 17 Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax BT3 12 Fuel Injection Pump 6 
r 21 Chris Amon Lola-Climax MK 4A 10 Mechanical 15 
r 4 Innes Ireland BRP-BRM MK 1 9 Gearbox 7 
r 27 Giancarlo Baghetti ATS 100 7 Gearbox 20 
r 10 Willy Mairesse Ferrari 156 7 Engine 3 
r 2 Trevor Taylor Lotus-Climax 25 5 Engine 11