1955 Belgian Grand Prix

for a country road in Belgium that winds peacefully through the hills of the Ardin Forest, but from time to time your peaceful life is torn apart and now you are paving the way for different and exciting things. Yes, we are on the Franco Shan national circuit, near the town of Spar 9 miles of ordinary country roads form a triangle which is one of the best and fastest motor racing circuits in Europe at the apex of the triangle The lassus hairpin and the start of the circuit to the right the bend at Burnville then malm corner and Fast Master Street at the corner of Foot Stabo and finally passing Laria and bimon, the difficult climb to lasource and back to the Grand stands again, this is the view of the start from the top of the Rong with the sand of oou el Rong. a right curve that climbs steeply and ends in a hump that causes cars to jump off the ground at the top of a forested hill.

This sharp left turn turns into the fast drop to the footbridge at Burnville and its quick right turn is an easier stretch. and we are in Malad, the tire marks burned into the road surface show the line that cuts the curve, but the blind approach makes it more difficult to negotiate the descent. Master Straight speeds of over 180mph are reached before braking towards Hollowell and Sto. Curves that are taken. together as a continuous sweep, the banking on this makes it a high speed corner, now the winding uphill return is run quite easily until the wooded bend at Laria, which the experts take at almost full speed, but afterward there is a ditch to take a poorly calculated exit.

It's the M turn in blancho and threatens the number nine spot, then it's just a few hundred yards from The Hairpin de lour where it did the lowest gear and about 30 mph for even the most experienced. The end of lap 9M was covered 36 times in the race in less than three hours on the third and final day of training on the eve of the Grand Prix. An intense competition is expected yesterday Castellot and Alancia broke all records by riding at almost 200 km /h faster than the favorite fangio in a Mercedes then the weather breaks the rain falls but practice must continue, although now there is little chance of new records for fangio MOS or Farina, Castellot's main opponents, wet work for the mechanics of the three Ferraris and there is the single LAN, officially entered by Castellot himself, only one vanwall also carries all the The British hope that the three Mercedes entered in the race will be favorites.

Four meats are inscribed by the factory, as well as Louis Rosier's famous blue car. The road is clear and Eugenio Calot sets the wheels in motion. Sterling Moss is in the Mercedes training car he drives. the letter T Nina finina is away in her Ferrari in this weather almost 5 minutes to go for a spin galotti should be back soon and here he is spinning a water fountain behind him it's his first froson appearance and his performance is better than anyone has dreamed here is Moss again and a signal from the team manager noar to stop next time tomorrow this 9M lap will be covered 36 times a distance of approximately 320 Mi and now Paul fr, the popular Belgian journalist and driver, is ready for the getaway in his factory Ferrari. a glance to check that the path is clear and out of the chaos a moment of flapping wings as an errant dog is chased away order is restored and the imposing figure now tells Sterling Moss to switch to the car he will drive in the race there goes the maate de Rosier and castellotti again fangio makes a lap in training Merk 5:00 and the last practice ends.

Hal The Mercedes engineer and reserve driver slow down in his pits where Carl Cing joins him. Without smiles from mure beckan and mure from president and secretary of the The organizing committee, if it rains in these parts, says that the locals it will rain for a whole week in Gloom, the cars will return to their garages almost unseen, but the mechanics will be busy for the next few hours and the few remaining spectators will return home with hope. but I don't have much hope that everything will go well tomorrow, so the morning of Sunday, June 5, is bright and clear.

The 13 cars are undergoing their final tune-up in the sunshine at Spar. Mike Hawthorne's van is breathed by his British. mechanics, the Maserati stable has entered four cars whose drivers are Pisa muso MZ and the great Frenchman Jean Bara here with his compatriot Rosier Sterling Moss had promised his private narato to the Belgian class Johnny but no advice will put him on the road. For this afternoon, in the Stabo garage, the new team follows the Ferraris, which receive their final polish. The team's drivers are Trang FR and veteran Nino Farina, the doctor. The inclined engine and external tanks are the distinctive features of the Lancia castelot on the Mercedes Camp. the air is full of confidence fangio moss and cing have an excellent technical service that supports them and an AR crat of a car midday and there are 3 hours left to take the 13 cars to the circuit, the Lancia and the waitresses are lined up in front of their pits already the stands begin to fill up at the headquarters of the Royal Automobile Club of Spar there is a quick exchange of agents M deer the president of the Belgian team arrives M Sven field administrator and m v club president ja sw's The Belgian driver on the right, the engineer of Mercedes, Anen seems confident, but also Paul FR with Jul B Tyong, also a Belgian racing driver, Tryong, the Ferrari driver and team manager Ugal Lin, also radiate optimism under that control.

CAP is Jean Bar M. Horror Controls with Lou. Rosier and disturb Nina's catap fangio fen and M fans do everything they can to generate support and now it's time for the cars to be pushed to the starting grid the best places for the fastest cars during practice moss fenio and cotti share the front row now Sterling Moss puts on the spare glasses watched by Madame FIA ​​Castellotti everything is ready on the grid the Mercedes are ready the starting time is close the drivers take to the grid according to tradition The briefing is on the track itself reny Beckham president of the sports committee of the RAC of Belgium addresses the drivers 5 minutes left the drivers get into their seats mosar is 14 pangio is 10 and calot is 30 in the second row Bara and F with you in Rong fenio is in the lead ahead of castellotti and moss in third and then the field M and his waitress had a bad start in his 13.

Vernonville at half a mile. Fangio still has the lead but Ms took second place from Castellotti ahead of Cling Bar and Farina then Hawthorne at MZ Pisa. Rosier and moso master always fenio in front of mos and castot but finina has passed the bar h The speed is fantastic Peno is first in stavo Moss follows him and the rest comes burning behind at the beginning of the lap Ascent feno is alone in front but Sterling Moss is not is left behind, first fio, second lot of Moss, his Lancer is third, fourth, fifth, finina, then Bara, six, the Mercedes leaders in lasource pangio break and corner perfectly, but Moss is there breathing down his neck afterwards to launch the group with cing. and finina continues to fight first lap by fangio in 4 minutes 36 seconds 115 mph second time in Tangier ahead of moss finina has ceased the fourth place of King's Mercedes finina hits in Laria the Ferrari approaches behind the sticky bar of cotti and fr are fighting for fifth position The L-hairpin Source again from over 100 miles per hour to less than 30 and a few meters away this corner is a classic test of driving skill stavo for the third time fangio whose last lap was at over 120 mph is 5 seconds ahead of moss castellotti is pressured by finina and the third Merk still leads the fight for fifth place now M has passed the vanwall of Hawthorn at the end of lap three still the two Mercedes with the advantage then come calotte finina cing bar and fr a car slows down and stops in the Ferrari pits, it's Maurice Tron and something is wrong with the cow and he checks the spark plugs while Tranon Yong tensely counts the seconds, the Belgian Paul Fra drives magnificently, but the bar still It is in front of him, he looks and leaves.

Meanwhile, Finina slides ahead of Castellotti in the hapit, but at Rong the lane returns to third position, yawning again in the race, but exactly one lap behind his previous position, he brakes at O ​​Rouge because Fa has passed to cling. and now he is in fifth position, send a signal to Castal Lotte that Barça is out of the race, but miraculously he is unscathed from the accident. He returns to the pits on foot. He is a little shaken but noticeably calm about the accident. He looks like he puts his helmet back on. as if he were going to take over one of the other mazeras if the Argentine mez gets in the pits he will drive the number 24 and there goes pirez the race is over fenio passes the remains of bara's car at the end of the seventh lap his average speed so far is 1190mph Moss remains just 5 seconds behind him with Bar's original car out of the race the duel between FR and cing joins the end late starting muso Source FR Ferrari cing Mercedes muso mezera now clling puts at full speed and passes the Belgian driver on lap 8 moo strength and overtakes FR and Clay the cars are in the air at the top of the r after 80 M of brilliant driving moso has overtaken eight cars H FR returns to seventh place at the end of lap 9.

Hawthorne's vanwall lost oil and stopped in the pits. An oil pipe has broken and nothing can be done. The British team has to make the melancholic decision to abandon the race. Rosier is in tenth position and Fangio is about to lap him. has set the fastest lap time in history of 4 minutes 22 seconds at almost 200 km/h 40 seconds behind comes castot with finina 4 seconds later M and cing still ahead of Paul FR are more than a minute behind the leader by A good drive cing passes M Melm but on lap 13 Mesara is once again the leader of this private race P he is maintaining a fantastic average speed now over 120mph and as always Moss is right behind him Fangio accelerates again lap 15 is covered in 4 minutes 20 and 810 seconds with moss now 13 seconds later castellotti is 50 seconds behind fangio but it is not castellotti it is finina passing Mino finina is the third calot must be in trouble the news reaches the castellotti pits has retired at Malad with gearbox problems so now I'm waiting and moo are fighting for fourth place driving almost behind the wheel and getting a little closer to finina every time they reach the halfway point and a new lap record for fangio 4 minutes 20 and 610 seconds 121.9 mph Moss receives a signal in the pits to maintain his speed and here he is muso once again ahead of cing fen the lead in this pair is reduced to 3 seconds left 19 cling takes the front again but moso is slowing down and stops in his pits Paul FR moves to fifth place muso is still in the pits It seems that there are problems with the spark plugs, the second pole passed, but he left a lap later, the Mazerat came back in this Maybe it's not the spark plugs, it's a broken rocker arm, only five cylinders of your engine will work now and it will be a minute or two sooner.

Barça rejoins the race in sixth position at the front Fangio demonstrates his dominance of the Mercedes despite the increase in average speed Moss remains close to his teammate while passing through the pits at the end of lap 22 now he signals his orders to Moss Carl clang is still fourth but not for long he will also have to stop in the pits bad luck after the performance he had in his moo fight the technicians confer without much hope an oil union has been broken and there is no chance of passing So now we have Fangio Moss Finina and Paul Frer.

The Belgians couldn't have waited any longer. Paul FR in an official Ferrari is ahead. For some, now is the time to relax and enjoy the scenery, but for more alert viewers there is still some good driving to be had. Look, the speeds are reduced a little now because the road is getting slippery with the rubber and oil left by the cars, but there goes Fenio again, still doing a hard race in his common lamo glass box and his timekeepers check the pace. of each car and calculate the average speeds this race is creating a new set of records everywhere 19 mph the Mercedes procession continues Moss has reached 7 seconds behind the leader The yellow and blue flags displayed in the Ferrari pits indicate finina and fr third and fourth which is enough to maintain their speed without putting pressure, one lap behind comes Jean Bara fifth muso six tranon 7th two laps behind the leaders come the waitresses of Pisa 8th and Rosier 9th these two cars have not been separated throughout the entire race There are only six laps left in the race, nothing to review in the last half hour, but you wouldn't believe it seeing the Argentine commentator broadcasting to Fangio's followers in South America, he started speaking almost 3 hours ago and the marathon has another half hour left to run.

Master Chanon steals a sixth position from the five-cylinder. muso 19 thousand from the finish M has to concede a second lap to fangio on the last lap trying to shoot his Ferrari and avoid being overtaken by the leader for the second time for Noba the race is over and one of more than300 M of superlative driving behind them the Mercedes pair presses towards victory and M Beckam's checkered flag puts the seal on Fangio's whim and there he continues his D tour 8 seconds later and Sterling Moss remains in second place and while The other cars stop in the pits, the two Mercedes take their bow.

Across the circuit, Nino Finina's tenacious effort has given Ferrari a third place finish. Paul FR is fourth, the best Belgian performance in years. Noar prepares to receive the victors. Yes, in the caram. Prince. Amore de Marod, president of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, offers the traditional one. We now give the champion the challenge cup for Fier the crown of an unforgettable day and a Belgian Grand Prix in the tradition of the great Franco Shan circuit.