Dutch GP 1959

Dutch GP, 1959

Stirling Moss spent much of the week before the Dutch GP doing development testing for BRM at Zandvoort. The result was that Jo Bonnier (BRM) set the fastest time in practice with Jack Brabham second in his Cooper and Moss, back in his Rob Walker Cooper, was third fastest. Jean Behra was fourth in his Ferrari while Graham Hill showed a considerable improvement in the Lotus-Climax package with fifth on the grid. The Aston Martin Grand Prix cars appeared for the first time but they were not competitive with Carroll Shelby 10th on the grid and Roy Salvadori 13th.

The race started with only 15 cars and Jo Bonnier took the lead while Masten Gregory surprised everyone by taking his factory Cooper from the third row to second place. Moss, on the other hand, was stuck in the midfield after a bad start. Gregory took the lead during the second lap and stayed there for the next 12 laps until the American started to suffer from gearbox trouble and had to let Bonnier ahead again. Brabham had moved to third place and passed Gregory soon afterwards while Moss and Behra fought over fourth place. Moss then chased after Gregory and then began to close on the leaders who were together. In the excitement that followed Behra spun and Moss, having taken the lead, suffered a gearbox failure and so victory went to Bonnier, giving BRM its first World Championship win. Brabham was second with Gregory third and debutante Innes Ireland fourth in a Lotus.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Jo Bonnier BRM P25 75 2h05m26.800s  
Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax T51 75 2h05m41.000s  
Masten Gregory Cooper-Climax T51 75 2h06m49.800s  
12 Innes Ireland Lotus-Climax 16 74  
Jean Behra Ferrari D246 74  
Phil Hill Ferrari D246 73  12 
14 Graham Hill Lotus-Climax 16 73  
10 Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Climax T51 73  11 
16 Cliff Allison Ferrari D246 71  15 
10 15 Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche RSK 68  14 
11 Stirling Moss Cooper-Climax T51 63 Gearbox 
Harry Schell BRM P25 46 Engine 
Tony Brooks Ferrari D246 42 Mechanical 
Carroll Shelby Aston Martin DBR4 25 Engine 10 
Roy Salvadori Aston Martin DBR4 Overheating 13