Portuguese GP 1960

Portuguese GP, 1960

There was month between the British and Portuguese GPs and in Oporto Stirling Moss made his F1 comeback after being out of action since the disastrous Belgian GP in June. The only other change of note was that local hero Mario Cabral was found a drive in the second Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper-Maserati. In practice Henry Taylor crashed his BRP Cooper heavily and injured his arm while Jim Clark smashed up his Lotus in a rare crash.

Despite the accident pole position went to Team Lotus driver John Surtees, who edged out Dan Gurney's BRM by a few hundredths of a second. Jack Brabham was third quickest in his normally-dominant works Cooper. Moss put his Walker Lotus on the second row alongside Graham Hill's BRM.

Brabham took the lead at the start but Gurney quickly found a way ahead and then Brabham went wide at one corner and dropped to sixth place. Moss emerged second with Surtees and Phil Hill in his Ferrari fighting with him.

After 10 laps Gurney dropped back with an oil leak and so Surtees took the lead with Moss in pursuit but he had to stop because of spark plug problems and dropped to the back of the field. He was later disqualified for driving against the direction of the race while trying to get going after a spin.

Brabham had a lively fight with P Hill until the American crashed and this became the lead on lap 36 when Surtees went off because oil had leaked onto his pedals. Bruce McLaren came through to finish second to give Cooper another 1-2 result with Clark finishing third in his cobbled-together Lotus.

Brabham's victory meant that he clinched the World Championship with two races remaining in the World Championship.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax T53 55 2h19m00.030s  
Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax T53 55 2h19m58.000s  
14 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 18 55 2h20m53.260s  
28 Wolfgang von Trips Ferrari D246 55 2h20m58.840.s  
dq 12 Stirling Moss Lotus-Climax 18 50 Drove In Wrong Direction 
Tony Brooks Cooper-Climax T51 49  12 
16 Innes Ireland Lotus-Climax 18 48  
Olivier Gendebien Cooper-Climax T51 46  14 
32 Mario Araujo de Cabral Cooper-Maserati T51 37 Gearbox 15 
18 John Surtees Lotus-Climax 18 36 Radiator 
26 Phil Hill Ferrari D246 29 Accident 10 
24 Dan Gurney BRM P48 24 Overheating 
30 Masten Gregory Cooper-Maserati T51 21 Gearbox 11 
22 Graham Hill BRM P48 Gearbox 
20 Jo Bonnier BRM P48 Engine 13 
ns 10 Henry Taylor Cooper-Climax T51  Accident/ Injury 16