1960 Pau Grand Prix

France Pau 18 April 1960 Carte circuit de Pau.png XX Pau Grand Prix Pau, France Temporary Street Circuit 1.720 2.760 90 154.348 248.400 Jack Brabham AUS Cooper T45 1:34.0 Maurice Trintignant Cooper T45 1:35.3 FRA Jack Brabham AUS Cooper T45 Maurice Trintignant FRA Cooper T45 Olivier Gendebien BEL Porsche 718 The 1960 Pau Grand Prix was a Formula Two motor race held on 18 April 1960 at the Pau circuit, in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. The Grand Prix was won by Jack Brabham, driving the Cooper T45. Maurice Trintignant finished second and Olivier Gendebien third. The race was the third event in the 1960 Formula Two Constructors' Championship and Formula Two Drivers' Championship.Autocourse Review of International Motorsport 1960 Part Two 1961 115–117 Entries All but three cars entered were Coopers. As regular drivers Jo Bonnier and Graham Hill were racing for BRM at Goodwood Circuit, Porsche sent just one car for Olivier Gendebien who was expected to be a front runner. Cooper also sent just a single works car, for Jack Brabham. Amongst the several privately entered Coopers were Ron Flockhart driving for Ken Tyrrell, Maurice Trintignant driving for Centro Sud, and Pau regular Jackie Lewis. There were also two privately entered Lotuses. Practice Near the start of the first practice session, on a drying track, Lewis was fastest with 1 minute 35.8, and Gendebien not far behind. Brabham instead focussed on setup, while Trintignant struggled with poor handling, continuing to change springs and shock absorbers even into the second session. Ultimately, in the second session Brabham went fastest on the now dry track with 1 minute 34 seconds, with only Trintignant able to come close. Gendebien was able to set third fastest time but dropped a valve in the process, and was two seconds slower than Brabham. The final grid had Brabham, Trintignant and Gendebien, followed by Lewis and Flockhart on row two. Report At the start Brabham immediately took the lead, followed by Trintignant, Gendebien, Lewis, Flockhart, John Campbell-Jones, and Masten Gregory. Brabham steadily increased his lead over Trintignant by around a second per lap when on the sixth lap he had a minor accident, clipping a straw bale with his rear wheel causing minor handling damage. This delay allowed Trintignant to catch up, urged on by the partisan French crowd. Trintignant's engine was underpowered compared with Brabham's, but now due to the damage on Brabham's car the two drivers began a nose-to-tail battle which would last the entire race. The two cars were never more than a few lengths apart, but Trintignant was never able to cleanly overtake, only managing to sometimes overlap in his efforts to take the lead. Behind the two leaders Gendebien steadily fell back, knowing he would not be able to challenge the pace of the two leaders, hoping that their fierce battle would take the two Coopers out. For much of the race Lewis stayed not far behind Gendebien, hoping to eventually overtake depending on how the race progressed. However, on his 26th lap his gear lever broke, forcing him to make two lengthy stops, dropping him to last place although he would eventually be classified a finisher. Behind Gendebien, Flockhart lapped steadily, fast enough to maintain fourth place, but not enough to challenge for third. Campbell-Jones ran fifth for some time but radiator trouble meant he had to make several pitstops, dropping him back and allowing Tony Marsh into fifth ahead of Paul Frère. The order near the front remained the same for over half the race. Brabham and Trintignant first lapped Gendebien on lap 55, and then on his final lap Brabham was able to lap Gendebien again, who split the lead two cars at the end of the race. Classification Race Pos No Driver Vehicle Laps Time/Retired Grid 1 4 AUS Jack Brabham Cooper T45-Climax 90 2hr 24min 51.8sec 1 2 2 FRA Maurice Trintignant Cooper T45-Climax 90 + 1.5 s 2 3 6 BEL Olivier Gendebien Porsche 718 88 + 2 laps 3 4 10 GBR Ron Flockhart Cooper T45-Climax 88 + 2 laps 5 5 22 GBR Tony Marsh Cooper T45-Climax 87 + 3 laps 3 6 14 BEL Paul Frère Cooper T51-Climax 87 + 3 laps 16 7 12 GBR Bob Hicks Lotus 16-Climax 87 + 3 laps 9 8 28 GBR John Campbell-Jones Cooper T45-Climax 84 + 6 laps 8 9 34 FRA Bernard Collomb Cooper T45-Climax 82 + 8 laps 14 10 26 FRA Jo Schlesser Cooper T43-Climax 82 + 8 laps 15 11 16 BEL Lucien Bianchi Cooper T51-Climax 82 + 8 laps 10 12 20 GBR Jackie Lewis Cooper T45-Climax 78 + 12 laps 4 Ret 18 DEU Wolfgang Seidel Cooper T43-Climax 29 Gearbox 13 Ret 36 GBR Marcus Niven Lotus 12-Climax 27 Rear suspension 12 Ret 8 USA 1959 Masten Gregory Cooper T51-Maserati 14 Overheating 11 DNA 24 PRT Mario de Araujo Cabral Cooper T45-Maserati Withdrawn DNA 30 CHE Maurice Caillet Lotus 18-Maserati 150S Withdrawn DNA 32 GBR Tom Threlfall Cooper T43-Climax Withdrawn Sources:http://www.formula2.net/F260_4.htm F2 Register - Index Pau Grand Prix 1959 Pau Grand Prix 1960 1961 Pau Grand Prix 1960 Formula Two Championship Round 3 1960 Brussels Grand Prix 1960 Aintree 200 References Category:Pau Grand Prix Category:1960 in French motorsport Category:Formula Two races