1961 French GP
Grand Prix de l'ACF |
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Reims-Gueux |
July 2, 1961 |
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Ecurie Maarsbergen |
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Porsche 718 (201) |
No: 14 |
Q: 17 |
R: DNF |
C: GP |
Ferrari was expected to dominate the French Grand Prix in the same way they did at Spa two weeks earlier. And indeed they dominated practice, which was run under hot circumstances that reminded spectators and competitors of the 1959 edition. In the end three Ferraris occupied the front row while Carel qualified on 17th spot in a large field of 26 competitors. During the first part of the race, while the Ferraris were dictating the pace, Carel had a laps long fight with Jack Brabham for eleventh place. It all ended very unsatisfactory with the retirement of the reigning World Champion who would have surely liked to forget about this race as soon as possible. On lap 23 De Beaufort himself retired from the same eleventh spot, the result of an overheated engine.
The race turned out to be very hard on the cars and all the front running Ferraris hit problems, leaving the team honours to young rookie Giancarlo Baghetti who actually managed to keep the factory Porsches at bay and slipstreamed past Dan Gurney on the very last lap, hereby achieving the historic feat of winning his debut Grand Prix.
During practice for this race Joakim Bonnier seems to have used Carels car for a few qualifying laps, underlining the close relationship between Ecurie Maarsbergen and the official Porsche factory team.
1961 French GP highlights