1951 British Grand Prix

The 1951 British Grand Prix was the fifth race of the 1951 Formula One World Championship and was held at Silverstone on July 15th 1951. Giuseppe Farina scored his fourth career victory, benefiting from the retirement of Consalvo Sanesi on the final lap. Sanesi was classified second ahead of Frenchman Maurice Trintignant, Peter Whitehead, Piero Taruffi and Stirling Moss. Only six drivers finished the race.

The Grand Prix was notable for the fatal accident of Yves Giraud-Cabantous 13 laps from the finish while running in second place. His was the second fatal accident in Formula One in just three races.

Background

After the French Grand Prix at Reims-Gueux, Giuseppe Farina led the championship despite not having won a race up to that point, simply by virtue of his two consecutive fastest laps. He was also the only driver to have scored twice that season, showing the unpredictability involved this year. He was looking to improve on his championship lead at Silverstone, but with the three drivers to have won a European round (Manzon, Bira and de Graffenried) also in the race, he would have a tough time doing so. Most of the grid was similar to the previous few races, except for a few exceptions, the main ones being Consalvo Sanesi, who was back in the Gordini for the team's home race, and Peter Whitehead, whose points finish at Reims convinced the big man himself to keep him on the official Ferrari team for his home race, while his compatriot Parnell was loaned to Ferrari America.

Ferrari America will themselves expand to a three-car lineup for this race, with Harry Schell making his return to Formula 1 after driving a couple of races last season for AAR. This weekend would also see a few one-offs having a shot, namely Tony Rolt for Scuderia Maremmana, Peter Walker for Hampshire Racing Alliance and Brian Shawe-Taylor for Scuderia Platé-Varzi. JAMR were also back to the grid, this time with just two drivers in order to comply with the entry cap: Maurice Trintignant, who was loaned by ENB, not taking part in this race citing the cost of travel as reason, and Indy 500 winner and second at Silverstone last year Mauri Rose, who would stay with the team until the end of the year.

We also saw the arrival of two new teams: British Racing Motors, with David Hampshire accepting to drive for them after leaving his own car to Peter Walker, and All-Ireland Motorsport, with a revolutionary wide-body design for Joe Kelly. It remained to be seen whether the car has any sort of speed. Also, two privateers, who made their way to Indianapolis earlier that year without much success, would make their European débuts in customer Alfa Romeos: Mike Hawthorn, a 22-year-old who had won many local handicap races at Goodwood and Dundrod, and 31-year-old Australian Tony Gaze, founder of the Goodwood circuit.

Race weekend

Qualifying

The qualifying session was incredibly close, and the 33 entrants were separated by less than four seconds, and the 22 starters were separated by less than two seconds. While Dorino Serafini scored his second pole position of the season, Piero Taruffi took advantage of the close field to qualify in second place for Metcalf. Harry Schell also qualified well, starting fourth, much higher than he ever managed with AAR. Championship leader only managed to qualify in 18th position. The other disappointment was Tony Bettenhausen, who barely failed to qualify. Mauri Rose was far from the grid while teammate Trintignant qualified tenth.

Race

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