1951 Italian A1 Grand Prix

The 1951 Italian A1 Grand Prix is the ninth round of the 1951 season.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Driver	Time	Gap
1	15	Robert Nelleman	1:56.132	Leader
2	5	Louis Chiron	1:56.424	+0.292
3	8	Peter Whitehead	1:56.464	+0.332
4	13	Porfirio Rubirosa	1:56.572	+0.440
5	7	Hans Stuck	1:56.599	+0.467
6	26	Alberto Uria	1:56.640	+0.508
7	22	Juan Jover	1:56.657	+0.525
8	6	Chico Landi	1:56.726	+0.594
9	11	Tony Gaze	1:56.744	+0.612
10	4	Toulo de Graffenried	1:56.785	+0.653
11	3	André Simon	1:56.832	+0.700
12	2	Juan Manuel Fangio	1:56.849	+0.717
13	31	Arcesio Paz	1:56.855	+0.723
14	29	Ramón López	1:56.941	+0.809
15	9	B. Bira	1:57.044	+0.911
16	25	S.P.J. Keinänen	1:57.074	+0.941
17	1	Luigi Fagioli	1:57.108	+0.976
18	36	Raúl Jaras	1:57.130	+0.998
19	27	Erik Lundgren	1:57.146	+1.014
20	16	Paul Greifzu	1:57.147	+1.015
21	18	Johnny Claes	1:57.152	+1.020
22	28	David Murray	1:57.161	+1.029
23	12	Dries van der Lof	1:57.170	+1.038
24	19	Arthur Mackenzie	1:57.206	+1.074
25	35	Jaroslav Juhan	1:57.227	+1.095
26	24	Hal Robson	1:57.257	+1.125
27	34	Mário de Araújo Cabral	1:57.338	+1.206
28	10	Joe Kelly	1:57.387	+1.255
29	17	Harry Schell	1:57.395	+1.263
30	21	Charles Whitehead	1:57.471	+1.339
31	20	Jack Tutton	1:57.578	+1.446
32	14	Jaroslav Netušil	1:57.599	+1.467
33	30	Mikhail Metelev	1:57.663	+1.531
34	23	Desmond Titterington	1:57.723	+1.591
35	32	Lopez Chávez	1:59.331	+3.299
36	33	Henry Bradley	2:00.321	+4.289

Race

Lap 1 - Everyone gets through the first lap cleanly except for Keinänen who goes off at Curva Grande. Netusil suffers a puncture and has to take a pitstop at the end of the lap.

Lap 5 - Robson and Fangio get together going into Lesmo 1 causing Fangio to whack the fence and collect Stuck and Lopez. All involved continue on but with enough damage to render them noncompetitive. Mere moments later coming out of Lesmo 2, Lundgren spins around Jaras collecting Schell, Juhan and van der Lof. Schell and van der Lof are out while everyone else suffers enough damage to slow them down.

Lap 7 - Sadly after taking pole and running in the lead group in the early stages, Nelleman suffers electrical gremlins which force an unscheduled pitstop after which his car would be off the pace. This leaves Whitehead, Chiron and de Graffenried in the current lead group after Lundgren and Jaras hold up the cars behind while being lapped.

Lap 9 - Gaze and Mackenzie collide through Variente della Roggia in what was deemed as a racing incident. Both are out.

Lap 10 - Lundgren takes karma for causing the lap 5 pile up when Tutton takes him out, he is collected by who else but his sparing partner for the day, Jaras.

Lap 12 - Whitehead and Chiron are still the leaders after the first pitstops but Greifzu after spending the early stages climbing up the field finds himself in the lead group after a good pitstop.

Lap 14 - Uria moves over on de Graffenried into Lesmo 1 and gets tagged by the Swiss driver who unfortunately takes all the damage from the clash despite being blameless in the incident. Uria is blamed and penalised for the collision.

Lap 17 - Chiron goes off at Curva Grande while challenging Whitehead for the lead and plants his car in the tires. Whitehead and Greifzu are left in a head to head battle for the lead.

Lap 26 - The second round of pitstops fail to change the order much. Whitehead and Greifzu still lead but behind them are Bira, Rubirosa and Landi who are all closing thanks to superior draft from being in a larger group of cars. They are currently only five seconds behind and closing fast.

Lap 30 - Tittering takes out Murray while battling for sixth, both are out and the Ulster-man takes the blame.

Lap 34 - The two leading groups merge to become one group of five but not before Greifzu is sadly held up by de Graffenried for long enough to drop him far enough behind to drop off the group slightly, destroying any realistic chance of victory. Landi meanwhile manages to take the lead as Whitehead ends up dropping to fourth.

Lap 36 - Amazing final lap from Whitehead starting with a daring and ultimately decisive move on both Bira and Rubirosa into Lesmo 1, then getting back past Landi into Parabolica before the Brazilian tries to get him back onto the finishing straight, just barely failing to overhaul the Englishman.

Race Classification

Pos	Grid	No.	Driver	Laps	Behind	Points
1	3	8	Peter Whitehead	36	1:15:32.055	25
2	8	6	Chico Landi	36	+0.071	20
3	4	13	Porfirio Rubirosa	36	+0.232	16
4	15	9	B. Bira	36	+0.829	13
5	20	16	Paul Greifzu	36	+1.594	11
6	28	10	Joe Kelly	36	+21.217	10
7	7	22	Juan Jover	36	+34.245	9
8	33	30	Mikhail Metelev	36	+34.702	8
9	11	3	André Simon	36	+50.483	7
10	27	34	Mário de Araújo Cabral	36	+51.447	6
11	6	26	Alberto Uria	36	+52.418	5
12	30	21	Charles Headland	36	+1:18.836	4
13	17	1	Luigi Fagioli	36	+1:26.373	3
14	31	20	Jack Tutton	36	+2:02.835	2
15	10	4	Toulo de Graffenried	35	+1 lap	1
16	12	2	Juan Manuel Fangio	35	+1 lap
17	5	7	Hans Stuck	35	+1 lap
18	21	18	Johnny Claes	35	+1 lap
19	1	15	Robert Nelleman	35	+1 lap
20	25	35	Jaroslav Juhan	34	+2 laps
NC	32	14	Jaroslav Netušil	32	+4 laps
Ret	22	28	David Murray	29	Collision, Titterington
Ret	34	23	Desmond Titterington	29	Collision, Murray
Ret	2	5	Louis Chiron	17	Accident
Ret	26	24	Hal Robson	14	Valve
Ret	19	27	Erik Lundgren	10	Collision, Tutton, Jaras
Ret	18	36	Raúl Jaras	10	Collision, Lundgren
Ret	9	11	Tony Gaze	9	Collision, Mackenzie
Ret	24	19	Arthur Mackenzie	9	Collision, Gaze
Ret	35	32	Lopez Chávez	9	Gearbox
Ret	14	29	Ramón López	8	Collision Damage
Ret	29	17	Harry Schell	4	Collision Jaras, Juhan, Lundgren
Ret	23	12	Dries van der Lof	4	Collison, Schell
Ret	36	33	Henry Bradley	4	Accident
Ret	13	31	Arcesio Paz	3	Accident
Ret	16	25	S.P.J. Keinänen	0	Accident

Penalty Report

No.	Driver	Lap	Penalty	Reason
24	Hal Robson	5	2 points	Causing an avoidable collision with cars 2, 7 and 29.
27	Erik Lundgren	5	3 points	Causing an avoidable collision with cars 12, 17, 35 and 36.
27	Erik Lundgren	7	2 points	Impeding a faster car.
36	Raúl Jaras	7	2 points	Impeding a faster car.
29	Ramón López	9	2 points	Impeding a faster car.
20	Jack Tutton	10	3 points	Causing an avoidable collision with cars 27 and 36.
26	Alberto Uria	14	2 points	Causing an avoidable collision with car 4.
23	Desmond Titterington	30	3 points	Causing an avoidable collision with car 28.
4	Toulo de Graffenried	33	2 points	Impeding a faster car.