On 3rd June 1956, the Belgian Grand Prix was held at Spa-Francorchamps. Dominating qualifying was the Ferrari D50 driven by the Argentine, Juan Manuel Fangio, who was 4.9 faster than the rest of the field, starting with Englishman Stirling Moss in the Maserati. The other Ferraris qualified third, fifth and eighth with Peter Collins, Eugenio Castellotti and Paul Frere respectively, while Andre Pilette had problems and was forced to start from last place. At the start, in the wet, Fangio who was favourite to win, spun his wheels and immediately dropped five places. However, by lap 3, the Argentinian was back in the lead and began to pull away. Behind him was his team-mate Collins. Stirling Moss lost a wheel off the Maserati and had to take over his team-mate Cesare Perdisa’s car, losing valuable time, while Castellotti was let down by his transmission.
On lap 23 of 36, Juan Manuel Fangio’s car broke down, also with transmission failure. Peter Collins thus found himself in the lead, while behind, Paul Frere, an amateur racer and professional journalist, was staging a brilliant fightback. Collins took his first Grand Prix win, the 22nd for Ferrari and its thirteenth one-two, while Paul Frere made it to the podium for the one and only time. Third was Stirling Moss.
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