1950 Belgian Grand Prix

The 1950 Belgian Grand Prix more commonly known as the Grand Prix Automobile de Belgique was a Formula One race that was held in Spa, Belgium on the 18 June 1950. It was the fourth round of the 1950 Formula One season with it being the twelth edition of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Juan Manuel Fangio secured his second pole position of his career finishing ahead of Giuseppe Farina and one of the Ferrari's, but his terrible luck continued with him being part of the first lap retirements which also included leader Farina and the some of the drivers. In the end it was Luigi Fagioli who would break the duck of Farina win's, as he recorded his first Formula One win ahead of the two Talbots.

Background
Leading into the fourth round of the 1950 Formula One season, Giuseppe Farina held a seventeen point lead ahead of second place, Toulo de Graffenried with Louis Rosier and Luigi Fagioli, two points further back in the championship. The title was looking like it was going to sealed up with two rounds left if Farina took out the win in Belgium.

This was the twelfth edition of the Belgian Grand Prix and saw a smaller field compared to the previous three rounds. Despite de Graffenried still with a shot in the championship, him and all of the Maserati entries stayed out of the race with the Maserati's heading straight to the next round in France. The British entrants also stayed away with most of the British entrants competing in the British Empire Trophy that was occurring at the Douglas Circuit. The only British driver that was competing was Geoffrey Crossley in his Alta. Most of the field for the Belgian Grand Prix were Talbot-Lagos with almost of the half entrants.

A couple of the other teams that competed was the trio of Alfa Romeo's in Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli with Ferrari also entering two driver's of their own in Alberto Ascari and Dorino Serafini who was replacing Luigi Villoresi in the Belgian Grand Prix due to injuries sustained during the previous round in Switzerland.

Qualifying
Qualifying for the 1950 Belgian Grand Prix saw Alfa Romeo once again dominate the board with Fangio securing his second pole position of the season as he finished .8 seconds ahead of Farina. Ascari though broke through the Alfa Romeo triple threat as they finished 2.4 seconds ahead of Fagioli who was ranked in fourth. Dorino Serafini who replaced Villoresi in the Ferrari rounded out the top five. Qualifying though would be marked by tragedy with Sommer crashing at Blanchimont with the damage that occurred ending his racing career permanently as he would died from the injuries at the event.

Race
After the fatal accident of Raymond Sommer in qualifying, the talk in the Talbot-Lago camp was to possibly withdraw from the Belgian Grand Prix. But after the talks didn't went through, the fifteen drivers competed in the race. The opening lap saw seven retirements occur for only two passes. This included Juan Manuel Fangio (suspension), Giuseppe Farina (steering), Charles Pozzi (engine), Toni Branca (exhaust), Yves Giraud-Cabantous (exhaust), Alberto Ascari (electrics) and Eugene Martin (gearbox). It was also during this moment, that the only passes of the race occurred with Eugène Chaboud passing Crossley and Rosier.

From there though, it was a quiet race with only four more retirements throughout the race. On lap 2, Dorino Serafini and Eugène Chaboud both retired with issues with their cars. By lap 8, Pierre Levegh retired after crashing at Stavelot. On Lap 30, after accident this time at La Source ended Crossley's day. In the end it was Luigi Fagioli who became a race winner for the first time after only just finishing ahead of Philippe Étancelin while Louis Rosier rounded out the podium.

Championship standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings
 * Note: Only the top five positions are listed. Only the best 4 results counted towards the Championship.