Bonnier and BRM can finally celebrate

Jo Bonnier and the British BRM team celebrated a memorable day by winning its first championship race, at the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix (picture-above, the Swedish driver in the dunes of Zandvoort aboard his BRM P25).

After many years of trying and “countless heartbreaking disappointments” it was also the first pole position and win for a BRM engine after almost a decade of effort.

In another first, it was Swedish driver Jo Bonnier’s first win, aided in part by Stirling Moss, who had taken the lead from him after 60 of the 75 laps but was forced to retire with a gearbox failure three laps later.

Bonnier won by fifteen seconds over Australian Jack Brabham, driving for Cooper, to also become the first Swedish driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix. The next one would be Ronnie Peterson in 1973. Brabham’s teammate Masten Gregory was the only other driver to finish on the lead lap in third position.

Interestingly, the organisers wanted to include a local driver in the race, so Carel Godin de Beaufort was allowed to compete despite his car being a Porsche RSK sports car! One can spot the Porsche at the very back of the field (picture-below).