Swedish speedster Gunnar Nilsson won the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder in a Lotus-Cosworth at a weather-interrupted race.
Nilsson started from third on the grid and had to swerve to avoid an incident involving Ian Scheckter and Harold Ertyl into the first corner. He then benefitted from a series of pit stops by drivers changing tyres and fought his way back from eighth for a memorable victory. The race marked his only Formula One victory as later in the year he was diagnosed with cancer. In an era when many of his contemporaries were killed at the wheel of their racing cars, Nilsson died of cancer in October 1978.
1955
Mercedes drivers Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss dominated the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps. Lancia didn't turn up to the race after its new ownership decided to pull the team from the world championship. Eugenio Castelotti managed to persuade the company to let him race a D50 nonetheless, and he impressed everyone by taking pole position. In the race he couldn't match the pace of the dominant Mercedes and soon fell to a distant third. It still would have been a fantastic result, but dropped out midway through with a gearbox problem. Fangio and Moss held formation at the front and eventually took the flag 30 seconds ahead of Giuseppe Farina.
2000
Michael Schumacher knocked David Coulthard down a peg just one day after the McLaren driver had won the Monaco Grand Prix. Coulthard won after Schumacher retired with a cracked exhaust and his McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen also failed to score points. Schumacher then insinuated that he wasn't too fussed about Coulthard taking points off him in the championship chase: "I am disappointed but not too much. It's true that I could have picked up 10 points - but the driver I consider my main rival could also have done so." Schumacher eventually won the championship comfortably ahead of Hakkinen.
1983
Popular Italian racing driver Michele Alboreto won the US Grand Prix in Detroit. Alboreto had qualified sixth but when the major runners stopped for tires and fuel mid-race, Nelson Piquet and Alboreto stayed out. With Rene Arnoux disappearing with electrical trouble it was Piquet who ended up in the lead with Alboreto second and the recovering Rosberg third. The race was settled on lap 51 when Piquet had a puncture and had to pit. He dropped to fourth behind Alboreto, Rosberg and Watson. Although nobody knew it at the time it was a historic result as it was the last ever victory for the Tyrrell team which powered Jackie Stewart to three drivers' titles in the 1970s.
1928
Italian racing driver Umberto Maglioli was born in Bioglio, Vercelli. He participated in 10 grands prix, achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 3.33 championship points. Maglioli also won the grueling Carrera Panamericana sports car race in 1954.
