German GP 1952

German GP, 1952

Two weeks after the British Grand Prix the major players in the Formula 1 World Championship were back together again at the Nurburgring for the fifth round of the series and finally the Maserati factory team appeared in the World Championship with one of its new cars for Felice Bonetto. Escuderia Bandierantes ran two others for Gino Bianco and Heitel Cantoni. Jean Behra was back in action for Gordini, having recovered from his shoulder injury at Les Sables d'Olonnes. HWM ran three cars for Peter Collins, Paul Frere and Johnny Claes, while a fourth car appeared for privateer Tony Gaze. The field was bolstered by various private Ferraris, Bill Aston's Aston-Butterworth and a mixture of Veritas, AFM and BMW Specials which were raced regularly in German events.

There were no surprises in qualifying with Ferrari drivers Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina fastest and Gordini's Maurice Trintigant and Jean Behra their closest challengers. Piero Taruffi's third Ferrari shared the second row with Rudolf Fischer's Ecurie Espadon Ferrari and Paul Pietsch's Veritas-Meteor. Behra was rather off the pace behind Hans Klenk's Veritas-Meteor, Willy Heeks's AFM and Bonetto's Maserati.

Bonetto spun on the first lap - and was later disqualified for receiving outside assistance. Ascari took the lead from Farina and Taruffi worked his way to third after a battle with Manzon. Ascari suffered an oil leak and pitted a move which allowed Farina into the lead but Ascari was soon ahead again. His victory and fastest lap gave him the World Championship which was decided on the four best results. A win was worth eight points and fastest lap gained an extra point so the maximum a driver could score was 36 points and Ascari's win reached that total.

Behind him Taruffi ran into trouble with a broken suspension on the final lap but he was still able to finish fourth behind Fischer. Manzon had disappeared when a wheel feel off his Gordini and so Behra was fifth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 101 Alberto Ascari Ferrari 500 18 3h06m13.300s  1 
2 102 Giuseppe Farina Ferrari 500 18 3h06m27.400s  2 
3 117 Rudolf Fischer Ferrari 500 18 3h13m23.400s  6 
4 103 Piero Taruffi Ferrari 500 17  5 
5 108 Jean Behra Gordini T16 17  11 
6 119 Roger Laurent Ferrari 500 16  17 
7 121 Fritz Riess Veritas RS 16  12 
8 125 Toni Ulmen Veritas RS 16  15 
9 124 Helmut Niedermayr AFM-BMW  15  22 
10 113 Johnny Claes HWM-Alta (52) 15  32 
11 128 Hans Klenk Veritas METEOR 14  8 
12 135 Ernst Klodwig BMW HECK 14  29 
r 107 Robert Manzon Gordini T16 8 Wheel Lost 4 
r 123 Willi Heeks AFM-BMW  7  9 
r 120 Tony Gaze HWM-Alta (52) 6 Gearbox 14 
r 110 Marcel Balsa BMW SPECIALE 5  25 
r 126 Adolf Brudes Veritas METEOR 5 Engine 19 
r 130 Bernd Nacke BMW EIGENBAU 5 Spark Plugs 30 
r 116 Eitel Cantoni Maserati A6GCM 4 Mechanical 26 
r 136 Rudolf Krause BMW GREIFZU 3  23 
r 118 Rudolf Schoeller Ferrari 212 3 Suspension 24 
r 114 Bill Aston Aston-Butterworth NB 2 Engine 21 
r 104 Piero Carini Ferrari 166 1 Brakes 27 
r 127 Paul Pietsch Veritas METEOR 1 Gearbox 7 
r 122 Theo Helfrich Veritas RS 1  18 
r 112 Paul Frere HWM-Alta (52) 1 Mechanical 13 
r 129 Josef Peters Veritas RS 1  20 
r 109 Maurice Trintignant Gordini T16 1 Accident 3 
dq 105 Felice Bonetto Maserati A6GCM 1 Push Start After Spin 10 
r 115 Gino Bianco Maserati A6GCM 0  16 
ns 133 Willi Krakau AFM-BMW    28 
ns 131 Rudolf Fischer AFM-BMW    31 
ns 134 Harry Merkel BMW EIGENBAU   33 
ns 111 Peter Collins HWM-Alta (52)  Mechanical 34