Dutch GP 1953

Dutch GP, 1953

After a break of nearly five months after the opening round of the World Championship in Argentina, the teams gathered for the second event at Zandvoort. There had been a string of non-championship events in the interim with Maserati increasingly a force against the factory Ferraris. At Syracuse in March Baron Emanuel de Graffenried won when all four factory Ferraris retired but Alberto Ascari won at Pau and Bordeaux, Mike Hawthorn won the International and Ulster Trophies and Giuseppe Farina won in Naples. When the Ferraris did not appear other scored victories but Enzo Ferrari's cars were still dominant. For the Dutch GP Ferrari had four cars for Ascari, farina, Hawthorn and Gigi Villoresi while Maserati entered three factory cars for Juan-Manuel Fangio, Froilan Gonzalez and Felice Bonetto. There was a fourth machine for Baron Emanuel de Graffenried. Gordini ran three cars for Maurice Trintignant, Roberto Mieres and Harry Schell and Connaught ran three factory machines for Roy Salvadori, Stirling Moss and Kenneth McAlpine. A fourth car was run by Johnny Claes. There were HWMs for Lance Macklin and Peter Collins and Ken Wharton had a single Cooper-Bristol.

The racing circuit had been resurfaced and crumbled badly but much was expected in the race as the practice times of the first six had been close but pole position man Alberto Ascari took the lead and led from flag to flag. Villoresi was second in the early part of the race but then switched with Farina several times before going out at three-quarter distance with a throttle problem. Gonzalez look menacing but retired with suspension trouble so took over Bonetto's car and after a storming drive finished third ahead of Hawthorn.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 2 Alberto Ascari Ferrari 500 90 2h53m35.800s  1 
2 6 Giuseppe Farina Ferrari 500 90 2h53m46.200s  3 
3= 16 Felice Bonetto Maserati A6GCM   13 
3= 16 Froilan Gonzalez Maserati A6GCM 89   
4 8 Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 500 89  6 
5 18 Emmanuel de Graffenried Maserati A6GCM 88  7 
6 24 Maurice Trintignant Gordini T16 87  12 
7 10 Louis Rosier Ferrari 500 86  8 
8 36 Peter Collins HWM-Alta (53) 84  16 
9 34 Stirling Moss Connaught-Lea Francis A6GCM 83  9 
r 4 Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 500 67 Throttle 4 
r 28 Kenneth McAlpine Connaught-Lea Francis A 63 Engine 14 
r 20 Harry Schell Gordini T16 59 Transmission 10 
nc 30 Johnny Claes Connaught-Lea Francis A 52  17 
r 12 Juan-Manuel Fangio Maserati A6GCM 36 Mechanical 2 
r 22 Roberto Mieres Gordini T16 28 Transmission 19 
r 14 Froilan Gonzalez Maserati A6GCM 22 Mechanical 5 
r 32 Ken Wharton Cooper-Bristol T23 19 Suspension 18 
r 26 Roy Salvadori Connaught-Lea Francis A 14 Engine 11 
r 38 Lance Macklin HWM-Alta (53) 7 Throttle 15 
ns 40 Fred Wacker Gordini T16  Engine Used By Schell 20