German GP 1953

German GP, 1953

The 1953 season was a head-to-head battle between the Ferrari and Maserati factory teams and, as usual, there were four cars from each firm at the Nurburgring: Gordini came with three cars, Connaught with three and the field was boosted by a large number of the local Formula 2 machinery, including AFMs, Veritas-Meteors, BMW Specials and even an EMW. There were no HWMs on this occasion but British interest was kept up with a trio of Cooper-Bristols and a Cooper-Alta being driven by Stirling Moss.

The battle, however, was much as usual although Maserati was missing Froilan Gonzalez who had been injured in an accident during a sportscar race in Lisbon the previous weekend. His place in the team was taken by Emmanuel de Graffenried. Ferrari's Alberto Ascari was on pole position with Juan-Manuel Fangio's Maserati alongside and the front row was completed with the Ferraris of Nino Farina and Mike Hawthorn. Maurice Trintignant did a good job in his Gordini to out qualify Gigi Villoresi (Ferrari) and Felice Bonetto (Maserati) on the second row, while the third featured the Maseratis of Onofre Marimon and de Graffenried split by the Gordinis of Jean Behra and Harry Schell.

At the start Fangio took the lead but Ascari was soon back in the lead and he had a 10-second advantage at the end of the first lap. Fangio had Hawthorn on his tail and in the course of the second lap the Englishman moved ahead. Fangio fought back and the two dueled. Ascari had a lead of 40secs when he lost a wheel at Tiergarten. This was a blow but he was able to get the car to the pits and rejoin after repairs had been made.

While this was happening Farina moved up to challenge the dueling Fangio and Hawthorn. In the course of the eighth lap Farina took the lead. Fangio managed to get clear of Hawthorn. Ascari was trying to catch up but his car was not handling well and it was decided that he would switch cars with Villoresi. This was achieved and Ascari set a series of fastest laps. On lap 15 however the Ferrari began smoking and he had to settle for eighth place.

Farina ended the race over a minute ahead of Fangio with Hawthorn 38 secs behind the Argentine driver. Fourth-placed Bonetto was seven minutes behind Hawthorn while the top six was completed by de Graffenried and Moss, but both were a lap behind the winner.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 2 Giuseppe Farina Ferrari 500 18 3h02m25.000s  3 
2 5 Juan-Manuel Fangio Maserati A6GCM 18 3h03m29.000s  2 
3 3 Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 500 18 3h04m08.600s  4 
4 7 Felice Bonetto Maserati A6GCM 18 3h11m13.600s  7 
5 17 Emmanuel de Graffenried Maserati A6GCM 17  11 
6 19 Stirling Moss Cooper-Alta T23 17  12 
7 18 Jacques Swaters Ferrari 500 17  19 
8= 1 Alberto Ascari Ferrari 500   1 
8= 1 Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 500 17   
9 31 Hans Herrmann Veritas METEOR 17  14 
10 20 Louis Rosier Ferrari 500 17  22 
11 40 Rodney Nuckey Cooper-Bristol T23 16  20 
12 24 Theo Helfrich Veritas RS 16  28 
13 16 Kenneth McAlpine Connaught-Lea Francis A 16  16 
14 36 Rudolf Krause BMW GREIFZU 16  26 
r= 4 Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 500   6 
r= 4 Alberto Ascari Ferrari 500 15 Engine  
r 38 Alan Brown Cooper-Bristol T23 15 Accident 17 
15 37 Ernst Klodwig BMW HECK 15  32 
16 22 Wolfgang Seidel Veritas RS 14  29 
r 8 Onofre Marimon Maserati A6GCM 13 Suspension 8 
r 12 Johnny Claes Connaught-Lea Francis A 12  25 
r 35 Edgar Barth EMW  12 Exhaust 24 
r 26 Oswald Karch Veritas RS 10  34 
r 23 Willi Heeks Veritas METEOR 8  18 
r 9 Jean Behra Gordini T16 7 Gearbox 9 
r 11 Harry Schell Gordini T16 6 Engine 10 
r 14 Prince Bira Connaught-Lea Francis A 6 Engine 15 
r 28 Theo Fitzau AFM-BMW  3  21 
r 34 Kurt Adolff Ferrari 166 3  27 
r 41 Gunther Bechem AFM-BMW  2  30 
r 15 Roy Salvadori Connaught-Lea Francis A 1 Engine 13 
r 32 Erwin Bauer Veritas RS 1  33 
r 10 Maurice Trintignant Gordini T16 1 Differential 5 
r 21 Hans Stuck AFM-Bristol  0  23 
r 30 Ernst Loof Veritas METEOR 0 Fuel Pump 31 
ns 39 Helm Glockler Cooper-Bristol T23  Engine 35