Swiss GP 1953

Swiss GP, 1953

The battle between the Ferrari and Maserati factory teams moved to Berne in late August. Juan-Manuel Fangio took pole but the Ferraris of Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina were alongside him on the front row. Maurice Trintignant did extremely well in his Gordini to beat Onofre Marimon's Maserati and the Ferraris of Gigi Villoresi and Mike Hawthorn. Maserati's Froilan Gonzalez was still out of action but the team ran Emmanuel de Graffenried instead and even entered a fifth car for prewar star Hermann Lang.

At the start Farina was left behind and it was Ascari who emerged ahead after an initial surging start from Fangio. A fast-starting Hawthorn was third with Marimon, Villoresi, Felice Bonetto (Maserati) and Farina chasing. Farina gradually worked his way through the field to third and then on lap eight Fangio began to have gearbox trouble and slowed. He eventually pitted to take over Bonetto's car. Fangio charged hard to make up the ground he had lost. Unfortunately his engine failed on lap 29. Ascari's position looked to be strong but on lap 39 his engine began to misfire and he was forced to stop at the pits. The problem was solved and he rejoined in fourth place behind Farina, Marimon and Hawthorn. On lap 46 Marimon disappeared with engine failure leaving the Ferraris to run 1-2-3. The signaled that the drivers should hold station but Ascari showed no interest in that idea and overtook both Hawthorn and Farina and so guaranteed himself a second World Championship.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
46 Alberto Ascari Ferrari 500 65 3h01m34.400s  
24 Giuseppe Farina Ferrari 500 65 3h02m47.330s  
26 Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 500 65 3h03m10.360s  
4= 32 Juan-Manuel Fangio Maserati A6GCM   
4= 32 Felice Bonetto Maserati A6GCM 64   
34 Hermann Lang Maserati A6GCM 62  11 
28 Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 500 62  
20 Ken Wharton Cooper-Bristol T23 62  
Chico Landi Maserati A6GCM 54 Gearbox 20 
40 Max de Terra Ferrari 166 51  19 
18 Albert Scherrer HWM-Alta (53) 49  18 
42 Emmanuel de Graffenried Maserati A6GCM 48 Engine 
36 Onofre Marimon Maserati A6GCM 46 Mechanical 
Maurice Trintignant Gordini T16 43 Mechanical 
Jean Behra Gordini T16 37 Engine 12 
r= 30 Felice Bonetto Maserati A6GCM   10 
r= 30 Juan-Manuel Fangio Maserati A6GCM 29 Engine  
16 Lance Macklin HWM-Alta (53) 29 Engine 15 
38 Peter Hirt Ferrari 500 17 Mechanical 17 
14 Paul Frere HWM-Alta (53) Engine 16 
10 Louis Rosier Ferrari 500 Accident 14 
Jacques Swaters Ferrari 500 Accident 13 
ns 12 Louis Chiron OSCA 20   21 
ns 22 Elie Bayol OSCA 20   22 
ns 44 Fred Wacker Gordini T16  Accident/ Injury 23