British GP 1954

British GP, 1954

The usual band of European teams were joined as usual at Silverstone by a variety of local machinery. Mercedes-Benz, which had dominated on their debut at Rheims two weeks earlier, was still strong with Juan-Manuel Fangio setting the fastest time in practice but he was only a second quicker than the Ferraris of Froilan Gonzalez and Mike Hawthorn while Stirling Moss made a good impression setting the fourth quickest time in his Maserati. The Maserati team had failed to arrive in time for practice and so Gigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari (on loan from Lancia), Onofre Marimon and Roberto Mieres were forced to start from the back of the grid.

At the start Gonzalez went into the lead chased by Hawthorn, Fangio, Moss, Behra and Marimon (who had passed a remarkable 19 cars on the first lap). Fangio soon overtook Hawthorn leaving the English driver to battle with Moss - to the delight of the crowd. Fangio began to drop away because of a gearbox trouble and because the aerodynamic body of the Mercedes made it difficult to judge the corners and he hit several oil drums which were being used to mark out the course. Further back Ascari went out with mechanical trouble and so took over Villoresi's car although would retire as well a few laps later.

Fangio was eventually passed by both Moss and Hawthorn but despite heavy rain Gonzalez was able to stay ahead to win. Moss suffered rear axle failure and so Hawthorn finished second with Marimon third and Fangio fourth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 9 Froilan Gonzalez Ferrari 625 90 2h56m14.000s  2 
2 11 Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 625 90 2h57m24.000s  3 
3 33 Onofre Marimon Maserati 250F 89  28 
4 1 Juan-Manuel Fangio Mercedes-Benz-Mercedes W196 STR. 89  1 
5 10 Maurice Trintignant Ferrari 625 87  8 
6 4 Roberto Mieres Maserati A6GCM 87  32 
7 2 Karl Kling Mercedes-Benz-Mercedes W196 STR. 87  6 
8 8 Ken Wharton Maserati 250F 86  9 
9 19 Andre Pilette Gordini T16 86  12 
10 29 Bob Gerard Cooper-Bristol T23 85  18 
11 25 Don Beauman Connaught-Lea Francis A 84  17 
12 3 Harry Schell Maserati A6GCM 83  16 
13 23 Leslie Marr Connaught-Lea Francis A 82  22 
r 7 Stirling Moss Maserati 250F 80 Transmission 4 
14 26 Leslie Thorne Connaught-Lea Francis A 78  23 
r 22 Bill Whitehouse Connaught-Lea Francis A 63 Fuel System 19 
r 17 Jean Behra Gordini T16 54 Suspension 5 
r 5 Roy Salvadori Maserati 250F 53 Mechanical 7 
r= 6 Prince Bira Maserati 250F   10 
r= 6 Ron Flockhart Maserati 250F 44 Accident  
15 28 Horace Gould Cooper-Bristol T23 44  20 
r= 32 Luigi Villoresi Maserati 250F   27 
r= 32 Alberto Ascari Maserati 250F 40 Engine  
r 24 John Risely-Pritchard Connaught-Lea Francis A 40 Accident 21 
r 12 Reg Parnell Ferrari 500 25 Mechanical 14 
r 31 Alberto Ascari Maserati 250F 21 Engine 30 
r 18 Clemar Bucci Gordini T16 18 Accident 13 
r 20 Peter Collins Vanwall SPL. 16 Engine 11 
r 14 Robert Manzon Ferrari 625 16 Engine 15 
r 21 Peter Whitehead Cooper-Alta T24 4 Mechanical 24 
r 15 Louis Rosier Ferrari 500 2 Engine 31 
r 30 Eric Brandon Cooper-Bristol T23 2  25 
ns 27 Alan Brown Cooper-Bristol T23   26 
ns 30 Rodney Nuckey Cooper-Bristol T23  Car Raced By Brandon 29