German GP 1962

German GP, 1962

After missing the French GP and sending only one car to the British GP, Ferrari was back at full strength for the German event with four cars for Phil Hill, Giancarlo Baghetti, Ricardo Rodriguez and Lorenzo Bandini. All the other major players were present while Jack Brabham had swapped his Lotus 24 for the all-new Brabham BT3.

There were some major crashes in qualifying with Graham Hill's BRM being hit by a TV camera which fell off Carel de Beaufort's Ecurie Maarsbergen Porsche. This caused Hill to go off and Tony Maggs also had a big crash when he hit oil which had been dropped on the track by Hill's car. Fortunately neither driver was hurt and Hill was able to set the second fastest time. He was slower than Dan Gurney's Porsche but ahead of Jim Clark's Lotus and John Surtees's Lola. The second row of the 4-3-4 grid featured Bruce McLaren's Cooper, Jo Bonnier's Porsche and the BRM of Ritchie Ginther.

On race day the start had to be delayed when a torrential rainstorm swept the Eifel hills. When the race eventually started Clark's Lotus failed to get away (the driver haven forgotten to switch on the fuel pumps) and so Gurney took the lead with G Hill behind him. Then came a fast-starting P Hill, Surtees, Bonnier, McLaren and Rodriguez. Surtees was able to get ahead of P Hill on the second lap and a lap later G Hill was able to take the lead from Gurney. The American then began to drop back with a battery problem and so Surtees was able to move to second on lap five.

Clark, in the meantime, had driven up through the field and took fourth place on lap eight. At the same time Gurney was able to fix the battery problem and moved up again to attack Surtees. The showdown never really developed and Graham Hill was able to win the race by 2.5secs while Gurney was third less than two seconds behind Surtees. Clark had to settle for fourth with McLaren fifth and Rodriguez sixth.

Brabham retired the new Brabham after eight laps with a throttle problem.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 11 Graham Hill BRM P57 15 2h38m45.300s  2 
2 14 John Surtees Lola-Climax MK 4 15 2h38m47.800s  4 
3 7 Dan Gurney Porsche 804 15 2h38m49.700s  1 
4 5 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 25 15 2h39m27.400s  3 
5 9 Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax T60 15 2h40m04.900s  5 
6 3 Ricardo Rodriguez Ferrari 156 15 2h40m09.100s  10 
7 8 Jo Bonnier Porsche 804 15 2h43m22.600s  6 
8 12 Richie Ginther BRM P57 15 2h43m45.400s  7 
9 10 Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax T55 15 2h43m52.100s  23 
10 2 Giancarlo Baghetti Ferrari 156 15 2h47m00.000s  13 
11 25 Ian Burgess Cooper-Climax T53 15 2h47m00.600s  16 
12 19 Jo Siffert Lotus-Climax 21 15 2h47m03.800s  17 
13 18 Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 718 15 2h47m57.100s  8 
14 32 Heini Walter Porsche 718 14  14 
15 26 Nino Vaccarella Porsche 718 14  15 
16 21 Lucien Bianchi ENB- MASERATI 14  25 
17r 20 Jack Lewis Cooper-Climax T53 10 Engine 21 
r 16 Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax BT3 9 Throttle Linkage 24 
r 1 Phil Hill Ferrari 156 9 Suspension 12 
r 27 Keith Greene Gilby-BRM (62) 7 Suspension  19 
r 17 Maurice Trintignant Lotus-Climax 24 4 Gearbox 11 
r 4 Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 156 4 Accident 18 
r 15 Roy Salvadori Lola-Climax MK 4 4 Gearbox 9 
r 28 Heinz Schiller Lotus-BRM 24 4 Engine 20 
r 31 Bernard Collomb Cooper-Climax T53 2 Gearbox 22 
r 6 Trevor Taylor Lotus-Climax 24 0 Accident 26 
nq 29 Tony Shelly Lotus-Climax 18/21   27 
nq 34 Wolfgang Seidel Lotus-BRM 24   28 
nq 30 Jay Chamberlain Lotus-Climax 18   29 
nq 34 Gunther Seiffert Lotus-BRM 24   30