Italian GP 1962

Italian GP, 1962

Graham Hill had a healthy advantage in the World Championship as the F1 regulars gathered at Monza for the last World Championship race of the European season. The BRM driver had 28 points to Jim Clark's 21 and John Surtees's 19. The organizers had given up with the idea of using the banked circuit and so ran the event on the 3.5-mile road track.

In qualifying it was no surprise to see Clark and Hill battling for pole position, the fight being won by Clark by three-tenths of a second. The 2 x 2 grid featured Ritchie Ginther's BRM sharing row two with Bruce McLaren's Cooper and the third row shared by the two British Racing Partnership Lotuses of Innes Ireland and Masten Gregory (Ireland's Climax-engined car faster on this occasion than Gregory's BRM-powered version). The fourth row saw Dan Gurney's Porsche and Surtees's Lola while the first Ferrari was Willy Mairesse (back in action after his crash at Spa in June) in 10th place. Jack Brabham did not appear with his new BT3 but there was another new F1 car, Alessandro de Tomaso entering a flat-eight engined car for Argentine driver Estefano Nasif.

At the start Clark beat G Hill away from the line but the BRM's power enabled Hill to get the lead back in the course of the first lap. Ginther in the second BRM was third with Surtees, McLaren, Bonnier, Gurney and Tony Maggs (Cooper) giving chase. On the third lap Clark ran into gearbox trouble and had to pit and this left the BRMs running 1-2, although Ginther had to battle Surtees to hold on to second place. Behind them McLaren battled with the two Porsches.

Surtees retired on lap 42 with engine trouble and that left Hill and Ginther to win a dominant 1-2 victory for BRM. McLaren held off all challengers to take third place by a fraction of second from Mairesse.

Hill's win was not enough to clinch the World Championship but it looked like he was in an unassailable position with two races remaining.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 14 Graham Hill BRM P57 86 2h29m08.400s  2 
2 12 Richie Ginther BRM P57 86 2h29m38.200s  3 
3 28 Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax T60 86 2h30m06.200s  4 
4 8 Willy Mairesse Ferrari 156 86 2h30m06.600s  10 
5 2 Giancarlo Baghetti Ferrari 156 86 2h30m39.700s  18 
6 18 Jo Bonnier Porsche 804 85  9 
7 30 Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax T60 85  12 
8 6 Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 156 84  17 
9 24 Nino Vaccarella Lotus-Climax 24 84  14 
10 32 Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 718 81  20 
11 10 Phil Hill Ferrari 156 81  15 
12 38 Masten Gregory Lotus-BRM 24 77  6 
13r 16 Dan Gurney Porsche 804 66 Transmission 7 
14r 4 Ricardo Rodriguez Ferrari 156 63 Engine 11 
r 40 Innes Ireland Lotus-Climax 24 45 Suspension  5 
r 46 John Surtees Lola-Climax MK 4A 42 Engine 8 
r 44 Roy Salvadori Lola-Climax MK 4 41 Engine 13 
r 22 Trevor Taylor Lotus-Climax 25 25 Transmission 16 
r 48 Tony Settember Emeryson-Climax (61) 18 Overheating 21 
r 36 Maurice Trintignant Lotus-Climax 24 17 Electrics 19 
r 20 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 25 12 Transmission 1 
nq 60 Tony Shelly Lotus-BRM 24   22 
nq 56 Keith Greene Gilby-BRM (62)   23 
nq 52 Gerry Ashmore Lotus-Climax 18/21   24 
nq 62 Ian Burgess Cooper-Climax T53   25 
nq 42 Jo Siffert Lotus-BRM 24   26 
nq 54 Ernesto Prinoth Lotus-Climax 18   27 
nq 50 Roberto Lippi De Tomaso-OSCA F1   28 
nq 26 Jay Chamberlain Lotus-Climax 18   29 
nq 34 Nasif Estefano De Tomaso 801   30