United States GP 1962

United States GP, 1962

Ferrari did not bother to send its cars to the United States as none of the drivers were in the running for the World Championship and so it was down to BRM, Lotus, Lola, Cooper and Porsche to scrap over the event. Graham Hill was in a strong position in the World Championship and so his rival Jim Clark had to aim for victory. Jack Brabham arrived with a revised version of his own BT3 while the field was bolstered by a number of local drivers with Tim Mayer in a third factory Cooper, Roger Penske in a British Racing Partnership Lotus 24, Jim Hall in Brabham's old Lotus and Bob Schroeder in one of Rob Walker's cars which had been rented to US entrant John Mecom.

Clark set the pace in qualifying with Ritchie Ginther second fastest in his BRM, just a tenth faster than Graham Hill. Dan Gurney was fourth fastest in his Porsche and then came Brabham in the Brabham and McLaren's Cooper. John Surtees was down at the back of the grid after his Lola suffered a steering arm failure and he crashed heavily. Surtees took over Roy Salvadori's car for the race.

At the start Clark took the lead with Hill beating Ginther away. Brabham grabbed fourth ahead of Gurney and McLaren, although Gurney was soon able to get his Porsche past the Brabham. He also managed to get ahead of Ginther to run third. On lap 12 Hill took the lead but Clark fought back and moved ahead again on lap 19. Further back the Gurney-Ginther battle for third continued until Ginther went out with engine trouble on lap 35. Gurney then came under pressure from McLaren and fell behind the Cooper on lap 57. In the closing stages Gurney also fell victim to Brabham. The result meant that Hill and Clark would go to South Africa in December with the World Championship still open and if Clark won with Hill second the Lotus driver would snatch the title with equal points but four wins to Hill's three.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 8 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 25 100 2h07m13.000s  1 
2 4 Graham Hill BRM P57 100 2h07m22.200s  3 
3 21 Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax T60 99  6 
4 17 Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax BT3 99  5 
5 10 Dan Gurney Porsche 804 99  4 
6 16 Masten Gregory Lotus-BRM 24 99  7 
7 22 Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax T60 97  10 
8 15 Innes Ireland Lotus-Climax 24 96  15 
9 14 Roger Penske Lotus-Climax 24 96  12 
10 26 Rob Schroeder Lotus-Climax 24 93  16 
11 24 Hap Sharp Cooper-Climax T53 91  14 
12 9 Trevor Taylor Lotus-Climax 25 85  8 
13 11 Jo Bonnier Porsche 804 79  9 
r 5 Richie Ginther BRM P57 35 Mechanical 2 
r 6 Maurice Trintignant Lotus-Climax 24 32 Brakes 17 
r 23 Tim Mayer Cooper-Climax T53 31 Gearbox 11 
r 18 John Surtees Lola-Climax MK 4 19 Mechanical 18 
r 12 Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 718 9 Accident 13 
ns 19 Roy Salvadori Lola-Climax MK 4  Car Raced By Surtees 19 
ns 25 Jim Hall Lotus-Climax 21  Engine 20 
ns 11 Phil Hill Porsche 804  Not A Serious Attempt 21