German GP 1963

German GP, 1963

On the weekend between the British and German GPs many of the F1 teams turned up to race on the Solitude Ring outside Stuttgart. Although it was a non-championship event Team Lotus was present but for once Jim Clark ran into trouble and so Jack Brabham scored the first Formula 1 victory for a Brabham chassis.

At the Nurburgring, however, Clark was dominant again in qualifying, although he was run close by the Ferrari of John Surtees. Also on the front row was the Scuderia Centro Sud BRM of Lorenzo Bandini, which was faster than Graham Hill's factory car. Bruce McLaren (Cooper) shared the second row with Ritchie Ginther's BRM and the second Ferrari, driven on this occasion by Willy Mairesse. Jack Brabham had to make to do with the third row, alongside Jo Siffert's Lotus-BRM, Tony Maggs's Cooper and Innes Ireland in the British Racing Partnership Lotus (Ireland having crashed the BRP-BRM chassis in practice).

At the start of the race Clark went into the lead while Brabham was left behind on the grid. In the course of the first lap, however, Clark ran into engine trouble and Ginther took the lead with Surtees moving to second by the end of the lap. On the second lap Ginther's BRM suffered gearbox trouble and he dropped behind Surtees, Clark, Hill and McLaren. On the same lap Mairesse crashed heavily at the Flugplatz, killing an ambulance men and suffering such severe arm injuries that it ended his F1 career. A lap later McLaren crashed heavily at the same spot when his steering failed. He was knocked unconscious and suffered knee injuries. Also in trouble was Graham Hill with who went out with gearbox failure.

Although Clark continued to fight for the lead with Surtees, the Lotus driver was suffering from a misfire and gradually began to drop back. All this left Ginther third with Maggs fourth although the Cooper driver ran into engine trouble and dropped back which allowed Siffert to run fourth until he suffered differential failure. This meant that fourth place was inherited by the old Porsche of Gerhard Mitter.

Surtees duly won the race, scoring Ferrari's first victory for nearly two years.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 7 John Surtees Ferrari 156 15 2h13m06.800s  2 
2 3 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 25 15 2h14m24.300s  1 
3 2 Richie Ginther BRM P57 15 2h15m51.700s  6 
4 26 Gerhard Mitter Porsche 718 15 2h21m18.300s  15 
5 20 Jim Hall Lotus-BRM 24 14  16 
6 16 Jo Bonnier Cooper-Climax T66 14  12 
7 9 Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax BT7 14  8 
8 4 Trevor Taylor Lotus-Climax 25 14  18 
9r 18 Jo Siffert Lotus-BRM 24 10 Transmission 9 
10 28 Bernard Collomb Lotus-Climax 24 10  21 
r 17 Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 718 9 Wheel Lost 17 
r 6 Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax T66 7 Engine 10 
r 10 Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax BT7 6 Gearbox 13 
r 22 Mario Araujo de Cabral Cooper-Climax T60 6 Gearbox 20 
r 24 Ian Burgess Scirocco-BRM SP 5 Steering 19 
r 23 Tony Settember Scirocco-BRM SP 5 Accident 22 
r 5 Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax T66 3 Accident 5 
r 21 Chris Amon Lola-Climax MK 4A 2 Steering/ Accident 14 
r 1 Graham Hill BRM P57 2 Gearbox 4 
r 8 Willy Mairesse Ferrari 156 1 Accident 7 
r 14 Innes Ireland Lotus-BRM 24 1 Accident 11 
r 15 Lorenzo Bandini BRM P57 0 Accident 3 
nq 29 Andre Pilette Lotus-Climax 18/21   23 
nq 25 Ian Raby Gilby-BRM (62)   24 
nq 30 Tim Parnell Lotus-Climax 18/21   25 
nq 27 Kurt Kuhnke Lotus-Borgward 18   26