German GP 1952
AUGUST 3, 1952
German GP, 1952
Two weeks after the British Grand Prix the major players in the Formula 1 World Championship were back together again at the Nurburgring for the fifth round of the series and finally the Maserati factory team appeared in the World Championship with one of its new cars for Felice Bonetto. Escuderia Bandierantes ran two others for Gino Bianco and Heitel Cantoni. Jean Behra was back in action for Gordini, having recovered from his shoulder injury at Les Sables d'Olonnes. HWM ran three cars for Peter Collins, Paul Frere and Johnny Claes, while a fourth car appeared for privateer Tony Gaze. The field was bolstered by various private Ferraris, Bill Aston's Aston-Butterworth and a mixture of Veritas, AFM and BMW Specials which were raced regularly in German events.
There were no surprises in qualifying with Ferrari drivers Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina fastest and Gordini's Maurice Trintigant and Jean Behra their closest challengers. Piero Taruffi's third Ferrari shared the second row with Rudolf Fischer's Ecurie Espadon Ferrari and Paul Pietsch's Veritas-Meteor. Behra was rather off the pace behind Hans Klenk's Veritas-Meteor, Willy Heeks's AFM and Bonetto's Maserati.
Bonetto spun on the first lap - and was later disqualified for receiving outside assistance. Ascari took the lead from Farina and Taruffi worked his way to third after a battle with Manzon. Ascari suffered an oil leak and pitted a move which allowed Farina into the lead but Ascari was soon ahead again. His victory and fastest lap gave him the World Championship which was decided on the four best results. A win was worth eight points and fastest lap gained an extra point so the maximum a driver could score was 36 points and Ascari's win reached that total.
Behind him Taruffi ran into trouble with a broken suspension on the final lap but he was still able to finish fourth behind Fischer. Manzon had disappeared when a wheel feel off his Gordini and so Behra was fifth.
POS | NO | DRIVER | ENTRANT | LAPS | TIME/RETIREMENT | QUAL POS |
1 | 101 | Alberto Ascari | Ferrari 500 | 18 | 3h06m13.300s | 1 |
2 | 102 | Giuseppe Farina | Ferrari 500 | 18 | 3h06m27.400s | 2 |
3 | 117 | Rudolf Fischer | Ferrari 500 | 18 | 3h13m23.400s | 6 |
4 | 103 | Piero Taruffi | Ferrari 500 | 17 | 5 | |
5 | 108 | Jean Behra | Gordini T16 | 17 | 11 | |
6 | 119 | Roger Laurent | Ferrari 500 | 16 | 17 | |
7 | 121 | Fritz Riess | Veritas RS | 16 | 12 | |
8 | 125 | Toni Ulmen | Veritas RS | 16 | 15 | |
9 | 124 | Helmut Niedermayr | AFM-BMW | 15 | 22 | |
10 | 113 | Johnny Claes | HWM-Alta (52) | 15 | 32 | |
11 | 128 | Hans Klenk | Veritas METEOR | 14 | 8 | |
12 | 135 | Ernst Klodwig | BMW HECK | 14 | 29 | |
r | 107 | Robert Manzon | Gordini T16 | 8 | Wheel Lost | 4 |
r | 123 | Willi Heeks | AFM-BMW | 7 | 9 | |
r | 120 | Tony Gaze | HWM-Alta (52) | 6 | Gearbox | 14 |
r | 110 | Marcel Balsa | BMW SPECIALE | 5 | 25 | |
r | 126 | Adolf Brudes | Veritas METEOR | 5 | Engine | 19 |
r | 130 | Bernd Nacke | BMW EIGENBAU | 5 | Spark Plugs | 30 |
r | 116 | Eitel Cantoni | Maserati A6GCM | 4 | Mechanical | 26 |
r | 136 | Rudolf Krause | BMW GREIFZU | 3 | 23 | |
r | 118 | Rudolf Schoeller | Ferrari 212 | 3 | Suspension | 24 |
r | 114 | Bill Aston | Aston-Butterworth NB | 2 | Engine | 21 |
r | 104 | Piero Carini | Ferrari 166 | 1 | Brakes | 27 |
r | 127 | Paul Pietsch | Veritas METEOR | 1 | Gearbox | 7 |
r | 122 | Theo Helfrich | Veritas RS | 1 | 18 | |
r | 112 | Paul Frere | HWM-Alta (52) | 1 | Mechanical | 13 |
r | 129 | Josef Peters | Veritas RS | 1 | 20 | |
r | 109 | Maurice Trintignant | Gordini T16 | 1 | Accident | 3 |
dq | 105 | Felice Bonetto | Maserati A6GCM | 1 | Push Start After Spin | 10 |
r | 115 | Gino Bianco | Maserati A6GCM | 0 | 16 | |
ns | 133 | Willi Krakau | AFM-BMW | 28 | ||
ns | 131 | Rudolf Fischer | AFM-BMW | 31 | ||
ns | 134 | Harry Merkel | BMW EIGENBAU | 33 | ||
ns | 111 | Peter Collins | HWM-Alta (52) | Mechanical | 34 |