Grand Prix of Germany 1939

The Nürburgring in its most traveled version of the Nordschleife .

Winner's trophy of the German Grand Prix in 1939

The XII. German Grand Prix took place on July 24, 1939 on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring . As Grande Épreuve , the race was part of the European Grand Prix Championship in 1939 and, according to the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (mainly racing cars up to 3 liters with a compressor and up to 4.5 liters without a compressor; minimum weight 850 kg ; Race distance at least 300 km) over 22 laps of 22.810 km each, which corresponded to a total distance of 501.82 km.

The winner was Rudolf Caracciola in a Mercedes-Benz W 154 , who won the German Grand Prix for the sixth time. It was the last Grand Prix success of his career.

run

As always, the German racing teams put maximum effort into their home race at the Nürburgring . Auto Union , with Hermann Paul Muller victorious in the French Grand Prix , joined with five of their current Grand Prix racing cars of type D , which is also of Tazio Nuvolari , the international top drivers of the team, Hans Stuck , Rudolf Hasse and Meier Georg driven were.

Also, Daimler-Benz had much trouble used on the engine problems of the Mercedes-Benz W154 resolve that led to the defeat in the French Grand Prix. In addition to the usual driver trio Rudolf Caracciola , Hermann Lang and Manfred von Brauchitsch , who already dominated the training, a fourth car was used for the young driver Heinz Brendel .

Alfa Romeo , on the other hand, had completely discontinued its Grand Prix program in order to concentrate entirely on the Voiturette class, where a top car was available with the Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 "Alfetta" . The Maserati team, on the other hand, was represented at a Grand Prix again after a long absence. In addition to regular driver Luigi Villoresi , the second cockpit was given to the former Auto Union reserve driver Paul Pietsch for his home race. Pietsch was recently quite successful in the Voiturette class for Maserati. Maserati's current Grand Prix model of the Maserati 8CTF type was clearly inferior to the German Silver Arrows in terms of engine power, but was particularly easy to drive on the winding Nürburgring.

In practice, Mercedes driver Lang beat the old record with his fastest lap, which Bernd Rosemeyer had set in 1937 with an engine twice as large. Despite the prevailing "Eifel weather" with fog and light rain on the day of the race, Lang was in front after a few corners and came back from the first lap with an impressive lead of almost half a minute over his team mate von Brauchitsch. But just two laps later, the leading Mercedes showed signs of engine failure. At the same time as Lang's task, von Brauchitsch pitted because of an engine problem, so that Pietsch was surprisingly in front with his Maserati.

The interplay for the lead continued, however, and because Pietsch had to stop briefly to readjust the brakes, Nuvolari was now in front with his Auto Union for a few laps until the cold, wet weather caused his engine increasing difficulties and he had to make a pit stop as well . Caracciola then led briefly, but because he also had to change the spark plugs at the mid-race during the scheduled pit stop, he only got back on the track behind the Auto Union drivers Hasse and Müller.

The rain got heavier and as a rain specialist Caracciola worked his way back to the top. Hasse had tried to counter, but fell off the track and had to park his damaged Auto Union, as did Nuvolari, whose engine finally exploded a little later - lying in third position. This meant that only three of the eleven 3-liter supercharged Grand Prix cars that had started and Caracciola in a Mercedes, Müller in an Auto Union and Pietsch in a Maserati - the latter one lap behind despite two spins and four pit stops - drove the race in that order to end.

Registration list

No.	driver	constructor	vehicle	team	comment
02	Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
04th	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
06th	Hermann Paul Muller	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
08th	Rudolf Hasse	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
10	Georg Meier	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
12	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
14th	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
16	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
18th		Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG	not started
20th	Hans-Hugo Hartmann	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG	not started (reserve driver)
22nd	Heinz Brendel	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG	took over Hartmann's place
22nd	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 308	R. summer
24	René Dreyfus	Delahaye	Delahaye 145	Ecurie Lucy O'Reilly Schell	also tested a Delahaye 155
26th	"Raph"	Delahaye	Delahaye 145	Ecurie Lucy O'Reilly Schell
28	Robert Mazaud	Delahaye	Delahaye 135CS	Ecurie Lucy O'Reilly Schell
30th	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	Maserati 8CTF	Officine A. Maserati
32	Paul Pietsch	Maserati	Maserati 8CTF	Officine A. Maserati
34	Armand Hug	Maserati	Maserati 4CM	A. Hug	not started (injury in Albi)
36	Adolfo Mandirola	Maserati	Maserati 8CM	A. Mandirola
38	Hans Dipper	Maserati	Maserati 6CM	South German racing community	not started
40	Leonhard Joa	Maserati	Maserati 4CM	South German racing community

Starting grid

1		2		3
Long 9: 43.1 min		von Brauchitsch 9: 51.0 min		Caracciola 9: 56.0 min
	4th		5
	Müller 9: 53.9 min		Brendel 10: 09.4 min
6th		7th		8th
Nuvolari 10: 11.2 min		Piece 10: 13.4 min		Pietsch 10: 14.0 min
	9		10
	Meier 10: 19.0 min		Hasse 10: 22.3 min
11		12		13
Villoresi 10: 26.0 min		Dreyfus 11: 28.0 min		Summer 12: 03.3 min
	14th		15th
	Joa 12: 15.2 min		"Raph" 12: 16.2 min
16		17th
Mazaud 12: 53.0 min		Mandirola 13: 12.2 min

Race result

Item	No.	driver	constructor	Round	time	Failure reason	EM points
1	16	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	22nd	4:08:41.4 h		1
2	06th	Hermann Paul Muller	Auto Union	22nd	+ 0057.9 s		2
3	32	Paul Pietsch	Maserati	21st	+ 1 lap		3
4th	24	René Dreyfus	Delahaye	20th	+ 2 rounds		4th
5	26th	"Raph"	Delahaye	19th	+ 3 rounds		4th
6th	28	Robert Mazaud	Delahaye	19th	+ 3 rounds		4th
7th	40	Leonhard Joa	Maserati	19th	+ 3 rounds		4th
DNF	02	Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	18th		engine	4th
DNF	08th	Rudolf Hasse	Auto Union	11		accident	5
DNF	10	Georg Meier	Auto Union	10/13?		Steering knuckle	6th
DQ	36	Adolfo Mandirola	Maserati	9		incorrect refueling process	8th
DNF	30th	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	6th		Dreher / fuel tank	6th
DNF	14th	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	6th		Fuel tank	7th
DNF	22nd	Heinz Brendel	Mercedes Benz	3		accident	7th
DNF	16	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	2		engine	7th
DNF	22nd	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo	0		engine	7th
DNF	04th	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	0		Fuel line	7th

Fastest race lap : Rudolf Caracciola ( Mercedes-Benz ), 10: 24.2 min? = 131.6 km / h  

Web links

Commons : Grand Prix of Germany 1939  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• XII Grand Prix of Germany. www.teamdan.com, accessed on August 3, 2014 (English). 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: XII GRAND PRIZE OF GERMANY. www.kolumbus.fi, May 17, 2014, accessed on August 3, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The type designation of the Auto Union racing cars was only introduced later by specialist authors to differentiate between the individual models