1962 French Grand Prix

 1962 French Grand Prix

Racing data
4th of 9 races of the 1962 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	XLVIII Grand Prix de l'ACF
Date:	July 8, 1962
Place:	Rouen , France
Course:	Rouen-les-Essarts
Length:	353.268 km in 54 laps of 6.542 km
Weather:	sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax
Time:	2: 14.8 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Graham Hill (Round 32)	BRM
Time:	2: 16.9 min
Podium
First:	Dan Gurney	Porsche
Second:	Tony Maggs	Cooper-Climax
Third:	Richie Ginther	BRM

The 1962 French Grand Prix took place on July 8, 1962 at Rouen-les-Essarts near Rouen and was the fourth race of the 1962 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

After Porsche at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1962 did not attend because of a strike in the race, had the Grand Prix of France Scuderia Ferrari withdraw all their registered cars, since a strike by the metalworking industry in Italy caused a delivery stop of important spare parts. The season therefore remained without a win for Ferrari after they had dominated the 1961 World Cup.

Porsche returned after the one race break and continued to drive with its drivers Dan Gurney and Joakim Bonnier for the rest of the season . The other works teams also kept their driver pairings. However, there were other changes to the teams with private cars. After a break from racing, Roy Salvadori became the second driver for the Bowmaker Racing Team for the rest of the season and, like his team-mate John Surtees , drove a Lola Mk4 . Jackie Lewis also returned and drove a Cooper T53 for the Ecurie Galloise . The Ecurie Filipinetti reported a Lotus 21 and Lotus 24 for Jo Siffert , who then drove the Lotus 24 in practice and in the race.

The French Grand Prix took place on the Circuit de Reims-Gueux for the previous four years . From 1962, the Grand Prix was to be held on the two racetracks again, alternating every year. The last race in the context of the automobile world championship in Rouen-les-Essarts before was the French Grand Prix in 1957 . Despite the change of venue, a Grand Prix was held in Reims in 1962, won by Bruce McLaren on a Cooper , but the race was not part of the World Cup.

With Jack Brabham , a former winner took part; Cooper had previously been successful with the constructors. In the drivers 'championship, Graham Hill led Phil Hill , McLaren and Jim Clark ; in the constructors' championship, BRM was one point ahead of Lotus and two on Ferrari.

training

The battle for pole position was a duel between Clark and Graham Hill, which Clark won by two tenths of a second. With that he won the second pole position of the season after starting from first place in Monaco . McLaren finished third in practice and qualified ahead of former teammate Brabham, who drove a private Lotus. Surtees on Lola finished fifth, Gurney on Porsche sixth and Masten Gregory seventh. This means that seven different teams were represented on the first seven starting positions. The first ten were completed by Innes Ireland , Bonnier and Richie Ginther .

run

The only victory for the Porsche 804

First win for Dan Gurney

At the start, Graham Hill prevailed and took the lead. Behind him, Clark, Surtees, McLaren and Brabham battled for second place. Ireland retired on the second lap of the race with a puncture. For Siffert, the Grand Prix was over after the sixth lap because his Lotus had a damaged clutch. Brabham retired five laps later with suspension damage. McLaren spun off the track due to transmission problems and damaged his car at the track boundary, but still pitted and resumed the race after his Cooper had been repaired. Surtees also made a pit stop to have repairs carried out on his car. Graham Hill and Clark remained in the lead, with Gurney in third place ahead of Gregory and Bonnier. But these drivers also had technical problems in the following laps. Gregory ended the race because his Lotus overheated, Bonnier retired with a gearbox damage, but was still classified in tenth place because he had covered more than the necessary race distance. In addition, Salvadori gave up the race on lap 21 after a defect and remained without a finish in the season.

While lapping, the leading Graham Hill collided with Lewis, whose car had braking problems. The collision meant the end of the race for Lewis, Graham Hill drove on but lost the lead to Clark. Two laps later, Clark's Lotus suffered suspension damage and Clark parked his car. Graham Hill was then several laps in the lead before the engine of the BRM lost power due to misfiring. Graham Hill dropped to the bottom of the field and finished ninth, ten laps behind. Shortly before the end of the race, the accelerator cable loosened from Ginthers gas pedal. So he accelerated his car by hand. Surtees reached the finish line with gearbox problems and quickly reduced his speed. Trintignant was surprised by this and dodged, causing him to collide with Taylor driving behind him. Both drivers survived the serious accident unharmed.

Gurney drove the first victory of his career in the automobile world championship. In doing so, he lapped all other drivers remaining in the race. For Porsche it was the only victory in its team history in formula racing. From 1963, Porsche concentrated exclusively on the sports car world championship and withdrew from formula racing. It was not until the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix that a German designer won another Grand Prix with BMW Sauber . Two years later, Gurney also won another race at the French Grand Prix .

Tony Maggs finished second, one lap behind, making it the first South African driver to finish on the podium. Ginther finished third, two laps behind, while McLaren finished fourth despite a long repair of his car. Again Surtees finished fifth, De Beaufort was sixth ahead of Trintignant and Taylor. In the drivers' championship, Graham Hill maintained a two-point lead on Phil Hill, McLaren improved to third and Gurney to fifth. In the constructors' championship, BRM remained in the lead and after the race was three points ahead of Cooper and five points ahead of Lotus.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Owen Racing Organization	08th	Graham Hill	BRM P57	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	10	Richie Ginther
Team Lotus	12	Jim Clark	Lotus 25	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
			Lotus 24
	14th	Trevor Taylor	Lotus 24
Bowmaker Racing Team	18th	John Surtees	Lola Mk4	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	20th	Roy Salvadori
Cooper Car Company	22nd	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T60	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	24	Tony Maggs
Brabham Racing Organization	26th	Jack Brabham	Lotus 24	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
Rob Walker Racing Team	28	Maurice Trintignant	Lotus 24	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
Porsche	30th	Dan Gurney	Porsche 804	Porsche 1.5 B8	D.
	32	Joakim Bonnier
UDT Laystall Racing Team	34	Masts Gregory	Lotus 24	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	36	Innes Ireland		Climax 1.5 V8
Ecurie Maarsbergen	38	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche 718	Porsche 1.5 B4	D.
Ecurie Filipinetti	40	Joseph Siffert	Lotus 24	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
			Lotus 21	Climax 1.5 L4
Ecurie Galloise	42	Jackie Lewis	Cooper T53	Climax 1.5 L4	D.

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Jim Clark drove the Lotus 25 with the number 12 in practice sessions and in the race.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Joseph Siffert drove the Lotus 24 with the number 40 in the training sessions and in the race.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	2: 14.8	174.71 km / h	01
02	Graham Hill	BRM	2: 15.0	174.45 km / h	02
03	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	2: 15.4	173.94 km / h	03
04th	Jack Brabham	Lotus Climax	2: 16.1	173.04 km / h	04th
05	John Surtees	Lola-Climax	2: 16.3	172.79 km / h	05
06th	Dan Gurney	Porsche	2: 16.5	172.54 km / h	06th
07th	Masts Gregory	Lotus BRM	2: 17.3	171.53 km / h	07th
08th	Innes Ireland	Lotus Climax	2: 17.5	171.28 km / h	08th
09	Joakim Bonnier	Porsche	2: 17.9	170.78 km / h	09
10	Richie Ginther	BRM	2: 18.2	170.41 km / h	10
11	Tony Maggs	Cooper-Climax	2: 18.6	169.92 km / h	11
12	Trevor Taylor	Lotus Climax	2: 19.1	169.31 km / h	12
13	Maurice Trintignant	Lotus Climax	2: 20.8	167.27 km / h	13
14th	Roy Salvadori	Lola-Climax	2: 21.3	166.68 km / h	14th
15th	Joseph Siffert	Lotus BRM	2: 23.4	164.23 km / h	15th
16	Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	2: 25.5	161.86 km / h	16
17th	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	2: 26.5	160.76 km / h	17th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Dan Gurney	Porsche	54		2: 07: 35.5	06th	2: 18.6
02	Tony Maggs	Cooper-Climax	53		+ 1 lap	11	2: 23.7
03	Richie Ginther	BRM	52		+ 2 rounds	10	2: 21.0
04th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	51		+ 3 rounds	03	2: 21.9
05	John Surtees	Lola-Climax	51		+ 3 rounds	05	2: 20.1
06th	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	51		+ 3 rounds	17th	2: 28.8
07th	Maurice Trintignant	Lotus Climax	50		+ 3 rounds	13	2: 22.7
08th	Trevor Taylor	Lotus Climax	48		+ 6 rounds	12	2: 24.8
09	Graham Hill	BRM	44		+ 10 rounds	02	2: 16.9
10	Joakim Bonnier	Porsche	43		+ 11 rounds	09	2: 22.5
-	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	34		DNF	01	2: 18.4	suspension
-	Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	28		DNF	16	2: 28.6	Collision with Graham Hill
-	Roy Salvadori	Lola-Climax	21st		DNF	14th	2: 24.4	oil pressure
-	Masts Gregory	Lotus BRM	15th		DNF	07th	2: 21.7	Overheating
-	Jack Brabham	Lotus Climax	11		DNF	04th	2: 21.9	suspension
-	Joseph Siffert	Lotus BRM	06th		DNF	15th	2: 30.0	coupling
-	Innes Ireland	Lotus Climax	02		DNF	08th	3: 11.2	Tire damage

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. Only the five best results from nine races counted. In the constructors' championship, only the points of the best placed driver on a team counted.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Graham Hill BRM 16 02  Phil Hill Ferrari 14th 03  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 12 04th  Jim Clark Lotus Climax 9 05  Dan Gurney Porsche 9 06th  Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax 8th 07th  John Surtees Lola-Climax 7th 08th  Trevor Taylor Lotus Climax 6th

Item driver constructor Points 09  Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 4th 10  Richie Ginther BRM 4th 11  Giancarlo Baghetti Ferrari 3 12  Ricardo Rodríguez Ferrari 3 13  Joakim Bonnier Porsche 2 14th  Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 2 15th  Jack Brabham Lotus Climax 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  BRM 20th 02  cooper 17th 03  lotus 15th 04th  Ferrari 14th 05  Porsche 12 06th  Lola 7th

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: French GP, 1962 at grandprix.com
• Gurney gives Porsche its sole win at en.espnf1.com