1962 Grand Prix of South Africa
Racing data | ||
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9th of 9 races of the 1962 World Automobile Championship | ||
Surname: | IX South African Grand Prix | |
Date: | December 29, 1962 | |
Place: | East London , South Africa | |
Course: | Prince George Circuit | |
Length: | 321.44 km in 82 laps of 3.92 km
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Weather: | sunny, dry, windy | |
Spectator: | ~ 90000 | |
Pole position | ||
Driver: | Jim Clark | Lotus Climax |
Time: | 1: 29.3 min | |
Fastest lap | ||
Driver: | Jim Clark (Round 3) | Lotus Climax |
Time: | 1: 31.0 min | |
Podium | ||
First: | Graham Hill | BRM |
Second: | Bruce McLaren | Cooper-Climax |
Third: | Tony Maggs | Cooper-Climax |
The 1962 South African Grand Prix took place on December 29, 1962 on the Prince George Circuit near East London and was the last race of the 1962 World Automobile Championship .
Reports
background
In 1962 the South African Grand Prix was part of the automobile world championship for the first time and marked the end of the season for two years. Since Ferrari and Porsche had already withdrawn from the season, there were only eight drivers left from four works teams and eight teams with private vehicles. A total of 17 cars were registered. In addition to two BRM P57s for Graham Hill and Richie Ginther, BRM also used a car from last year for the South African driver Bruce Johnstone , who contested his only race in the automobile world championship. BRM, Lotus and Cooper did not change their driver pairings and continued to drive with them in the following season. Even Jack Brabham still competed for his own team Brabham , however, began in 1963 two cars.
In the teams with private vehicles, the Bowmaker Racing Team took part in a race for the last time, as the main sponsor withdrew. John Surtees then switched to Ferrari, while Roy Salvadori's career ended in early 1963 after a serious accident at the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans . He became a team manager at Cooper a few years later. Several African drivers were registered for the Grand Prix, all of whom competed in their only race of the season. Ernie Pieterse , Doug Serrurier , Neville Lederle and John Love made their debut, but it was the only race for Mike Harris . Pieterse, Lederle, Love and Harris drove old Lotus and Cooper, Serrurier had reported his own car, the LDS Mk2 from the designer LDS .
Both world championships were still open. Jim Clark had to win to get the driver's title, Graham Hill was world champion in all other possible cases. The same situation existed with the constructors, Lotus needed a victory, otherwise BRM would have become constructors world champion. With Clark, a former winner took part in the race; Lotus, Porsche and Cooper had previously each been successful with the designers. Between the US Grand Prix and the South African Grand Prix, there were three Grand Prix not counting towards the World Automobile Championship. Clark and his teammate Trevor Taylor won the first Mexican Grand Prix together , Clark won the Rand Grand Prix and Taylor won the Natal Grand Prix .
training
The two title contenders, Clark and Graham Hill, fought again for pole position and for the third time in a row, Clark was the fastest. In 1962, Clark reached pole position six times in nine races of the season, making him the most successful driver in the training sessions. Graham Hill was in second place 0.3 seconds behind Clark's time. The Brabham BT3 from Brabham was very competitive, qualified in third place and thus achieved the best starting position for his team to date. However, the time gap on Graham Hill was already more than a second. Drivers with private cars followed in fourth and fifth with Innes Ireland and Surtees, the best Cooper driver was Maggs in sixth place. Behind him, Ginther qualified on BRM ahead of Bruce McLaren on Cooper. Taylor and Nederle completed the first ten. Johnstone also qualified for the race, despite not completing a timed lap in practice.
run
Clark won the start and gained a lead over Graham Hill on the first laps of the race. In this constellation, Clark was on the way to his first world championship and Lotus was before winning the first two titles. Behind Clark and Graham Hill, the two Cooper drivers McLaren and Maggs fought with Surtees for third place. However, Surtees retired on lap 26 with an engine failure, so the three-way battle was decided in favor of the Cooper drivers. Taylor had previously parked his car with a defective transmission. The race was then mainly determined by failures, there were only a few changes in position in the midfield. Harris, Serrurier and Salvadori retired with different problems. For Salvadori, the season ended without a finish because he had failed in every race in which he had participated.
Clark increased his lead on Graham Hill to 13 seconds during the race, but on lap 59 smoke came from the rear of his Lotus. He then continued the race for three more laps, but then parked his vehicle in the pits. The cause of the failure was an oil leak. Clark said after the race that he had just lapped Brabham and was going to look for him in the rearview mirror. Then he saw the smoke coming out of the engine. Graham Hill took the lead and then won superiorly. Graham Hill was the world champion of the 1962 automobile world championship. This was his first title, another followed in 1968 . Alfred Owen, team principal and owner of BRM, was the first to congratulate Graham Hill at the finish. At the beginning of the season, he threatened to withdraw the team from the automobile world championship if no successes were achieved. BRM then won both the driver's title and the constructor's title. But both remained the only titles in the history of the designer. After the race, Graham Hill said that he would have preferred to fight Clark on track for the title rather than benefit from his failure. As runner-up world champion in 1962, Clark was among the top drivers, in 1963 he dominated the entire season with Lotus and won his first title. The duel between him and Graham Hill continued in the following years.
McLaren crossed the finish line in second place, 50 seconds behind Graham Hill, and finished third in the drivers' championship. His team-mate Maggs crossed the finish line just behind him and achieved a podium finish in the home race. Brabham finished fourth, just like in the US Grand Prix, Ireland finished fifth and Lederle came in sixth. Ginther missed the points in seventh place, he was ahead of Love, Johnstone, Pieterse and Beaufort.
Registration list
Classifications
Starting grid
Item | driver | constructor | time | Ø speed | begin |
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1 | Jim Clark | Lotus Climax | 1: 29.3 | 158.03 km / h | 1 |
2 | Graham Hill | BRM | 1: 29.6 | 157.50 km / h | 2 |
3 | Jack Brabham | Brabham-Climax | 1: 31.0 | 155.08 km / h | 3 |
4th | Innes Ireland | Lotus Climax | 1: 31.0 | 155.08 km / h | 4th |
5 | John Surtees | Lola-Climax | 1: 31.5 | 154.23 km / h | 5 |
6th | Tony Maggs | Cooper-Climax | 1: 31.7 | 153.89 km / h | 6th |
7th | Richie Ginther | BRM | 1: 31.7 | 153.89 km / h | 7th |
8th | Bruce McLaren | Cooper-Climax | 1: 31.7 | 153.89 km / h | 8th |
9 | Trevor Taylor | Lotus Climax | 1: 32.7 | 153.23 km / h | 9 |
10 | Neville Lederle | Lotus Climax | 1: 33.6 | 150.77 km / h | 10 |
11 | Roy Salvadori | Lola-Climax | 1: 35.4 | 147.92 km / h | 11 |
12 | John Love | Cooper-Climax | 1: 36.4 | 146.39 km / h | 12 |
13 | Ernie Pieterse | Lotus Climax | 1: 36.8 | 145.79 km / h | 13 |
14th | Doug Serrurier | LDS-Alfa Romeo | 1: 36.8 | 145.79 km / h | 14th |
15th | Mike Harris | Cooper-Alfa Romeo | 1: 39.1 | 142.40 km / h | 15th |
16 | Carel Godin de Beaufort | Porsche | 1: 39.2 | 142.26 km / h | 16 |
17th | Bruce Johnstone | BRM | no time | 17th |
run
Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
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1 | Graham Hill | BRM | 82 | 2: 08: 03.3 | 2 | 1: 32.0 | ||
2 | Bruce McLaren | Cooper-Climax | 82 | + 49.8 | 8th | 1: 32.3 | ||
3 | Tony Maggs | Cooper-Climax | 82 | + 50.3 | 6th | 1: 32.4 | ||
4th | Jack Brabham | Brabham-Climax | 82 | + 53.8 | 3 | 1: 31.8 | ||
5 | Innes Ireland | Lotus Climax | 81 | + 1 lap | 4th | 1: 33.6 | ||
6th | Neville Lederle | Lotus Climax | 78 | + 4 rounds | 10 | 1: 35.8 | ||
7th | Richie Ginther | BRM | 78 | + 4 rounds | 7th | 1: 33.4 | ||
8th | John Love | Cooper-Climax | 78 | + 4 rounds | 12 | 1: 37.1 | ||
9 | Bruce Johnstone | BRM | 76 | + 6 rounds | 17th | 1: 36.5 | ||
10 | Ernie Pieterse | Lotus Climax | 71 | + 11 rounds | 13 | 1: 38.0 | ||
11 | Carel Godin de Beaufort | Porsche | 70 | + 12 rounds | 16 | 1: 40.7 | ||
- | Jim Clark | Lotus Climax | 62 | DNF | 1 | 1: 31.0 | Oil leak | |
- | Doug Serrurier | LDS-Alfa Romeo | 62 | DNF | 14th | 1: 38.6 | cooler | |
- | Roy Salvadori | Lola-Climax | 56 | DNF | 11 | 1: 34.9 | Loss of fuel | |
- | Mike Harris | Cooper-Alfa Romeo | 31 | DNF | 15th | 1: 40.0 | Wheel bearings | |
- | John Surtees | Lola-Climax | 26th | DNF | 5 | 1: 33.0 | Engine failure | |
- | Trevor Taylor | Lotus Climax | 11 | DNS | 9 | 1: 32.9 | transmission |
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
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Constructors' championship
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Web links
- Results at motorsportarchiv.de
- Photos at f1-facts.com
- Grand Prix Results: South African GP, 1962 at grandprix.com
- Clark retirment hands Hill the title at espnf1.com