1934 Spanish Grand Prix

Race winner Luigi Fagioli

The IX. Spanish Grand Prix took place on September 23, 1934 on the Circuito Lasarte near San Sebastián . The race belonged to the Grandes Épreuves category and was held in accordance with the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (racing cars up to a maximum of 750 kg curb weight; 85 cm minimum width; race distance at least 500 km) over 30 laps of 17.315 km each, resulting in a total distance of 519 . 5 km corresponded.

The winner was Luigi Fagioli in a Mercedes-Benz W 25 .

run

Although there was only a week between the race in Spain and the subsequent Czechoslovak Grand Prix on the Masaryk Ring near Brno , the teams from all five Grand Prix manufacturers were represented at this last Grande Épreuve of the season. Bugatti in particular showed a clear determination after the most recent shameful appearances and had finally given the already somewhat old-fashioned-looking Bugatti Type 59 racing car a thorough technical fine-tuning. They even traveled with a four-man team of drivers, which, after a long break , included the regular drivers René Dreyfus , Jean-Pierre Wimille and Antonio Brivio as well as the top Italian driver Tazio Nuvolari .

Although the quartet achieved surprisingly good times in training, the two German teams were clearly the favorites after the results of the last races and sent two cars each for Luigi Fagioli and Rudolf Caracciola (Mercedes-Benz W 25) as well as Hans Stuck and Hermann Leiningen ( Auto Union Type A ) into the race. The two Scuderia Ferrari drivers , Achille Varzi and Louis Chiron, with their Alfa Romeo Tipo B , officially provided by the factory , also had outsider opportunities , while Maserati was only represented by private drivers. Particularly bad luck happened to the Norwegian driver Eugen Bjørnstad , who had traveled a total of 2500 km with his old Alfa Romeo type "Monza" only to get no starting permit because the maximum weight was exceeded.

As in the previous races, Stuck got off best from the start with his rear-wheel drive Auto Union racing car. But this time his lead lasted only three laps before he had to park his car on the track with a cracked oil pipe. In his place, Caracciola moved to Mercedes-Benz, behind which the astonishingly fast Wimille was able to assert himself in second place ahead of the second Mercedes from Fagioli, although his Bugatti, which is still two-seater and equipped with cable brakes, emerged like a relic between the German Silver Arrows the 1920s worked. A little later, Nuvolari even passed Fagioli for a few laps with his Bugatti, but by the twelfth lap the Mercedes driver was able to work his way up to second position.

Shortly after half-time in the race, the Italian had finally caught up with his stable mate at the top and took the lead on lap 18. Caracciola, who was still suffering from the physical sequelae of his Monaco accident in 1933, was satisfied with his second position afterwards, so that Fagioli could now take it easy. When Wimille had to go to the pits for a lengthy repair with the Bugatti, which had been best placed up to that point in third place, the Mercedes one-two was secured. Nonetheless, Nuvolari's third place, just over a minute behind the winner, was a remarkable achievement for Bugatti in the end.

By contrast, Alfa Romeo's performance was disappointing. Chiron, who had in the meantime switched to Varzi's car, was even pushed out of fourth place by Stuck, who for his part had taken a taxi after his early retirement to return to the pits, where he then drove the car from zu Leiningen, but with a considerable backlog, was able to resume.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Daimler-Benz AG	02	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes-Benz W 25	Mercedes-Benz M 25 A 3.4L I8 compressor	C.
	18th	Luigi Fagioli
		Ernst Jakob Henne	Mercedes-Benz W 25A	Mercedes-Benz M 25 A / B 3.7L I8 compressor
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	04th	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Bugatti T59	Bugatti 3.3L I8 compressor	M.
	12	Tazio Nuvolari
	14th	René Dreyfus
	28	Antonio Brivio
Auto Union AG	06th	Hans Stuck	Auto Union A	Auto Union 4.4L V16 compressor	C.
	22nd	Hermann zu Leiningen
	22nd	August Momberger
	22nd	Tazio Nuvolari
Scuderia Ferrari	08th	Achille Varzi	Alfa Romeo Tipo B / P3	Alfa Romeo 2.9L I8 compressor	E.
	08th	Carlo Felice Trossi
	08th	Louis Chiron
		Gianfranco Comotti
Luigi Soffietti	10	Luigi Soffietti	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.3L I8 compressor
Whitney Straight Ltd.	20th	Marcel Lehoux	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.3L I8 compressor
	20th	Whitney Straight
Ecurie Braillard	24	Robert Brunet	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.3L I8 compressor
	26th	Benoît Falchetto
Eugen Bjørnstad	30th	Eugen Bjørnstad	Alfa Romeo Monza	Alfa Romeo 2.3L I8 compressor	GD

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Luigi Fagioli	Mercedes Benz	30th		3: 19: 41,600	9
02	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	30th		+ 42,800	1
03	Tazio Nuvolari	Bugatti	30th		+1: 07.400	6th
04th	Hermann zu Leiningen Hans Stuck	Auto Union	30th		+1: 22,400	11
05	Achille Varzi Louis Chiron	Alfa Romeo	30th		+ 2: 08,500	4th
06th	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Bugatti	30th		+ 6: 41.200	2
07th	René Dreyfus	Bugatti	29		+ 1 lap	7th
08th	Marcel Lehoux	Maserati	29		+ 1 lap	10
09	Louis Chiron Gianfranco Comotti	Alfa Romeo	28		+ 2 rounds	8th
10	Luigi Soffietti	Maserati	27		+ 3 rounds	5
11	Antonio Brivio	Bugatti	27		+ 3 rounds	14th
-	Robert Brunet	Maserati	22nd		DNF	12		accident
-	Benoît Falchetto	Maserati	19th		DNF	13		Clutch damage
-	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	3		DNF	3	6: 20,000	defective oil pump

Web links

Commons : Spanish Grand Prix 1934  - album containing pictures, videos and audio files

• IX Gran Premio de España. www.teamdan.com, accessed September 7, 2014 . 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: IX ° GRAN PREMIO de ESPAÑA. www.kolumbus.fi, April 4, 2013, accessed on January 28, 2020 . 

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