1935 Spanish Grand Prix

Race winner and European champion 1935 Rudolf Caracciola

The X Grand Prix of Spain took place on September 22nd, 1935 on the Circuito Lasarte near San Sebastián . As Grande Épreuve he was part of the European Grand Prix Championship in 1935 and was carried out over 30 laps of 17.315 km each according to the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (racing car up to a maximum of 750 kg empty weight; 85 cm minimum width; race distance at least 500 km) corresponded to a total distance of 519.5 km.

The winner was Rudolf Caracciola in a Mercedes-Benz W 25 , which also secured the European title.

run

The last International Grand Prix of the 1935 season was the only one that was still held on a classic road circuit. The 17 km long Lasarte route had been in use since 1923 and was not unlike the "artificially" created Nürburgring , so that after Tazio Nuvolari's success in the Alfa Romeo at the German Grand Prix and the recent sharp rise by Hans Stuck in Auto Union , another Victory for Mercedes-Benz seemed by no means certain, although Rudolf Caracciola , Luigi Fagioli and Manfred von Brauchitsch had otherwise completely dominated the season.

On top of that, Nuvolari now also had the new Grand Prix model Alfa Romeo Tipo C  - or Alfa Romeo 8C-35 , as it was soon mainly called - in Spain, which had already made a very promising debut in the Italian Grand Prix . Nuvolari's team-mate Louis Chiron , who was racing for the first time since his accident at the Swiss Grand Prix , had to make do with one of the older Alfa Romeo Tipo B. At Maserati , on the other hand, after the Monza accident, neither Philippe Étancelin nor the new Maserati V8-RI were operational. Bugatti was once again part of the team , their two Bugatti Type 59s for Jean-Pierre Wimille and Robert Benoist , which, however, already looked quite out of date. After all, it was the Auto Union racing cars, with Achille Varzi , Hans Stuck and Bernd Rosemeyer at the wheel, that clearly determined the action.

Victory in the European Championship, on the other hand, could no longer be taken from Mercedes even before the race and Rudolf Caracciola , as the leader in the standings, only had to cover more than 50% of the race distance to finally secure the title from his stable mate Luigi Fagioli .

Although the starting grid for this race was not yet determined on the basis of the training times, the Auto-Union team was able to benefit from the luck of the draw, as if to compensate, and occupy three starting positions among the top five. After the start, the trio of Hans Stuck, Bernd Rosemeyer and Achille Varzi was even able to go into the first lap with a triple lead, followed by Fagioli in a Mercedes-Benz and Nuvolari in an Alfa Romeo. On the first lap, however, Varzi was hit in the face by a stone thrown up and had to go to the pits for medical treatment, where he handed his car over to reserve driver Paul Pietsch for a few laps . This incident had a special piquancy, as Pietsch had only recently divorced his wife Ilse because she had entered into a liaison with the Italian during the season.

Shortly afterwards, Rosemeyer also came in to stop repairs because a stone had smashed the windshield of his racing car, so that Mercedes-Benz with Fagioli and Caracciola was already in second and third place. Behind them, astonishingly, Wimille was able to assert himself in fourth place in the old-fashioned Bugatti in front of the third Mercedes with von Brauchitsch in the cockpit, while Alfa Romeo's hopes had almost come to a standstill with Nuvolaris retiring on lap eight.

And the Auto Union misery was not over yet, because from the tenth lap Stuck lost noticeably ground to his two pursuers, who had swapped positions in the meantime. Even before the pit stops due halfway through the race, he had to give up completely due to the clutch defect, so that the race was practically decided. Despite his sensational third place, Wimille was over a minute behind not a really serious threat to the two Silver Arrows at the top and finally he had to bow to Brauchitschs' attack on lap 21, so that Mercedes even scored a triple success in the end came.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	02	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Bugatti T59	Bugatti 3.3L I8 compressor	M.
	12	Robert Benoist
		Piero Taruffi
Auto Union AG	04th	Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union B	Auto Union 5.0L V16 compressor	C.
	06th	Achille Varzi
	10	Hans Stuck
	18th	Paul Pietsch
Daimler-Benz AG	08th	Luigi Fagioli	Mercedes-Benz W 25B	Mercedes-Benz M 25 B 4.0L I8 compressor	C.
	22nd	Manfred von Brauchitsch
	26th	Rudolf Caracciola
Scuderia Subalpina	14th	Eugenio Siena	Maserati 6C-34	Maserati 3.7L I6 compressor
	24	Marcel Lehoux
Scuderia Ferrari	16	Tazio Nuvolari	Alfa Romeo 8C-35	Alfa Romeo 3.8L I8 compressor	E.
	20th	Louis Chiron	Alfa Romeo Tipo B / P3	Alfa Romeo 3.2L I8 compressor
Raymond Summers	28	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo Tipo B / P3	Alfa Romeo 3.2L I8 compressor	M.
Genaro Léoz-Abad	30th	Genaro Léoz-Abad	Bugatti T51	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	30th		3: 09: 59,400	13	6: 09,300
02	Luigi Fagioli	Mercedes Benz	30th		+ 43,000	4th	6: 09,000
03	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	30th		+ 2: 14,600	11	6: 10,300
04th	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Bugatti	30th		+ 2: 55,400	1	6: 12,600
05	Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	30th		+ 5: 51.600	2	6: 06.700
06th	Robert Benoist	Bugatti	29		+ 1 lap	6th	6: 36.800
07th	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo	27		+ 3 rounds	14th	7: 09,000
-	Louis Chiron	Alfa Romeo	27		DNF	10		Engine failure
-	Marcel Lehoux	Maserati	27		DNF	12	6: 35,000	mechanics
-	Achille Varzi Paul Pietsch	Auto Union	23		DNF	3	5: 58.600	Power transmission
-	Genaro Léoz-Abad	Bugatti	21st		DNF	15th		voluntary abandonment due to driving too slowly
-	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	13		DNF	5	6: 11,100	broken clutch disc
-	Tazio Nuvolari	Alfa Romeo	7th		DNF	8th	6: 32,500	Suspension damage
-	Eugenio Siena	Maserati	1		DNF	7th	7: 06,000	Spring break
-	Paul Pietsch	Auto Union			DNS	9

Web links

• X Gran Premio de España. www.teamdan.com, accessed September 7, 2014 . 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: X ° GRAN PREMIO de ESPAÑA. www.kolumbus.fi, May 6, 2014, accessed September 7, 2014 .