1962 British Grand Prix

  1962 British Grand Prix

Race details
Race 5 of 9 in the 1962 Formula One season
Date	21 July 1962
Official name	XV RAC British Grand Prix
Location	Aintree Motor Racing Circuit Aintree, England
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.828 km (3.000 mi)
Distance	75 laps, 362.100 km (225.000 mi)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax
Time	1:53.6
Fastest lap
Driver	Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax
Time	1:55.0 on lap 36
Podium
First	Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax
Second	John Surtees	Lola-Climax
Third	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax

The 1962 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Aintree on 21 July 1962. It was the fifth race of the 1962 Formula One season. This was the last race at Aintree. From 1963 onwards, the race would be held at Silverstone. Scotsman Jim Clark dominated the race, driving a Lotus 25. It was considered a power track, benefitting the light and powerful Lotus and Lola cars in particular. Ferrari were still sidelined due to the Italian metal workers' strike but managed to send one car for Phil Hill.^[1]

Race

It was not a particularly exciting race, with Clark leading from start to finish and fairly large gaps between the cars.^[1] Out of the twentyone starters, six still had four-cylinder engines while the rest were multi-cylinder cars. These cars were in a sort of class of their own, with Jackie Lewis finishing best of the four-cylinder cars.^[2] John Surtees' Lola started and finished in second place, in spite of having lost second gear on the tenth lap. Dan Gurney was hopeful after winning in France and at the non-championship Solitude race in the preceding two weeks. He began the race in third but had a slipping clutch and slid steadily down the field, ending in ninth position.^[3] His teammate Jo Bonnier had to retire with a broken transmission. Bruce McLaren (Cooper) passed Gurney after twelve laps and finished in third.^[3] Graham Hill pushed his BRM hard but had to settle for fourth, and was threatened by Jack Brabham in the closing stages. Brabham, however, had burns on his right foot since lap 40 and was in a lot of pain. He finished fifth, ahead of Tony Maggs' Cooper.^[1] Brabham had hoped to start in his own car after his mechanics had worked days and nights, but at 3 am the morning before the race it was discovered that they had been supplied with the wrong exhaust system. The Brabham BT3 had to wait until Nürburgring two weeks later to make its first appearance.^[4]

Innes Ireland had perhaps the day's biggest disappointment. After having qualified his Climax-engined UDT/Laystall Lotus 24 on the first row, the gear shifter bent on his first lap, leaving him with only three gears. He had to pit immediately after start and finished last, after having spent several laps repairing the car.^[1] Trevor Taylor was anxious to have a good race after several recent collisions and started well. Soon, however, he had to pit with a loose carburettor, and only managed an eighth place in his Lotus 24. Phil Hill's Ferrari, meanwhile, was totally outclassed by the British cars in spite of its new six-speed gearbox. He never ran higher than tenth and had to retire with ignition troubles.^[1]

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	20	Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	75	2:26:20.8	1	9
2	24	John Surtees	Lola-Climax	75	+ 49.2	2	6
3	16	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	75	+ 1:44.8	4	4
4	12	Graham Hill	BRM	75	+ 1:56.8	5	3
5	30	Jack Brabham	Lotus-Climax	74	+ 1 Lap	9	2
6	18	Tony Maggs	Cooper-Climax	74	+ 1 Lap	13	1
7	34	Masten Gregory	Lotus-Climax	74	+ 1 Lap	14
8	22	Trevor Taylor	Lotus-Climax	74	+ 1 Lap	10
9	8	Dan Gurney	Porsche	73	+ 2 Laps	6
10	42	Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	72	+ 3 Laps	15
11	40	Tony Settember	Emeryson-Climax	71	+ 4 Laps	19
12	36	Ian Burgess	Cooper-Climax	71	+ 4 laps	16
13	14	Richie Ginther	BRM	70	+ 5 Laps	8
14	54	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	69	+ 6 Laps	17
15	46	Jay Chamberlain	Lotus-Climax	64	+ 11 Laps	20
16	32	Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	61	+ 14 Laps	3
Ret	2	Phil Hill	Ferrari	47	engine	12
Ret	26	Roy Salvadori	Lola-Climax	35	battery	11
Ret	10	Jo Bonnier	Porsche	27	differential	7
Ret	44	Wolfgang Seidel	Lotus-BRM	11	Brakes	21
Ret	48	Tony Shelly	Lotus-Climax	6	Engine	18
DNS	48	Keith Greene	Lotus-Climax		Practice only - Shelly's car
WD	28	Maurice Trintignant	Lotus-Climax		Car damaged
WD	38	John Campbell-Jones	Emeryson-Climax		Driver unfit
WD	50	Keith Greene	Gilby-BRM		Car not ready
WD	52	Jo Siffert	Lotus-BRM		Insufficient starting money
Source:[5]

• Scuderia Ferrari withdrew their other two entries, cars #4 and #6, to which drivers had not been allocated.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Graham Hill 19 2 2 Jim Clark 18 3 Bruce McLaren 16 2 4 Phil Hill 14 2 5 John Surtees 13

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 2 1 Lotus-Climax 24 1 2 BRM 23 1 3 Cooper-Climax 21 4 Ferrari 14 1 5 Lola-Climax 13

• Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References