The 1954 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring on 1 August 1954. It was race 6 of 9 in the 1954 World Championship of Drivers. It was the 17th German Grand Prix since the race was first held in 1926 and the 16th to be held at the Nürburgring complex of circuits. The race was won by 1951 world champion, Argentine driver Juan Manuel Fangio driving a Mercedes-Benz W196. Ferrari 625 drivers Mike Hawthorn (in a shared drive with José Froilán González) and Maurice Trintignant finished second and third for Scuderia Ferrari.
Race report
The race was lengthened from 18 to 22 laps, bringing the German Grand Prix up to the approximately 500 kilometre race distance used by the majority of Formula One Grands Prix at the time. Mercedes had brought to the Nürburgring their new open-wheeled version of the W196 for Fangio, Kling and Hermann Lang (in a one-off drive) after Mercedes's defeat at Silverstone in their streamlined cars. Hans Herrmann drove a streamlined W196s. Qualifying saw Fangio take pole position from Hawthorn, but practice was marred by the death of official Maserati driver Onofre Marimón. Going into the Wehrseifen slight right hand/sharp left hand turn, Marimón's Maserati 250F failed to negotiate the corner while going down the downhill run to the corner, plunged down an embankment, the car somersaulted. Marimón was given the last rites by a Catholic priest before dying a few minutes after rescue workers freed him. Marimón's teammate Luigi Villoresi withdrew from the race, as did the Maserati of Ken Wharton (entered by Owen Racing) but the team's third car for Sergio Mantovani made the race start. Stirling Moss qualified third in his privately entered Maserati 250F ahead of Hans Herrmann (Mercedes-Benz W196s), Gonzalez and Paul Frère (Gordini T16).
Fangio and Karl Kling led the way in their two Mercedes. Hawthorn was an early retirement with a broken axle as were Moss, Frère and privateer Maserati driver Roberto Mieres. Hermann Lang, one of the pre-war stars of the Mercedes 'silver arrows' spun out of his final Grand Prix appearance after ten laps. Gonzalez started and was running third but was so upset by Marimón's death he was called in after 16 laps to hand over to Hawthorn, who set off in pursuit of the Mercedes. He moved into second when Kling pitted and pursued Fangio relentlessly. Late in the race, drizzle forced him to slow and he held second from Trintignant. Kling finished fourth ahead of Mantovani, the last driver to travel the full race distance, getting some points for a saddened Maserati. Kling claimed the fastest lap point.
Just ten of the 23 qualifiers finished the gruelling race. With an elapsed time of 3 hours 45 minutes 45.8 seconds this was the longest (non Indy 500) F1 championship race in history, until the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, which lasted just over four hours (but in this case it's also considered the time with race suspended). The win pushed Fangio further ahead in the championship, now to the point where he had more than double the points of his nearest rival Gonzalez. A win in the next race at the Swiss Grand Prix could wrap up his second championship.
Entries +TeamNoDriverCarEngineTyre Scuderia Ferrari1 José Froilán GonzálezFerrari 625 F1Ferrari 625 2.5 L42 Maurice Trintignant3 Mike Hawthorn4 Piero Taruffi Officine Alfieri Maserati5 Luigi VilloresiMaserati A6GCM/Maserati 250FMaserati A6 2.0 L6/Maserati 250F1 2.5 L66 Onofre Marimón7 Sergio Mantovani8 Roberto Mieres Equipe Gordini9 Jean BehraGordini T16Gordini 23 2.5 L610 Paul Frère11 Clemar Bucci12 André Pilette Birabongse Bhanudej14 Prince BiraMaserati 250FMaserati 250F1 2.5 L6 Harry Schell15 Harry Schell A.E. Moss16 Stirling Moss Owen Racing Organisation17 Ken Wharton Daimler Benz AG18 Juan Manuel FangioMercedes-Benz W196Mercedes M196 2.5 L819 Karl Kling20 Hans Herrmann21 Hermann Lang Hans Klenk22 Theo HelfrichKlenk MeteorBMW 328 2.0 L6 Ecurie Rosier24 Robert ManzonFerrari 625 F1Ferrari 625 2.5 L425 Louis Rosier
Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 18 Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes 9:50.1 — 2 3 Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 9:53.3 + 3.2 3 16 Stirling Moss Maserati 10:00.7 + 10.6 4 20 Hans Herrmann Mercedes 10:01.5 + 11.4 5 1 José Froilán González Ferrari 10:01.8 + 11.7 6 10 Paul Frère Gordini 10:05.9 + 15.8 7 2 Maurice Trintignant Ferrari 10:07.5 + 17.4 8 6 Onofre Marimón Maserati 10:11.3 + 21.2 9 9 Jean Behra Gordini 10:11.9 + 21.8 10 5 Luigi Villoresi Maserati Unknown — 11 21 Hermann Lang Mercedes 10:13.1 + 23.0 12 24 Robert Manzon Ferrari 10:16.1 + 26.0 13 4 Piero Taruffi Ferrari 10:23.0 + 32.9 14 15 Harry Schell Maserati 10:28.7 + 38.6 15 7 Sergio Mantovani Maserati 10:39.1 + 49.0 16 11 Clemar Bucci Gordini 10:43.7 + 53.6 17 8 Roberto Mieres Maserati 10:47.0 + 56.9 18 25 Louis Rosier Ferrari 11:04.3 + 1:14.2 19 14 Prince Bira Maserati 11:10.3 + 1:20.2 20 12 André Pilette Gordini 11:13.4 + 1:23.2 21 22 Theo Helfrich Klenk-BMW 11:18.3 + 1:28.2 22 17 Ken Wharton Maserati No time — 23 19 Karl Kling Mercedes No time —
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 18 Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes 22 3:45:45.8 1 8 2 1 José Froilán González Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 22 +1:36.5 5 33 3 2 Maurice Trintignant Ferrari 22 +5:08.6 7 4 4 19 Karl Kling Mercedes 22 +6:06.5 23 4 5 7 Sergio Mantovani Maserati 22 +8:50.5 15 2 6 4 Piero Taruffi Ferrari 21 +1 lap 13 7 15 Harry Schell Maserati 21 +1 lap 14 8 25 Louis Rosier Ferrari 21 +1 lap 18 9 24 Robert Manzon Ferrari 20 +2 laps 12 10 9 Jean Behra Gordini 20 +2 laps 9 14 Prince Bira Maserati 18 Steering 19 21 Hermann Lang Mercedes 10 Spun Off 11 11 Clemar Bucci Gordini 8 Wheel 16 22 Theo Helfrich Klenk-BMW 8 Engine 21 20 Hans Herrmann Mercedes 7 Fuel Leak 4 10 Paul Frère Gordini 4 Wheel 6 3 Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 3 Transmission 2 8 Roberto Mieres Maserati 2 Fuel Leak 17 16 Stirling Moss Maserati 1 Wheel Bearing 3 12 André Pilette Gordini 0 Suspension 20 6 Onofre Marimón Maserati Fatal Crash in Practice 8 5 Luigi Villoresi Maserati Withdrawn 10 17 Ken Wharton Maserati Withdrawn 22 Notes – Includes 1 point for fastest lap
Shared drive Car #1: González (16 laps), then Hawthorn (6 laps)
Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Juan Manuel Fangio 36 2 José Froilán González 17 3 Maurice Trintignant 15 1 4 Mike Hawthorn 10 3 5 Karl Kling 10Source:
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