1957 German Grand Prix

The 1957 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 4 August 1957 at Nürburgring. It was the sixth round of the 1957 World Drivers' Championship. The 22 lap race was won by Juan Manuel Fangio, and is often cited as one of the greatest victories in racing history. Fangio's 4th victory out of 6 races in the season combined with the amount of points he had in the season won him his 5th World Championship title.

Fangio had taken notice of the tire and fuel-level selection of the Ferrari drivers, and realized they were probably going to run the entire race without a pit stop. Fangio decided he would use softer tires, and only a half tank of fuel. This would allow the car to take corners faster, but also require a pit stop. Fangio took his pit stop on lap 13, in 1st place, and 30 seconds ahead of Hawthorn and Collins.

The pit stop was a disaster, the pit crew had trouble removing one of the wheels. Fangio left the pit lane in 3rd place, and 48 seconds behind Collins who was in 2nd place. Over the next 10 laps, Fangio broke and rebroke the lap record 9 times (7 of the records were in successive laps, and he took a mind-boggling 15.5 seconds off Hawthorn's lead in the first lap, then another 8.5 seconds in the next lap). Early in the 21st lap, Fangio went on the inside of the left corner at the ESSO Terrasse taking 2nd place from Collins. Late in the 21st lap, during a left corner, Fangio cut past Hawthorn on the inside of the corner, with only his right tires on the track and his left tires on the grass. Fangio maintained his lead, but not easily, as Hawthorn fought back, nearly overtaking Fangio at a few corners, but to no avail, and Fangio won the race.

After the race, Fangio commented, "I have never driven that quickly before in my life and I don't think I will ever be able to do it again".

To increase participation, the organizers opened the field to Formula 2 cars. The two races were run at the same time but the Formula 2 entries (shown in yellow) were not eligible for World Championship points and some sources don’t consider these starts in career stats.

Drivers' Championship standings after the race

 * Note: Only the top five positions are included.