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25px Germany  1954 German Grand Prix
Race details
Race 6 of 9 in the 1954 Formula One season
Nürburgring layout
Nürburgring layout
Date August 1, 1954
Official name XVII Großer Preis von Deutschland
Location Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany
Course Permanent road course
22.810 km (14.173 mi)
Distance 22 laps, 501.820 km (311.806 mi)
Weather Sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver 25px Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes
Time 9:50.1
Fastest lap
Driver 25px Germany Karl Kling Mercedes
Time 9:55.1
Podium
First 25px Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes
Second 25px Argentina José Froilán González
25px United Kingdom Mike Hawthorn
Ferrari
Third 25px France Maurice Trintignant Ferrari

The 1954 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring on August 1, 1954. It was the sixth round of the 1954 World Drivers' Championship. 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, bring 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 and Kling after Mercedes's defeat at Silverstone in their streamlined cars. Hans Herrmann drove a streamlined W196. Qualifying saw Fangio take pole position from Hawthorn, but practice was marred by the death of official Maserati driver Onofre Marimón. Marimón's Maserati 250F plunged down an embankment, his car somersaulted and he was killed instantly. Marimón's team mate Luigi Villoresi withdrew from the race, as did Owen Racing entered Maserati of Ken Wharton but the team's third car for Sergio Mantovani fronted for the race start. Stirling Moss qualified third in his privately entered Maserati 250F ahead of Hans Herrmann (Mercedes-Benz W196), 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. 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.

Classification[]

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 18 25px Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes 22 3:45:45.8 1 8
2 1 25px Argentina José Froilán González
25px UK Mike Hawthorn
Ferrari 22 +1' 36.5 5 3
3
3 2 25px France Maurice Trintignant Ferrari 22 +5' 08.6 7 4
4 19 25px Germany Karl Kling Mercedes 22 +6' 06.5 23 4
5 7 25px Italy Sergio Mantovani Maserati 22 +8' 50.5 15 2
6 4 25px Italy Piero Taruffi Ferrari 21 +1 lap 13
7 15 25px United States Harry Schell Maserati 21 +1 lap 14
8 25 25px France Louis Rosier Ferrari 21 +1 lap 11
9 24 25px France Robert Manzon Ferrari 20 +2 laps 12
10 9 25px France Jean Behra Gordini 20 +2 laps 9
Ret 14 25px Flag of Thailand Prince Bira Maserati 18 Steering 19
Ret 21 25px Germany Hermann Lang Mercedes 10 Spun Off 13
Ret 11 25px Argentina Clemar Bucci Gordini 8 Wheel 16
Ret 22 25px Germany Theo Helfrich Klenk-BMW 8 Engine 21
Ret 20 25px Germany Hans Herrmann Mercedes 7 Fuel Leak 4
Ret 10 25px Belgium Paul Frère Gordini 4 Wheel 6
Ret 3 25px UK Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 3 Transmission 2
Ret 8 25px Argentina Roberto Mieres Maserati 2 Fuel Leak 17
Ret 16 25px UK Stirling Moss Maserati 1 Wheel Bearing 3
Ret 12 25px Belgium André Pilette Gordini 0 Suspension 20
DNS 6 25px Argentina Onofre Marimón Maserati Fatal Accident 8
DNS 5 25px Italy Luigi Villoresi Maserati Withdrawn 10
DNS 17 25px UK Ken Wharton Maserati Withdrawn 22

Drivers' Championship standings after the race[]

Pos Driver Points
1 25px Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio 36.14
2 25px Argentina José Froilán González 17.64
3 25px France Maurice Trintignant 15
4 25px UK Mike Hawthorn 10.64
5 25px Germany Karl Kling 10
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included. Only the best 5 results counted towards the Championship.



Previous race:
1954 British Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1954 season
Next race:
1954 Swiss Grand Prix
Previous race:
1953 German Grand Prix
German Grand Prix Next race:
1956 German Grand Prix
Previous race:
1952 Belgian Grand Prix
European Grand Prix
(Designated European Grand Prix)
Next race:
1955 Monaco Grand Prix
Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1954 German Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


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