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25px United States  1962 United States Grand Prix
Race details
Race 8 of 9 in the 1962 Formula One season
Watkins Glen International Track Map-1960-1970.svg
Date October 7, 1962
Official name V United States Grand Prix
Location Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course
Watkins Glen, New York
Course Permanent road course
3.78 km (2.35 mi)
Distance 100 laps, 378 km (235 mi)
Weather Sunny
Pole position
Driver 25px UK Jim Clark Lotus-Climax
Time 1:15.8
Fastest lap
Driver 25px UK Jim Clark Lotus-Climax
Time 1:15.0 on lap 70
Podium
First 25px UK Jim Clark Lotus-Climax
Second 25px UK Graham Hill BRM
Third 25px New Zealand Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax

The 1962 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 7, 1962 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York.


Summary[]

New Lotus star Jim Clark of Scotland took his third victory of the season, and the third of his career, to keep alive his hopes of catching Graham Hill for the 1962 World Driver's Championship with one race remaining. Hill finished nine seconds back in second place for BRM, while Bruce McLaren was third, despite being a lap down.

For the third consecutive year, Ferrari had decided not to make the trip across the Atlantic for the American race. It had been a miserable year for the team, finishing sixth in the eight-team Constructor's Championship (without a victory), after winning it the year before. The powerful new V8 engines built by Climax and BRM for the second year of the 1.5-liter formula had taken the series by storm, and Ferrari's advantage from 1961 had been completely erased.

Also, as a result, American Phil Hill was again without a drive in his home country, and, worse yet, he learned from a reliable source at The Glen that he had been fired!

In Friday's qualifying session, Graham Hill, Hill's BRM teammate Richie Ginther, Clark and Jack Brabham (using his own BT3 model for just the second time) all bettered the previous year's lap record of 1:18.2. Clark then went out and shattered the absolute course record, set under the 2.5-liter formula by Stirling Moss, with a staggering 1:15.8. Damp and misty conditions on Saturday prohibited anyone improving their Friday time, so the top six were Clark in the Lotus, Ginther and Hill's BRM's, American Dan Gurney in a Porsche, Brabham, and McLaren's Cooper.

By race time on Sunday, there were 40,000 fans braving the cold winds and a threat of rain. At the start, Clark led off the grid, while Hill jumped into second behind him. With Ginther, Brabham, Gurney and McLaren following, the two Championship rivals pulled away, already lowering the F1 track record on lap 3! Gurney got by Brabham and Ginther and briefly took third place, but on lap 11, Ginther retook the spot behind his teammate when Gurney slid half off the track, inches from the Armco, on a patch of oil in the Loop.

On lap 12, the two leaders were already coming up to lap the tail-enders. When Clark was delayed in the traffic, Hill took the lead away from him. By lap 19, however, Clark had lowered the lap record to 1:15.4, well under his qualifying time, and retaken the lead for good. Ginther was struggling with a deteriorating gearbox and began to fall back until a missed shift on lap 35 blew the engine and ended a fine run.

As Clark continued comfortably ahead of Hill, McLaren was now hounding Gurney for third place. The New Zealander's Cooper slid by on lap 57, and soon after, Gurney began losing power in the Porsche's engine. Brabham closed the gap between them, and when he grabbed fourth place from the American on lap 69, he claimed the first Championship points ever scored by the Brabham make.

Clark and Hill were the only cars on the lead lap toward the end as both lapped repeatedly under their grid times. Clark eventually clocked a 1:15.0 on lap 70 for the fastest lap of the race, and eased off from his biggest lead of 17 seconds to take the second consecutive American Grand Prix win for Team Lotus. "I planned to get in front and stay there," Clark said. "I set up the car for dry weather just before we started. I sure am glad the weather held up!" Indeed, moments after the Scot had taken the checkered flag, a drizzle began to fall.

Classification[]

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 8 25px UK Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 100 2:07:13.0 1 9
2 4 25px UK Graham Hill BRM 100 + 9.2 3 6
3 21 25px New Zealand Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 99 + 1 Lap 6 4
4 17 25px Australia Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 99 + 1 Lap 5 3
5 10 25px USA Dan Gurney Porsche 99 + 1 Lap 4 2
6 16 25px USA Masten Gregory Lotus-BRM 99 + 1 Lap 7 1
7 22 25px South African flag after 1928 Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax 97 + 3 Laps 10  
8 15 25px UK Innes Ireland Lotus-Climax 96 + 4 Laps 16  
9 14 25px USA Roger Penske Lotus-Climax 96 + 4 Laps 13  
10 26 25px USA Rob Schroeder Lotus-Climax 93 + 7 Laps 17  
11 24 25px USA Hap Sharp Cooper-Climax 91 + 9 Laps 15  
12 9 25px UK Trevor Taylor Lotus-Climax 85 + 15 Laps 8  
13 11 25px Sweden Jo Bonnier Porsche 79 + 21 Laps 9  
Ret 5 25px USA Richie Ginther BRM 35 Engine 2  
Ret 6 25px France Maurice Trintignant Lotus-Climax 32 Brakes 19  
Ret 23 25px USA Timmy Mayer Cooper-Climax 31 Ignition 12  
Ret 18 25px UK John Surtees Lola-Climax 19 Engine 20  
Ret 12 25px Netherlands Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 9 Accident 14  
DNS 19 25px UK Roy Salvadori Lola-Climax Car raced by Surtees
DNS 25 25px USA Jim Hall Lotus-Climax Engine in practice

Championship standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 1 25px UK Graham Hill 39 (43)
1uparrow green.svg 1 2 25px UK Jim Clark 30
1downarrow red.svg 1 3 25px New Zealand Bruce McLaren 24 (26)
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 4 25px UK John Surtees 19
1uparrow green.svg 1 5 25px USA Dan Gurney 15
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 1 25px UK BRM 39 (47)
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 2 25px UK Lotus-Climax 36
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 3 25px UK Cooper-Climax 27 (31)
Nuvola single chevron right.svg 4 25px UK Lola-Climax 19
1uparrow green.svg 1 5 25px Germany Porsche 18 (19)
  • Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 5 results counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.


Previous race:
1962 Italian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1962 season
Next race:
1962 South African Grand Prix
Previous race:
1961 United States Grand Prix
United States Grand Prix Next race:
1963 United States Grand Prix

References[]

  • Doug Nye (1978). The United States Grand Prix and Grand Prize Races, 1908-1977. B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-1263-1
  • James T. Crow (January, 1963). "Grand Prix of the U.S.". Road & Track, 62-66.
  • "The Formula One Record Book", John Thompson, 1974.
Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1962 United States 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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