1961 German Grand Prix

  1961 German Grand Prix

Race details
Race 6 of 8 in the 1961 Formula One season
Date	August 6, 1961
Official name	XXIII Grosser Preis von Deutschland
Location	Nürburgring Nürburg, West Germany
Course	Public road/Permanent racing facility
Course length	22.810 km (14.173 mi)
Distance	15 laps, 342.150 km (212.602 mi)
Weather	Wet
Pole position
Driver	Phil Hill	Ferrari
Time	8.55.2
Fastest lap
Driver	Phil Hill	Ferrari
Time	8.57.8 on lap 10
Podium
First	Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax
Second	Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari
Third	Phil Hill	Ferrari

The 1961 German Grand Prix was the 23rd time the German Grand Prix (or Grosser Preis von Deutschland) motor race was held. The race also held the honorary designation of the 21st European Grand Prix. It was run to Formula One regulations as the sixth round of the 1961 World Drivers' Championship on 6 August 1961. It was held over 15 laps of the giant 14.2 mile Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit for a race distance of almost 213 miles. The race also celebrated the 100th race since the establishment of the World Championship in 1950.

Stirling Moss in his Lotus

The race was won by British driver Stirling Moss, driving a Lotus 18/21 for privateer outfit the Rob Walker Racing Team. Moss started from the second row of the grid and lead every lap of the race. It was the first German Grand Prix victory for a rear-engined car since Bernd Rosemeyer's Auto Union Type C took victory in 1936. Moss finished just over 20 seconds ahead of Ferrari 156 drivers Wolfgang von Trips and Phil Hill, breaking a four-race consecutive run of Ferrari victories. The result pushed Moss into third place in the championship points race, becoming the only driver outside of Ferrari's trio of von Trips, Hill and Richie Ginther still in contention to become the 1961 World Champion with two races left.

Jack Brabham's Cooper took full advantage of the new Coventry-Climax V-8 in qualifying. Brabham qualified second, and shot to the lead by the first corner. However, Brabham crashed before the end of the first lap due to a sticking throttle. It was the last home country appearance for points leader von Trips before his death at the Italian Grand Prix five weeks later. His second-place finish saw Ferrari secure the constructors' championship. The remaining championship points scorers were all from British racing teams. Scottish driver Jim Clark (Lotus 21) was fourth for Team Lotus; former motorcycle World Champion John Surtees (Cooper T53) was fifth for Yeoman Credit Racing and young New Zealander Bruce McLaren was sixth in his factory-run Cooper T58.

Of the race's 26 starters, 17 finished the race with 16 of them classified finishers. Bernard Collomb (Cooper T53) did not complete the 75% race distance in order to be classified as a finisher.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	7	Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	15	2:18:12.4	3	9
2	3	Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	15	+21.4 secs	5	6
3	4	Phil Hill	Ferrari	15	+22.5 secs	1	4
4	14	Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	15	+1:17.1	8	3
5	18	John Surtees	Cooper-Climax	15	+1:53.1	10	2
6	2	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	15	+2:41.4	12	1
7	9	Dan Gurney	Porsche	15	+3:23.1	7
8	5	Richie Ginther	Ferrari	15	+5:23.1	14
9	28	Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	15	+5:23.7	18
10	19	Roy Salvadori	Cooper-Climax	15	+12:11.5	15
11	33	Tony Maggs	Lotus-Climax	14	+1 Lap	22
12	30	Ian Burgess	Cooper-Climax	14	+1 Lap	24
13	11	Hans Herrmann	Porsche	14	+1 Lap	11
14	31	Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	14	+1 Lap	17
15	37	Tony Marsh	Lotus-Climax	13	+2 Laps	20
16	27	Gerry Ashmore	Lotus-Climax	13	+2 Laps	25
Ret	6	Willy Mairesse	Ferrari	13	Accident	13
Ret	20	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Maserati	12	Engine	21
NC	38	Bernard Collomb	Cooper-Climax	11	Not Classified	26
Ret	32	Lorenzo Bandini	Cooper-Maserati	10	Engine	19
Ret	16	Tony Brooks	BRM-Climax	6	Engine	9
Ret	8	Jo Bonnier	Porsche	5	Engine	4
Ret	26	Wolfgang Seidel	Lotus-Climax	3	Handling	23
Ret	17	Graham Hill	BRM-Climax	1	Accident	16
Ret	15	Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	1	Fire	6
Ret	1	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	0	Accident	2
WD	10	Edgar Barth	Porsche		Car unraceworthy
WD	12	Masten Gregory	Cooper-Climax		Car raced by Burgess
WD	25	Michael May	Lotus-Climax		Practice accident
WD	29	Piero Monteverdi	MBM-Porsche
WD	34	Renato Pirocchi	Cooper-Climax
DNA	35	Geoff Duke	Cooper-Climax		Car not ready
DNA	39	John Campbell-Jones	Cooper-Climax
Source:

Lap leaders

• Lap Leaders: Stirling Moss 15 laps (1-15).
• Last win and podium: Stirling Moss

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Wolfgang von Trips	33
	2	Phil Hill	29
1	3	Stirling Moss	21
1	4	Richie Ginther	16
2	5	Jim Clark	11

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos	Constructor	Points
	1	Ferrari	38 (44)
	2	Lotus-Climax	24
	3	Porsche	11
	4	Cooper-Climax	10 (11)
	5	BRM-Climax	1

• 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.

References

Previous race: 1961 British Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1961 season	Next race: 1961 Italian Grand Prix
Previous race: 1959 German Grand Prix	German Grand Prix	Next race: 1962 German Grand Prix
Previous race: 1960 Italian Grand Prix	European Grand Prix (Designated European Grand Prix)	Next race: 1962 Dutch Grand Prix