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#104 1962 Monaco Grand Prix

2021-09-06 01:00

Osservatore Sportivo

#1962, Fulvio Conti, Translated by Carola Buzio,

#104 1962 Monaco Grand Prix

After the races of Daytona, Sebring and Targa Florio, and before the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, on Sunday 27th May 1962, the fourth episode of the Co

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After the races of Daytona, Sebring and Targa Florio, and before the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, on Sunday 27th May 1962, the fourth episode of the Constructors’ world championship will take place on the Nürburgring circuit. This year, it’s reserved only to the Gran Turismo cars: the 6 hours of Nürburgring. But since the race also includes Sport cars and those of the experimental category that have aroused so much controversy because of their unclear definition, it’s obvious that the interest in this tiring, difficult, German race focuses on the comparison of the fastest cars, from which the overall winner will stand out. The field of participants in this category is quite small, but they’re all excellent drivers, and it includes three official Ferrari, Hill-Gendebien, Pedro and Ricardo Rodríguez, and Bandini-Baghetti, two private Ferrari, Vaccarella-Trintignant for Scuderia Serenissima and Ireland for the English team, two Maserati 3000, Graham Hill-Gregory and Cassner, and a few new Porsche with an eight-cylinder two-liter engine, entrusted to Bonnier-Gurney, Herrmann and Runte-Koop, in addition to the 1700 Rerà. Although, based on the current degree of efficiency and especially on the results of the previous races, Ferrari start as favorites, but we shouldn’t underestimate the possibility of Porsche that, since the track is suitable to the characteristics of the car, are able to severely hinder the Italian cars, which have their leading pair formed by the World Champion Phil Hill and the Belgian Olivier Gendebien, who are great specialist of long races. To the list of candidates for the overall victory we must add the berlinetta Ferrari of the prototype category, which can be considered an intermediate car between Gran Turismo and Sport, driven by the Ferrari test driver Willy Mairesse, winner of the Naples Grand Prix, and by the British Parkes, who had an impressive race last year in Le Mans. Let’s move on to the Gran Turismo category, whose fastest competitors won’t be limited to racing but, at the end of the day, will be able to reach the overall top positions. The 1000 Kilometers of the Nürburgring isn’t new to these surprises. For the world ranking, the German race is valid only for the 2000 and over 2000 cubic centimeters. In the latter, Ferrari will certainly be the World Champion, since they practically have no rivals: the manufacturer from Modena will have only unofficial drivers in the race, including the duos of Abbot-Colin Davis, Noblet-Quichct, Scarlatti-Kochert, Peroglio-Taramazzo, and we will see them against the British Aston Martin driven by the pair McLaren-Maggs, and a few Jaguars. 

 

With these premises, on Sunday 27th May 1962 the Belgian-American pair formed by Olivier Gendebien and Phil Hill brought Ferrari to the victory in the 1000 Kilometers of the Nürburgring, world championship race for Gran Turismo cars and word-class race for Sport cars. The average speed of the winners of 132.6 km/h isn’t exceptional because of a thin and persistent drizzle that falls intermittently, making the track slippery. Ferrari are in the lead of the World Championship with 32 points, with only one race to be run: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. During the race there are many accidents and, luckily, no driver was injured. But let’s see the chronicle of the race. At the start, under the rain, Jim Clark’s green Lotus starts first, and at the end of the first lap he manages to keep the advantage obtained with this quick start. Forty seconds behind him there are Dan Gurney’s Porsche, then Mairesse’s Ferrari and Graham Hill’s Porsche. The World Champion Phil Hill is in fifth place followed by the New Zealand Bruce McLaren on Aston Martin and by the Mexican Pedro Rodríguez on a 2-liter Ferrari. After half an hour of running it isn’t raining anymore, but the track is still wet. On the third lap occurs the first incident of the day: Pedro Rodríguez’s Ferrari goes off track and ends up in a meadow. The driver is uninjured, but the car can’t rejoin the race. On the sixth lap Giorgio Scarlatti’s Ferrari Gran Turismo goes off track. Accidents follow one after the other. On lap eight, Carlo Abate’s Ferrari GT and Giancarlo Rigamonti’s Alfa Romeo collided and went off track. The two drivers get away with a lot of fear and little damage, but they are forced to retire. Meanwhile, the race continues with its exciting and sometimes dramatic phases. Clark is always in the lead, but Mairesse’s red racing car pushes and on the eighth lap the gap drops from 1'40"0 to just 48s. Phil Hill’s Ferrari is also close. The Californian champion covers the ninth lap in 9'34"4 at an average speed of 142.8 km/h. On the eleventh lap, Dan Gurney hands the wheel of his Porsche to his teammate Bonnier. Phil Hill takes advantage of this to bring himself in third position, while Bonnier went back racing chased by the two-litre Ferrari of Bandini-Baghetti. But on the twelfth lap there is a dramatic twist that will decide the result of the race. Clark’s Lotus goes off track near the starting line. The car is damaged and cannot be fixed. The driver, uninjured, walks back to the pits. The Ferrari of Hill and Gendebien, who had taken the second place, took the lead but had to give it up to Mairesse-Parkes after two pit stops. 

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Halfway through the race, at the start of lap 22, Mairesse is still in the lead, followed by Phil Hill, but at the end of the same lap the Belgian makes a very short pit stop. This is enough for the World Champion to take the lead again with an advantage of 55 seconds. On lap 33, Phil Hill stops at the pits for a normal stop and Mairesse takes advantage to retake the lead. But there’s only a gap of 30 seconds to the Ferrari of the American driver and the latter still has to refuel before the end of the race: when he refuels, Phil Hill takes the lead back and remains there until the end applauded by the huge crowd, which is spread along the twenty-two kilometers of the picturesque circuit. The race continues without any plot twist: the only important episode is the withdrawal of Bonnier-Gurney’s Porsche, with two laps to go. Fifteen days earlier, in Zandvoort, everyone noticed the great progress made by the renewed British cars and the difficulties of the Italian cars. However, sometimes it’s a matter of making one slight change, so that the situation settles. In this regard, the race in Monaco could be interesting although it’s better not to mislead anyone given the characteristics of the Principality’s city circuit, which seems more suitable for the handling qualities and agility of the British cars. The 1962 calendar has been shuffled; this means that the Monaco Grand Prix isn’t the first race of the year as usual, since the Dutch Grand Prix has already been held. Everybody arrives in the Principality with the information collected in Zandvoort, where B.R.M. won the race. This time, the group of participants has 16 cars: ten drivers, who were invited to the race, plus the six who qualified. Marsh and Businello don’t show up so the qualifiers are now eleven. On the difficult circuit of Monaco, with very different conditions than Zandvoort’s, we will know if the British constructors really managed to overturn a situation that, at the end of last season, seemed to be the beginning of Ferrari’s long dominance. Actually, according to the indications collected so far, the tortuous circuit of Monaco seems to give more credit - regardless of any other factor - to the possibilities of the green British car, whose handling and stability qualities are renowned. Furthermore, the origin of the dangerousness of Lotus, B.R.M. and Cooper (now joined by Lola) is probably the efficiency of the new 8-cylinder engines by Coventry-Climax (assembled on Lotus, Cooper and Lola) and by B.R.M. In these conditions, Ferrari’s goal seems difficult to achieve. 

 

They would need top-class drivers, either Moss or Fangio, to compensate for any mechanical inferiority. Just last year in Monte-Carlo, Stirling Moss managed to beat with a 4-cylinder Lotus the Ferrari, despite the obvious supremacy of the latter. Because on the track in Monaco, the drivers’ skills are highlighted like in no other track. But Moss won’t be here, and even if he was, he would be behind the wheel of a British car. On the other hand, it might be that the apprehensions of the fans of the manufacturer from Modena are premature. It happened before that a simple well-timed modification managed to sort out much more complex situations than those with which Ferrari’s technicians are struggling today (it seems that the uncertainties of the Italian car are caused by lack of traction, which makes it difficult to exploit all the power provided by the engine). The German Porsche, that managed to develop a new eight-cylinder engine, can be included in the Italian-British fight. As seen, the Monaco Grand Prix will have to answer several questions, especially on the iconic level, which ultimately constitutes the raison d'être of motor racing, in particular Formula 1 races. The list of participants includes thirty-three names, ten of which are invited, this means they are admitted at the start by authority regardless of the time set during the official tests. The ten cars which are invited are B.R.M., Cooper, Ferrari, Lotus and Porsche, with two cars each. But not all teams have already designated the driver pair. At least Ferrari did, except for their team leader and world champion Phil Hill. The invited group sees two drivers for Porsche (Jo Bonnier and Dan Gurney), B.R.M. (Graham Hill and Richie Ginther), Cooper (Bruce McLaren and Tony Maggs), Lotus (Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor) and Ferrari (Phil Hill and the second red car temporarily called X). Instead, the list of qualifiers is: Jack Brabham (Lotus-Climax V8), Maurice Trintignant (Lotus-Climax V8), Jackie Lewis (B.R.M. V8), Roy Salvadori and John Surtees (Lola-Climax V8), Masten Gregory (Lotus-B.R.M. V8), Innes Ireland (Lotus-Climax V8), Nino Vaccarella (Lotus-Climax 4), Carel Godin de Beaufort (Porsche 4), Jo Siffert (Lotus-Climax 4), and either Lorenzo Bandini or Willy Mairesse( Ferrari). In addition, there is Ricardo Rodríguez with a Ferrari used for training. The level of the qualifiers is surprisingly as high as that of the invited drivers, so it’s a shame that Bonnier and Maggs couldn’t make it because of obsolete cars. After the Dutch Grand Prix, Porsche decided to withdraw from the race in Monaco as they were disappointed with the performance of their new 8-cylinder cars, though things change after their 2-liter 8-cylinder vehicles’ performance in the 1.000 kilometers at the Nürburgring.  

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Gurney and Hanstein want to race with new cars no matter how they perform so, after a long battle, the first driver can drive the 8-cylinder. Bonnier, instead, has to drive an old 4-cylinder, the red one from Scuderia Venezia which Porsche finalized for the occasion. As expected, John Cooper enters his two drivers: McLaren on Cooper V8 and Maggs on last year's 4-cylinder car. It’s a shame though that two drivers with old cars are admitted to a race limited to only 16 participants, since there are a lot of talents waiting to qualify with brand new vehicles, only because their team nominated them. But this is Monaco, always tainted by a bit of drama. Practice begins in the warm and dry afternoon in Monaco, Gurney arrived from Indianapolis just in time to drive his 8-cylinder Porsche. The box area is full of excitement since UDT-Laystall have two new Lotus 24, one with the V8 Coventry-Climax from the car Ireland crashed during the Dutch Grand Prix and the other with a new V8 B.R.M. engine. Both cars are using 5-speed Colotti gearboxes. Ireland is in the first car while Gregory is in the second one, the B.R.M. engine uses Weber carburetors and short stub exhaust pipes entirely unsupported and as spare they also have an old 4-cylinder Lotus. The entry for Trintignant, Rob Walker, also has a new car, a Lotus 24 with Coventry-Climax V8 engine, but as a precaution they also have the old 4-cylinder Lotus that the team used to win in Pau. B.R.M. have a new car for Ginther as well, it’s the 1962 model with 6-speed Colotti gearbox as an experiment, it also has down swept exhaust pipes feeding into large diameter tailpipes assembled under the rear suspension. The B.R.M.’s nose cap has been shortened for Monaco and Graham Hill's car, used to win in Zandvoort, also has the nose cowling cut down. As a spare they have the 1961/62 chassis car that Ginther drove during the Dutch Grand Prix. All three cars have fuel injection.  Jack Lewis drives the V8 B.R.M. as private entry, Marsh has been entered by Owen Racing Organization, but it looks like he doesn’t want to show up. Team Lola is, just like in Zandvoort, with Surtees and Salvadori except that the first car has now tubular top suspension arms on the front instead of U-section, the geometry of the rear has been altered as well. Apparently Yeoman Credit retired from the race leaving space for Bowmaker HP, even though the staff remains unchanged, and the cars still use Coventry-Climax V8 engines and Colotti gearboxes; both cars have short, blunt nose cowlings. 

 

Lotus’ drivers have the same cars used in Zandvoort, Clark drives the monocoque Type 25 and Taylor drives the Type 24, both with Coventry-Climax V8 engines and ZF gearboxes. Brabham still has his green Lotus 24 with Climax V8 engine but there's no sign of their cars and, thanks to this, some of the Junior drivers are entered for the Monaco Junior race. Meanwhile Ferrari have been able to sign many of their drivers such as Hill, Bandini and Mairesse, who have 120-degree V6-engined cars just like in Zandvoort. This time all three of them use wide rear wishbones, tried out by Hill in the Netherlands, but the top spring anchorages have the old pattern and, for this reason, the coil-springs are inclined vertically. There’s also a spare car, an old 65-degree V6-engined on driven by Rodríguez. There are also two private owners: de Beaufort with his old 4-cylinder Porsche and Siffert with a Lotus Climax 4-cylinder. The fastest lap set last year is 1'36"3 and it has been set by Moss and Ginther in the middle of their fight. Since the best practice time is 1'39"1, it’s reasonable to think that the fastest drivers on the grid will get close to 1'36"0 this year too. The most confident team is B.R.M. that send Hill early out on track to set the pace, but Clark seems to be in good shape while Surtees’ Lola isn’t working perfectly, even though it shows some improvements. Gurney sets a time faster than 1'40"0 encouraging Porsche, while Hill sets the pace for Ferrari, tackling well the gasworks hairpin reminding everyone of Fangio with his 250F Maserati. Meanwhile the drivers of B.R.M. and Lotus have to wait for the understeer issue to be solved before pushing with their V8 engines. Ginther doesn’t feel happy about his B.R.M. and has a lot of issues since his throttle isn’t opening smoothly. The Lucas injection system uses a sliding plate throttle for each bank of four inlet pipes, this requires a heavy pressure on the pedal to overcome the friction. Hill doesn’t have the same problem, maybe because of his bigger and heavier foot. Sometimes V8 engines need some delicate throttle control. The two UDT-Laystall cars set almost the same lap times but, since the Climax V8 car has recently been assembled, there hasn’t been enough time to make some adjustments and the B.R.M. V8 engine car is on track for the first time, not much can be achieved. More drivers than expected set a time under the 1'40"0 during the first practice while the fastest, as expected, are close to 1'36"0. The results and the pace are good, so the battle for the first rows on the grid is open with Clark and Graham Hill leading. 

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Practice ends at 3:30 p.m., so the second session will start at 7:15 a.m., it’s good that the mechanics don’t have to fix big damages since the drivers behaved well. This will probably be the last round of practice to decide which, out of the thirteen drivers, will be admitted and who will be excluded. This regulation gets easily criticized, but the safety reasons that have caused it cannot be ignored. The Grand Prix will be held on the usual distance of 100 laps, for a total of 314.500 kilometers. The race record belongs to Moss on Lotus, who reached an average speed of 113.131 km/h. On Saturday will also take place the traditional Junior race, with all the strongest European experts. In this category, British cars have dominated for a few years; but some Italian manufacturers have prepared new vehicles that seem to do well. Unfortunately, the wait for this race is stopped on Saturday 2nd June 1962, because a fatal accident saddened both the Junior event and the eve of the Monaco Grand Prix. The victim of the accident is the British driver Dennis Taylor, who was involved in the accident during the junior category race that follows the official practice for the Grand Prix. The disaster occurs during one of the first tests of the first heat, in the sadly famous chicane that connects the following slope to the tunnel along the port of Monte Carlo, a point of the circuit that often has been the scene of frightful accidents. Taylor, who isn’t related to the homonymous Formula 2 driver, a few meters before the end of the slight slope fails to tackle the turn and, after skidding, his Lotus ends up against a tree on the right hand of the road. He was immediately helped and sent to the hospital but when he arrived there, he was already deceased due to a basilar skull fracture. Another accident occurs, once again during the race reserved to junior cars, to another British driver, Alan Rees, always at the turn at the end of the descent on the bridge. Rees has multiple facial injuries, but fortunately his condition isn’t severe. The last day of official practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, before these two accidents, was marked by the drivers' hard work to qualify. Initially Porsche which, after the disappointing performance in Zandvoort had decided not to participate in this Grand Prix in order to improve their car, at the last moment seem to have second thoughts and suddenly appear in Monaco, ready to compete. 

 

Gurney enters the competition at the wheel of an eight-cylinder, while Bonnier has to settle for an old four-cylinder car, without having to worry about qualifying as he is part of the teams who were invited to the race. The first practice session begins in the late afternoon of Thursday 31st May 1962, with a medium-high temperature and a dry track. From the pits of the UDT-Laystall, two new Lotus 24 hit the track, one with the V8 Coventry-Climax engine, recovered from Ireland’s car after the accident in Zandvoort and the other with a new V8 B.R.M. engine. The first car is assigned to Ireland, while Gregory drives the second one. Another new car is Trintignant’s Lotus 24 with a V8 Coventry-Climax engine, who also prepared a four-cylinder Lotus - the same car the French driver won the Pau Grand Prix with - in case the first car causes problems. The B.R.M. fit a new Colotti gearbox on Ginther’s car, in an attempt to solve their reliability problems, and shorten the nose of both Ginther’s and Graham Hill’s cars, to limit the damage caused every year by battles on the streets of Monaco. Lola enter the race with the same drivers of the Grand Prix of Zandvoort, Surtees and Salvadori, with a different geometry in the rear of Surtees’ the car. Lotus didn’t make any change to their cars, with Clark at the wheel of the 25 monocoque and Taylor with the less updated Lotus 24, both with a V8 Coventry-Climax engine. Brabham goes on track with a Lotus 24 with a V8 Climax engine, but a new car - which will carry his name - should make its appearance during the season. Last year, the fastest lap during the Grand Prix was 1'36"6, set by Moss and Ginther during their historic battle, while the fastest qualifying lap was 1’39"1. Therefore, everyone expects the cars on track this weekend to be able to easily go below 1'40"0. The B.R.M. is already at ease on this circuit from the first laps, with Graham Hill being very satisfied with his car, while Ginther still doesn’t find the right feeling with the car and struggles to reach his teammate. Clark also sets excellent times and is considered the main rival of B.R.M. during this Monegasque weekend. Porsche and Ferrari seem to be cautiously optimistic for the situation they’re in, in fact, we saw their cars struggling greatly during the Zandvoort Grand Prix. As expected, British teams are ahead on slow circuits compared to Ferrari, and Clark takes the first position. The battle for pole position seems to be reserved to Clark and Graham Hill but, during the second practice session, other drivers could join the fight. 

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The practice session on Thursday ends at 3:30 p.m. and the mechanics can make further changes to the cars until 7.15 on Friday morning. On the following morning the streets of Monte Carlo are wet due to a heavy rain that will continue until late in the evening. For both teams and drivers, it’s impossible to bring the cars on track and the second practice session turns out to be a total disaster, with Brabham stuck in the pits with the engine filled with water and the pit lane half flooded. The only driver happy with these conditions seems to be Graham Hill, who runs without any problem on his B.R.M. With the end of the session at 9.00 p.m., most of the teams stay in the pits for several hours, trying to dry everything that had been wet by the storm. After an almost useless Friday, the cars registered for the Monaco Grand Prix are back on track on Saturday afternoon for a final practice session. Lotus spend most of the time working on a filming project, while Graham Hill doesn’t waste time and sets the best time in 1'35"8. Shortly after, Jack Lewis returns to the pits, losing oil from the carburetor and is soon followed by Surtees, who has problems with the gearbox of his Lola. Mairesse and Gurney, despite going below 1'36"0, can’t reach Graham Hill’s time. When he gets back on track, Clark tries to set the best time and to do so he borrows his teammates’ cars, without even changing the number on the body. Lotus’ garage is crowded with movie stars and cameramen, and this doesn’t make Clark very calm, but suddenly they all decide to move towards Graham Hill and convince him to shoot a small scene on his B.R.M. Seizing the opportunity and still annoyed by that intrusion, Clark returns to the track and sets the best time, getting the pole position a few minutes before the end of the session. After shooting the scene he was asked to, Graham Hill returned to the pits, convinced that he had kept his pole position, only to find out he was in second place. After the sessions, the timekeepers begin to evaluate who will be the six drivers to enter the Grand Prix, but after some comparisons, they realize they have forgotten to count Ireland’s time of 1'37"0 and are forced to compare the times again. Finally, only late in the evening the six drivers who have earned access to the Grand Prix are revealed: they are Mairesse, Brabham, Trintignant, Ireland, Surtees and Salvadori. On the following day, while the cars line up on the grid, rain pours on the track again, but at the start of the race the roads of Monte Carlo were dry again. 

 

On Sunday, while the cars are at the pits, it rains again, but luckily as the time of the start approaches the sun comes back, a light wind blows and the road dries rapidly. Team Lotus’ B.R.M.-engined car is not right yet so Clark has the monocoque Climax V8 and Taylor the Lotus 24 with Climax V8 engine. The gearbox on the new B.R.M.  has caused troubles so Ginther will use the 1961/62 car, Graham Hill will keep his regular car; while Ferrari are all using the old-type 120-degree V6-engined cars. By 2.45 p.m. everyone is on the grid, all the engines are running, Louis Chiron is carefully counting down. With 5 seconds to go he raises the flag and drops it with 3 seconds to go. Drivers have been warned that having a jump start implicates a 1-minute penalty but the early starting signal involves several drivers. Mairesse crashes against Clark and Graham Hill, who are a bit slow off the mark; the Lotus jumps sideways, and the Ferrari is through and heads towards the Gasworks hairpin in the lead. This terrific start means that Mairesse arrives at the first corner going too fast and on the inside. He goes into a full-lock slide and slides uncontrollably past the apex of the hairpin causing a “chain-reaction”. Clark, Hill and McLaren are still in the same order and, seeing the red Ferrari, they brake hard, Clark almost stops on the inside. McLaren and Hill are quick enough to dive through, one on each side of the sliding Ferrari, towards the apex of the hairpin, and they lead by the end of the straight. Mairesse stops sliding, gets the lead and storms after them, but behind him there is total chaos. The unexpected heavy braking of the drivers in the front row causes those immediately behind to try and dodge, but Ginther hits Trintignant, who spins and touches Ireland, who also spins. Ginther’s impact bounces him off the Lotus and his right rear wheel hits the back of Gurney’s Porsche. Meanwhile Trintignant hits the wall, spins back and lands against the straw bales; Ginther crashes against the bales and Ireland spins backwards into the barriers. The rest of the field is pushing their way through the corner, but Taylor’s Lotus hits its nose cowling vertically and upwards. When the dust settles, Ginther’s car is missing a rear wheel, the hub, the brake and the driveshaft; unluckily, all these components went over the barriers and injured a marshal. Rob Walker’s brand-new Lotus V8 is bent with its radiator torn apart, Gurney’s Porsche broke the rear of its gearbox, and Ireland realizes that his Lotus-Climax V8 is not badly damaged and that he’s able to drive to the pits to fix the broken petrol pipe, while Taylor broke his nose cowling.

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Ginther goes back to the pits, taking the blame for what happened as he thinks that his throttle had stuck open, but it’s an impression caused by the cars in front of him stopping more abruptly than expected. As if all of this isn’t enough, Mairesse spins at the station hairpin causing more chaos, this time without damages. There's quite a lot of panic as the field comes round the Tabac Corner, since the debris at the hairpin is still being collected. All drivers go by slowly, McLaren leading from Graham Hill, Phil Hill, Bonnier, Bandini, Clark, Maggs, Brabham, Surtees and Salvadori. Mairesse arrives a little bit later exhausted, followed by Taylor, while Ireland is still at the box. The next lap is equally quiet, though Bonnier is put back in seventh place by Brabham and Clark, and on lap three the race starts again. Graham Hill starts to chase McLaren, Brabham closes up on Bandini and Surtees and Maggs prepares to overtake Bonnier, while Ireland has just started racing, his Lotus looks a bit dented around the tail but overall, it’s working well. It didn’t take Hill very long to reach McLaren and, on lap seven, the B.R.M.  takes the lead with the latter settling for a good second place. Clark is beginning to recover from the starting issues and overtakes Bandini, wile Mairesse stops at the Ferrari pit quickly. By lap 10 Hill’s B.R.M. leads with almost 3 seconds from McLaren’s V8 Cooper-Climax, with Phil Hill’s Ferrari 4 seconds behind, followed by Brabham, Clark and Bandini with the other Ferrari. There is already a big gap from Surtees who's followed by the rest of the drivers such as Mairesse, with a gap of almost one lap, and Ireland who’s last. Phil Hill begins to reach McLaren and Clark is challenging Brabham. But on lap 12 the Ferrari team leader spins on the sea front and the two Lotus V8s of Brabham and Clark run off. Apart from a light rain, nothing much happens until lap 20: Clark is preparing to overtake Brabham and takes the third place on lap 22. Graham Hill leads peacefully, now 7 seconds ahead of Cooper, but the danger now is Clark, who has caught and overtaken McLaren with no trouble at all and is starting to set faster laps. After 25 laps Maggs, Bonnier, Salvadori and Mairesse have all been lapped, while Ireland has some issues due to a leaking fuel tank. Taylor gives up due to an oil leak which drips on the pedals, he stops at the pits to try and fix the leakage, but it didn’t help. On lap 30 the ranking sees Graham Hill in the lead followed by Clark, McLaren, Brabham, Phil Hill, Bandini and Surtees, the remaining five drivers are well behind. Clark is now in a record-breaking mood, his gearbox seems to be working smoothly after the gear-changing issues at the beginning of the race. 

 

After a series of fastest laps he has built a gap between his Lotus and the B.R.M., who's in the lead. Graham Hill is well aware of the situation and sets a new time record on lap 42 in 1'35"5. Clark reduces the gap to 1 second from the B.R.M., but at this point Graham Hill is too far away. This left everyone else way behind, and it means that Bandini and Surtees are close to being lapped. On lap 45 there’s still a gap of 1 second between the B.R.M. and the Lotus, which means that they can see each other. Surtees is trying to overtake Bandini while Graham Hill is followed by Clark. Given the situation, Hill makes the most out of this opportunity and tackles the Tabac corner just in front of Surtees and Bandini, leaving Clark behind them, and wastes no time and heads towards the Gasworks Hairpin, braking really heavily, turning and running away on lap 46. Meanwhile, Clark is still looking for a way to overtake the Lola and the Ferrari, which are racing for the sixth place. This battle allows Hill to regain a lead of 6.5 seconds on lap 48, and this gap increases to 8 seconds on the next lap as Clark is now stuck, since he has to lap Ireland on the twisty part of the circuit. On the 50th lap, half of the race, Clark hasn’t regained his pace yet as he is in trouble with changing gears again, and by lap 52 he drops back to 15 seconds, followed by McLaren, Brabham, Phil Hill, and is now a lap behind Surtees and Bandini. Still racing, but far away, there are Bonnier and Mairesse, while Ireland is still in and out of the pits and feeling sick because of the gasoline fumes at the same time. Clark’s trouble seems to be more serious than the basic gear-changing issues and on lap 56 he has to withdraw with a broken clutch. It's still raining, and Graham Hill remains unchallenged, but his American namesake is getting very close to Brabham, since he’s been closing the gap for many laps. As the B.R.M. goes through the Casino square, McLaren’s Cooper V8 is tackling the Gasworks Hairpin and Brabham is on the chicane on the harbor front, with Phil Hill close behind. These four drivers are the only ones who are on the same lap, Surtees and Bandini are one lap behind the leader, but they haven’t been caught by McLaren yet. Having lapped the slower cars to get rid of Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill isn’t challenged for the lead anymore, so he wants to relax a bit, since he’s leading by 45 seconds. But by the time he relaxes he finds Surtees right on his tail, with Bandini following him. 

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Behind them Phil Hill catches Brabham, then overtakes him on a corner and drops back to a gap of 5 seconds, starting to catch up again. The leader’s situation is becoming desperate as the B.R.M. engine is smoking, and Hill wants to ease the pace a bit, but this isn’t possible since Surtees is right behind pushing hard; Bandini too is closing the gap from the Lola in order to obtain the fourth place. Graham Hill now has decreased his lead to 36 seconds while his namesake catches Brabham again, this time with no mistake which makes him obtain the third place on lap 76. The Australian Lotus driver is starting to get too tired while Phil Hill is looking calm and confident. On lap 77 Brabham loses the car tackling the Casino square and goes off track and up a grass bank, digging a big hole in the royal turf. Although he brings the Lotus back on track and restart down the hill towards Mirabeau, his suspension is broken so he slowly drives to the pits to retire the car. The position of the leader is more precarious than before and tired of the pressure from Surtees and Bandini, Graham Hill lets the Lola pass by after only three laps of dueling the Lola. The Ferrari lost 4 seconds to McLaren and now is leading by only 30 seconds. This situation isn’t good, so Graham overtakes Surtees again on lap 84, the B.R.M. is smoking even more, but all of this means that McLaren is now only 28.5 seconds behind. Meanwhile the Ferrari goes to the box, seeing that Phil Hill is struggling, so they tell him to go flat-out. The position of the B.R.M. now doesn’t look confident and, on lap 87, Bandini is right behind Surtees. As they rush down towards the Gasworks Hairpin, Bandini raises a hand as a signal for the marshals and Surtees, if he is looking in his mirror, so he brakes very late and dives on the inside cutting Surtees off just as he locks at the hairpin. Meanwhile, looking completely relaxed and confident, Bandini reaches the hairpin and obtains fourth place, wonderfully using his 6-speed gearbox. On lap 90, Graham Hill leads by only 26 seconds over McLaren. There still is something wrong since he finds himself between Bandini and Surtees and, as the BRM goes past the pits heading for Sainte Dévote, the V8 makes a strange noise. He comes out again but B.R.M.’s supporters cross their fingers as the car goes towards the Casino, but the driver is obviously sick. Graham Hill gets as far as the Mirabeau hairpin on lap 93, when the engine blows causing him to stop at the Station with oil pouring from under the car. As he gets out, McLaren tackles the hairpin and takes the lead and a few seconds later Phil Hill passes by. 

 

A Cooper pit member is keeping McLaren informed about the situation, but the young New Zealander is as calm as ever. With only five lips to go, the Ferrari is 12 seconds behind the Cooper-Climax V8, on the next lap it lowers to 11 seconds, then 8.5 seconds and in the end to 7 seconds. Ferrari’s supporters are going crazy. As they finish lap 99, there are only 5 seconds between the Cooper and the Ferrari, but McLaren is smiling as he is quite confident that even if Hill closes the gap on this last lap, he still has to overtake him. In a splendid display of self control McLaren finishes the last lap with the red car clearly visible in his mirrors, only 1.3 seconds behind, but 0.3 seconds would be enough. Phil Hill’s efforts have been more than worthy of the World Champion, and Ferrari’s engine has proved its strength. In third place, on the same lap as the winner, we find Lorenzo Bandini, the young Italian did an excellent race, looking calm and impassive. Surtees is fourth just a lap behind the winner, then there is Bonnier with the old Porsche, completely missing his front shock-absorbers. Mairesse has kept going until lap 90, when he managed to stop just before the engine issue forced him to retire. It's not an everyday thing that the audience watches a race as interesting as this 20th Monaco Grand Prix, which saw a sprint finish offered by McLaren’s race-winning Cooper and the World Champion Phil Hill’s Ferrari. Some men from Ferrari will later admit that, on Saturday, they would have signed with their eyes closed for such a result. Because after seeing the way the tests went, you wouldn’t have found a single willing to bet a dime on the possibilities of the Italian cars, overwhelmed in speed and stability by those of the various British brands. During the Grand Prix, and even in its first part, the green cars seemed to dominate on the red ones. Instead, what determined a more than honourable result for the Italian cars was the only element on which the Ferrari drivers could count on for sure: the mechanical strength on the distance and the complexity of this circuit which is destructive for cars. The three Ferrari that started the race were all qualified; the British cars - eleven of them were on the starting grid - placed only as many at the finish (and among these there wasn’t even a Lotus). Now there will be endless discussions about the outcome of this race, particularly about the chances of Phil Hill’s victory if he had picked up the pace just a couple of laps earlier. 

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As if the drivers were mechanisms to be controlled from afar and not men like everybody else, with reactions, ups and downs, which are different for everyone. Not to mention that in motorsport they also have to deal with engines, suspensions, brakes, hoses, bolts, wires, etc. It’s true that Phil Hill had a period of darkness during the Grand Prix in Monaco, but when he realized that the car was responding perfectly and that the victory was possible, he behaved with courage, determination and class that matched his fame and his role of World Champion. Hill really put a lot of effort in the last five laps, and few noticed that, at the end of the race, his car had a half-slashed front left tire, perhaps because of the brushing against the sidewalk. The technical situation in the field of Formula 1 isn’t as compromised as it was believed to be until the eve of this race: the dominance of the British cars is affected by a certain type of fragility, which showed in the long distance. Of course, the power shown by Graham Hill ‘s B.R.M. and Jim Clark’s Lotus (the two most brilliant and unlucky protagonists of the race in Monaco) will have to make the technicians from Modena think, because even mechanical strength is a factor that you can develop and - in the current condition - the possibility margin for Ferrari would become too small. But the season is still long, and many things can still change; therefore, we postpone this topic to another Grand Prix of the World Championship. Now back to the drivers. According to Phil Hill - after emphasizing the determination and the tactical flair of the winner Bruce McLaren - three drivers, for several reasons, particularly impressed him: Graham Hill, Jim Clark and the Italian Lorenzo Bandini. The youngster from Milan begins to show his personality, now that he’s getting comfortable with the car; in Monaco he fought with admirable commitment, coldness and intelligence. 

 

He went out at a distance, after winning a long duel with Surtees and, perhaps, being one of the reasons for the mechanical failure suffered by Graham Hill’s B.R.M.; at some point, while the British had already lapped him, Bandini put so much effort that he managed to unlap himself, overtaking the B.R.M.. Perhaps surprised Graham Hill, who was running with a great advantage over everyone else and started slowing down several laps earlier, reacted proudly and started a perhaps useless battle with the young man; this caused his engine to break down. In conclusion Lorenzo Bandini, who was more experienced after the international race, could become a champion. As for Graham Hill, his class might not be excellent, but his driving style matches so well with this delicate but brilliant car that is the new B.R.M., which makes him look unstoppable. If this made sense we would say, talking about results and data, that he was the moral winner of the Monaco Grand Prix. As for Clark, if he doesn’t make big mistakes, if he can handle his temperament, he can become just like Moss. Lastly, we must mention the New Zealand driver Bruce McLaren who, on Cooper-Climax, won the 20th Monaco Grand Prix, the second race of the World Championship, with a sprint finish. Speaking about the cars, the British ones started as favorites and one of them - the Cooper with Climax 8 cylinders engine - has indeed won. But at the end of the day, the technical situation doesn’t look as catastrophic for Ferrari as it appeared to be on the eve of this Grand Prix. However, the endurance capabilities were basically Ferrari’s greatest merit - which is no small thing, because car races are not short sprints - allowing Phill Hill and Bandini to conquer second and third place, as well as the top positions of the drivers' championship, where now the American shares the first place with Graham Hill, with the same number of points: ten each. Now Ferrari are waiting for new car updates for the upcoming Grands Prix which, however, this might not be done by the next race weekend which will be held in Belgium, on the circuit of Spa-Francorchamps, on 17th June 1962.


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