1961 German Grand Prix

Stirling Moss in his winning Lotus-Climax

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 race 6 of 8 in both the 1961 World Championship of Drivers and the 1961 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers It was held on 6 August 1961 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.

The race was won by British driver Stirling Moss, driving a Lotus 18/21 for privateer outfit the Rob Walker Racing Team; it proved to be his 16th and last Grand Prix victory. Moss started from the second row of the grid and led 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 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

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Template:Nowrap			Gap
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	4	Template:Flagicon Phil Hill	Ferrari	9:10.2	8:55.2	9:07.9	—
2	1	Template:Flagicon Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	9:10.6	9:10.6	9:01.4	+6.2
3	7	Template:Flagicon Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	9:10.5	9:11.4	9:01.7	+6.5
4	8	Template:Flagicon Jo Bonnier	Porsche	9:06.6	9:04.8	9:11.3	+9.6
5	3	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	9:23.5	No time	9:05.5	+10.3
6	17	Template:Flagicon Graham Hill	BRM-Climax	9:18.6	9:13.5	9:06.4	+11.2
7	9	Template:Flagicon Dan Gurney	Porsche	9:13.3	9:06.6	9:16.9	+11.4
8	14	Template:Flagicon Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	9:20.9	9:08.1	9:37.9	+12.9
9	16	Template:Flagicon Tony Brooks	BRM-Climax	9:50.2	9:10.5	9:09.3	+14.1
10	18	Template:Flagicon John Surtees	Cooper-Climax	9:39.9	9:11.2	9:19.8	+16.0
11	11	Template:Flagicon Hans Herrmann	Porsche	9:19.2	9:12.7	9:24.6	+17.5
12	2	Template:Flagicon Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	9:22.4	9:13.0	9:14.4	+17.8
13	6	Template:Flagicon Willy Mairesse	Ferrari	9:32.7	9:15.9	9:23.5	+20.7
14	5	Template:Flagicon Richie Ginther	Ferrari	9:23.8	9:16.6	9:20.1	+21.4
15	19	Template:Flagicon Roy Salvadori	Cooper-Climax	9:41.1	9:22.0	9:25.2	+26.8
16	15	Template:Flagicon Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	9:22.9	9:38.1	9:23.2	+27.7
17	31	Template:Flagicon Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	9:39.8	9:28.4	9:29.7	+33.2
18	28	Template:Flagicon Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	9:42.3	9:35.0	9:31.4	+36.2
19	32	Template:Flagicon Lorenzo Bandini	Cooper-Maserati	9:43.2	9:35.4	9:40.9	+40.2
20	37	Template:Flagicon Tony Marsh	Lotus-Climax	9:52.3	9:37.7	No time	+42.5
21	20	Template:Flagicon Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Maserati	10:08.6	10:04.6	9:38.5	+43.3
22	33	Template:Flagicon Tony Maggs	Lotus-Climax	16:21.9	10:04.4	9:45.5	+50.3
23	26	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang Seidel	Lotus-Climax	9:59.9	No time	No time	+1:04.7
24	30	Template:Flagicon Ian Burgess	Cooper-Climax	11:00.7	10:22.6	10:01.4	+1:06.2
25	27	Template:Flagicon Gerry Ashmore	Lotus-Climax	10:37.9	10:18.2	10:06.0	+1:10.8
26	38	Template:Flagicon Bernard Collomb	Cooper-Climax	10:41.8	10:23.0	10:30.8	+1:27.8
27	25	Template:Flagicon Michael May	Lotus-Climax	17:00.9	No time	10:37.5	+1:42.3
Source:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	7	Template:Flagicon Stirling Moss	Lotus-Climax	15	2:18:12.4	3	9
2	3	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	15	+21.4 secs	5	6
3	4	Template:Flagicon Phil Hill	Ferrari	15	+22.5 secs	1	4
4	14	Template:Flagicon Jim Clark	Lotus-Climax	15	+1:17.1	8	3
5	18	Template:Flagicon John Surtees	Cooper-Climax	15	+1:53.1	10	2
6	2	Template:Flagicon Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	15	+2:41.4	12	1
7	9	Template:Flagicon Dan Gurney	Porsche	15	+3:23.1	7
8	5	Template:Flagicon Richie Ginther	Ferrari	15	+5:23.1	14
9	28	Template:Flagicon Jackie Lewis	Cooper-Climax	15	+5:23.7	18
10	19	Template:Flagicon Roy Salvadori	Cooper-Climax	15	+12:11.5	15
11	33	Template:Flagicon Tony Maggs	Lotus-Climax	14	+1 Lap	22
12	30	Template:Flagicon Ian Burgess	Cooper-Climax	14	+1 Lap	24
13	11	Template:Flagicon Hans Herrmann	Porsche	14	+1 Lap	11
14	31	Template:Flagicon Carel Godin de Beaufort	Porsche	14	+1 Lap	17
15	37	Template:Flagicon Tony Marsh	Lotus-Climax	13	+2 Laps	20
16	27	Template:Flagicon Gerry Ashmore	Lotus-Climax	13	+2 Laps	25
Ret	6	Template:Flagicon Willy Mairesse	Ferrari	13	Accident	13
Ret	20	Template:Flagicon Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Maserati	12	Engine	21
NC	38	Template:Flagicon Bernard Collomb	Cooper-Climax	11	Not classified	26
Ret	32	Template:Flagicon Lorenzo Bandini	Cooper-Maserati	10	Engine	19
Ret	16	Template:Flagicon Tony Brooks	BRM-Climax	6	Engine	9
Ret	8	Template:Flagicon Jo Bonnier	Porsche	5	Engine	4
Ret	26	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang Seidel	Lotus-Climax	3	Handling	23
Ret	17	Template:Flagicon Graham Hill	BRM-Climax	1	Accident	16
Ret	15	Template:Flagicon Innes Ireland	Lotus-Climax	1	Fire	6
Ret	1	Template:Flagicon Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	0	Accident	2
DNS	25	Template:Flagicon Michael May	Lotus-Climax		Practice accident
WD	10	Template:Flagicon Edgar Barth	Porsche		Car unraceworthy
DNA	12	Template:Flagicon Masten Gregory	Cooper-Climax		Left the team
DNA	21	Template:Flagicon Giorgio Scarlatti	De Tomaso-Alfa Romeo		Car not ready
DNA	29	Template:Flagicon Piero Monteverdi	MBM-Porsche		Car destroyed
DNA	34	Template:Flagicon Renato Pirocchi	Cooper-Climax		Team withdrawal
DNA	35	Template:Flagicon Geoff Duke	Cooper-Climax		Car not ready
DNA	39	Template:Flagicon John Campbell-Jones	Cooper-Climax		Not present
Source:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Template:Flagicon Wolfgang von Trips	33
	2	Template:Flagicon Phil Hill	29
1	3	Template:Flagicon Stirling Moss	21
1	4	Template:Flagicon Richie Ginther	16
2	5	Template:Flagicon Jim Clark	11
Source: <ref name="Championship standings">Template:Cite web</ref>

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos	Constructor	Points
	1	Template:Flagicon Ferrari	38 (44)
	2	Template:Flagicon Lotus-Climax	24
	3	Template:Flagicon Porsche	11
	4	Template:Flagicon Cooper-Climax	10 (11)
	5	Template:Flagicon BRM-Climax	1
Source: <ref name="Championship standings"/>

• 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

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