1952 Dutch Grand Prix
The sixth round of the 1952 World Championship took place on August 17 in the Netherlands at the Zandvoort circuit, located on the North Sea coast right in the middle of sand dunes. The length of the track was 4,193 km, while the drivers had to complete 90 laps. Grand Prix races had been held on this circuit before, but only this year the Dutch stage received the status of the Grand Prix of the World Championship.
After winning their first championship title at the previous stage in Germany, Scuderia Ferrari arrived to the Netherlands with three drivers, and this time the teammate of Ascari and Farina was Luigi Villoresi, who replaced Piero Taruffi. At the same time, the newly announced world champion Ascari was clearly not going to rest on his laurels and was determined to continue his winning streak. In addition to the team from Maranello, another Ferrari 500 was brought to the start by the Belgian aristocrat Charles de Tornaco, who had already performed on this car in Belgium.
The Gordini team was represented by the same three drivers as in Germany: Manzon, Behra and Trintignant. At the wheel of another private Simca-Gordini, the Belgian journalist Paul Frere, who previously drove for HWM, came to the start. Meanwhile, the HWM team itself underwent changes in the line-up of the drivers, and this time it was represented by Macklin, Hamilton and local amateur racer Dries van der Lof. Two more British teams ERA and Connaught returned to the World Championship after one missed Grand Prix with their unchanged drivers Stirling Moss and Ken Downing. Mike Hawthorn this time alone defended the honor of Cooper cars, and another British car Frazer-Nash was led to the start by Englishman Ken Wharton.
Qualification
Qualifying, as usual, took place with a clear advantage of the Ferrari team, and Alberto Ascari won another pole position, ahead of his teammate Farina by 2.1 seconds. But Mike Hawthorn unexpectedly turned out to be in third place, who once again surprised everyone with his skill and beat Villoresi's third Ferrari by 0.2 seconds. Gordini drivers were also quite fast and took 5th, 6th and 8th places on the starting field, while Trintignant was again the best. Ken Wharton on Frazer-Nash showed a good 7th time, and HWM drivers Macklin and Hamilton closed the top ten. Connaught could not boast of speed this time, and Ken Downing took only 13th place, while Stirling Moss decided to skip training at all and was forced to start from last place.
Race
Start. Ascari and Hawthorn make a great start and enter the first corner as the leaders of the race. But even better starts Brazilian Chico Landi, who breaks into 7th place from the end of the starting field. The losers of the start were Wharton, Hamilton and Bianco, who lost several positions each, while Stirling Moss wins back three places on the first lap.
Position after the 1st lap: Ascari, Hawthorn, Farina, Trintignant, Villoresi, Behra, Landi, Macklin, Manzon, Wharton.
Lap 2: Farina attacks Hawthorn and passes him, rising to 2nd place, and Luigi Villoresi in another Ferrari overtakes Trintignant and becomes 4th. On the same lap, Manzon passes Macklin, Frere passes Downing, and Moss passes Hamilton and Lof.
Lap 3: Gordini drivers Trintignant and Behra are fighting each other for 5th place, and Jean takes the lead. Meanwhile, their partner Manzon passes Landi and rises to 7th place. Behind Wharton loses two positions, and Moss, on the contrary, wins back two and becomes 11th.
Lap 4: Moss passes Frere and is already in the top ten. On the same lap, Hamilton overtakes Downing, and Bianco is forced to get off due to a broken rear axle.
Lap 5: Villoresi, who started the race badly, passes Hawthorn, and thus all three Ferraris are in front again. Meanwhile, Moss leaves Macklin behind and comes into 9th place, and Hamilton passes Wharton and becomes 12th. Van der Lof has obvious problems with the car, and the Dutchman rolls back to last place.
Lap 6: Moss and Hamilton continue to break through, winning back one and two positions respectively.
Lap 7: Landi loses two positions and after a great start already drops to 11th place.
Lap 8: There are problems with magneto on Behra's Gordini, and the Frenchman loses speed, missing rivals one by one. Landi loses another position, missing Frere, and Flinterman goes down because of a broken differential.
Lap 9: Manzon bypasses Trintignant and rises to 5th place.
Lap 10: Downing overtakes Wharton and becomes 12th.
Position after 10 laps: Ascari, Farina, Villoresi, Hawthorn, Manzon, Trintignant, Moss, Hamilton, Macklin, Frere.
Lap 11: Downing passes Landi and comes out in 11th place. Wharton loses another position, missing de Tornaco, and Jean Behra finally goes down because of magneto failure.
Lap 12: Frere overtakes Macklin and rises to 9th place.
Lap 13: Hamilton passes Moss and becomes 7th.
Lap 16: On Frere's Simca-Gordini clutch fails and the Belgian is forced to leave the race.
Lap 19: Manzon and Trintignant fight each other, and Maurice manages to get ahead. This is also used by Hamilton, who managed to catch up with two Gordini, and he also overtakes Manzon. Behind Downing passes Landi.
Lap 20: Downing drops one more position, missing Wharton. On the same lap, the engine on de Tornaco's Ferrari breakes down.
Position after 20 laps: Ascari, Farina, Villoresi, Hawthorn, Trintignant, Hamilton, Manzon, Moss, Macklin, Landi.
Lap 28: Downing drops out of the race due to oil pressure issues.
Lap 36: Hamilton passes Trintignant and rises to 5th place, already claiming points!
Lap 38: Manzon also passes Trintignant, and Maurice drops to 7th place.
Lap 40: Manzon also overtakes Hamilton and takes 5th place.
Position after 40 laps: Ascari, Farina, Villoresi, Hawthorn, Manzon, Hamilton, Trintignant, Moss, Macklin, Landi.
Lap 44: Landi drives into the pits and passes the car to Flinterman, who drives out onto the track without losing places.
Lap 54: Macklin pulls in for refueling and lets Flinterman through for 9th place.
Lap 57: Hamilton also drives into the pits for refueling and drops to 8th place, missing Trintignant and Moss.
Lap 61: Macklin passes Flinterman and regains 9th place.
Lap 73: Stirling Moss, who confidently took 7th place, once again had to get off due to engine problems on his ERA.
Lap 77: A wheel flies off on Wharton's Frazer-Nash, and the Englishman is out of the race.
Last lap: Alberto Ascari, after leading from start to finish, wins another convincing victory and gets the second "Grand Slam" this season! Obviously, winning the championship title did not affect the motivation of the Italian in any way, and he is still head and shoulders above all his rivals. Farina once again becomes the second, and this allows him to reach the second line in the championship, ahead of Taruffi. Villoresi finishes third, thereby bringing Ferrari another triple podium. Mike Hawthorn, despite the fact that he failed to compete with the Ferraris, turns out to be the best driver of the rest and gets 4th place. The last two points for the 5th place goes to Manzon, who manages to get ahead of his teammate Trintignant.
Interesting facts:
- 2nd Grand Slam of Alberto Ascari.
Driver standings
Alternative GP results
