1952 Dutch Grand Prix
The sixth round of the 1952 World Championship took place on August 17 in the Netherlands at the Zandvoort circuit, nestled among the sand dunes along the North Sea coast. 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, while Villoresi in another Ferrari overtakes Trintignant and becomes 4th. Meanwhile, on the same lap, Manzon passes Macklin, Frere overtakes Downing, while Moss leaves two drivers behind at once: Hamilton and Lof.
Lap 3: Gordini drivers Trintignant and Behra are fighting each other for 5th, with Jean taking the lead. Meanwhile, their teammate Manzon passes Landi and rises to 7th, while behind Wharton loses two positions, and Moss, on the contrary, wins back two more and becomes 11th.
Lap 4: Moss passes Frere and is already in the top ten! Meanwhile, on the same lap, Hamilton overtakes Downing, while 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. Besides, on the same lap, Moss leaves Macklin behind and takes 9th, while Hamilton passes Wharton and becomes 12th. Meanwhile, Van der Lof has obvious problems with the car, which force the Dutchman to fall to the very end of the field.
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. Meanwhile, Landi loses another position, missing Frere, while Flinterman drops out of the race due to a broken differential.
Lap 9: Manzon passes Trintignant, rising to 5th.
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, taking 11th. Meanwhile, Wharton loses another position, missing de Tornaco, while Behra finally retires due to magneto failure.
Lap 12: Frere overtakes Macklin, rising to 9th.
Lap 13: Hamilton passes Moss, taking 7th.
Lap 16: The clutch on Frere's Simca-Gordini fails and the Belgian is forced to leave the race.
Lap 19: Manzon and Trintignant fight each other, with Maurice getting ahead. At the same time, their struggle is also used by Hamilton, who managed to catch up with two Gordini, and he also leaves Manzon behind! Besides, on the same lap, Downing lets Landi through.
Lap 20: Downing drops one more position, missing Wharton, while the engine on de Tornaco's Ferrari breakes down, forcing the Belgian to retire.
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, already claiming points!
Lap 38: Manzon also passes Trintignant, pushing his teammate down to 7th.
Lap 40: Manzon gains another position thanks to Hamilton and is already 5th!
Position after 40 laps: Ascari, Farina, Villoresi, Hawthorn, Manzon, Hamilton, Trintignant, Moss, Macklin, Landi.
Lap 44: Landi pulls into the pits and passes the car to Flinterman, who after refuelling gets back to the track without losing places.
Lap 54: Macklin pulls in for refueling and lets Flinterman through to 9th.
Lap 57: Hamilton also drives into the pits for refueling and drops to 8th, missing Trintignant and Moss.
Lap 61: Macklin passes Flinterman, regaining 9th.
Lap 73: Moss, confidently in 7th, once again has to get off due to engine problems on his ERA.
Lap 77: A wheel flies off Wharton's Frazer-Nash, forcing the Englishman to retire.
Last lap: Alberto Ascari, after leading from start to finish, wins another convincing victory and gets his 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! Meanwhile, Farina once again takes 2nd, and this result allows him to reach the 2nd position also in the overall standings, 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. As for the last two points for the 5th place, they go to Manzon, who manages to get ahead of his teammate Trintignant.
Interesting facts:
- Alberto Ascari's 2nd "Grand Slam".
Driver standings
Alternative GP results
