The 1935 German Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race held at the Nürburgring on 28 July 1935. The race was won by Italian driver Tazio Nuvolari in an Alfa Romeo, in one of the great races of all time, Nuvolari's underpowered Alfa held off nine of the German factory cars on a cold and overcast day. He was joined on the podium by Hans Stuck of Auto Union in second and Rudolf Caracciola of Mercedes-Benz in third, both regarded as the most technically skilled drivers of their respective teams.
Background[]
Entry[]
Practice[]
Result[]
Grid[]
| 1st Row | 1 Pos. | 2 Pos. | 3 Pos. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Balestrero Alfa Romeo |
Nuvolari Alfa Romeo |
 Stuck Auto Union | |||
| 2nd Row | 1 Pos. | 2 Pos. | |||
von Brauchitsch Mercedes-Benz |
Zehender Maserati |
||||
| 3rd Row | 1 Pos. | 2 Pos. | 3 Pos. | ||
 Chiron Alfa Romeo |
Caracciola Mercedes-Benz |
 Étancelin Maserati | |||
| 4th Row | 1 Pos. | 2 Pos. | |||
 Mays ERA |
 Rüesch Maserati |
||||
| 5th Row | 1 Pos. | 2 Pos. | 3 Pos. | ||
Fagioli Mercedes-Benz |
Rosemeyer Auto Union |
Varzi Auto Union | |||
| 6th Row | 1 Pos. | 2 Pos. | |||
Pietsch Auto Union |
 Hartmann Maserati |
||||
| 7th Row | 1 Pos. | 2 Pos. | 3 Pos. | ||
Taruffi Bugatti |
Lang Mercedes-Benz |
Ghersi Maserati | |||
| 8th Row | 1 Pos. | 2 Pos. | |||
Brivio Alfa Romeo |
Geier Mercedes-Benz |
Race[]
Report[]
The 1935 event was considered to be one of the greatest motorsports victories of all time. The 1935 German Grand Prix at Nürbugring was held under one of the most chilling and dreadful conditions. An estimated of 300,000 German fans including some of the most powerful and high ranking Third Reich officers showed up on for the race that was run over the course of 22.8km consisting of 174 turns. There were high expectations that one of the German drivers would win the race since they had the most powerful and advanced car in opposed to their competitors. Three Alfa Romeo cars were presented by the Scuderia Ferrari team and were driven by Monegasque driver Louis Chiron, along with Italian drivers Tazio Nuvolari and Antonio Brivio. The rest of the competitors were from Maserati, ERA and Bugatti and were contested under private teams. Italian legend Nuvolari's Alfa Romeo P3 Tipo B was modified having his engine capacity increased from 3.2 to 3.8 litre, developing 330bhp.
The race position was determined by a ballot and Nuvolari secured the front row at P2 but due to a poor start, he dropped down to the third place. With team mates Brivio retiring at lap 1 and Chiron at Lap 5, Tazio with the only Alfa left competing in the race. Nuvolari drove a very hard race in appalling conditions, and after a dreadful start was able to pass a number of cars, particularly while some of the German cars pitted. By lap 10, Nuvolari was already leading the race while the rest of the cars were struggling to maintain a grip on the now rain-soaked track. After a botched pit in which he lost a total of 2 minutes and 14 seconds due to refuelling delays from a broken pressure pump, he joined the race at 6th place. He drove on the limit, made up the time and was 2nd by the start of the last lap- 35 seconds behind leader Manfred von Brauchitsch in a Mercedes. But von Brauchitsch had ruined his tyres by pushing very hard in the dreadful conditions- and Nuvolari was able to catch the German and take victory in front of the stunned German High Command and 300,000 spectators. The small 42-year old Italian ended up finishing in front of 8 running Silver cars- and 2nd placed Hans Stuck was 2 minutes behind Nuvolari.
For 1935, Nuvolari had set his sights on a drive with the German Auto Union team. The team were lacking top-line drivers, but relented to pressure from Achille Varzi, who did not want to be in the same team as Nuvolari. Nuvolari then approached Enzo Ferrari, but was turned down as he had previously walked out on the team. However, Mussolini, the Italian prime minister, intervened and Ferrari backed down.
In this year, Nuvolari scored his most impressive victory, thought by many to be the greatest victory in car racing of all times, when at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, driving an old Alfa Romeo P3 (3167 cc, compressor, 265 hp) versus the dominant, all conquering home team's cars of five Mercedes-Benz W25 (3990 cm³, 8C, compressor, 375 hp (280 kW), driven by Rudolf Caracciola, Luigi Fagioli, Hermann Lang, von Brauchitsch and Hanns Geier) and four Auto Union Tipo B (4950 cc, 16C, compressor, 375 hp (280 kW), driven by Bernd Rosemeyer, Varzi, Stuck and Paul Pietsch). This victory is known as "The Impossible Victory". The crowd of 300,000 applauded Nuvolari, but the representatives of the Third Reich were enraged.
Result[]
| Pos | No | Driver | Car | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 | Tazio Nuvolari
|
Alfa Romeo
|
22 | 4:08:04.1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Hans Stuck
|
Auto Union
|
22 | + 2:14.3 | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | Rudolf Caracciola
|
Mercedes-Benz
|
22 | + 3:09.0 | 7 | 3 |
| 4 | 3 | Bernd Rosemeyer
|
Auto Union
|
22 | + 4:46.9 | 12 | 4 |
| 5 | 7 | Manfred von Brauchitsch
|
Mercedes-Benz
|
22 | + 6:13.3 | 4 | 4 |
| 6 | 6 | Luigi Fagioli
|
Mercedes-Benz
|
22 | + 7:54.2 | 11 | 4 |
| 7 | 8 | Hanns Geier
|
Mercedes-Benz
|
21 | + 1 Lap | 20 | 4 |
| 8 | 2 | Achille Varzi
|
Auto Union
|
21 | + 1 Lap | 13 | 4 |
| 9 | 4 | Paul Pietsch
|
Auto Union
|
20 | + 2 Laps | 14 | 4 |
| 10 | 21 | Hans Rüesch
|
Maserati
|
20 | +2 Laps | 10 | 4 |
| 11 | 16 | Goffredo Zehender
|
Maserati
|
19 | +3 Laps | 5 | 4 |
| 12 | 22 | Pietro Ghersi
|
Maserati
|
19 | +3 Laps | 18 | 4 |
| Ret | 17 | Philippe Étancelin
|
Maserati
|
18 | Engine | 8 | 4 |
| Ret | 9 | Hermann Lang
|
Mercedes-Benz
|
15 | Engine | 17 | 5 |
| Ret | 10 | Raymond Mays
|
ERA
|
11 | Oil pressure | 9 | 5 |
| Ernst von Delius
|
n/a | ||||||
| Ret | 20 |  László Hartmann
|
Maserati
|
9 | Ignition | 15 | 6 |
| Ret | 14 | Louis Chiron
|
Alfa Romeo
|
5 | Differential | 6 | 7 |
| Ret | 23 | Piero Taruffi
|
Bugatti
|
3 | Accident | 16 | 7 |
| Ret | 15 | Antonio Brivio
|
Alfa Romeo
|
1 | Differential | 19 | 7 |
| Ret | 11 | Renato Balestrero
|
Alfa Romeo
|
0 | Accident | 1 | 7 |
| DNS | 15 | René Dreyfus
|
Alfa Romeo
|
8 | |||
| DNS | 19 | Ernst von Delius
|
ERA
|
Practice accident | 8 | ||
| DNS | 22 | Luigi Soffietti
|
Maserati
|
8 |
Notes[]
- Ernst von Delius destroyed his car during practice, so shared Mays' car in the race.