1962 Mexican Grand Prix

The I Gran Premio de Mexico (or 1st Mexican Grand Prix) was held on 4 November 1962 at the Magdalena Mixhuca circuit, Mexico City. The race was a non-championship event run to Formula One rules and attracted a large entry, including many top teams and drivers. The race was run over 60 laps of the main circuit, and was eventually won by Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor, sharing a drive in a Lotus 25. The race meeting was marred by the death during practice of local driving prodigy Ricardo Rodríguez. The circuit would later be renamed the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez to honour him and his brother Pedro.

1962 Mexican Grand Prix
Non-championship race in the 1962 Formula One season
Race details
Date 4 November 1962
Official name I Gran Premio de Mexico
Location Magdalena Mixhuca, Mexico City
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.000 km (3.107 mi)
Distance 60 laps, 300.000 km (186.411 mi)
Pole position
Driver
Lotus-Climax
Time 2:00.1
Fastest lap
Driver Jim Clark Lotus-Climax
Time 1:57.6
Podium
First
Lotus-Climax
Second
Brabham-Climax
Third
Lotus-Climax

Race summary

Pole-sitter Clark suffered a flat battery, so his Lotus 25-Climax got a replacement, but still failed to start; mechanics gave it a push start to get the engine going.[1] However, due to a lack of communication between the starting officials, the start flag was waved while marshals were still on the track. For John Surtees, the delay caused a cylinder to burn out and his race was over before it even started. The race stewards decided the push start had been illegal (despite it being done by race officials) and black-flagged Clark's car (leaking oil in addition, to unlikely to survive full distance in any case[2]) on lap 10.

Clark took over the second works Lotus of Lotus team-mate, Trevor Taylor, during a pit stop, dropping him to third, behind Jack Brabham's Brabham and Bruce McLaren in the Cooper.[3] The Scot put in a superb drive to claw back the 57 second deficit on the leaders, passing both with over one third of the race distance still remaining. McLaren's engine blew after half-distance,[4] and as the Brabham was also having trouble,[5] Clark completed the remainder of the race with very little opposition, scoring an easy win. This would prove to be the final time that a Grand Prix victory would be shared by two drivers.

Also notable was the participation of German driver Wolfgang Seidel, who competed despite having had his FIA licence suspended over two months previously. The Porsche works team did not attend, Porsche having withdrawn from motor sport at the end of the 1962 World Championship season.

Despite the starting confusion, the race earned the Mexican Grand Prix full World Championship status from 1963, which it would retain until 1970.

Results
PosDriverEntrantConstructorTime/RetiredQual
1 Trevor Taylor / Jim Clark Team Lotus Lotus-Climax 2:03:50.9 3
2 Jack Brabham Brabham Racing Organisation Brabham-Climax + 1:01.9 7
3 Innes Ireland UDT Laystall Racing Team Lotus-Climax + 1 lap 2
4 Jim Hall Jim Hall Lotus-Climax + 1 lap 10
5 Masten Gregory UDT Laystall Racing Team Lotus-BRM + 1 lap 9
6 Rob Schroeder John Mecom Lotus-Climax + 3 laps 11
7 Carel Godin de Beaufort Ecurie Maarsbergen Porsche + 3 laps 12
8 Homer Rader Jim Hall Lotus-Climax + 3 laps 14
9 Jay Chamberlain Ecurie Excelsior Lotus-Climax + 7 laps 16
Ret Walt Hansgen Walter Hansgen Lotus-Climax Ignition 13
Ret Roger Penske Dupont Team Zerex Lotus-Climax Gearbox 6
Ret Bruce McLaren Cooper Car Company Cooper-Climax Engine 5
DSQ Jim Clark Team Lotus Lotus-Climax Push start 1
Ret Roy Salvadori Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing Team Lola-Climax Accident (Rear suspension) 8
Ret Alan Connell Alan Connell Cooper-Climax Engine 15
Ret Wolfgang Seidel Autosport Team Wolfgang Seidel Lotus-BRM Gearbox 17
Ret John Surtees Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing Team Lotus-Climax Ignition 4
WD Moisés Solana Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing Team Cooper-BRM Car too slow –
DNS Ricardo Rodríguez Rob Walker Racing Team Lotus-Climax Fatal accident –
DNA Dan Gurney Porsche System Engineering Porsche
DNA Jo Bonnier Porsche System Engineering Porsche
  • Moisés Solana withdrew from the event during practice, complaining that his car was too slow.[6] His fastest recorded time was faster than those of Seidel, Connell, Rader, Chamberlain and Hansgen.
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References
  • "1962 Mexican Grand Prix". MotorSport.com. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
  • "I Gran Premio di Mexico 1962". formula2.net. 2003-08-12. Archived from the original on 2017-02-01. Note that the track length and race distance seem to be incorrectly quoted, while times/speed imply correct numbers (5.000 km/300.000 km) which agree with MotorSport source.
  • Diepraam, Mattijs; Muelas, Felix (2006-11-18). "Mexico's fatal arrival on the world scene". 8W. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
  1. Kettlewell, Mike. "Grand Prix Racing South of the Border", in Ward, Ian, executive editor. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974) Volume 12, p.1331.
  2. Kettlewell, p.1331.
  3. Kettlewell, p.1331.
  4. Kettlewell, p.1331.
  5. Kettlewell, p.1331.
  6. "Mexico's Home Race Heroes". F1 Destinations. 24 October 2018.
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1962 International Gold Cup		 Formula One non-championship races
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1962 Rand Grand Prix
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1963 Mexican Grand Prix
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