1950 German A1 Grand Prix

The 1950 German A1 Grand Prix was the fifth round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix season. France's Maurice Trintignant took his second consecutive pole position.

Race


France's Maurice Trintignant had a great start from pole position and maintained the lead from Germany's Paul Pietsch and Scotland's Comish Hunter who had got a great start from 5th. The Scot who had been one of the surprise performers of the weekend would manage to remain in 3rd for the whole of the first lap though he was unable to keep up with Trintignant and Pietsch. Meanwhile further back, Reg Parnell continued his miserable debut with England with a gearbox failure which resulted in him having to crawl around in second gear for the final half of the first lap. He would rejoin the race, running a similar pace to the leaders but he would loose two laps. Northern Ireland's Desmond Titterington had the misfortune of sliding off on oil left on the track from Parnell's gearbox and whacking the barrier through Kesselchen. Denmark's Robert Nellemann also had a spin at Wehrseifen which saw him collect Australian's Tony Gaze.

Lap 2 saw both Pietsch and Italy's Piero Taruffi hit troubles. The German suffered a similar issue to Parnell from which he wound up two laps down from having to crawl around most of the track. The Italian meanwhile spun at Brunnchen, lightly tapping the barrier enough to force him to make an unscheduled stop to repair the damage. Hunter made an unforced error at Wehrseifen which saw him drop down behind Belgium's Johnny Claes, Thailand's Prince Bira, Wales' Jack Niell and Monaco's Louis Chiron. Chrion would then earn himself some penalty points when he made an optimistic move on Niell at Dottinger Hole which saw them collide. Neither were out on the spot but both were forced to pit for repairs, then later Chiron would retire from the damage caused from the contact.

Lap 3 saw the largest crash of the race involving Claes and Hunter who were now 2nd and 3rd. Claes ran up the embankment at Bergwerk making contact with the barrier at the top. He rolled over once, thankfully at a slow speed, though he was collected by Hunter. Neither driver were injured but they were both out of the race.

After all of the bad luck that hit his closest rivals, Trintignant was enjoying a lead of over 30 seconds after lap 3 from Bira, Argentina's José Froilán González and Brasil's Chico Landi. Most drivers would make their first pitstops after lap 3 but Trintignant and Czechoslovakia's Zdenek Pohl managed to get to lap 4. However Trintignant would suffer his own issues as an engine misfire cropped up just before his pitstop. He managed to make it to the pits where he went through a lengthly stop which saw him loose the lead to Gonzalez, who himself had managed to get past Bira during their stops the lap before. Trintignant's problems weren't over however as his straight line speed was still weak and this caused him to gradually slip through the field during the second stint, losing positions to Bira, Switzerland's Toulo de Graffenried who was climbing his way through from the back of the grid and Brasil's Chico Landi. By the time the second round of pitstops came on lap 7 he was nearly caught up by the recovering but out of pit sequence Taruffi.

Gonzalez had built up a large lead over Bira by the second round of pitstops. The Thai prince would loose out to de Graffenried who at that point looked like the only driver who had the pace to match Gonzalez. Meanwhile Trintignant seemed to have sorted out his earlier problems as he was back to a competitive pace during the third stint and attacking Landi for 4th. About half a minute behind them was Pohl who was having an impressive showing after starting from near the back.

Most drivers would only have to make one more pitstop but in the case of Bira and Landi they made their third pitstops too soon, meaning they would not have enough fuel to make the finish. This meant that they would have to make a fourth stop before the final lap, causing them to loose out to Trintignant and Pohl respectively.

Gonzalez only looked in doubt of taking the chequered flag once during the rest of the race and that was when he would end up stuck behind Uruguay's Eitel Cantoni for an entire lap, meaning that his lead over de Graffenried was nearly evaporated. Fortunately he would get by him at the start of lap 12, just before the Swiss driver caught up to him. Then de Graffenried was caught behind Cantoni himself which allowed the gap to build up to over ten seconds again.

On the final lap however, mechanical woes would strike de Graffenried as he hit gearbox troubles. He managed to struggle back to the finish line but by then he had dropped to 5th behind Trintignant, Bira and Pohl. Landi also suffered mechanical failure on the final lap after he blew his engine while running in 6th.

So Gonzalez was joined on the podium by Trintignant and Bira, the former's result at allowed France to close up to just a point behind Switzerland in the championship battle.



Penalty Report
Drivers receive points on their race licence if they are deemed by the stewards to be driving in an 'unsporting manner'. Points are usually given for causing avoidable collisions, pitlane infractions or impeding fastest cars while being lapped. If a driver collects 12 points throughout the season then they are given a three month ban from racing in the series. Points are reset to zero after each season. Fines can also be given.