1953 Argentine Grand Prix

1953 Argentine Grand Prix
Race details
	Race 1 of 9 in the 1953 Formula One season
	;
Date	18 January 1953
Official name	I Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina
Location	Autódromo 17 de Octubre, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Course	Permanent racing facility ; 3.912 km (2.431 mi)
Distance	97 laps, 379.464 km (235.788 mi)
Weather	Hot, dry
Pole position
Time	1:55.4
Fastest lap
Time	1:48.4 on lap 73
Podium

The 1953 Argentine Grand Prix was the first round of the 1953 Formula One World Drivers' Championship, which was run to Formula Two regulations in 1952 and 1953. The race was held in Buenos Aires on January 18, 1953 at the Autódromo Galvez (official name: Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez, also known as the Autódromo 17 de Octubre) as the first official Formula One race in South America. Previously, the Indianapolis 500 (part of the Formula One championship calendar from 1950 to 1960) was the only Formula One championship race held outside of Europe but run to AAA regulations.

Race report[]

The inaugural Argentine Grand Prix, held in mid-January, was attended by four of the major works teams: Maserati, Ferrari, Cooper and Gordini. Former World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio, who had not competed in the Championship since clinching the 1951 title in Spain, raced for Maserati alongside fellow Argentinians José Froilán González and Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, and Italian driver Felice Bonetto. Ferrari lined up with the familiar trio of reigning World Champion Alberto Ascari, Nino Farina and Luigi Villoresi, as well as their new signing Mike Hawthorn, who had driven a privateer Cooper the previous year. The Cooper team entered the British pair of Alan Brown and John Barber alongside the local driver Adolfo Schwelm Cruz. Gordini retained their 1952 trio of Manzon, Trintignant and Behra, who were joined by a pair of Argentinians—Carlos Menditeguy and Pablo Birger—the latter of which drove a Simca-Gordini.

Ascari was once again the fastest qualifier, taking his fourth consecutive World Championship pole position. His teammates Villoresi and Farini lined up third and fourth, but the returning Fangio prevented a Ferrari front row lockout by qualifying second in his Maserati. González, in the second Maserati, started from row two alongside Hawthorn, making his first appearance for Ferrari, and the Gordini of Trintignant. The remaining Gordinis of Manzon, Menditeguy and Behra made up the third row with Gálvez in his Maserati. Row four consisted of the Coopers of Brown and Schwelm Cruz, and Birger in the sole Simca-Gordini. At the back of the grid were the Maserati of Bonetto and Barber in the final Cooper.

Due to President Juan Perón's decision to allow free access to the circuit, there were an excessive number of spectators and they lined the track as the race began. One of the spectators wandered onto the track, and, in order to avoid hitting him, Nino Farina was forced to swerve. Farina ultimately lost control of his car and crashed into the crowd on lap 31, killing 13 spectators. Ascari, who started from pole, led the entirety of the race, taking his seventh consecutive World Championship race victory, and, in so doing, established an early lead in the Drivers' Championship. Fangio was in second until a transmission issue forced him to retire from the race. Manzon initially inherited the position, but Villoresi ultimately took second place, a lap behind his teammate. Hawthorn had been running in third, although he was eventually overtaken by González, preventing a Ferrari 1-2-3. Hawthorn finished fourth, ahead of Gálvez, who took the final points in his first and only World Championship race.^[1]

Entries[]

No	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Tyre
2	Juan Manuel Fangio	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati	Maserati A6GCM-53	Maserati A6G 2.0 L6	P
4	José Froilán González		Maserati	Maserati A6GCM-53	Maserati A6G 2.0 L6	P
6	Felice Bonetto		Maserati	Maserati A6GCM-53	Maserati A6G 2.0 L6	P
8	Oscar Alfredo Gálvez		Maserati	Maserati A6GCM-53	Maserati A6G 2.0 L6	P
10	Alberto Ascari	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari Type 500 2.0 L4	P
12	Nino Farina		Ferrari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari Type 500 2.0 L4	P
14	Luigi Villoresi		Ferrari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari Type 500 2.0 L4	P
16	Mike Hawthorn		Ferrari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari Type 500 2.0 L4	P
20	Alan Brown	Cooper Car Co.	Cooper-Bristol	Cooper T20	Bristol BS1 2.0 L6	D
22	John Barber		Cooper-Bristol	Cooper T23	Bristol BS1 2.0 L6	D
24	Adolfo Schwelm Cruz		Cooper-Bristol	Cooper T20	Bristol BS1 2.0 L6	D
26	Robert Manzon	Equipe Gordini	Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 20 2.0 L6	E
28	Maurice Trintignant¹		Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 20 2.0 L6	E
30	Jean Behra		Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 20 2.0 L6	E
32	Carlos Menditeguy		Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 20 2.0 L6	E
34	Pablo Birger		Simca-Gordini	Simca-Gordini T15	Gordini 1500 1.5 L4	E
Sources: ^[2]^[3]

^1 — Maurice Trintignant qualified and drove 50 laps of the race in the #28 Gordini. Harry Schell took over the car for the remainder of the race.^[4]

Classification[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	10	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	97	3:01:04.6	1	9
2	14	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	96	+1 lap	3	6
3	4	José Froilán González	Maserati	96	+1 lap	5	4
4	16	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	96	+1 lap	6	3
5	8	Óscar Alfredo Gálvez	Maserati	96	+1 lap	9	2
6	30	Jean Behra	Gordini	94	+3 laps	11
7	28	Maurice Trintignant† Harry Schell†	Gordini	91	+6 laps	7
8	22	John Barber	Cooper-Bristol	90	+7 laps	16
9	20	Alan Brown	Cooper-Bristol	87	+10 laps	12
Ret	26	Robert Manzon	Gordini	67	Wheel	8
Ret	2	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati	36	Transmission	2
Ret	6	Felice Bonetto	Maserati	32	Transmission	15
Ret	12	Nino Farina	Ferrari	31	Accident	4
Ret	32	Carlos Menditeguy	Gordini	24	Gearbox	10
Ret	34	Pablo Birger	Simca-Gordini-Gordini	21	Differential	14
Ret	24	Adolfo Schewelm Cruz	Cooper-Bristol	20	Wheel	13

† Shared Drive - Car #28: Trintignant (50 laps) then Schell (41 laps)

Drivers' Championship standings after the race[]

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Alberto Ascari	9
2	Luigi Villoresi	6
3	José Froilán González	4
4	Mike Hawthorn	3
5	Óscar Alfredo Gálvez	2

Note: Only the top five positions are included. Only the best 4 results counted towards the Championship.

References[]

↑ "Argentine GP, 1953 Race Report". Grandprix.com. http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr024.html. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
↑ "1953 Argentine Grand Prix - Race Entries". manipef1.com. http://www.manipef1.com/results/1953/argentina/entries/. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
↑ "1953 Argentine GP - Entry List". chicanef1.com. http://chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1953&gp=Argentine%20GP&r=1&type=ent. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
↑ "Argentine Grand Prix 1953 - Results". ESPN F1. http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/race/1412.html. Retrieved 8 April 2014.

Previous race: 1952 Italian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1953 season	Next race: 1953 Indianapolis 500
Previous race: None	Argentine Grand Prix	Next race: 1954 Argentine Grand Prix

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1953 Argentine Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

[1] "Argentine GP, 1953 Race Report". Grandprix.com. http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr024.html. Retrieved 16 July 2013.

[2] "1953 Argentine Grand Prix - Race Entries". manipef1.com. http://www.manipef1.com/results/1953/argentina/entries/. Retrieved 8 April 2014.

[3] "1953 Argentine GP - Entry List". chicanef1.com. http://chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1953&gp=Argentine%20GP&r=1&type=ent. Retrieved 23 June 2014.

[4] "Argentine Grand Prix 1953 - Results". ESPN F1. http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/race/1412.html. Retrieved 8 April 2014.

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