The 1935 German Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race held at the Nürburgring on 28 July 1935. The underdog victory of Tazio Nuvolari in an Alfa Romeo P3 against far more powerful German cars that had dominated the season to this point is widely considered one of the greatest events in the history of motor racing. The crowd of 300,000 applauded Nuvolari, while the representatives of the Third Reich were frustrated and enraged.
In 1935, 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, 8C, 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 the Germans Rudolf Caracciola, Luigi Fagioli, Hermann Lang, Manfred von Brauchitsch, and Hanns Geier and four Auto Union Type B (4950 cc, 16C, compressor, 375 hp (280 kW)), driven by Bernd Rosemeyer, Achille Varzi, Hans Stuck, and Paul Pietsch. As a result, this victory is known as "The Impossible Victory".
Race The 1935 event was considered to be one of the all-time greatest motorsport victories and remembered as Nuvolari's greatest race. In a monumental drive, the Italian beat nine superior German Silver Arrows with an inferior red Alfa Romeo. The 1935 German Grand Prix at Nürbugring was held under chilling and dreadful conditions. An estimated 300,000 German fans including some of the most powerful and high ranking Third Reich officers showed up for the race that was run over the course of 22.8 km 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 cars. Three Alfa-Romeos were presented by the Scuderia Ferrari team and were driven by Italian drivers Antonio Brivio and Nuvolari, along with Monegasque driver Louis Chiron. The rest of the competitors were from Maserati, English Racing Automobiles (ERA), and Bugatti and were contested under private teams. Nuvolari's Alfa Romeo P3 Tipo B enjoyed the maximum engine capacity used in these cars, 3.2 litre, 290 bhp. The race position was determined by a ballot. Nuvolari secured the front row in his second place but due to a poor start dropped down to the third place with teammates Brivio retiring at lap 1 and Chiron at lap 5, leaving Tazio with the only Alfa Romeo left competing in the race.
Nuvolari drove a very hard race in appalling conditions. After a dreadful start, he 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 stop in which he lost a total of 2 minutes and 14 seconds due to refueling delays from a broken pressure pump, he joined the race in sixth place. He drove on the limit, made up the time and was second by the start of the last lap, albeit 35 seconds behind the leader von Brauchitsch in a Mercedes who had ruined his tyres by pushing very hard to get the win in the dreadful conditions.
Nuvolari was able to catch the German, passing him when one of von Brauchitsch's tyres blew out, and took the chequered flag to win the race in front of the stunned German High Command and 300,000 spectators. The 42-year-old Nuvolari ended up finishing in front of eight running Silver Arrows; Stuck finished 2 minutes behind Nuvolari, and von Brauchitsch was nearly inconsolable. It was due to the pace of Nuvolari that the German had to drive so aggressively that ultimately proved to be his downfall. The Nazi officials were also confounded by the lack of a recording of the Italian anthem to play over the loudspeakers, as only Deutschland Uber Alles (Germany's anthem) had been ready for what they thought was a mere formality and inevitabile German triumph. This was ultimately solved by Nuvolari himself, who always had a copy of the Marcia Reale.
Classification PosNoDriverTeamCarLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints 1 12 Tazio Nuvolari Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo Tipo B 22 4:08:04.1 2 1 2 1 Hans Stuck Auto Union Auto Union B 22 +2:14.3 1 2 3 5 Rudolf Caracciola Daimler-Benz AG Mercedes-Benz W25B 22 +3:09.0 7 3 4 3 Bernd Rosemeyer Auto Union Auto Union B 22 +4:46.9 12 4 5 7 Manfred von Brauchitsch Daimler-Benz AGMercedes-Benz W25B 22 +6:13.3 5 4 6 6 Luigi Fagioli Daimler-Benz AG Mercedes-Benz W25B 22 +7:54.2 13 4 7 8 Hanns Geier Daimler-Benz AG Mercedes-Benz W25A 21 +1 Lap 19 4 8 2 Achille Varzi Auto Union Auto Union B 21 +1 Lap 11 4 9 4 Paul Pietsch Auto Union Auto Union B 20 +2 Laps 15 4 10 21 Hans Ruesch Private entry Maserati 8CM 20 +2 Laps 9 4 11 16 Goffredo Zehender Scuderia Subalpina Maserati 6C-34 19 +3 Laps 4 4 12 22 Pietro Ghersi Luigi Soffietti Maserati 8CM 19 +3 Laps 16 4 Ret 17 Philippe Étancelin Scuderia Subalpina Maserati 6C-34 18 Engine 6 4 Ret 9 Hermann Lang Daimler-Benz AG Mercedes-Benz W25A 15 Engine 17 5Ret10 Raymond MaysERAERA B11Oil pressure10 5 Ernst von Delius n/a Ret 20 László Hartmann Private entry Maserati 8CM 9 Ignition 14 6 Ret 14 Louis Chiron Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo Tipo B 5 Differential 8 7 Ret 23 Piero Taruffi Bugatti Bugatti T59 3 Accident 18 7 Ret 15 Antonio Brivio Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo Tipo B 1 Differential 20 7 Ret 11 Renato Balestrero Gruppo San Giorgio Alfa Romeo Tipo B 0 Accident 3 7 DNS 15 René Dreyfus Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo Tipo B 8 DNS 19 Ernst von Delius ERA ERA B Practice accident 8 DNS 22 Luigi Soffietti Luigi Soffietti Maserati 8CM 8
Starting grid positions 1st Row 3 Pos. 2 Pos. 1 Pos. BalestreroAlfa Romeo NuvolariAlfa Romeo StuckAuto Union 2nd Row 2 Pos. 1 Pos. von BrauchitschMercedes-Benz ZehenderMaserati 3rd Row 3 Pos. 2 Pos. 1 Pos. ChironAlfa Romeo CaracciolaMercedes-Benz ÉtancelinMaserati 4th Row 2 Pos. 1 Pos. MaysERA RueschMaserati 5th Row 3 Pos. 2 Pos. 1 Pos. FagioliMercedes-Benz RosemeyerAuto Union VarziAuto Union 6th Row 2 Pos. 1 Pos. PietschAuto Union HartmannMaserati 7th Row 3 Pos. 2 Pos. 1 Pos. TaruffiBugatti LangMercedes-Benz GhersiMaserati 8th Row 2 Pos. 1 Pos. BrivioAlfa Romeo GeierMercedes-Benz
Notes Ernst von Delius destroyed his car during practice, so he shared Mays' car in the race.
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