1962 United States Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 8 of 9 in the 1962 Formula One season | |||
 |
|||
| Date | October 7, 1962 | ||
| Official name | V United States Grand Prix | ||
| Location |
Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course Watkins Glen, New York |
||
| Course | Permanent road course | ||
| Course length | 3.78 km (2.35 mi) | ||
| Distance | 100 laps, 378 km (235 mi) | ||
| Weather | Sunny | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Lotus-Climax | ||
| Time | 1:15.8 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Jim Clark |
Lotus-Climax | |
| Time | 1:15.0 on lap 70 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First |
|
Lotus-Climax | |
| Second | BRM | ||
| Third | Cooper-Climax | ||
The 1962 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 7, 1962, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was the eighth race of the 1962 Formula One season. The 100-lap race was won by Lotus driver Jim Clark after starting from pole position. Graham Hill finished second for the BRM team and Cooper driver Bruce McLaren came in third.
New Lotus star Jim Clark of Scotland took his third victory of the season, and the third of his career, to keep alive his hopes of catching Graham Hill for the 1962 World Driver's Championship with one race remaining. Hill finished nine seconds back in second place for BRM, while Bruce McLaren was third, despite being a lap down.
For the third consecutive year, Ferrari had decided not to make the trip across the Atlantic for the American race. It had been a miserable year for the team, finishing sixth in the eight-team Constructor's Championship (without a victory), after winning it the year before. The powerful new V8 engines built by Climax and BRM for the second year of the 1.5-liter formula had taken the series by storm, and Ferrari's advantage from 1961 had been completely erased.
Also, as a result, American Phil Hill was again without a drive in his home country, and, worse yet, he learned from a reliable source at The Glen that he had been fired!
In Friday's qualifying session, Graham Hill, Hill's BRM teammate Richie Ginther, Clark and Jack Brabham (using his own BT3 model for just the second time) all bettered the previous year's lap record of 1:18.2. Clark then went out and shattered the absolute course record, set under the 2.5-liter formula by Stirling Moss, with a staggering 1:15.8. Damp and misty conditions on Saturday prohibited anyone improving their Friday time, so the top six were Clark in the Lotus, Ginther and Hill's BRM's, American Dan Gurney in a Porsche, Brabham, and McLaren's Cooper.
...
Wikipedia