The 1965 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One (F1) motor race held at East London on 1 January 1965. While originally scheduled to be the last race of the 1964 season, it was moved back a week and thus became race 1 of 10 in the 1965 Formula One season. This scheduling change meant that the cars which were fielded were 1964 season cars, as no one had had the time to develop their 1965 designs as of yet. The 85-lap race was won by Lotus driver Jim Clark after he started from pole position. John Surtees finished second for the Ferrari team and BRM driver Graham Hill came in third. This was the World Championship debut race of the future world champion Jackie Stewart.
Race report
Jim Clark celebrated Hogmanay by dominating the race, leading from pole and winning by half a minute from Graham Hill and John Surtees who were never able to threaten.Hutchinson, Auto-Universum 1966, p. 40. He even had time to complete an extra lap after the chequered flag was waved a lap too early. Clark also made the first ever lap of the East London circuit at over 100 mph in practice. Clark's teammate Mike Spence was in second place until he spun on oil on the sixtieth lap; he finished in fourth. Bruce McLaren and Championship débutant Jackie Stewart completed the points positions. Jack Brabham had been in competition for second place but his car broke down with ignition troubles four laps from the end.
Classification
Pre-qualifying
A special pre-qualifying session was run for "local" drivers whereby they had to lap the circuit in under 1:37 in order to advance to qualifying proper, which all but three of them did.
Pos No Driver Constructor Time — 18 Paul Hawkins Brabham-Ford -1:37.0 — 19 David Prophet Brabham-Ford -1:37.0 — 20 Peter de Klerk Alfa Special-Alfa Romeo -1:37.0 — 21 Doug Serrurier LDS-Climax -1:37.0 — 22 Ernie Pieterse Lotus-Climax -1:37.0 — 23 Neville Lederle Lotus-Climax -1:37.0 — 25 Sam Tingle LDS-Alfa Romeo -1:37.0 — 27 Brausch Niemann Lotus-Ford -1:37.0 — 28 Trevor Blokdyk Cooper-Ford -1:37.0 — 24 Clive Puzey Lotus-Climax +1:37.0 — 29 Jackie Pretorius LDS-Alfa Romeo +1:37.0 — 32 Dave Charlton Lotus-Ford +1:37.0
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 5 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 1:27.2 — 2 1 John Surtees Ferrari 1:28.1 +0.9 3 7 Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 1:28.3 +1.1 4 6 Mike Spence Lotus-Climax 1:28.3 +1.1 5 3 Graham Hill BRM 1:28.6 +1.4 6 2 Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 1:29.3 +2.1 7 11 Jo Bonnier Brabham-Climax 1:29.3 +2.1 8 9 Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 1:29.4 +2.2 9 8 Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 1:29.5 +2.3 10 10 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Climax 1:30.4 +3.2 11 4 Jackie Stewart BRM 1:30.5 +3.3 12 14 Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 1:31.0 +3.8 13 15 Tony Maggs Lotus-BRM 1:31.3 +4.1 14 12 Jo Siffert Brabham-BRM 1:31.8 +4.6 15 16 Frank Gardner Brabham-BRM 1:32.3 +5.1 16 18 Paul Hawkins Brabham-Ford 1:33.1 +5.9 17 20 Peter de Klerk Alfa Special-Alfa Romeo 1:33.3 +6.1 18 17 John Love Cooper-Climax 1:33.8 +6.6 19 19 David Prophet Brabham-Ford 1:33.9 +6.7 20 25 Sam Tingle LDS-Alfa Romeo 1:34.6 +7.4 21 28 Trevor Blokdyk Cooper-Ford 1:35.2 +8.0 22 23 Neville Lederle Lotus-Climax 1:35.2 +8.0 23 21 Doug Serrurier LDS-Climax 1:35.7 +8.5 24 27 Brausch Niemann Lotus-Ford 1:36.2 +9.0 25 22 Ernie Pieterse Lotus-Climax 1:37.9 +10.7
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 85 2:06:46.0 1 9 2 1 John Surtees Ferrari 85 +29.0 secs 2 6 3 3 Graham Hill BRM 85 +31.8 secs 5 4 4 6 Mike Spence Lotus-Climax 85 +54.4 secs 4 3 5 9 Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 84 +1 Lap 8 2 6 4 Jackie Stewart BRM 83 +2 Laps 11 1 7 12 Jo Siffert Brabham-BRM 83 +2 Laps 14 8 7 Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 81 +4 Laps 3 9 18 Paul Hawkins Brabham-Ford 81 +4 Laps 16 10 20 Peter de Klerk Alfa Special-Alfa Romeo 79 +6 Laps 17 11 15 Tony Maggs Lotus-BRM 77 +8 Laps 13 12 16 Frank Gardner Brabham-BRM 75 +10 Laps 15 13 25 Sam Tingle LDS-Alfa Romeo 73 +12 Laps 20 14 19 David Prophet Brabham-Ford 71 +14 Laps 19 15 2 Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 66 Ignition 6 14 Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 50 +35 Laps 12 11 Jo Bonnier Brabham-Climax 42 Clutch 7 10 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Climax 39 Electrical 10 17 John Love Cooper-Climax 20 Halfshaft 18 8 Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 11 Ignition 9 28 Trevor Blokdyk Cooper-Ford 23 Neville Lederle Lotus-Climax 21 Doug Serrurier LDS-Climax 27 Brausch Niemann Lotus-Ford 22 Ernie Pieterse Lotus-Climax 24 Clive Puzey Lotus-Climax 29 Jackie Pretorius LDS-Alfa Romeo 32 Dave Charlton Lotus-Ford Fire in practice 26 Ray Reed RE-Alfa Romeo 30 Brian Raubenheimer Lotus-Ford Gearbox 31 David Clapham Cooper-Maserati 33 Alex Blignaut Cooper-Climax 34 Richard Attwood BRM
Notes
This was the Formula One World Championship debut race for British driver and future World Champion Jackie Stewart, Australian driver Paul Hawkins, Rhodesian deiver Clive Puzey and South African drivers Jackie Pretorius and Dave Charlton. Jim Clark won the South African Grand Prix for a record two times. Equally, Lotus was record holder with two South African Grand Prix wins. Also, this was the second time a Coventry Climax-powered car won the South African Grand Prix, a new record. RE made its Formula One World Championship debut as the first Rhodesian constructor. The car was withdrawn before the start however, and never again made it an appearance.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Jim Clark 9 2 John Surtees 6 3 Graham Hill 4 4 Mike Spence 3 5 Bruce McLaren 2Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Lotus-Climax 9 2 Ferrari 6 3 BRM 4 4 Cooper-Climax 2Source:
Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References