1962 Mexican GP
Grande Premio de Mexico |
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Magdalena-Mixhuca |
November 4, 1962 |
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Ecurie Maarsbergen |
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Porsche 718 (202) |
No: 4 |
Q: 12 |
R: 7 |
C: F1 |
The first Grande Premio de Mexico was not included in the World Championship, but managed to attract a reasonably good starting field. Almost every team bar the Ferraris and the works Porsches was there.
Because he had damaged his Porsche at Watkins Glen Carel purchased a second 718 from the Scuderia Filipinetti. With this car he participated in the Mexican Grand Prix despite the car being still red with a white stripes instead of being orange. Local hero and Ferrari driver Ricardo Rodriguez was entered by Rob Walker and anxious to perform well in front of his home crowd he crashed his Lotus 24 in practice and was killed.
Carel qualified 12th in the 17-car starting field and drove his new Porsche to 7th at the finish.
On lap 10, frontrunner Jim Clark lost his lead and was eventually blackflagged for being pushstarted from the pits. However, after he was disqualified with his own car he took over the second Team Lotus car from Trevor Taylor, regained the lead and won the race in a masterly fashion.