1952 Italian F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results

Event: Italian Grand Prix
Track: Autodromo Nazionale Monza

Weather: dry

Alberto Ascari won his 8th F1 World Championship race at the 1952 Italian F1 GP. The Ferrari driver started from pole position and won on the Monza circuit for the second time. It was his 6th win of the season and the 10th win for the Ferrari F1 team in the championship era.

Monza, 7 September 1952: a champion's home finale

The 1952 World Championship closed at Monza on the first Sunday of September with the title already settled, Alberto Ascari had clinched at the Nürburgring five weeks earlier, but with much still to play for. The XXIII Gran Premio d'Italia was 80 laps of Monza's 6.300-kilometre lay-out, 504 kilometres in total, and a record entry forced the organisers to a 24-car qualifying cut for the first time at a championship round. Eleven drivers, including Lance Macklin and Peter Collins of HWM and Peter Whitehead's Ferrari, would not make the start.

Scuderia Ferrari fielded five Tipo 500s for Ascari, Farina, Villoresi, Taruffi and André Simon, with Rudi Fischer's privateer Tipo 500 and three further Ferraris in private colours making nine red cars on the grid. Maserati's renaissance was visible: the works team had brought the new A6GCM for José Froilán González, back at the wheel of an Italian car for the first time since the 1951 season finale, and Felice Bonetto, with Chico Landi and others in privately entered Maseratis. Stirling Moss had switched to a Connaught for the second half of the season; Mike Hawthorn's Cooper-Bristol returned. Gordini, HWM, Aston Butterworth, Cisitalia and the small Italian marque Osca completed the field.

Qualifying: a Ferrari front three, a Maserati surprise

Ascari took pole, the first F1 World Championship pole of his Monza record, with Villoresi and Farina alongside in the other works Tipo 500s. The qualifying surprise was José Froilán González, who put the new A6GCM Maserati onto fifth on the grid: a marker that the Modenese marque was beginning to rebuild its competitive credibility under the F2 ruleset.

The race: Ascari controls, González battles

Ascari led from pole, with the Ferraris of Villoresi and Farina settled into formation behind. González's Maserati, however, pressed the second Ferrari hard from early in the race; on outright pace the A6GCM and the Tipo 500 were close. Ascari opened a gap at the front while behind him Villoresi held second only briefly before González fought past, and the order at the end of the first hour read Ascari, González, Villoresi, Farina.

The race's mechanical attrition came in the usual Monza pattern. Élie Bayol's Osca lost its gearbox on lap zero. Rudi Fischer's Ferrari engine failed on lap three, Kenneth McAlpine's Connaught broke its suspension on lap four, Trintignant's Gordini engine on lap five. Mid-race claimed Franco Rol's Maserati (engine, lap 24), Mike Hawthorn's Cooper-Bristol (not classified, lap 38), Behra's Gordini (engine, lap 42), Bianco's Maserati (engine, lap 46), and Stirling Moss's new Connaught (suspension, lap 60).

Ascari and González continued to trade fastest laps. The two drivers set what would be recorded as identical race-fastest laps, 2:06.1, on lap 56 from Ascari, and the official scorers split the resulting fastest-lap point in two: 0.5 to Ascari and 0.5 to González, accounting for the unusual half-points that appeared in the final classification. Ascari took the chequered flag in 2:50:45.6, just over a minute clear of González's Maserati and another minute up on Villoresi's Ferrari. Farina was fourth a few seconds further back, Bonetto's Maserati fifth at one lap down, with André Simon, Taruffi and Chico Landi the next finishers.

Championship fallout

Ascari closed the season on 53.5 points (with the four-best-results count working in his favour), six wins from his seven starts, and a championship that had been absolute in everything but the arithmetic. Farina's six points from fourth lifted him to a comfortable second in the standings; Taruffi's earlier wins kept him third. González's six and a half points at Monza closed his account on 13.5, a season's worth that started at Reims with Ferrari and ended at Monza with Maserati, in a year that had been less his than 1951 had promised. The 1952 championship now stood closed; the 1953 calendar would open in Argentina in mid-January, with the F2 regulations carrying over for one more season.

Classification 1952 Italian F1 GP

Pos	#	Driver	Team	Time	Laps	Grid	Pts
1	12	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	2:50:45.600	80	1	8.5
2	26	José-Froilán González	Maserati	2:51:47.400	80	5	6.5
3	16	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	2:52:49.800	80	2	4
4	10	Nino Farina	Ferrari	2:52:57.000	80	3	3
5	22	Felice Bonetto	Maserati	+1 lap	79	13	2
6	8	André Simon	Ferrari	+1 lap	79	8	0
7	14	Piero Taruffi	Ferrari	+3 laps	77	6	0
8	48	Chico Landi	Maserati	+4 laps	76	18	0
9	40	Ken Wharton	Cooper-Climax	+4 laps	76	15	0
10	62	Louis Rosier	Ferrari	+5 laps	75	17	0
11	50	Eitel Cantoni	Maserati	+5 laps	75	23	0
12	30	Dennis Poore	Connaught	+6 laps	74	19	0
13	36	Eric Brandon	Cooper-Climax	+7 laps	73	20	0
14	2	Robert Manzon	Gordini	+9 laps	71	7	0
15	38	Alan Brown	Cooper-Climax	+12 laps	68	12	0
DNF	32	Stirling Moss	Connaught	Suspension	60	9	0
DNF	46	Gino Bianco	Maserati	Engine	46	25	0
DNF	6	Jean Behra	Gordini	Engine	42	11	0
DNF	42	Mike Hawthorn	Cooper-Climax	Not classified	38	12	0
DNF	24	Franco Rol	Maserati	Engine	24	16	0
DNF	4	Maurice Trintignant	Gordini	Engine	5	4	0
DNF	28	Kenneth McAlpine	Connaught	Suspension	4	22	0
DNF	18	Rudi Fischer	Ferrari	Engine	3	16	0
DNF	34	Élie Bayol	Osca	Gearbox	0	10	0
DNQ	70	Charles de Tornaco	Ferrari	Did not qualify	0		0
DNQ	58	Alberto Crespo	Maserati	Did not qualify	0		0
DNQ	60	Toulo de Graffenried	Maserati	Did not qualify	0		0
DNQ	54	Peter Collins	HWM	Did not qualify	0		0
DNQ	68	Peter Whitehead	Ferrari	Did not qualify	0		0
DNQ	56	Tony Gaze	HWM	Did not qualify	0		0
DNQ	64	Bill Aston	Aston Butterworth	Did not qualify	0		0
DNQ	52	Lance Macklin	HWM	Did not qualify	0		0
DNQ	20	Hans Von Stuck	Ferrari	Did not qualify	0		0
DNQ	44	Piero Dusio	Cisitalia	Did not qualify	0		0
DNQ	66	Johnny Claes	Simca	Did not qualify	0		0

Fastest lap: 2:06.100 min by Alberto Ascari (Ferrari 500) in lap 56

✅ Check out 1952 F1 Championship Standings
✅ Check out 1952 F1 Teams & Drivers

✅ Check out All Time F1 Drivers Rankings
✅ Check out All Time F1 Driver Records
✅ Check out All Time F1 Teams Rankings

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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