The final heroics of a British legend - F1's 100th GP

Innes Ireland flew to Germany and back in his aircraft. On the return journey he was accompanied by Jimmy Clark and Colin Chapman, and all three were very tired. Flying at about 10,000ft, they dozed off, one by one, and went batting along for about 10 minutes with the plane flying itself. Suddenly they all woke up with a start to ask hastily "Who's doing the driving?"

"I thought you were," said Colin. "No mate, I was asleep," replied Innes. "Me too," said Colin. Happy landings, chaps!

That was one of the lead Formula 1 news stories in the August 11 1961 edition of Autosport magazine, the issue immediately following F1's 100th world championship round - the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Thankfully it didn't go down in history as the weekend when Ireland, rising star Clark and their team boss Chapman were lost in a plane crash - but it did turn out to the last F1 race win for a motorsport legend.

Germany 1961: Moss interrupts the Sharnose dominance

Starters: 26
Finishers: 16
Winner: Stirling Moss (Lotus 18/21)
Winning margin: 21.4s

Formula 1 had just entered its 1.5-litre engine era when the Nurburgring hosted the 100th world championship race. Ferrari had produced the V6 'Sharknose' 156 - its first rear-engined F1 car - and dominated the season.

By the German Grand Prix in August, the Italian team had only lost one of the five rounds, Stirling Moss's virtuosity denying the red cars in Monaco. Wolfgang von Trips, Phil Hill and Richie Ginther were 1-2-3 for Ferrari in the drivers' table.

In damp conditions Moss used Dunlop's new 'wet' tyre to build an early lead. Von Trips closed as the track dried, but a late shower allowed Moss to escape to take his final world championship GP victory.

Hill would clinch the title next time out, but in tragic circumstances. Von Trips crashed and was killed in the Italian GP, along with 15 spectators, and Ferrari skipped the Watkins Glen finale. By the time F1 reconvened for 1962 the British teams had solved their power problems and overtaken Ferrari.

New engine rules define the season

The current turbo hybrid era is far from the only time in F1 history when one team has hit the ground running with a major switch in engine regulations and left its opposition floundering.

For Mercedes in 2014, read Ferrari in 1961. The aero and chassis aesthetics may be the main thing the 'sharknose' 156 is remembered for, but the main area where it stole a march was in its V6 engine.

As F1 moved from 2.5-litre to 1.5-litre engines, Ferrari sacrificed 1960 to develop its new car and - after Moss's Monaco upset in Rob Walker's old-spec, underpowered Lotus 18 - proved largely unstoppable.

A one-two at Zandvoort, a 1-2-3-4 at Spa, a 1-2-3 at Aintree and in between a shock win for the private 156 of world championship debutant Giancarlo Baghetti at Reims summed up the scale of Ferrari domination.

And that left the combination that had won the previous two world championships - Jack Brabham, Cooper and the Coventry-Climax engine - floundering.

For most of the year, all Climax could offer its teams was a four-year-old 1475cc former Formula 2 engine, but by the German GP its new V8 was finally ready.

Gregor Grant's Autosport magazine report picks up the story:

Chief interest during practice on Friday was centred on the Cooper-Climax with the V8 power unit. The unit is reputed to produce 175 b.h.p. and has four double-choke downdraught Weber caburetters and Lucas transistorized ignition working with one sparking plug per cylinder. The eight cylinders appear to be a double arrangement of the twin-o.h.c engine used in the U.D.T.-Laystall Lotus "750" at Le Mans, the banks probably being at an angle of around 80 degrees.

The car was towed round the paddock in a vain attempt to get the engine to start. Just before the first training session was due to begin, Wally Hassan and his men found that a distributor drive had failed. This was repaired in time for Brabham to have a go during the second session, but bottoming of the rear-suspension and overheating prevented the car from showing its real paces.

Once the car was running, Brabham was right on the pace:

Early on Saturday morning Brabham did an unofficial 8 mins. 58 secs. with the V8. During the officially timed period he returned second fastest of all with 9 mins. 1.4 secs. He would doubtless have lowered this a good deal, but owing to relocating the engine mountings, trouble was experienced with the gearbox selectors. This meant even more all-night work for the Cooper equipe, who had only had the new engine a few days before Nurburgring.

That put him alongside Phil Hill's Ferrari on the front row - 6.2 seconds adrift of pole admittedly, but on a 14-mile circuit.

Starting grid for F1's 100th race

Though Brabham's race didn't last long, the reason wasn't the new engine. Pre-race rain led to teams scrambling for the right rubber, and Brabham took the start with rain tyres only on the Cooper's front wheels.

He still managed to battle his way into the lead, but when Jo Bonnier's Porsche challenged him, Brabham ended up sliding off before the first lap was done.

After only 5 kilometres, as Bonnier was trying to force his way past, the World Champion got into a vicious slide and the V8 left the road, uprooting hedges on its way. This unhappy end to the V8's race may well have been caused by the rain tyres-equipped front end biting on a damp patch and causing the rear to swing outwards thus producing exagerated oversteer. Fortunately Brabham was unhurt, but he was terribly upset and bitterly disappointed.

Safety progress still far in the future

The fact that Brabham's Cooper was "uprooting hedges" as it left the road underlined that this was F1's untamed era, with circuit safety still a very minimal consideration.

Meanwhile there had been incidents. At the South Curve, Hill's B.R.M. cannoned off the nearside of Gurney's Porsche and shot over the banking. Graham climbed out of his wrecked car and walked back to the pits, whilst Gurney continued with the side of his Porsche sadly altered.

Near the Karussell, Innes Ireland's Lotus suddenly burst into flames and Ireland baled out. Marshals did not exactly rush to put out the fire and the car was soon totally destroyed. Innes had medical attention for slight burns on his right arm and eventually returned to the pits on the back of Seidel's Lotus.

A month later, the title battle would be decided in tragic fashion. Moss's victory wasn't enough to keep him in the championship, so Ferrari headed to its home grand prix primed for a title showdown between its drivers Von Trips and Hill - four points apart at the top of the standings.

But within a lap of the start of the race von Trips - and 14 spectators - were dead after the Ferrari collided with Clark's Lotus and went into the crowd. Hill won the race and a championship that hardly mattered anymore.

Moss's best ever?

"HIS GREATEST VICTORY" was how Autosport headlined Grant's report of Moss's Nurburgring win - quite an accolade given the heroics involved in some of his previous 15 F1 triumphs and his success elsewhere in motorsport.

But given the way Ferrari had taken charge of the season, what Moss achieved to hold off von Trips and Hill that day was certainly worthy of inclusion in any debate about his best ever races.

Moss lined up on rain tyres but as Grant wrote "suddenly the skies cleared and out came the sun" and "even as the cars were being lined up for the start, Ferrari were changing back to R5s [dry tyres]".

Though the track remained wet enough for Moss to emerge in front by the end of the first lap and then build a lead, by lap four his situation looked parlous:

By this time the circuit had dried out, and it was expected that the Ferraris would then come to grips with the tantalizing figure in the white crash helmet, and the dark-blue car.

This was not to be, for Moss still kept Hill in check. Generally the Ferrari would pull back a second or two, but, on sheer driving, Stirling would immediately level things out again. He certainly had Ferrari worried!

Despite the rain holding off for most of the rest of the race, Moss - on wet rubber and in a slower car - still kept the Ferraris at a safe distance:

The pressure was maintained, and at the end of 11 rounds, Moss passed the timing box just 6.9 secs in front of von Trips. Things did not look too good for British hopes. Yet, Stirling fought back with all his superb skill, and at the Karussel had increased his lead to 9.2. secs., and Hill was 8.7 secs. behind his team-mate.

Hill and von Trips were left battling among themselves, unable to make any worthwhile inroads on Moss's lead even before the weather turned back in his favour:

The task of carving off over 10 secs. in two laps from the British master was a considerable one, and faces were glum in the pit of Sefac Ferrari - particularly as spots of rain had appeared, and the skies had become dark on the other side of the Eifel circuit.

And by the time the last of the 15 laps began - over two hours after the race had started - Moss was firmly in control:

The last lap, and Moss was 18 secs. ahead of Phil Hill. Rain had slowed down the race, and from nine-minute laps, Moss had circulated in 9 mins. 25 secs. On the way to the Karussel, Hill had pulled back about 4 secs., but Stirling Moss, confident with his rain tyres, merely drove his own race, and had taken back over 6 secs. by the time the Swallow Tail was negotiated.

An excited crowd waited for the finish. Down came the rain in earnest and there were a couple of false alarms as backmarkers were mistaken for Moss. Then, almost hidden in a cloud of spray, "Mister Motor Racing" took the chequered flag to win the Grand Prix of Europe and his first German GP.

It proved to be his final F1 win. Hill won the tragedy-marred following race in Italy before Ireland took his sole F1 victory in the US GP finale. Moss retired from both races with mechanical problems and then suffered his career-ending head injury at Goodwood before the start of the 1962 season.

Results - F1's 100th GP, Germany 1961