Jim Clark's first Formula One victory, also marking the debut win of the Lotus 25 and the start of a six-year Clark–Hill rivalry.
Key Facts
- Race date
- 17 June 1962
- Championship round
- Race 3 of 9
- First Grand Prix win for
- Jim Clark (Team Lotus)
- Car winning debut
- Lotus 25
- Youngest points scorer (then)
- Ricardo Rodríguez, aged 20 years 123 days
- Record broken after
- 38 years, by Jenson Button in 2000
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The 1962 Formula One season was underway at Spa-Francorchamps, with Team Lotus debuting the revolutionary monocoque Lotus 25. The Porsche factory team was absent due to metal workers' union strikes in West Germany, altering the competitive field.
Jim Clark drove the Lotus 25 to victory in the Belgian Grand Prix on 17 June 1962, claiming his first Formula One win. A dramatic secondary battle for second place ended when Trevor Taylor and Willy Mairesse collided, crashed into a ditch, and Mairesse's car caught fire, though both drivers escaped uninjured.
Clark's win began a four-race winning streak at Spa and launched his celebrated rivalry with Graham Hill that would define the next six seasons. Ricardo Rodríguez set a youngest-points-scorer record that lasted 38 years until Jenson Button surpassed it at the 2000 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Result
at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium