From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
NUVOLARI'S GREATEST: A handful of Grand Prix have passed into legend. Fangio's last victory at the Nurburgring; Senna's victory at Donington; Rindt's last corner win at Monaco - all wonderful wins but perhaps there is one that is even greater: the victory of the great Italian driver, Tasio Nuvolari, in the 1935 German Grand Prix.
Picture the scene: the Alfa Romeo P3 had conquered all before it in 1932, but its development had almost stood still since then. By the 1935 season, the Alfa was history as a race winner and the mighty German Auto Union and Mercedes teams had won all eight races leading up to the German Grand Prix at the famous Nurburgring. Nuvolari's best finish all season had been a distant third place a lap down on the winner's Mercedes at the French Grand Prix at Montlhèry.
At the Nurburgring the militarisation of Germany was everywhere in evidence. Nuvolari struggled in practice, losing a whole day waiting for parts to arrive from Italy. The car now to his liking, and well off the pace of the German cars, Nuvolari did a minimum of practice to avoid any unnecessary strain on the Alfa before the race.
Race day was wet and overcast, and prior to the race Nuvolari appeared preoccupied. His car was outclassed but could he turn the wet to his advantage? A lap of the Nurburgring was 14.17 miles and the 22 laps would take more than four hours to complete. A lot can happen in four hours. Nevertheless, it seemed a futile hope as any of the German cars was fully 30 mph faster that Nuvolari's Alfa, and there were five Mercedes and four Auto Union 'works' entries in the race.
The grid was the result of a draw and by good luck Nuvolari drew a place on the front row. As he sat on the grid waiting for the start signal, Nuvolari could see Korpsführer Huhnlein, the head of sport in Germany, reading over his victory speech notes. At the start, Caracciola burst through into the lead. Somehow, Nuvolari, to the amazement of the crowd came through in second place just 12 seconds behind at the end of the first lap.
On the next lap Fagioli, Rosemeyer, Von Brauchitsch and Chiron all went by him. On lap six Nuvolari attacked again. He passed Rosemeyer and Von Brauchitsch. Then Fagioli pitted and Chiron went off the road - Nuvolari was back in second place. Incredibly, on lap 10 he caught Caracciola and went wide at the famous Karussell corner. Nobody went wide there and Caracciola waited for his rival to slide off the road: instead Nuvolari fought the Alfa past the Mercedes and into the lead.
Now, with Rosemeyer, Caracciola and Von Brauchitsch close behind him, Nuvolari led for the next two laps. On lap 13 all four pitted for tyres and fuel. There was a delay getting fuel into the Alfa. Then a group of Brownshirts blocked Nuvolari's exit from the pits and ignored the shouts of his pitcrew to move. Nuvolari drove the Alfa in a tail slide straight for them, scattering them in all directions. Two minutes and 14 seconds had been lost to the leaders and the race seemed over. Nuvolari had other ideas. First, he caught Stuck, then Fagioli, then Caracciola and Rosemeyer. Then he set off after the leader, Von Brauchitsch: just four laps to go the gap was down to 60 seconds. Unbelievable!
Surely he could not make back that time but now Von Brauchitsch was in trouble with tyre wear. Going into the last lap the gap was only 35 seconds. Now Von Brauchitsch could see the Alfa gaining on him. Suddenly, Von Brauchitsch's rear tyre exploded, leaving Nuvolari to sweep by to the astonishment of the 200,000 partisan spectators.
The final irony of this incredible race was that the commentators - certain of a German victory - had no record of the Italian National Anthem to play while Nuvolari received his prize. The Italian maestro took pleasure in presenting them with one which he had brought to the race, just in case!