Prince George F1 Records & Statistics

Prince George F1 records and South African Grand Prix statistics

Prince George Circuit in East London occupies an important place in the early history of Formula 1 in South Africa. The coastal venue hosted three World Championship South African Grands Prix in 1962, 1963 and 1965, producing a championship-deciding victory for Graham Hill and two dominant wins for Jim Clark.

The circuit’s Formula 1 statistics are unusually concentrated around Clark. The Lotus driver took pole position in all three World Championship races held at East London, won the final two and set the fastest race lap twice. Ferrari never won at Prince George, but John Surtees gave the Scuderia its best result with second place in Formula 1’s final World Championship visit in 1965.

Prince George hosted three Formula 1 World Championship races

The South African Grand Prix became part of the Formula 1 World Championship at Prince George Circuit on 29 December 1962. East London hosted the event again in December 1963 before Formula 1 returned for a third and final World Championship race on 1 January 1965.

Those three events make up the complete championship-era Formula 1 record of the circuit. Graham Hill won the first for BRM, while Jim Clark won both subsequent races for Lotus.

Prince George therefore produced only two different race winners during its World Championship history, with Clark becoming the circuit’s only repeat Formula 1 winner.

The 1962 South African Grand Prix decided the World Championship

Formula 1’s first World Championship race at East London was also the deciding round of the 1962 Drivers’ Championship. Graham Hill and Jim Clark arrived at Prince George still fighting for the title, turning the circuit’s championship debut into one of the most significant races of the season.

Clark started from pole position and was in contention to win both the Grand Prix and the championship. His Lotus ultimately suffered an oil leak and retired after completing 61 of the 82 laps.

Graham Hill took advantage and won for BRM, securing the race victory and the 1962 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship.

Graham Hill won the first World Championship race at Prince George

Graham Hill completed the 82-lap 1962 South African Grand Prix in 2:08:03.300. Bruce McLaren finished second for Cooper, 49.8 seconds behind, while South African driver Tony Maggs completed the podium in another Cooper.

Jack Brabham finished fourth, followed by Innes Ireland and Neville Lederle in the remaining points-paying positions.

Hill’s victory remains BRM’s only Formula 1 win at Prince George Circuit and established him as the first World Championship winner at the East London venue.

Jim Clark took pole and fastest lap in 1962

Although Graham Hill won the championship-deciding race, Jim Clark demonstrated the outright speed of the Lotus throughout the weekend.

Clark secured pole position with a 1:29.300 lap, beating Hill’s BRM by three tenths of a second. He also set the fastest lap of the Grand Prix at 1:31.000.

The retirement prevented Clark from converting either benchmark into victory, but his 1962 performance began a remarkable qualifying record that would see him take pole every time Formula 1 raced at Prince George.

Ferrari did not contest the 1962 East London World Championship race

Ferrari does not appear in the official entry classification for Formula 1’s first World Championship South African Grand Prix at Prince George in 1962.

The Scuderia’s Formula 1 record at East London therefore begins with the championship’s return in 1963, when John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini represented Ferrari.

This makes Ferrari’s Prince George statistical history shorter still, covering only two of the circuit’s three World Championship Grands Prix.

Jim Clark dominated the 1963 South African Grand Prix

Formula 1 returned to Prince George on 28 December 1963 with Jim Clark already established as the dominant force of the season. The Lotus driver once again started from pole position and this time converted his speed into victory.

Clark completed the 85 laps in 2:10:36.900 and finished 66.8 seconds ahead of Dan Gurney’s Brabham. Graham Hill finished one lap behind in third place for BRM.

The victory gave Clark his first Formula 1 win at Prince George and completed an extraordinary championship season in which he had already secured his first Drivers’ title.

Jim Clark claimed a second consecutive Prince George pole in 1963

Clark’s qualifying supremacy continued during the 1963 South African Grand Prix weekend. He took pole with a 1:28.900 lap, improving on his 1962 benchmark by four tenths of a second.

Jack Brabham qualified second with a 1:29.000, while Dan Gurney was third at 1:29.100.

Ferrari occupied the next two grid positions. John Surtees qualified fourth with a 1:29.800 and Lorenzo Bandini fifth with a 1:30.200.

Lorenzo Bandini scored Ferrari’s first Prince George points

Ferrari’s first World Championship appearance at Prince George produced a points finish through Lorenzo Bandini. The Italian finished fifth in 1963 after completing 84 of the 85 laps.

John Surtees had qualified ahead of his teammate but retired after 43 laps. Bandini therefore became the first Ferrari driver to score Formula 1 championship points at the East London circuit.

Fifth place remained Ferrari’s best Prince George result until the Scuderia returned for the final World Championship Grand Prix in 1965.

Dan Gurney set the fastest lap in 1963

Jim Clark controlled qualifying and the race result in 1963, but he did not complete a clean sweep of the weekend’s principal statistics.

Dan Gurney set the fastest race lap for Brabham with a 1:29.100 on lap 33. That was 1.9 seconds quicker than Clark’s fastest race lap from the 1962 Grand Prix.

Gurney’s benchmark stood until Formula 1 returned to East London for its final World Championship visit in 1965.

Jim Clark won Formula 1’s final Prince George Grand Prix in 1965

The final Formula 1 World Championship race at Prince George took place on 1 January 1965. Jim Clark again proved untouchable, starting from pole and winning the 85-lap South African Grand Prix for Lotus.

Clark crossed the line 29 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s John Surtees. Graham Hill completed the podium for BRM, just 2.8 seconds behind Surtees.

The result gave Clark two victories from three World Championship starts at East London and ensured that Lotus finished as the most successful constructor at the circuit by race wins.

John Surtees gave Ferrari its only Prince George podium

Ferrari produced its strongest East London performance during Formula 1’s final World Championship visit. John Surtees qualified second with a 1:28.100 and retained second place in the race.

His runner-up finish remains Ferrari’s only Formula 1 podium at Prince George Circuit. It also came at the opening round of the 1965 season with Surtees beginning the year as the reigning World Champion.

Lorenzo Bandini qualified sixth in the second Ferrari but retired after completing 66 laps.

Jim Clark took every Formula 1 pole position at Prince George

One statistic distinguishes Prince George from many other former Formula 1 circuits: every World Championship pole position at the venue was claimed by the same driver.

Jim Clark started first in 1962 with a 1:29.300, repeated the achievement in 1963 with a 1:28.900 and completed the hat-trick in 1965 with a 1:27.200.

Clark therefore holds the circuit’s Formula 1 pole-position record with three, while Lotus owns all three constructor poles.

Jim Clark holds the Prince George qualifying record

Clark’s final pole lap also represents the fastest World Championship qualifying benchmark recorded at Prince George Circuit.

His 1:27.200 from 1965 was 1.7 seconds quicker than his 1963 pole and 2.1 seconds faster than the time with which he had secured pole during Formula 1’s first East London weekend in 1962.

John Surtees came closest for Ferrari in 1965 with a 1:28.100, leaving Clark’s Lotus 0.9 seconds clear at the top of the grid.

Jim Clark also holds the Prince George Formula 1 race lap record

Clark completed his dominant 1965 weekend by setting the fastest lap of the Grand Prix. His 1:27.600 remains the quickest official race lap recorded during a Formula 1 World Championship event at Prince George.

The lap improved on Dan Gurney’s 1:29.100 from 1963 and Clark’s own 1:31.000 from 1962.

Clark consequently holds both the fastest World Championship qualifying lap and the fastest World Championship race lap from East London’s Formula 1 era.

Who has the most Formula 1 wins at Prince George?

Jim Clark is the outright Prince George Formula 1 wins record holder with two victories. He won the South African Grand Prix in 1963 and 1965, both for Lotus.

Graham Hill is the only other World Championship winner at the circuit after taking the 1962 race for BRM.

At constructor level, Lotus leads with two victories and BRM has one. Ferrari competed at the circuit twice but did not record a win.

Graham Hill has the most Formula 1 podiums at Prince George

Although Jim Clark holds the victory record, Graham Hill has the most World Championship podium finishes at Prince George.

Hill won in 1962 and then finished third in both 1963 and 1965, giving him three podium appearances from the circuit’s three championship Grands Prix.

Clark recorded two podiums, both victories. The remaining podium positions were taken by Bruce McLaren, Tony Maggs, Dan Gurney and Ferrari’s John Surtees.

Ferrari’s Formula 1 record at Prince George

Ferrari competed in two of the three Formula 1 World Championship races held at Prince George Circuit. The Scuderia did not record a victory, pole position or fastest race lap at the venue.

Lorenzo Bandini scored Ferrari’s first East London points with fifth place in 1963. John Surtees then delivered the team’s best result in 1965, qualifying second and finishing second behind Jim Clark.

Ferrari’s complete Prince George World Championship record therefore includes one podium and two points-scoring finishes, with Surtees also responsible for the team’s best qualifying position.

Prince George’s Formula 1 layout measured 3.920 km

F1DB records the World Championship configuration of Prince George Circuit at 3.920 km with nine turns, running clockwise.

The East London venue had a distinctive coastal character. Its relatively compact Formula 1 layout was considerably shorter than the enormous public-road courses that had been used for the city’s pre-war Grand Prix racing.

The circuit’s fast nature and seaside location gave it a character very different from Kyalami, which later became South Africa’s principal Formula 1 venue.

East London’s Grand Prix history began long before Formula 1

Grand Prix racing in East London predates the Formula 1 World Championship by several decades. The original road course used for the 1934 South African Grand Prix measured more than 24 km and followed public roads around the coastal area.

A shortened version was subsequently used during the later 1930s before racing was interrupted by the Second World War.

When major motor racing returned to East London after the war, a much shorter circuit was developed. The 3.920 km configuration opened in 1959 and became the layout associated with the venue’s Formula 1 World Championship history.

One Formula 1 layout at Prince George

F1DB associates all three World Championship South African Grands Prix at Prince George with a single 3.920 km Formula 1 layout.

Unlike historic venues where championship races were held on several substantially different configurations, the 1962, 1963 and 1965 Prince George lap times can therefore be compared within the same recorded F1 layout.

The progression from Jim Clark’s 1:29.300 pole in 1962 to his 1:27.200 in 1965 reflects improvements in Formula 1 performance rather than a change to a separately classified circuit configuration.

Why Formula 1 moved from East London to Kyalami

Prince George’s World Championship period was brief. The circuit had brought Formula 1 to South Africa but its narrow and relatively compact layout became increasingly unsuitable as Grand Prix cars developed.

After the final World Championship race in 1965, South Africa’s Formula 1 focus moved inland to the newer Kyalami circuit near Johannesburg.

Kyalami hosted its first World Championship South African Grand Prix in 1967 and went on to become much more closely associated with the country’s Formula 1 history.

Prince George versus Kyalami F1 records

Prince George and Kyalami represent two distinct eras of the South African Grand Prix. East London hosted the first three World Championship editions between 1962 and 1965, while Kyalami subsequently became the country’s long-term Formula 1 venue.

Prince George’s records are dominated by Jim Clark and Lotus, whereas Kyalami produced a much broader collection of winners across several decades.

You can compare the two venues directly through our Kyalami F1 Records & Statistics page.

Prince George qualifying record versus race lap record

Jim Clark owns both principal World Championship lap benchmarks at Prince George, but the qualifying and race records remain separate statistical categories.

His fastest qualifying lap was the 1:27.200 that secured pole in 1965. His fastest race lap was a 1:27.600 recorded during the same Grand Prix.

The statistics above distinguish qualifying performance from official race fastest laps, helping searches for the East London Formula 1 lap record retain the correct session context.

Prince George records versus South African Grand Prix records

Prince George statistics should not be confused with the complete history of the South African Grand Prix. East London hosted three Formula 1 World Championship races, while the majority of the event’s later championship history took place at Kyalami.

Prince George remains particularly significant as the venue for South Africa’s first World Championship Grand Prix, Graham Hill’s championship-deciding 1962 victory and Jim Clark’s remarkable three-from-three pole-position record.

Explore more Formula 1 circuit records

Use the F1 Circuit Records & Statistics database to compare Prince George with other current and historic Formula 1 venues. You can also browse the Formula 1 circuits section for broader Grand Prix history, track guides and circuit information.