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FULL RACE REPORT. Mexico, Mexico City, October 25, 1964. Mexico, Mexico City, October 25, 1964 . Germany, Nürburgring, August 4, 1968
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FULL RACE REPORT
1960s
Mexico, Mexico City, October 25, 1964
Britain would have another champion to succeed Graham Hill and Jim Clark, but it was a three-way tussle: a second crown for Clark or Hill… or a first for John Surtees, the seven-time motorcycle world champion who had raced a car for the first time in 1960? Clark led away from pole and Surtees, fifth, appeared out of contention. Hill, meanwhile, was tipped off the road by Surtees’s Ferrari team-mate Lorenzo Bandini, but continued with a damaged BRM. Clark’s serene progress was interrupted by an oil leak and his engine seized as he began what should have been his final lap. Advantage Hill… until Bandini let Surtees through into second to take the title by a point.
FULL RACE REPORT
Germany, Nü rburgring, August 4, 1968
Summer is never a barrier to foul conditions in the Eifel region – and this was an afternoon when they could hardly have been worse. Teeming rain, dense mist, fog… in the current climate the FIA would have mandated a safety car start, had they allowed the race to take place at all. Such things weren’t a consideration more than 50 years ago, and so it was that Jackie Stewart drove through a blinding ball of spray to work his way into the lead on the opening lap… and then pull away to win by more than four minutes. Dunlop produced very fine wets, but this was still a masterclass – the whole thing executed with his left wrist in a cast following an F2 shunt earlier in the campaign.
FULL RACE REPORT
Britain, Silverstone, July 19, 1969
Rindt and Stewart jostle for the lead at Silverstone
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They were rivals, yes, but also firm friends – on and off the track. That showed in the way Jochen Rindt and Jackie Stewart conducted themselves for the first 60 or so of 84 laps, the pair trading places in a constant ebb and flow – and giving each other signals, so that both knew what the other intended. Eventually, the Scot was obliged to give Rindt a warning: a loose rear wing endplate was cutting into his Lotus 49’s tyre, obliging him to make a reparatory stop. Stewart was clear to score his fifth win of the year for the Tyrrell Matra team, but as Denis Jenkinson reported in Motor Sport: “Only after one the hardest battles he has ever had. ”
FULL RACE REPORT
1970s
Holland, Zandvoort, June 22, 1975
Hunt on his way to his first GP win
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It was the height of Niki Lauda’s first title summer – and Ferrari’s powerful flat-12s were expected to have an edge on the Cosworth V8 opposition at Zandvoort. Lauda and team-mate Clay Regazzonui duly qualified at the front, ahead of James Hunt’s unsponsored Hesketh, but the race began in damp conditions – and Hunt was one of the first to stop for slicks, a tactic that propelled him into the lead once rivals had done likewise. Few anticipated that he’d be able resist a barrage of pressure from Lauda during the race’s second half, but he repelled the Austrian’s every move to take his first GP victory – a one-off for the small-scale constructor from Easton Neston.
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FULL RACE REPORT
Japan, Fuji Speedway, October 24, 1976
A script so compelling that Hollywood embraced it as its own almost 40 years later. Niki Lauda had returned to action just six weeks after being read the last rites following a fiery accident in Germany, but quit two laps into the Japanese GP because he felt conditions were too dangerous. James Hunt still needed to finish third to take the title – and did, despite a late, puncture-induced delay, so it took a while for him to realise he’d succeeded. Lauda never regretted his decision, F1 would soon be catapulted into the TV mainstream… and the fact Mario Andretti had actually won the race was all but overlooked.
FULL RACE REPORT
Austria, Ö sterreichring, August 14, 1977
Surprise results had become almost a habit in Austria: Vittorio Brambilla won for March in 1975, crashing after he’d taken the chequered flag, then John Watson triumphed for Penske in ’76. The following year looked poised to be more conventional, with points leader Niki Lauda lining up on pole ahead of James Hunt. Alan Jones? He was back in 14th in the unfancied Shadow. The race began wet, but the track eventually dried and Hunt appeared in control, well ahead of the flying Jones. But then his DFV dropped a couple of valves to allow Jones to complete a quirky hat-trick; it was Shadow’s only GP success.
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