1966 Italian Grand Prix

Summary

The 1966 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 4 September 1966. It was race 7 of 9 in both the 1966 World Championship of Drivers and the 1966 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The race was the 36th Italian Grand Prix and the 32nd to be held at Monza. The race was held over 68 laps of the five kilometre circuit for a race distance of 391 kilometres.

1966 Italian Grand Prix
Race details
Date 4 September 1966
Official name XXXVII Gran Premio d'Italia
Location Autodromo Nazionale di Monza
Monza, Italy
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.750 km (3.573 miles)
Distance 68 laps, 391.000 km (242.964 miles)
Weather Warm, dry and sunny
Pole position
Driver Ferrari
Time 1:31.3
Fastest lap
Driver Italy Ludovico Scarfiotti Ferrari
Time 1:32.4 on lap 49
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Ferrari
Third Brabham-Repco
Lap leaders

The race was won by Italian driver Ludovico Scarfiotti driving a Ferrari 312 in his only Grand Prix victory. Scarfiotti led home his British team mate Mike Parkes by five seconds. Parkes only just defeated New Zealand racer Denny Hulme in his Brabham BT20, the pair separated by less than half a second.

While series points leader Jack Brabham stopped with an oil leak in his Brabham BT19 on lap seven, he secured his third world championship, and the unique achievement of becoming world champion in a car of his own make, when his only remaining points rival John Surtees stopped with a fuel leak in his Cooper T81 24 laps later.

Race report edit

 
Race winner Ludovico Scarfiotti inside his Ferrari 312 prior the start

Jack Brabham was odds-on favourite for the Championship – only John Surtees could stop him and only then by winning all three remaining races. He was prevented from doing so by an impressive performance from his former employers Ferrari at their home track. Honda had brought a new 370 bhp 3 litre V12 engine for Richie Ginther, whilst Dan Gurney had his Weslake engine and Graham Hill had the BRM H16. Lorenzo Bandini and Mike Parkes led from the start, whilst Hill's engine gave up on the first lap, followed in retirement by Jackie Stewart on lap 5 with a fuel leak, and then Brabham on lap 8 with an engine failure which coated the car in oil. Jim Clark in the H16 Lotus was moving strongly through the field. On lap 17, Richie Ginther had a horrific accident, crashing heavily into the trees and being very fortunate to escape with his life. Once Clark had pitted, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Parkes, Surtees and Hill disputed the lead until Surtees withdrew with a split petrol tank which was pouring it all over his tyres and ending his championship chances. Denny Hulme had fought through the field to third place. But the race was Scarfiotti's, as he became the first Italian to win for Ferrari at Monza since Alberto Ascari in 1952. Parkes completed Ferrari's joy as he pipped Hulme by 0.3 seconds to claim second spot. Amidst all the celebrations, Jack Brabham was crowned champion. Apart from three NART entries in 1969 this race was the last time a Ferrari car was entered by a privateer team when Giancarlo Baghetti drove a private car entered by the British Reg Parnell team.

Classification edit

Qualifying edit

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 4   Mike Parkes Ferrari 1:31.3
2 6   Ludovico Scarfiotti Ferrari 1:31.6 +0.3
3 20   Jim Clark Lotus-BRM 1:31.8 +0.5
4 14   John Surtees Cooper-Maserati 1:31.9 +0.6
5 2   Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 1:32.0 +0.7
6 10   Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 1:32.2 +0.9
7 18   Richie Ginther Honda 1:32.4 +1.1
8 16   Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati 1:32.7 +1.4
9 28   Jackie Stewart BRM 1:32.81 +1.51
10 12   Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco 1:32.84 +1.54
11 26   Graham Hill BRM 1:33.4 +2.1
12 38   Jo Bonnier Cooper-Maserati 1:33.7 +2.4
13 24   Peter Arundell Lotus-BRM 1:34.1 +2.8
14 42   Mike Spence Lotus-BRM 1:35.0 +3.7
15 40   Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 1:35.3 +4.0
16 44   Giancarlo Baghetti Ferrari 1:35.5 +4.2
17 36   Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati 1:36.3 +5.0
18 48   Bob Bondurant BRM 1:36.9 +5.6
19 34   Dan Gurney Eagle-Climax 1:37.6 +6.3
20 22   Geki Lotus-Climax 1:39.3 +8.0
DNQ 34   Phil Hill Eagle-Climax 1:40.0 +8.7
DNQ 32   Chris Amon Brabham-BRM 1:40.3 +9.0
  • Clark, Geki, and Spence switched numbers for the race when they are driving the same cars.
  • Phil Hill's car was driven by Gurney in practice, but he would drive car #30 of Eagle-Weslake for the race.

Race edit

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 6   Ludovico Scarfiotti Ferrari 68 1:47:14.8 2 9
2 4   Mike Parkes Ferrari 68 + 5.8 1 6
3 12   Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco 68 + 6.1 10 4
4 16   Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati 67 + 1 lap 8 3
5 32   Mike Spence Lotus-BRM 67 + 1 lap 14 2
6 40   Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 66 + 2 laps 15 1
7 48   Bob Bondurant BRM 65 + 3 laps 18
8 24   Peter Arundell Lotus-BRM 63 Engine 13
9 20   Geki Lotus-Climax 63 + 5 Laps 20
NC 44   Giancarlo Baghetti Ferrari 59 Not Classified 16
Ret 22   Jim Clark Lotus-BRM 58 Gearbox 3
Ret 36   Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati 46 Engine 17
Ret 2   Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 33 Ignition 5
Ret 14   John Surtees Cooper-Maserati 31 Fuel Leak 4
Ret 18   Richie Ginther Honda 16 Accident 7
Ret 10   Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 7 Oil Leak 6
Ret 30   Dan Gurney Eagle-Weslake 7 Engine 19
Ret 28   Jackie Stewart BRM 5 Fuel Leak 9
Ret 38   Jo Bonnier Cooper-Maserati 3 Throttle 12
Ret 26   Graham Hill BRM 0 Engine 11
DNQ 34   Phil Hill Eagle-Climax
DNQ 32   Chris Amon Brabham-BRM
Source:[1]

Championship standings after the race edit

  • Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 5 results counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References edit

  1. ^ "1966 Italian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 2 August 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Italy 1966 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 1 March 2019.


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