Monaco GP 1961

Monaco GP, 1961

The 1961 World Championship - with its new 1.5-liter formula - did not start until mid May. Cooper retained the 1960 driver lineup of Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren while Ferrari stayed with Ritchie Ginther, Phil Hill and Wolfgang Von Trips. Jo Bonnier and Dan Gurney had transferred from BRM to the Porsche F1 team with Hans Herrmann, while BRP had lost Tony Brooks to BRM and Olivier Gendebien to the new Equipe Nationale Belge which had a pair of Emeryson-Maseratis. John Surtees had transferred from Team Lotus to drive a Reg Parnell Racing Cooper.

Practice saw Jim Clark crash his Lotus heavily at Ste Devote and Lotus's woes continued when Innes Ireland crashed in the tunnel during the final session, destroying his car and breaking his leg. Moss took pole in his Rob Walker Lotus with Ginther's Ferrari and Clark's Lotus sharing the front row. Graham and Phil Hill shared the second row.

At the start Ginther took the lead from Clark and Moss but Jimmy soon had to pit with fuel pump problems and so Bonnier and Gurney took third and fourth in their Porsches.

On lap 14 both Moss and Bonnier were able to pass Ginther and 10 laps later Phil Hill passed both his team mate and Bonnier to move into second but there was no way he was going to catch Moss, who was driving one of the greatest races of his illustrious career. Towards mid-distance Ginther fought back, passing Hill for second and chasing after Moss, closing the gap to just three seconds. Moss responded and won a magnificent victory despite an enormous power disadvantage. Hill finished third and Von Trips was classified fourth despite crashing on the last lap.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 20 Stirling Moss Lotus-Climax 18 100 2h45m50.100s  1 
2 36 Richie Ginther Ferrari 156 100 2h45m53.700s  2 
3 38 Phil Hill Ferrari 156 100 2h46m31.400s  5 
4r 40 Wolfgang von Trips Ferrari 156 98 Engine/ Accident 6 
5 4 Dan Gurney Porsche 718 98  10 
6 26 Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax T55 95  7 
7 42 Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Maserati T51 95  15 
8 32 Cliff Allison Lotus-Climax 18 93  14 
9 6 Hans Herrmann Porsche 718 91  12 
10 28 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 21 89  3 
11r 22 John Surtees Cooper-Climax T53 68 Fuel Pump 11 
12r 2 Jo Bonnier Porsche 787 59 Fuel Injection Pump Drive 9 
13r 16 Tony Brooks BRM-Climax P48/57 54 Engine 8 
r 8 Michel May Lotus-Climax 18 42 Gearbox 13 
r 24 Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax T55 38 Misfire 16 
r 18 Graham Hill BRM-Climax P48/57 11 Fuel Pump 4 
ns 30 Innes Ireland Lotus-Climax 21  Accident/ Injury 17 
nq 14 Masten Gregory Cooper-Climax T53   18 
nq 10 Lucien Bianchi Emeryson-Maserati (61)   19 
nq 34 Henry Taylor Lotus-Climax 18   20 
nq 12 Olivier Gendebien Emeryson-Maserati (61)   21