Italian GP 1963

Italian GP, 1963

It had been planned for the Italian Grand Prix to use the full road and oval circuit at Monza but on Friday afternoon it was decided that it would be wiser to race on the shorter 3.57-mile track. Qualifying witnessed a nasty accident for Chris Amon in his Reg Parnell Lola, the New Zealander suffering serious injuries in the accident.

There had been a number of changes in the driver lineup with Ferrari hiring Lorenzo Bandini to replace the injured Willy Mairesse He was replaced at Scuderia Centro Sud by Tino Brambilla. Team Lotus also had a new driver as Trevor Taylor was out of action following a spectacular crash in the non-championship Mediterranean GP at Enna. As the team's reserve driver Peter Arundell was racing at Albi, Lotus hired Mike Spence to be Jim Clark's team mate.

In the end John Surtees was on pole position in his new Ferrari with Graham Hill alongside him on the front row in his BRM. Clark and Ritchie Ginther (BRM) shared the second row.

Clark and Hill disappeared off into the country side by side at front of the pack but by the end of the first lap Hill was ahead although he was under threat from Surtees with Clark back in third position. It was not until the fourth lap that Surtees took the lead and Clark took advantage of the situation to move to second place. The two then moved away from Hill but on lap 17 Surtees's race ended with an engine failure. Without another car to help him with a tow Clark slipped back towards Hill and Dan Gurney (Brabham) and the three of them became involved in an exciting battle for the lead. Eventually Hill began to have clutch problems and dropped away, leaving Clark and Gurney alone. When The American stopped on lap 63 with a fuel feed problem Clark was able to slow a little and this allowed Ginther to unlap himself to finish second over a minute and half behind Clark. Third place went to Bruce McLaren in his Cooper-Climax after Jack Brabham, Jo Bonnier and Innes Ireland all ran into trouble in the closing laps. Ireland was classified fourth despite not finishing the race with Brabham fifth and Tony Maggs sixth in his Cooper-Climax.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 8 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 25 86 2h24m19.600s  3 
2 10 Richie Ginther BRM P57 86 2h25m54.600s  4 
3 18 Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax T66 85  8 
4r 32 Innes Ireland BRP-BRM MK 1 84 Engine 10 
5 22 Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax BT3 84  7 
6 20 Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax T66 84  13 
7 58 Jo Bonnier Cooper-Climax T66 84  11 
8 30 Jim Hall Lotus-BRM 24 84  16 
9 66 Maurice Trintignant BRM P57 83  19 
10 40 Mike Hailwood Lola-Climax MK 4 82  17 
11 16 Phil Hill ATS 100 79  14 
12 48 Bob Anderson Lola-Climax MK 4 79  18 
13r 6 Mike Spence Lotus-Climax 25 73 Engine 9 
14r 24 Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax BT7 64 Fuel Injection 5 
15 14 Giancarlo Baghetti ATS 100 63  20 
16r 12 Graham Hill BRM P61 59 Clutch 2 
r 54 Jo Siffert Lotus-BRM 24 40 Engine 15 
r 2 Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 156 37 Gearbox 6 
r 42 Masten Gregory Lotus-BRM 24 26 Engine 12 
r 4 John Surtees Ferrari 156 16 Engine 1 
ns 38 Chris Amon Lola-Climax MK 4A  Accident/ Injury 21 
nq 64 Mario Araujo de Cabral Cooper-Climax T60   22 
nq 50 Ian Raby Gilby-BRM (62)   23 
nq 34 Tony Settember Scirocco-BRM SP   24 
nq 28 Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 718   25 
nq 62 Tino Brambilla Cooper-Maserati T53   26 
nq 46 Andre Pilette Lotus-Climax 18/21   27 
nq 44 Roberto Lippi De Tomaso-Ferrari F1   28