Italian GP 1965

Italian GP, 1965

After Jim Clark's victory at the Nurburgring on August 1, the Formula 1 teams had most of the summer off, although several turned up at Enna on August 15 for the Mediterranean GP. This was won by Jo Siffert in one of Rob Walker's Brabham's but was marked by a huge accident which left Mike Spence's Lotus somersaulting over the barriers into the reeds beside the Enna lake. Incredibly he was not seriously hurt and he was back in action at Monza alongside Clark. Team Lotus joined several others in running three cars for the event with Giacomo Russo (known as "Geki") renting the third car.

Ferrari had three cars with John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini being joined by sportscar driver Nino Vaccarella. Brabham ran three cars (as the team had on several occasions that year) with Dan Gurney and Denny Hulme being joined by Giancarlo Baghetti. Practice resulted in Clark taking pole position by two-tenths of a second with Surtees alongside him and Stewart completing the front row. Hill and Bandini shared row two while Ronnie Bucknum's Honda was on the third row with Jochen Rindt's Cooper and Spence.

At the start Clark took the lead with Stewart, Hill and Bandini chasing while Surtees made a poor start and dropped right back. Clark, Stewart and Hill all took turns at leading as they slipstreamed one another and they were soon joined by Surtees who had recovered from his problems at the start. He was without a clutch but this did not stop getting into the lead before gradually slipping back and eventually retiring. There was a similar slipstreaming battle in the midfield and the racing became very complicated when the leaders worked their way through this. Having battled all the way with the two BRMs Clark's race ended on lap 63 with a fuel pump failure. Hill looked set for victory but on the penultimate lap he made a mistake at the Parabolica and Stewart went into the lead and won his first Grand Prix victory in only his eighth World Championship event.

Hill followed him home while Gurney came home a lonely third.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 32 Jackie Stewart BRM P261 76 2h04m52.800s  3 
2 30 Graham Hill BRM P261 76 2h04m56.100s  4 
3 12 Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax BT11 76 2h05m09.300s  9 
4 4 Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 1512 76 2h06m08.700s  5 
5 16 Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax T77 75  11 
6 40 Richard Attwood Lotus-BRM 25 75  13 
7 42 Jo Bonnier Brabham-Climax BT7 74  14 
8 18 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Climax T77 74  7 
9 38 Innes Ireland Lotus-BRM 25 74  18 
10r 24 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 33 63 Fuel Pump 1 
11r 26 Mike Spence Lotus-Climax 33 62 Ignition 8 
12r 6 Nino Vaccarella Ferrari 158 58 Engine 15 
13r 50 Roberto Bussinello BRM P57 58 Engine 21 
14r 20 Richie Ginther Honda RA272 56 Ignition 17 
r 14 Denny Hulme Brabham-Climax BT11 46 Suspension 12 
r 46 Frank Gardner Brabham-BRM BT11 45 Engine 16 
r 44 Jo Siffert Brabham-BRM BT11 43 Gearbox 10 
r 28 Giacomo Russo (geki) Lotus-Climax 25 37 Transmission 20 
r 8 John Surtees Ferrari 1512 34 Clutch 2 
r 22 Ronnie Bucknum Honda RA272 27 Engine 6 
r 48 Masten Gregory BRM P57 22 Gearbox 23 
r 10 Giancarlo Baghetti Brabham-Climax BT7 12 Engine 19 
r 52 Giorgio Bassi BRM P57 8 Engine 22