British GP 1966

British GP, 1966

There was no sign of Ferrari when the Formula 1 circus arrived at Brands Hatch, the Italian team plagued by strikes in Italy, but the field was padded out with an extra Brabham (with a Climax engine) for rising star Chris Irwin. Team Lotus had given up with the BRM H16 car and the 43 chassis and so Jim Clark and Peter Arundell were running with one 2-liter Climax engine (for Clark) and a BRM V8 for Arundell. Jackie Stewart had recovered from his injuries in Belgium and was back in action while Bruce McLaren had fitted his car with a Serenissima V8. The field was bolstered by a variety of local machinery including Trevor Taylor in a Shannon and Chris Lawrence in a Cooper which had been fitted with a Ferrari sportscar engine.

In practice there was no doubt that the Brabham-Repco had been developed into a winning machine, Jack Brabham's win at Reims had been fortunate but with out the Ferraris the Australian's cars were well clear. Denny Hulme was second quickest and Gurney's Eagle-Climax qualified third (the team still awaiting the arrival of the new Weslake V12 engine). Hill and Clark shared the second row with Stewart on row three alongside the Cooper-Maseratis of Jochen Rindt and John Surtees.

It had rained before the race but as the track was drying most of the field decided to use normal tires. Rindt and Surtees decided to stay on wet rubber and so at the start they had an advantage and while Brabham led, Rindt moved up to second and Surtees to third. As the track dried they came under attack from Hill and Clark, Gurney having disappeared with engine trouble. As the Coopers fell back, Hulme attacked Hill and Clark. On lap 40 he moved to second place. Clark soon disappeared to the pits without brakes. He rejoined and drove brilliantly to catch and pass Surtees and Rindt in the closing laps to take fourth place.

But it had been a dominant showing by the Brabham-Repco team. The first of several such races in the course of the summer.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 5 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco BT19 80 2h13m13.400s  1 
2 6 Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco BT20 80 2h13m23.000s  2 
3 3 Graham Hill BRM P261 79  4 
4 1 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 33 79  5 
5 11 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati T81 79  7 
6 14 Bruce McLaren McLaren-Serenissima M2B 78  13 
7 7 Chris Irwin Brabham-Climax BT22 78  12 
8 22 John Taylor Brabham-BRM BT11 76  16 
9 25 Bob Bondurant BRM P261 76  14 
10 19 Guy Ligier Cooper-Maserati T81 75  17 
11 24 Chris Lawrence Cooper-Ferrari T73 73  19 
nc 20 Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati T81 70  11 
nc 21 Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax BT11 70  10 
r 12 John Surtees Cooper-Maserati T81 67 Mechanical 6 
r 18 Jo Bonnier Brabham-Climax BT7 42 Clutch 15 
r 2 Peter Arundell Lotus-BRM 33 32 Gearbox 20 
r 4 Jackie Stewart BRM P261 17 Engine 8 
r 17 Mike Spence Lotus-BRM 25 15 Mechanical 9 
r 16 Dan Gurney Eagle-Climax T1G 9 Engine 3 
r 23 Trevor Taylor Shannon-Climax MK 1 0 Fuel Tank 18