German GP 1966

German GP, 1966

As the entry for the Grand Prix was rather small the organizers at the Nurburgring decided to run Formula 2 cars alongside the F1 machinery, although the races were treated as separate events. Ferrari entered three cars for Lorenzo Bandini, Mike Parkes and Lodovico Scarfiotti (this being an older V8 car) while there were few other changes with Lotus and BRM continuing with old engines rather than the BRM H16. The Formula 2 cars were headed by rising stars Jacky Ickx and Jean-Pierre Beltoise in their Matras. Guy Ligier's adventures with a private Cooper-Maserati ended with an accident in practice, the Frenchman suffering a broken leg when he lost control and was thrown from his car during practice on Friday.

Clark took pole position with a brilliant showing, while John Surtees (Cooper-Maserati), Jackie Stewart (BRM) and Scarfiotti shared the front row on the 4-3-4 grid. Jack Brabham was ahead of Bandini and Parkes on the second row with Dan Gurney's Eagle-Climax, Jochen Rindt's Cooper, Graham Hill's BRM and the similar car of privateer Bob Bondurant on the third row.

The conditions were overcast for the race with the track damp and while Surtees took the lead from Brabham and Bandini there was a serious accident at Quiddelbacher-Hohe when John Taylor's private Brabham-BRM collided with Ickx's Matra. Both cars spun off, Taylor's bursting into flames. The Leicester driver suffered serious burns from which he died a month later in hospital in Coblenz.

By the end of the first lap Brabham had taken the lead from Surtees with Rindt getting ahead of Bandini to take third place. Clark, Gurney and Stewart were also soon ahead of the Ferrari driver. Hill also overtook Bandini and he was then able to pass his team mate and Clark, who had dropped behind Gurney. Hulme then moved through the midfield and was squaring up to pass Gurney when he ran into ignition troubles and dropped back to retire. On lap 13 Clark made a rare mistake and crashed. This left Brabham, Surtees and Rindt unchallenged at the front. On the last lap Gurney suffered engine problems and was overtaken by Hill, Stewart and Bandini. Beltoise won the Formula 2 race, finishing eighth overall on the road.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 3 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco BT19 15 2h27m03.000s  5 
2 7 John Surtees Cooper-Maserati T81 15 2h27m47.400s  2 
3 8 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati T81 15 2h29m35.600s  9 
4 5 Graham Hill BRM P261 15 2h33m44.400s  10 
5 6 Jackie Stewart BRM P261 15 2h35m31.900s  3 
6 9 Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 312 15 2h37m59.400s  6 
7 12 Dan Gurney Eagle-Climax T1G 14  8 
8 34 Jean-Pierre Beltoise *Matra-Cosworth MS5 14 (1st F2 Section) 18 
9 26 Hubert Hahne *Matra-BRM MS5 14  27 
10 33 Jo Schlesser *Matra-Cosworth MS5 14  19 
11 28 Hans Herrmann *Brabham-Cosworth BT18 14  22 
12 2 Peter Arundell Lotus-BRM 33 14 (8th F1 Section) 17 
r 15 Mike Spence Lotus-BRM 25 12 Mechanical 13 
r 1 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 33 11 Accident 1 
r 20 Chris Lawrence Cooper-Ferrari T73 10 Suspension 26 
r 11 Ludovico Scarfiotti Ferrari 246 9 Electrics 4 
r 10 Mike Parkes Ferrari 312 9 Accident 7 
r 4 Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco BT20 8 Ignition 15 
r 31 Pedro Rodriguez *Lotus-Cosworth 44 7 Engine 20 
r 29 Alan Rees *Brabham-Cosworth BT18 4 Engine 24 
r 17 Jo Bonnier Cooper-Maserati T81 4 Clutch 12 
r 32 Piers Courage *Lotus-Cosworth 44 3 Accident 23 
r 14 Bob Bondurant BRM P261 3 Engine 11 
r 25 Kurt Ahrens Jr *Brabham-Cosworth BT18 3 Gearbox 21 
r 19 Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax BT11 2 Transmission 14 
r 27 Jacky Ickx *Matra-Cosworth MS5 1 Accident 16 
r 16 John Taylor Brabham-BRM BT11 0 Fatal Accident 25 
ns 35 Silvio Moser *Brabham-Cosworth BT16  Engine 28 
ns 30 Gerhard Mitter *Lotus-Cosworth 44  Driver Unfit (earlier Accident) 29 
ns 18 Guy Ligier Cooper-Maserati T81  Accident/ Injury 30