Monaco GP 1967

Monaco GP, 1967

The second round of the 1967 World Championship was five months after the first and much changed since Pedro Rodriguez's unexpected victory for Cooper at Kyalami. The usual pre-season non-championship races had produced some unusual results with Dan Gurney winning the Race of Champions in his Eagle-Weslake and Mike Parkes winning the International Trophy for Ferrari. Wheel manufacturer John Pearce's plans to enter Formula 1 with an all-aluminium Pearce chassis and a Martin V8 engine ended when the team's transporter caught fire and was burned out but there was still a good field for the Monaco GP although the field was bolstered by a pair of Formula 2 Matra, although Jean-Pierre Beltoise failed to qualify.

Jack Brabham took pole position with Ferrari's Lorenzo Bandini alongside him on the front row. The second row featured John Surtees in the Honda and Denny Hulme in the second Brabham while Jim Clark (Lotus-Climax) shared the third row with Stewart's BRM. Then came Gurney and Graham Hill in the second Lotus (this one being powered by a BRM engine). The Cooper-Maseratis were not very competitive with Rob Walker's entry for Jo Siffert faster than the factory cars. Bruce McLaren had decided to use a BRM V8 engine after his adventures in 1966 with Ford and Serenissima and was 10th on the grid.

The race began with Bandini going into the lead. Brabham's Repco engine blew up almost immediately and he spun in the middle of the pack, causing some worrying moments although only Siffert damaged his car and had to pit for repairs. On the second lap Clark went off and dropped to the back of the field while Hulme and Stewart managed to scramble ahead of Bandini. Hulme stayed ahead until the sixth lap but then Stewart went ahead but on lap the BRM suffered a transmission failure and so Hulme was back in the lead. The order settled down with Bandini second and McLaren third, after Surtees disappeared with an engine failure. Clark fought back up to fourth but then retired with a shock absorber failure. This promoted Amon to fourth place.

Bandini then began to close on Hulme while McLaren had to pit with electrical trouble and dropped behind Amon and Hill. On lap 82 Bandini lost control of his car at the chicane and the car overturned and caught fire with Bandini trapped underneath. The fire was put out and Bandini rescued and rushed to hospital.

Hulme continued to the finish unchallenged but Amon suffered a puncture with just eight laps to go and dropped to third behind Hill. Many of the F1 stars then hurried off to the United States to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

Bandini died of serious burns on the Wednesday after the race.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 9 Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco BT20 100 2h34m34.300s  4 
2 14 Graham Hill Lotus-BRM 33 99  8 
3 20 Chris Amon Ferrari 312 98  14 
4 16 Bruce McLaren McLaren-BRM M4B 97  10 
5 11 Pedro Rodriguez Cooper-Maserati T81 96  16 
6 5 Mike Spence BRM P83 96  12 
r 18 Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 312 81 Fatal Accident 2 
r 6 Piers Courage BRM P261 64 Spin 13 
r 12 Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 33 42 Suspension 5 
r 7 John Surtees Honda RA273 32 Engine 3 
r 17 Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati T81 31 Engine 9 
r 10 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati T81 14 Gearbox 15 
r 4 Jackie Stewart BRM P261 14 Transmission 6 
r 23 Dan Gurney Eagle-Weslake T1G 4 Fuel Pump 7 
r 2 Johnny Servoz-Gavin Matra-Cosworth MS7 4 Fuel Injection 11 
r 8 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco BT19 0 Engine 1 
nq 15 Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax BT11   17 
nq 1 Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra-Cosworth MS7   18 
nq 22 Richie Ginther Eagle-Weslake T1G   19