1966 Mexican Grand Prix

  1966 Mexican Grand Prix

Race details
Race 9 of 9 in the 1966 Formula One season
Date	October 23, 1966
Official name	V Gran Premio de Mexico
Location	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City, Mexico
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.000 km (3.107 mi)
Distance	65 laps, 325.000 km (201.96 mi)
Weather	Warm, clear
Pole position
Driver	John Surtees	Cooper-Maserati
Time	1:53.18
Fastest lap
Driver	Richie Ginther	Honda
Time	1:53.75
Podium
First	John Surtees	Cooper-Maserati
Second	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco
Third	Denny Hulme	Brabham-Repco

The 1966 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on October 23, 1966. It was the ninth and final round of the 1966 World Championship. The race was the fifth Mexican Grand Prix. The race was held over 65 laps of the five kilometre circuit for a race distance of 325 kilometres.

The race was won by British driver John Surtees driving a Cooper T81, his first such victory since leaving Scuderia Ferrari to join Cooper Car Company. Surtees lead home the newly crowned world champion Australian owner-driver Jack Brabham driving a Brabham BT20 by eight seconds. A lap down in third place, also driving a Brabham BT20 was Brabham's team mate New Zealander Denny Hulme.

Surtees victory promoted him to second place in the championship, vaulting past Austrian driver Jochen Rindt of the Cooper team.

Race report

John Surtees dominated to take his first win since transferring from Ferrari to Cooper in mid season. He took the lead from Jack Brabham on lap 6 and was never challenged. With Jim Clark suffering gearbox problems and both BRMs retiring, Richie Ginther was the only contender left. However he too had mechanical problems, and dropped back. Brabham rallied at the end to close, but Surtees had lapped the entire field up to second. The first year of 3-litre engines had resulted in wins for five different makes of car, using five different engines.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	7	John Surtees	Cooper-Maserati	65	2:06:35.34	1	9
2	5	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	65	+ 7.88	4	6
3	6	Denny Hulme	Brabham-Repco	64	+ 1 lap	6	4
4	12	Richie Ginther	Honda	64	+ 1 lap	3	3
5	15	Dan Gurney	Eagle-Climax	64	+ 1 lap	9	2
6	22	Jo Bonnier	Cooper-Maserati	63	+ 2 laps	12	1
7	2	Peter Arundell	Lotus-BRM	61	+ 4 laps	17
8	14	Ronnie Bucknum	Honda	60	+ 5 laps	13
Ret	11	Pedro Rodríguez	Lotus-BRM	49	Differential	8
Ret	17	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	40	Engine	14
Ret	19	Jo Siffert	Cooper-Maserati	33	Suspension	11
Ret	8	Jochen Rindt	Cooper-Maserati	32	Suspension	5
Ret	10	Innes Ireland	BRM	28	Transmission	16
Ret	4	Jackie Stewart	BRM	26	Oil Leak	10
Ret	16	Bob Bondurant	Eagle-Weslake	24	Fuel System	18
Ret	3	Graham Hill	BRM	18	Engine	7
Ret	1	Jim Clark	Lotus-BRM	9	Gearbox	2
Ret	9	Moisés Solana	Cooper-Maserati	9	Overheating	15
Source:[1]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jack Brabham 42 (45) 1 2 John Surtees 28 1 3 Jochen Rindt 22 (24) 3 4 Denny Hulme 18 1 5 Graham Hill 17

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Brabham-Repco 42 (49) 2 Ferrari 31 (32) 3 Cooper-Maserati 30 (35) 4 BRM 22 5 Lotus-BRM 13

• Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 5 results counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References