1964 Dutch Grand Prix
Jim Clark won comfortably after grabbing the lead at the start and sprinting off into the distance. John Surtees was the only other driver on the lead lap in second, ahead of Pete Arundell in third.
1998 Monaco Grand Prix
Mika Hakkinen dominated the weekend as he not only took his first (and only) Monaco win but put the cherry on the top by making it a grand chelem as well. Michael Schumacher ruined his race when he tried to pass the Benetton of Alex Wurz for second at the Loews Hairpin, only to discover that the Austrian wasn’t in the mood to give up the place easily. He fought back ahead at the next turn, leaving Schumacher to lunge his way back past at Portier – this time with a hefty bit of contact. Schumacher’s suspension broke and he had to pit for repairs, while Wurz’s gave way a few laps later, causing him to crash heavily in the tunnel and ending what was looking like a strong run to a podium. Giancarlo Fisichella took second in the end ahead of Eddie Irvine, with Mika Salo a fine fourth for Arrows.
2009 Monaco Grand Prix
Jenson Button led home a Brawn GP one-two, with Kimi Raikkonen finally delivering Ferrari its first podium of the season after the team initially struggled to get a handle on the KERS-equipped F60.
After winning, a jubilant Button forgot about Monaco’s podium procedure and stopped in the pit lane instead of continuing onto the pit straight. Undeterred, Button hopped out of his car and, despite 100-minutes of racing under his belt, he nonchalantly jogged back out of the pit entrance, around the final corner and down the pit straight (with his helmet on and everything), waving to the crowd as he did so. It was a great moment as he celebrated his fifth win from the first six races.
2015 Monaco Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton was looking well on course to take an easy win having dominated the entire weekend until a collision between Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean brought the safety car out. Mercedes figured Hamilton had enough of a gap to be able to pit for new tyres and regain the lead, but he got caught up behind the safety car more than expected. He also missed his marks in the pit stop and had to wait for Felipe Nasr’s Sauber to be released. That meant that when he rejoined the track, Nico Rosberg jumped ahead of him, led the final few laps and claimed his third Monaco win in a row, while a furious Hamilton dropped to third behind Sebastian Vettel.
Birthdays
Lamberto Leoni (born 1953) entered five races across 1977 and 1978, but only qualified for two of them – one resulted in a retirement, the other in a failure to start.
Ivan Capelli (born 1963) performed miracles with the March/Leyton House team in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He took podiums for March in 1988 (and even occasionally took it to the dominant McLaren team) and in the 1990 French GP came within just a couple of laps of winning for Leyton House until a slighy engine gremlin dropped him to second. In 1992 he finally got a break for a big team when he joined Ferrari, but the car was awful, Capelli struggled, and he was fired before the end of the year. He joined Jordan the following year, but his motivation was gone and he quit the team – and F1 – after two races.
