1957 Italian Grand Prix
Stirling Moss continued his and Vanwall’s strong second half of the season with his third win in four races. Champion Juan Manuel Fangio finished second for what would be his 35th and final career podium.
1963 Italian Grand Prix
Jim Clark took his fifth victory of the season to secure his first world title with three races still left in the season – impressive, considering there were only 10 races back then!
1968 Italian Grand Prix
Bruce McLaren, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart and Jo Siffert all took turns leading, but in a race of attrition it was Denny Hulme who won for McLaren. Johnny Servoz-Gavin finished second for Matra in just his third grand prix, though it would prove to be the only podium of his career.
1974 Italian Grand Prix
A bad day for the Tifosi as the Ferraris of Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni retired from the lead with engine failure within a few laps of each other. Emerson Fittipaldi and Jody Scheckter finished the race second and third, meaning just eight points separated all four drivers in the championship with two races to go. Ronnie Peterson won the race for Lotus, his third of the season.
1985 Italian Grand Prix
Alain Prost and Keke Rosberg battled for victory, with Prost coming on top when the Honda engine in Rosberg’s Williams expired. Nelson Piquet’s Brabham kept running long enough for him to finish second with pole-sitter Ayrton Senna third. Marc Surer finished fourth, the final points of his career.
1991 Italian Grand Prix
Michael Schumacher made his first appearance for Benetton having made the controversial switch from Jordan after just one race. He immediately delivered on his promise, outqualifying and outracing his triple world champion teammate Nelson Piquet to finish fifth. Nigel Mansell took the win after a scrap with Ayrton Senna, though it could have been Riccardo Patrese – he took the lead at half-distance, only to retire a lap later.
1996 Italian Grand Prix
Jean Alesi made a frankly ridiculous start to go from sixth to first by the first corner, only to slip back behind Damon Hill following a mistake at the Lesmos. Hill then threw it all away by clipping the tyre barriers at the Rettifilio and spinning out, handing the lead back to Alesi. He stayed out in front until the pit stops, when Michael Schumacher managed to leapfrog him to give Ferrari its first home victory in eight years.
2013 Italian Grand Prix
Sebastian Vettel won from Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber, but the star of the race had to be Nico Hulkenberg. Having qualified his Sauber an excellent third, he managed to hold off Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes for the entire race to finish a fine fifth.
Birthdays
Stefan Johansson (born 1956) had a patchy start to his F1 career with brief stints at Shadow, Spirit, Tyrrell and Toleman not really yielding much in the way of results. His big break came in 1985 when he was drafted in to replace the sacked René Arnoux at Ferrari. But despite spending two seasons with the Scuderia and one with McLaren he never managed to win a race, and for a while held the record of having the most podiums without a win (12). After spending time with Ligier, Onyx, AGS and Footwork, he left the sport in 1991.
Aguri Suzuki (born 1960) failed to pre-qualify for all 16 races in the 1989 season, driving for Zakspeed. For 1990 he switched to Larrousse and had a rather better time of things, becoming the first Japanese driver to score a podium when he finished third in his home race at Suzuka. He later drove for Footwork, Jordan and Ligier, with his last races coming during the 1995 season. He made a return to the sport in 2006 with his own Honda-backed Super Aguri team, which managed some giant-killing performances before the money ran out in 2008.
After finishing runner-up in the 2009 GP2 championship, Vitaly Petrov (born 1980) joined Renault in 2010, becoming Russia’s first F1 driver. He stayed with the team in 2011, scoring a podium in Australia, but was left without a drive following a year with Caterham in 2012.
