1964 French Grand Prix

 1964 French Grand Prix

Racing data
4th of 10 races of the 1964 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	L Grand Prix de l'ACF
Date:	June 28, 1964
Place:	Rouen , France
Course:	Rouen-les-Essarts
Length:	372.894 km in 57 laps of 6.542 km
Weather:	sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax
Time:	2: 09.6 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jack Brabham (Round 44)	Brabham-Climax
Time:	2: 11.4 min
Podium
First:	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax
Second:	Graham Hill	BRM
Third:	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax

The 1964 French Grand Prix took place on June 28, 1964 at Rouen-les-Essarts near Rouen and was the fourth race of the 1964 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

Dan Gurney wins first race for Brabham

Debut win of the designer Brabham with the Brabham BT7

The venue for the French Grand Prix changed again to Rouen-les-Essarts, after the Grand Prix last took place on this circuit in 1962 . In the following years, the venue changed successively between the Circuit de Charade , the Circuit de Reims-Gueux and Le Mans before the 1968 World Automobile Championship drove one last time in Rouen-les-Essarts.

For the second time, Lotus entered the new Lotus 33 for a Grand Prix, but Jim Clark decided to use the older Lotus 25 again in the race, which further delayed the debut of the Lotus 33. This only took place at the German Grand Prix , the race after that. Even Peter Arundell drove the Lotus 25, for him it was the last race of the season. Due to a break from injury, he did not return to the World Automobile Championship and the Lotus factory team until 1966 . After two races Pause drove Maurice Trintignant his second race of the season for British Racing Partnership returned Mike Hailwood back and was next to Chris Amon and Peter Revson reported for the team. The Scuderia Centro Sud and the Rob Walker Racing Team paused and did not take part in the race.

With Jack Brabham , Dan Gurney and Clark, three former winners of the French Grand Prix took part, only Gurney previously won on this circuit. Ferrari was successful six times with the designers , Cooper and Lotus once each. Only Ferrari had previously won a race in Rouen. In the drivers' championship, Clark was seven points ahead of Graham Hill and twelve points ahead of Richie Ginther . In the constructors' championship, Lotus was seven points ahead of BRM and 14 points ahead of Cooper.

training

After two first starting positions from Gurney, Clark reached his second pole position of the season, he was half a second faster than the second-placed Gurney. Another second behind was John Surtees on Ferrari ahead of Arundell and Brabham. BRM was not as competitive as in the previous races. Graham Hill finished sixth and Ginther ninth, both more than two seconds slower than pole time. The first ten were completed by the two Cooper drivers and Lorenzo Bandini . It was followed by the BRP of Innes Ireland and Trevor Taylor .

The drivers with customer vehicles in the back field qualified by a considerable margin. Hailwood was the best of these drivers in 13th place. Since there was no practice session on Saturday, he flew to the Netherlands for another race that day and won it. Due to a pilots strike, he was forced to drive back to the racetrack overnight. He was back in time and drove Revson's car.

run

The order at the top remained unchanged at the start. Clark led the race ahead of Gurney and Surtees, while McLaren lost many positions due to a spin and fell back to last place. Clark and Gurney set themselves apart from the competition in the following racing laps. This was also helped by Surtees' engine failure on lap six and a spin from Graham Hill, which brought Brabham up to third place. After several overtaking maneuvers, Graham Hill worked his way up to fourth position by lap 24. In addition to Surtees, Siffert was also eliminated in the early stages of the race, the reason being a defective clutch.

Clark dominated the race and led half of the Grand Prix ahead of Gurney until he retired with an engine failure. Gurney took the lead on lap 31 and held it until the end of the race. More than a minute behind Gurney, his team-mate Brabham followed, but was attacked by Graham Hill. Graham Hill overtook his opponent on lap 37 and the two dueled each other in a close duel with various overtaking maneuvers until the end of the race. Arundell was right behind it at first, then he fell back because the duel in front of him kicked up a lot of dirt and stones that collected in the coolers of his lotus.

Gurney had so much lead that he slowed down in the end and took his first win of the season. It was the first victory in the history of the Brabham racing team, followed by 34 more in the decades that followed. Gurney won the French Grand Prix for the second and final time. Jack Brabham lost to Graham Hill at the end of the race, less than a second behind. With the victory of his team-mate, he became the first to be victorious both as a driver and as a designer in the automobile world championship. He also drove the fastest race lap, the last time he had achieved this three years earlier at the 1961 US Grand Prix and it remained his only fastest race lap of the season. The other points were occupied by Arundell, Ginther and McLaren. In a Formula 2 race a few days later, Arundell had an accident and was seriously injured, so that he was out the rest of the season and 1965 . It was not until the 1966 US Grand Prix that he reached the points again. Phil Hill finished seventh ahead of Hailwood, Bandini and Amon.

In the drivers' championship, Clark's lead over Graham Hill was reduced to one point. Ginther and Arundell were tied for third place after the race. In the constructors' championship, BRM came within four points of the leading Lotus, Brabham improved two places to third place, eleven points behind Lotus.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Team Lotus	02	Jim Clark	Lotus 25	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
			Lotus 33
	04th	Peter Arundell	Lotus 25
Owen Racing Organization	08th	Graham Hill	BRM P261	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	10	Richie Ginther
Cooper Car Company	10	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T73	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	12	Phil Hill
British Racing Partnership	16	Innes Ireland	BRP Mk1	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	18th	Trevor Taylor	BRP Mk2
Brabham Racing Organization	20th	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT7	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	22nd	Dan Gurney
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	24	John Surtees	Ferrari 158	Ferrari 1.5 V8	D.
	26th	Lorenzo Bandini
Maurice Trintignant	28	Maurice Trintignant	BRM P57	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
Siffert Racing Team	30th	Jo Siffert	Brabham BT11	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
DW Racing Enterprises	32	Bob Anderson	Brabham BT11	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
Reg Parnell Racing	34	Chris Amon	Lotus 25	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	36	Peter Revson
		Mike Hailwood

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Jim Clark drove both cars in practice, the Lotus 25 with the number 2 in the race.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Mike Hailwood drove the car with the number 34 in practice sessions and in the race.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	2: 09.6	181.72 km / h	01
02	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	2: 10.1	181.02 km / h	02
03	John Surtees	Scuderia Ferrari	2: 11.1	179.64 km / h	03
04th	Peter Arundell	Lotus Climax	2: 11.6	178.96 km / h	04th
05	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	2: 11.8	178.69 km / h	05
06th	Graham Hill	BRM	2: 12.1	178.28 km / h	06th
07th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	2: 12.4	177.88 km / h	07th
08th	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari	2: 12.8	177.34 km / h	08th
09	Richie Ginther	BRM	2: 13.9	175.89 km / h	09
10	Phil Hill	Cooper-Climax	2: 14.5	175.10 km / h	10
11	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	2: 14.8	174.71 km / h	11
12	Trevor Taylor	BRP-BRM	2: 14.9	174.58 km / h	12
13	Mike Hailwood	Lotus BRM	2: 16.2	172.92 km / h	13
14th	Chris Amon	Lotus BRM	2: 16.4	172.66 km / h	14th
15th	Bob Anderson	Brabham-Climax	2: 16.9	172.03 km / h	15th
16	Maurice Trintignant	BRM	2: 21.5	166.44 km / h	16
17th	Jo Siffert	Brabham-BRM	2: 23.6	164.01 km / h	17th
18th	Peter Revson	Lotus BRM	no time	-	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	57	0	2: 07: 49.1	02	2: 12.7
02	Graham Hill	BRM	57	0	+ 24.1	06th	2: 12.1
03	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	57	0	+ 24.9	05	2: 11.4
04th	Peter Arundell	Lotus Climax	57	0	+1: 10.6	04th	2: 12.8
05	Richie Ginther	BRM	57	0	+ 2: 12.1	09	2: 14.3
06th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	56	0	+ 1 lap	07th	2: 12.5
07th	Phil Hill	Cooper-Climax	56	0	+ 1 lap	10	2: 15.4
08th	Mike Hailwood	Lotus BRM	56	0	+ 1 lap	13	2: 14.8
09	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari	55	0	+ 2 rounds	08th	2: 16.2
10	Chris Amon	Lotus BRM	53	0	+ 4 rounds	14th	2: 16.6
11	Maurice Trintignant	BRM	53	0	+ 5 rounds	16	2: 20.4
12	Bob Anderson	Brabham-Climax	50	0	+ 7 rounds	15th	2: 16.0
-	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	32	0	DNF	11	2: 16.2	Lathe operator
-	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	31	1	DNF	01	2: 12.2	Engine failure
-	John Surtees	Ferrari	06th	1	DNF	03	2: 18.2	Engine failure
-	Trevor Taylor	BRP-BRM	06th	0	DNF	12	2: 20.9	Brakes / accident
-	Jo Siffert	Brabham-BRM	04th	0	DNF	17th	2: 26.4	coupling
-	Peter Revson	Lotus BRM	00	0	DNS			Used car by Hailwood

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 points. Only the six best results from ten races counted. In the constructors' championship, only the points of the best placed driver on a team counted.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jim Clark Lotus Climax 21st 02  Graham Hill BRM 20th 03  Richie Ginther BRM 11 04th  Peter Arundell Lotus Climax 11 05  Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 10 06th  Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 8th 07th  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 7th 08th  John Surtees Ferrari 6th 09  Jo Bonnier Cooper-Climax 2 10  Chris Amon Lotus BRM 2 11  Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 1 12  Mike Hailwood Lotus BRM 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Lotus Climax 25th 02  BRM 21st 03  Brabham-Climax 14th 04th  Cooper-Climax 9 05  Ferrari 6th 06th  Lotus BRM 3

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: French GP, 1964 at grandprix.com
• Gurney gives Brabham his first win at en.espn.co.uk