1964 Mexican Grand Prix

 1964 Mexican Grand Prix

Racing data
10th of 10 races of the 1964 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	III Gran Premio de México
Date:	October 25, 1964
Place:	Mexico City , Mexico
Course:	Magdalena Mixhuca
Length:	325 km in 65 laps of 5 km
Weather:	sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax
Time:	1: 57.24 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax
Time:	1: 58.37 min
Podium
First:	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax
Second:	John Surtees	Ferrari
Third:	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari

The 1964 Mexican Grand Prix took place on October 25, 1964 on the Magdalena Mixhuca near Mexico City and was the last race of the 1964 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

World Champion 1964: John Surtees

Since the 1964 South African Grand Prix was not part of the World Automobile Championship , the Mexican Grand Prix was the venue for the season finale for the first time. Until the 1970 Automobile World Championship , the Mexican Grand Prix was the last race on the calendar.

With Graham Hill , John Surtees and Jim Clark , three drivers had the chance to become world champions. Graham Hill and Surtees could have won the title with a win on their own, regardless of how the respective opponents would have been placed. Clark, on the other hand, was dependent on the placements of Surtees and Graham Hill, although he had previously won most of the races of the season. The situation was similar with the designers. For the first time in the history of the Automobile World Championship there were three contenders for the title before the last race. For Ferrari and BRM , one victory would have been enough to win the title, Lotus should have won and Ferrari was allowed to finish third at most. The rules for deleting the results also played a decisive role in the award of the title, as only the six best results counted. Surtees had only reached five points and so every point scored in the race counted for him, while Graham Hill had to finish at least third to improve in the drivers' standings.

Lotus registered two old Lotus 25s for Clark and Mike Spence and a new Lotus 33 for both drivers for the Grand Prix . Clark used the new vehicle in the race, Spence one of the old ones. The third driver for his only race of the season was registered with Lotus Moisés Solana ; this was his first race for the team. All three drivers drove for Lotus the following year. Ferrari entered again as the North American Racing Team , as the dispute between team boss Enzo Ferrari and the Italian Automobile Association continued. The vehicles, a Ferrari 158 for Surtees, a Ferrari 156 Aero for Pedro Rodríguez and a Ferrari 1512 for Lorenzo Bandini were painted blue and white again. Rodríguez drove for Ferrari for the first time; it was also his only race of the season. BRM ended the season with regular drivers Graham Hill and Richie Ginther , for whom it was the last race on BRM. He moved to Honda the following season . Phil Hill contested his last race in the automobile world championship with Cooper . The 1961 world champion retired and only competed once for the 1966 Italian Grand Prix , but did not qualify for this race.

BRP took part in a Grand Prix for the last time and withdrew from the automobile world championship after seven years. Innes Ireland switched to Reg Parnell Racing , Trevor Taylor took a year off and drove another race in 1966. Reg Parnell Racing reported three Brabham for Joakim Bonnier , Joseph Siffert and Hap Sharp . It was also the last race for Sharp.

With Clark and Taylor, two former winners took part in the Grand Prix; Clark has already won twice. Lotus was twice successful with the designers. In the drivers' standings, Graham Hill was in front of Surtees and Clark. In the constructors' championship, Ferrari was just ahead of BRM and Lotus.

training

There were two training sessions on Friday, it was sunny and dry. At first only Clark and Spence drove, then Ferrari, Ginther and Siffert followed. Only after half an hour were all vehicles on the route. Clark continuously improved his lap times and was about a second slower than the pole position time of the previous year. Many drivers had engine problems due to the high location of the track and the correspondingly lower air pressure. For this reason, the tire pressure was lowered and the gasoline mixing ratio adjusted, which caused the vehicles to lose power. During the training these parameters were adjusted and optimized again and again. Bandini improved to second place before being undercut by Dan Gurney . Clark was a second faster than the competition at this point.

The beginning of the second training session on Saturday was initially disturbed by a dog running free, which was almost run over by Chris Amon . After that, most of the drivers used the training to set up the cars for the race, times were hardly improved. Graham Hill needed several repairs to his car after several defects; at the end of the training session, the engine of his BRM was replaced.

Clark achieved the fifth pole position of the season and second in a row. In 1964, he started from position one in half of all races. Gurney finished second in front of the two Ferrari drivers Bandini and Surtees. Spence qualified in fifth, Graham Hill finished sixth. This ranking as a race result would have meant winning the drivers 'world championship for Clark and the constructors' world championship for Lotus. The first ten on the grid were completed by Jack Brabham , Bonnier, Rodríguez and McLaren. Bonnier was the best driver with a customer vehicle. The BRP were not competitive and qualified in the back field, more than five seconds slower than Clark's pole time.

run

On race day it got very hot and sunny. At these high temperatures, the vehicles were on the starting grid for over an hour. Before the start of the race, there was a warm-up lap in which Ginther was late because his engine would not start. In time for the start of the race, however, he was back at his starting position. As in training, there was another stray dog ​​that ran along the racetrack and was caught by the marshals. Clark won the starting duel and led the race from Gurney. Graham Hill stopped at the start and lost several positions. Surtees also fell far behind after engine problems on the first lap; then the Ferrari engine worked again without any errors. At the front, Clark extended his lead over Gurney and was two seconds ahead of him. With Graham Hill and Surtees driving outside of the points, Clark was on his way to winning the world championship. Behind Gurney, Bandini, Spence, Bonnier and Brabham fought for further points. While Clark led the race in a superior manner, Graham Hill and Surtees overtook their immediate opponents in midfield. Graham Hill passed his teammate Ginther, Surtees made up three positions and was right behind Graham Hill. The first retirement of the race was Taylor, who on lap six shut down his BRP due to overheating. Bonnier's suspension broke three laps later and Siffert parked his Brabham on lap 11 after an unsuccessful attempt to repair the fuel pump. Even Mike Hailwood vehicle overheated and he was eliminated.

Clark's lead on Gurney grew to seven seconds, while a gap of five seconds formed between Gurney and Bandini. In the chasing group, who were fighting for fourth place, Brabham and Spence were overtaken by Graham Hill, who two laps later also overtook Bandini and passed him. Spence, meanwhile, fell behind Brabham and Surtees. By improving to third place, Graham Hill was in a position that would have been enough for him to win the world title. After lap 18, Clark was 10 seconds ahead of Gurney, who was 12 seconds ahead of the group of pursuers for third place. Surtees had previously overtaken Brabham and was behind his team-mate Bandini. The positions remained unchanged in the following laps, only on lap 29 Spence lost a place to Rodríguez due to a driving error and the resulting spin. Only one lap later, Bandini attacked Graham Hill and got too close. The Ferrari hit the rear of the BRM and both vehicles spun off the track. Bandini continued the race in fourth place, while Graham Hill had his car's damaged exhausts repaired and fell far behind. For the first time in the race, this put Surtees in a position to win the drivers' title with his third place. On lap 33, Brabham, who was fifth, pitted with a technical defect that was not fixed. He was eliminated eleven laps later. Amon also did not reach the goal, a gearbox failure was the reason for his failure. Ireland, who also pitted, continued the race after the mechanics found no defects. He later finished the race in twelfth place.

Only three laps after the accident between Bandini and Graham Hill, Bandini overtook his teammate Surtees because he had the faster car of both drivers in the Ferrari 1512. That gave Clark the chance to win the title. Seven laps before the end of the race, however, an oil line broke on his Lotus and he then continuously lost oil, which he only noticed a few laps before the end of the race. In the last round he was eliminated, so Graham Hill would have become world champion. However, Ferrari recognized the new chance for both titles in time and instructed Bandini to let Surtees pass. Bandini took care of the stables and Surtees became driver world champion in 1964. It remained the only title that Surtees won in the world automobile championship. However, this made him the only rider to win the world championship in monoposto racing as well as on a motorcycle. Graham Hill had one point more than Surtees at the end of the season, but two of his points were lost due to the cancellation rule. He became vice world champion for the second time in a row. For Ferrari it was the second win of a constructors' world championship after 1961 . Ferrari only won this title again in 1975 . BRM came second in the constructors' championship, also due to the cancellation rules, without which BRM would have had two points more than Ferrari.

The winner of the race was Gurney, for him it was the second win of the season and the last for Brabham. Bandini was third behind Surtees, the other points went to Spence, Clark and Rodríguez. Clark was ranked fifth, as at the time of his failure he had a lap ahead of sixth-placed Rodríguez, who got the first point of his career. McLaren, Ginther, Phil Hill and Solana completed the first ten. After the race, Clark remarked that he was extremely unlucky and felt that he was a moral winner, even if it wouldn't win a world championship. Surtees, on the other hand, said in an interview that it was fantastic and until the end he didn't believe he had a chance at all.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Team Lotus	01	Jim Clark	Lotus 25	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
			Lotus 33
		Mike Spence	Lotus 33
	02	Jim Clark	Lotus 25
		Mike Spence	Lotus 33
	17th	Moisés Solana	Lotus 33
Owen Racing Organization	03	Graham Hill	BRM P261	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	04th	Richie Ginther
Brabham Racing Organization	05	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT11	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	06th	Dan Gurney	Brabham BT7
North American Racing Team	07th	John Surtees	Ferrari 158	Ferrari 1.5 V8	D.
	08th	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari 1512	Ferrari 1.5 B12
	18th	Pedro Rodríguez	Ferrari 156 Aero	Ferrari 1.5 V6
Cooper Car Company	09	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T73	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	10	Phil Hill
British Racing Partnership	11	Innes Ireland	BRP Mk2	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	12	Trevor Taylor
Reg Parnell Racing	14th	Mike Hailwood	Lotus 25	BRM 1.5 V8	D.
	15th	Chris Amon
Rob Walker Racing Team	16	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham BT7	Climax 1.5 V8	D.
	22nd	Joseph Siffert	Brabham BT11	BRM 1.5 V8
	23	Hap Sharp

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Jim Clark and Mike Spence both drove cars in practice sessions. After the first training session, Lotus changed the numbers of the vehicles, Jim Clark drove the race with the Lotus 33 with the number 1, Mike Spence with the Lotus 25 with the number 2.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	1: 57.24	153.53 km / h	01
02	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	1: 58.10	152.41 km / h	02
03	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari	1: 58.60	151.77 km / h	03
04th	John Surtees	Ferrari	1: 58.70	151.64 km / h	04th
05	Mike Spence	Lotus Climax	1: 59.21	150.99 km / h	05
06th	Graham Hill	BRM	1: 59.80	150.25 km / h	06th
07th	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	1: 59.99	150.01 km / h	07th
08th	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham-Climax	2: 00.17	149.79 km / h	08th
09	Pedro Rodríguez	Ferrari	2: 00.90	148.88 km / h	09
10	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	2: 01.12	148.61 km / h	10
11	Richie Ginther	BRM	2: 01.15	148.58 km / h	11
12	Chris Amon	Lotus BRM	2: 01.17	148.55 km / h	12
13	Joseph Siffert	Brabham-BRM	2: 01.37	148.31 km / h	13
14th	Moises Solana	Lotus Climax	2: 01.43	148.23 km / h	14th
15th	Phil Hill	Cooper-Climax	2: 02.00	147.54 km / h	15th
16	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	2: 02.35	147.12 km / h	16
17th	Mike Hailwood	Lotus BRM	2: 04.11	145.03 km / h	17th
18th	Trevor Taylor	BRP-BRM	2: 04.90	144.12 km / h	18th
19th	Hap Sharp	Brabham-BRM	2: 06.90	141.84 km / h	19th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Dan Gurney	Brabham-Climax	65	0	2: 09: 50.32	02
02	John Surtees	Ferrari	65	0	+1: 08.94	04th
03	Lorenzo Bandini	Ferrari	65	0	+1: 09.63	03
04th	Mike Spence	Lotus Climax	65	0	+1: 21.86	05
05	Jim Clark	Lotus Climax	64	0	+ 1 lap	01	1: 58.37
06th	Pedro Rodríguez	Ferrari	64	0	+ 1 lap	09
07th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	64	0	+ 1 lap	10
08th	Richie Ginther	BRM	64	0	+ 1 lap	11
09	Phil Hill	Cooper-Climax	63	0	+ 2 rounds	15th
10	Moises Solana	Lotus Climax	63	0	+ 2 rounds	14th
11	Graham Hill	BRM	63	1	+ 2 rounds	06th
12	Innes Ireland	BRP-BRM	61	1	+ 4 rounds	16
13	Hap Sharp	Brabham-BRM	60	0	+ 5 rounds	19th
-	Chris Amon	Lotus BRM	46	0	DNF	12		transmission
-	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Climax	44	1	DNF	07th		Electrics
-	Mike Hailwood	Lotus BRM	12	0	DNF	17th		Overheating
-	Joseph Siffert	Brabham-BRM	11	0	DNF	13		Fuel pump
-	Joakim Bonnier	Brabham-Climax	09	0	DNF	08th		suspension
-	Trevor Taylor	BRP-BRM	06th	0	DNF	18th		Overheating

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  John Surtees Ferrari 40 02  Graham Hill BRM 39 (41) 03  Jim Clark Lotus Climax 32 04th  Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 23 05  Richie Ginther BRM 23 06th  Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 19th 07th  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 13 08th  Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 11 09  Peter Arundell Lotus Climax 11 10  Jo Siffert Brabham-BRM 7th 11  Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax 5

Item driver constructor Points 12  Mike Spence Lotus Climax 4th 13  Tony Maggs BRM 4th 14th  Innes Ireland BRP-BRM 4th 15th  Jo Bonnier Cooper-Climax / Brabham-Climax 3 16  Chris Amon Lotus BRM 2 17th  Maurice Trintignant BRM 2 18th  Walt Hansgen Lotus Climax 2 19th  Phil Hill Cooper-Climax 1 20th  Trevor Taylor BRP-BRM 1 21st  Mike Hailwood Lotus BRM 1 22nd  Pedro Rodríguez Ferrari 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 45 (49) 02  BRM 42 (51) 03  Lotus Climax 37 (40) 04th  Brabham-Climax 30th 05  Cooper-Climax 16 06th  Brabham-BRM 7th 07th  BRP-BRM 5 08th  Lotus BRM 3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Heartache for Clark as Surtees becomes champion" (en.espn.co.uk on June 25, 2015)

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: Mexican GP, ​​1964 at grandprix.com
• III Gran Premio de Mexico at motorsportmagazine.com