[Race] The GROAT - Round 2 - 1967 Monza vs 2005 Suzuka

[crmalcolm]

1967 Monza
The start was rather rushed ahead of the race, with the drivers' briefing skipped entirely, as the cars got ready to start on the dummy grid. However, the field would not go from the proper grid, as the officials showed the wrong flag to signal the field to move off from the dummy grid.

Indeed, the officials failed to raise the green flag to tell the pole sitter, Jim Clark, to pull forward before the 30 second mark, so there was some confusion as to what was happening. An official finally showed a green flag to Clark as the thirty second countdown ended, with the Scot crawling forward as expected. However, just as the official withdrew, the starter unfurled the Italian tricolour to signal the start, with the front row still only halfway to the grid.

Immediately, Jack Brabham dropped the clutch and roared away as soon as he saw the tricolour flutter, a smoking start that left tyre marks from the dummy grid all the way past the proper grid. Dan Gurney was another quick reactor, swinging past Bruce McLaren, while Chris Amon had to take avoiding action to miss Clark as the Scot got caught between procedure and pressure behind. Almost the entire field was on its way to Curva Grande before the starter started waving the tricolour properly, almost as if to complete the farcical start.

However, the on-track action was far from farcical, as Gurney pulled an excellent pass on Brabham through the Lesmo bends to take the lead. The New Yorker continued to lead from Brabham, Graham Hill and Clark, with McLaren, Jackie Stewart, Denny Hulme and Amon chasing hard. Under FIA rules the jump start should have been a disqualification, but as the entire field had done so, there was little chance of that fate occurring.

The man on the move during the opening stages would be Clark, with the Scot taking Hill and Brabham on lap two, the latter move also allowing his teammate to take the Australian. Clark then endured a one lap dogfight with Gurney for the lead, the two darting across the circuit on the run to Parabolica to complete lap three, with the Scot ahead. Gurney, however, was determined to keep with him and so opted to run in the Lotus' wake to try and unsettle him, as the leading pair blasted away from the rest.

Elsewhere, Hulme had had a strong opening phase of the race to take McLaren and Stewart, before joining Hill and Brabham in joining the breakaway group trying to catch the leaders. Brabham opted to let his New Zealand based teammate through on lap four, a move that ultimately put Hulme into third as Gurney failed to appear. The New Yorker had had a connecting rod fail due to a lose bolt, leaving the Weslake engine starved of oil which was being dumped along the sweeping surface of the Monza circuit.

The demise of Gurney left Clark with a one second lead over teammate Hill, who was now beginning to come under attack from Hulme. Brabham was tagging onto the back of his teammate, but already losing time, while Stewart was bridging the gap between the top four and the next four, heading a group containing McLaren, Amon, John Surtees and Jochen Rindt. There would then a be a distinct gap when Surtees pitted to have a rear tyre checked after sliding wide at Lesmo, as Clark eased off his pace after detecting a handling problem.

Hulme managed to take the two Lotuses once Clark's pace dropped, Hill falling on lap nine with the Scot following on lap ten, although Clark fought back to lead into lap eleven. Yet, all was not well in the #20 Lotus, and when Clark finally ran down through the options of the cause, the Scot could be seen leaning out of his cockpit and glancing at the right rear. A lap later and Clark was in for a change, with Hulme, Hill and Brabham having already got through on the run to Parabolica.

It would be a lap before Clark reappeared, tagging onto the back of the leading trio, with the battle for fourth between Amon, McLaren, Surtees and Rindt ferocious enough to cost them time compared to the leaders. When the leaders came up to lap the first of the backmarkers, those being Jo Bonnier, Guy Ligier and Jacky Ickx, Brabham used the sudden lack of space to take the lead. Hulme led on the following lap before Hill darted around the back of Ickx to lead, while Clark was back already climbing through the order by tagging onto the leaders.

Once the backmarkers dried up, Clark began to get involved in the leading battle, getting himself between Hulme and Brabham on lap 21. Two laps later and the Scot was drafting past teammate Hill, but this move allowed Hulme to pull into his slipstream and therefore take the lead. Brabham's pace then began to fall when the throttle jammed and caused the engine revs to jump too high, reducing power output, while Clark tried to break away by setting a new lap record of 1:28.5.

As Clark began to physically move up the field by taking Jo Siffert and Mike Spence, just as Hill charged past Hulme to retake the lead on lap 28. The latest move was, however, a symptom of an issue for the New Zealander's Repco engine, as his pace deteriorated soon after. Hulme would pull out of the race two laps later with a broken head gasket, leaving Hill with a huge lead over Brabham, while also just tagging onto the back of Clark.

At half distance Clark and Hill drafted past Giancarlo Baghetti in the third of the Lotus 49s, meaning they were in number order across the line. Clark's pace was towing Hill around Monza at record pace, with the Englishman's lead over Brabham growing by two seconds a lap as a result. Baghetti's pace also picked up as his temporary teammates went past, the Italian tagging onto the back of the Brits for a few laps to get on the verge of the points.

Elsewhere, mechanical fatigue was beginning to bite, with Stewart going out of the race, his engine giving up the ghost in a cloud of smoke, just as he had overtaken Ickx. McLaren was next, his BRM V12 destroying its connecting rods through Lesmo, while Amon lost a lap with suspected suspension damage, although nothing of note could be found. The latter two casualties put Clark in with a shout of a podium, while the third placed brawl was suddenly cut down to a tense stalemate between Surtees and Rindt.

More retirements were confirmed in the following laps, with one of the Lotuses joining the list when Baghetti suffered a connecting rod failure. The Lotus garage was therefore filled with anxious faces for the rest of the race as they did not know what the other engines were doing, although the mood in there was nothing compared to the Cooper-Maserati efforts.

Siffert had just lapped Ickx through the entry into Lesmo, when the left rear began to deflate, going completely flat as the Swiss racer accelerated through the second corner. The Cooper-Maserati was thrown into the guard rail and spun back across the track, and only lightening quick reactions by the rookie Ickx kept the works car out of trouble. Rindt, meanwhile, had just fallen to Clark as the Scot decided to go all or nothing for the win.

It was at this point where Hill began to ease off, leaving Clark to chase after Surtees and Brabham, just as the Honda began to close onto the back of the Brabham-Repco. The following laps therefore became a tense wait in the garages and stands as the gaps slowly closed up, with Brabham's pace continuing to drop and Clark pushing on. Just before the kickoff of that fight, Amon came into the pits for a second time for repairs to a shock absorber, although another lap long delay left the only Ferrari entered at the back of the field.

On lap 59, the entire picture of the race changed, all sparked when the second Lotus-Ford Cosworth expired at the start of the lap. Hill was just coming into Parabolica when his engine began pouring white smoke out the back, putting him out of the race, just as Clark got onto the exhaust pipes of Surtees. The Scot passed the Honda just as Hill came to a stop in the Lotus garage, with Brabham now the only man between Clark and the lead.

When Brabham did finally get round to take the lead on the lap chart, Clark was right in his wake, with the two going into Curva Grande side-by-side. A huge cheer from the Team Lotus supporters indicated that Clark was in the lead, and when the leading trio came through to complete the lap it was indeed Clark at the front of the field. It would be four laps before Clark got away from the Australian, a feat that allowed Surtees to finally pass the defending World Champion for second.

Onto the final lap and Clark's lead suddenly collapsed from 3.3 seconds to just 1.5 seconds, and as the leading trio went into Curva Grande, the Cosworth engine cut out. The Scot was thrown into a slide that allowed Surtees and Brabham to sneak by, although as the Lotus was in the middle of the track, the Englishman and the Australian had to dodge either-side. The rest of the lap would see Surtees and Brabham enter a 180 mph knife fight through to Parabolica, as Clark limped home to try and secure third.

The decisive move would be into the final corner, with Surtees taking the racing line through Parabolica, while Brabham dived on the brakes down the inside. Unfortunately for the Australian, the move meant he hit the cement dust, laid down to clear up after Hill's engine failure, while still on the brakes, and so slithered out wide and let Surtees sweep back through. They then came nose-to-tail onto the start.finish straight, but just as the Australian pulled out of the slipstream, the chequered flag fluttered and ended the race.

The result was declared a few moments later, with the crowd flooding onto the circuit just in time to mob Clark as he crawled home. Victory went to Surtees by just 0.2 seconds, with Brabham and an exhausted Scot completing the podium, the latter's performance ultimately putting Clark into the realm of F1's legends. Rindt ended the race down in fourth ahead of Spence, while Ickx had a quiet race to complete the points, a couple of laps ahead of the final finisher Amon.


2005 Suzuka
The start of the race saw Ralf Schumacher sprint into an early lead, leaving Button to try and fend off a fast starting Fisichella. Behind, Sato's hopes were ended when he clashed with Rubens Barrichello, leaving both with damage, while Räikkönen, Alonso and Montoya made early progress, streaking up the order.

However, Montoya's race would ultimately prove to be a short one, with the #10 McLaren-Mercedes crashing out at the end of lap one after being forced off track by Jacques Villeneuve. That resulted in an appearance for the Safety Car as Montoya escaped unharmed, while Villeneuve was slapped with a time penalty.

The restart saw Ralf Schumacher again make a strong getaway, with Fisichella also opening out a gap over Button. Behind, Alonso had to twice hand back a position to Klien after accidentally passing the Austrian racer by cutting the chicane, allowing Räikkönen to close right onto his tail.

Once clear of Klien both Alonso and Räikkönen would charge onto the back of Michael Schumacher, just as the first pitstops were beginning. Ralf Schumacher was the first of the leaders to stop, handing a comfortable lead to Fisichella, while Alonso lined-up a stunning move on the #1 Ferrari.

Running lighter than both Michael Schumacher and Räikkönen, Alonso would throw everything he had at the #1 Ferrari, opening an opportunity at 130R. The Spanish ace duly danced his Renault right around the outside of Schumacher's car on lap 20, a move that would be fondly remembered as the greatest in the Japanese Grand Prix's history.

A lap later and Alonso made his first stop, followed a couple of laps later by first Schumacher and then Räikkönen. They duly rejoined ahead of Alonso, who had got caught behind David Coulthard, with Räikkönen immediately attacking and passing Schumacher to move into fourth.

Räikkönen spent the rest of the second stint hunting down Button and Mark Webber, in second and third, catching them just as they ventured into the pits. Fisichella also stopped to leave Räikkönen in the lead, with the Finn duly delivering a bunch of fastest laps in clear air before making his stop.

That push meant that the Finn emerged from the pits just five seconds behind Fisichella, although with time running out. Behind, Alonso was able to battle past Coulthard, Schumacher and Button to challenge Webber, while Button slipped back towards Schumacher and Coulthard.

With three laps to go Fisichella began to defend, and hence allowed Räikkönen to twice draft alongside him into the first corner only to fend off the Finn's lunge. However, at the start of the final lap Räikkönen was able to sell the Italian racer a dummy, sweeping around the outside of the Renault through turn one to claim the lead.

That proved to be the decisive move, with Räikkönen sprinting away to secure victory ahead of the Italian. Behind, Alonso managed to elbow his way past Webber to complete the podium, and ensure that Renault moved back ahead of McLaren-Mercedes in the Constructors Championship ahead of the season finale in China. The rest of the points would go to Webber, Button, Coulthard, Schumacher and Ralf Schumacher.

[chunterer]

Raikkonen's drive at Suzuka aside, I would be shocked if that race is considered even close to the '67 drama?

[S griffin]

Both great recovery drives these. Since I suggested Monza 67, I will go with that one.

[chillibowl]

went with the race i was able to watch live, the comeback and last lap pass for the lead, my favorite driver at the time won, my second favorite made an insane pass on the outside of 130r during an almost as amazing recovery drive, in those pre HD days the Japanese GP was filmed and broadcast in much better quality then the other F1 races, and the race took place on my actual bday...so one of the best bdays for me.

personal experience shapes our memories right!

[crmalcolm]

So a tie-break needs deciding again. My vote goes to 2005 Suzuka.

Why?

https://youtu.be/KDC_WcR0wjc and https://youtu.be/R8n23XhVSOM