The 1961 Italian Grand Prix was a

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

motor race held on 10 September 1961 at

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

. It was race 7 of 8 in both the 1961 World Championship of Drivers and the 1961 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The race was marked by one of the most terrible accidents in the history of Formula One, when on the end of lap 2, at the approach to the Parabolica, German driver

Wolfgang von Trips Wolfgang Alexander Albert Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips (; 4 May 1928 – 10 September 1961), also known simply as Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips and nicknamed 'Taffy' by friends and fellow racers, was a German racing driver. He w ...

lost control of his

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

after colliding with the Lotus of

Jim Clark James Clark Jr. OBE (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. A versatile driver, he competed in sports cars, touring cars and in the Indianapol ...

and crashed into a fence line of spectators, killing 15 and himself. The race was not stopped, allegedly to avoid the audience going home ''en masse'' jamming the roads around the stadium and thus impeding the rescue work for the injured. This was also the last Formula One race ever to be held on the full Monza circuit, with the two banked corners and the straight between the bankings included. The race was won by von Trips's American teammate

Phil Hill Philip Toll Hill Jr. (April 20, 1927 – August 28, 2008) was an American automobile racing driver. He was one of two American drivers to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, and the only one who was born in the United States ( ...

; since von Trips was the only one who could challenge him, Hill won the World Championship with one race to go. Hill's Monza win also assured Ferrari of the Constructors' Championship for 1961.''Daily Express'' pages 1, 2 & 7 Monday 11 September 1961

Background

Before the running of the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, four drivers were mathematically in contention for the year's Drivers' Championship: Wolfgang von Trips, Phil Hill,

Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...

, and

Richie Ginther Paul Richard "Richie" Ginther (Hollywood,''Richie Ginther Enters Times Grand Prix'', Los Angeles Times, September 13, 1960, Page C1 California, August 5, 1930 – September 20, 1989 in France) was a racecar driver from the United States. During a ...

. Realistically, however, the championship had come down to two Ferrari drivers, von Trips and Hill. In the Constructors' Championship, two teams were mathematically in contention: Ferrari, and Lotus-

Climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

. In order for Lotus to overtake Ferrari at this point, one of their drivers had to win ''both'' this race and the final race of the season, the

1961 United States Grand Prix The 1961 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 8, 1961, at the Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was the eighth and final race in both the 1961 World Champi ...

Qualifying

37 cars attempted to qualify for the Italian Grand Prix, and 32 had sufficiently fast times to make it to the race grid. Similar to the 107% rule of today, a rule was in place for the 1961 season enforcing a 115% cutoff against the time of the second fastest driver.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Constructors' Championship standings * Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 5 results counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References

{{F1GP 60-69

Italian Grand Prix The Italian Grand Prix ( it, Gran Premio d'Italia) is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix), having been he ...

Italian Grand Prix 1961 in Italian motorsport