8th, BRM's Thrilling Win: Gethin Outpaces Peterson in Iconic 1971 Italian GP Showdown
Italy 1971 has to be high on any list: because it was the last race at Monza before chicane blight, because five drivers crossed the line within six-tenths of a second, and because, with a winner’s average of 150.754mph, it is still the fastest F1 race ever run.
When the drivers arrived there the World Championship had already been clinched by Stewart, so all that was at stake was victory in one of the season’s most prestigious Grands Prix.
Highly favoured at such a fast circuit were the ‘twelves’ of Ferrari and BRM: less fancied was the only other such, the lone Matra of Amon. How so? Because although the shrieking French V12 made a glorious sound, it invariably fell short on power: so hopeless had Chris’s engine been at the Nürburgring that the team skipped the Austrian GP, and concentrated on resolving its oil churning problem.