24 replies to this topic

[swaction]

Hi Guys - I've never posted in this forum before, however it is my favourite of all the Atlas forums due to the dignified conversation that tends to be written in TNF.

I'm not much of an old skool F1 buff, but totally love the old racing fromt he 70's & 80's.. Especially JYS, Lauder + Brabham making his own dam car! The legends of yesteryear are in another league to todays drivers. (posting after having just watched Monaco '84)

I was wondering what memories people had of "first laps" - even so much as the largest lead a leader had pulled out over his rivals at the completion of the first lap?

Cheers...

[Zawed]

The first lap at Spa 1998 was pretty memorable...for the wrong reasons.

[EvilPhil]

First GP of 1990 at Phoenix with Jean Alesi in his first full season leading Senna in a Tyrrell has to be the most amazing site of recent years. I guess it would be like watching Klien in a Redbull lead the first 3rd of the Australian GP in 2005... totally unexpected and amazing.

[Stephen W]

1973 British GP

I was sat in the grandstand at Stowe. The whole field made it through and headed back up the hill towards Woodcote. Suddenly the commentator went NUTZ! Cars crashing all over the place! Back out at Stowe just a handful came through and everyone was very quiet. The race had to be stopped due to debris on the track after the big shunt which was courtesy of an over-enthusiastic Jody Scheckter. There was a long break whilst the 'S H 1 T' was cleared up and then a restart. In the 'second part' Peter Revson went onto win his first GP and the Stowe Grandstand were treated to a superb dice between Ronnie Peterson and Jackie Stewart that ended up with Stewart in the cornfield!

[jgm]

In the 1968 German GP, which was run in perhaps the worst weather conditions ever experienced for a GP, Jackie Stewart had a lead of 9 seconds at the end of the first lap despite only taking the lead half way round the first lap.

[bigears]

I remember reading somewhere that Michael Schumacher made an impressive 3 seconds gap at the first lap at Monaco and then lapped the first backmarker (Luca Badoer?) on the ninth lap!

I can't remember the year though.

Also Senna at Donington in 1993, do I need to say more?

[VAR1016]

Spain 1954: Ascari going like a bomb in the Lancia D50; it must have been quite an eye-opener.

PdeRL

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Stephen W
1973 British GP

I was sat in the grandstand at Stowe. The whole field made it through and headed back up the hill towards Woodcote.

I didn't have the dosh to buy a grandstand seat, but I was at Stowe too, Steve (at the exit)

A workmate who had enough dosh for a Woodcote stand seat told me on the Monday that he was mightily impressed how quickly Stewart came to a halt at Woodcote as he came to start his second lap....

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by VAR1016
Spain 1954: Ascari going like a bomb in the Lancia D50; it must have been quite an eye-opener.

PdeRL

Yes, at the end of the first lap he wasn't very far at all behind Harry Schell's Maserati

[turin]

Originally posted by bigears
Also Senna at Donington in 1993, do I need to say more?

I remember reading somewhere that Barbazza's first lap at Donington 93 was equally (or more) impressive, but as he was coming from the back very few ever noticed. IIRC he gained about six places.

On the other side, Suzuka 90 is definitively an important part of history.

-Pato

[bigears]

Originally posted by turin


I remember reading somewhere that Barbazza's first lap at Donington 93 was equally (or more) impressive, but as he was coming from the back very few ever noticed. IIRC he gained about six places.

On the other side, Suzuka 90 is definitively an important part of history.

-Pato

Really? Better get my own 1993 dvd out tonight then.

[Roger Clark]

Monaco 1964: Jim Clark's lead apparently reduced Denis jenkinson to tears.

[Zawed]

Originally posted by turin


I remember reading somewhere that Barbazza's first lap at Donington 93 was equally (or more) impressive, but as he was coming from the back very few ever noticed. IIRC he gained about six places.
-Pato

Atlas' Countdown to 2005 No 74 has Barbazza moving from 20th to 12th in one lap at Donington, 8 places. Barbazza went on to finish 6th.

[turin]

thanks Zawed,

although I'm pretty sure I read it somewhere else long before. Specially since I haven't read the countdown since 76 days ;)

-Pato

[rdrcr]

To what race was this written?


From: Dennis David's site

[T54]

That's easy: Clark at the Nurburgring sport car race in the new Lotus 23...

T54

[bigears]

Thought it was at Spa?

[Geoff E]

Spa 67

[VAR1016]

Originally posted by David McKinney

Yes, at the end of the first lap he wasn't very far at all behind Harry Schell's Maserati

Yes with Schell on half-full tanks and who was supposed to disappear into the distance.

And of course, Ascari was well in front of the W196s.

[Of course I know that you know all this David!!]

PdeRL

[T54]

I based my posting due to this:

"The debut of the 23 was at the Nurburgring (14 miles and 176 turns per lap) in May, 1962. With Jim Clark at the wheel, the little 100-bhp Lotus shot away from the field which contained Porsches, Aston Martins and Ferraris, some with four times the horsepower of the Lotus. To everyone's amazement, after the first lap Clark was 27 seconds ahead of Dan Gurney in a Prototype Porsche and his lead became greater on each lap. By lap 12 (two hours), the Twincam's exhaust manifold had worked loose and due to the fumes in the cockpit Clark became drowsy, lost control of the car and went off course"

I don't think that Clark had such an advantage in 1967 at Spa... a race I attended and that was won by my personal hero, Dan Gurney.

So the comment would have been appropriate...

T54

[Paul Taylor]

From http://www.cfm.globa...s/articles/012/

12. "Clark came through at the end of the first lap of the race so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident" - An onlooker describing Jim Clark's incredible first lap speed at the 1967 Belgian GP at Spa.

[scheivlak]

To cite the Jacky Ickx fan page once more:

"At the end of May '68, one month remained historic for the other reasons, the weather is even more vile than previous year at the start of the 1000 Kilometres of Spa. And Jacky Ickx redoes the blow of Mirage-Ford: in the pouring rain, he settles down in the lead of the pack which climbs the Raidillon, flooded in immense sprays of water which raise the wide generously sculptured tires. Then the silence falls again on Francorchamps, disturbed only by the hubbub of the spectators after the excitement of the start and by the rain drops which crash uncountable on the roof of tribunes. Some minutes later, ears tighten in the listening of the tumult that we intend to be reborn towards Blanchimont and we see going up the trail of water of a car to the outside of the Club House: somebody managed to set a little beforehand in this first lap. We intend him to demote all his gears in the braking of the hairpin of La Source, before seeing appearing the car as it re-accelerates at the outside of this slow bend: it is Jacky Ickx's Mirage-Ford which passes in head. The only one.

It tumbles in front of the stands on the verge of the aquaplaning in the streamings of water and, by following it to go up the Raidillon, we begin to wonder: but where are the others? The clamour of V8 Ford already becomes blurred in the distant. The seconds which follow seem endless. It is not possible, he had to take place something. An accident which blocked the passage to all the competitors? We think all the more naturally of this eventuality as the recall of the departure of the Grand Prix of Belgium 1966 is still long-lived in the memories, when the competitors, surprised by a thunderstorm which had burst in the other end of the circuit, had gone out of the road in big number. It is then that appears finally the rest of the pack, however grouped it is it usually at the end of a first lap: Challenging puddles with a rare skill involved by this impertinent boldness, Jacky Ickx simply left an advance of thirty eight seconds on prosecutors who are not him already any more!"

http://www.jacky-ick...files.php?id=14

[St.Hubbins]

Originally posted by bigears
I remember reading somewhere that Michael Schumacher made an impressive 3 seconds gap at the first lap at Monaco and then lapped the first backmarker (Luca Badoer?) on the ninth lap!

I can't remember the year though.

Hardly worthy of TNF, but certainly he was leading by close to 7 seconds after the first lap in 1997. IIRC the lead was up to 15 seconds by the third lap, and 30 seconds by around lap 7.

Eddie Cheever at Zandvoort in 1983 started 11th and was 2nd by Tarzan on lap 2. That said, he was 3rd by Tarzan on lap 1.

Now, must watch Barbazza at work....

[D-Type]

This has been more or less said already:

Suzuka 1990 & Donington 1993

The two sides of Ayrton Senna's character.

[SEdward]

I have always found the cheering about Senna's first lap at Donington in 1993 to be nothing but ballyhoo. More a reflection of the pitiful state of F1 than of the man's undeniable talent.

Edward