The first post-war Monaco Grand Prix was held in 1948 with victory going to Dr Giuseppe Farina in a Maserati 4CLT. Farina would go on to become the first ever Formula 1 World Champion in 1950. The race was not held in 1949 following the death of Prince Louis II, one of its greatest supporters.
For 1950 the Monaco Grand Prix formed a round of the new Formula 1 World Championship. It was notable for a multiple pile-up on the first lap and a debut victory for Juan-Manuel Fangio, the first of many for the Argentinean.
It would be 1955 before Monaco returned to the World Championship schedule. A race was staged in 1952 but it was run for sports cars. The 1955 race is best remembered not for Maurice Trintignant’s victory, but for Alberto Ascari’s lucky escape. A feature of the circuit at that time was a very quick chicane on the harbour front. Essentially it was a left-right flick which required great precision. Ascari slightly misjudged it and launched his Lancia-Ferrari D50 into the water. The Italian escaped unscathed but lost his life just a few days later while testing a friend’s Ferrari at Monza.
Stirling Moss won in the principality in 1956, despite a collision with another Maserati, driven by Cesare Perdisa. Fangio had a lacklustre race but returned in 1957 to score a dominant win. Jack Brabham, meanwhile, was left to push his Cooper home into the final points position. In 1958 Maurice Trintignant won the race for a second time, ahead of Ferrari’s Luigi Musso.
Brabham’s luck improved in 1959 as he used the nimble rear-engined Cooper to win the race. He would go on to clinch the first of his three World Championships the same year. Stirling Moss won for Lotus in 1960 but, going into the 1961 event, no-one gave the Englishman much of a chance.
The class of the 1961 field was the Ferrari 156 ‘Sharknose’. At Monaco they were expected to win as usual but Moss produced one of the greatest drives of his career to keep them at bay. Driving an underpowered Lotus 18 he won the race, despite the best efforts of Phil Hill and Richie Ginther to catch him.
Jim Clark took pole position for the 1962 race but it was Bruce McLaren who scored a popular victory, just ahead of Phil Hill’s Ferrari. The race was marred by a first lap accident in which a marshal was killed by an errant wheel.
 |
