1971 Italian Grand Prix
Peter Gethin. This name doesn’t make us think of a great driver,in fact most of F1 fans don’t even know him. Still, his name is linked to one of the most exiting stories in F1 story. Gethin drove only 30 F1 races. He didn’t make his way to the pole a single time,and he didn’t do any fastest laps.
During his career,he only collected 11 points! Still,he won one GP in his career.
As expected,the 1971 Italian GP was driven at Monza. weather was hot, dry and sunny. On pole was Chris Amon(Matra) wit the average speed of 251 km/h, followed by Ickx(Ferrari) and Siffert(BRM).
Peter Gethin was on place number 11. During qualifying 11 first drivers were within 1 ½ seconds, Amon on pole scoring 1.22,4 and Gethin 1.23,88.
In those days Monza was extremely fast circuit. It dind’t have any chicanes, so there weren’t too many real curves: Curva Grande, the 2 Lesmos, Curva del Vialone and at last Parabolica, which had cost the life of Jochen Rindt in the previous year. At the start Regazzoni got away fastest, and he passed the cars row by row taking the outside line.
At the end of the opening lap he was in the lead. Regazzoni led laps 1,2,3,4 and 9,but on lap 17 the Italian crowd got disappointed as the red car rolled to pits with sick engine. Swedish March driver Ronnie Peterson seemed to be the fastest of the pack, but also Stewart, Cevert, Hailwood, Siffert and Amon fought over lead. Every pass made during laps couldn’t be recorded, but a good picture of the race gives the marked laps on lead for Peterson: 4-7,10-14,17-22,24,26,33,47-50 and 54. If only F1 would be like this today!!
Gethin and Ganley were also in the front. Fastest lap of the race was scored by Henri Pescarolo with average speed of 247 km/h. Jo Siffert’s changes for victory faded on lap 31, when his BRM rolled to pits with jammed 4th gear. Between laps 30-40 in lead visited Siffert, Cevert, Peterson, Hailwood and Amon. After lap 46 Amon wasn’t in the lead, after he had some problems with his tyres. On lap 50,only 5 laps to finish Peterson, Hailwood, Ganley and Gethin were driving very close to each other. That lap was recorded for the swede Peterson, but the next was to be Hailwood’s. On more lap, and the race had a new leader. Never before the name of Peter Gethin appeared on the first place of a F1 race. The race was nearly over, but the atmosphere was just getting tensed. When the cars headed to the last lap, the lead was once again in the hands of the Swede, but four cars were following right behind him. On the last lap 5 drivers from 4 different teams were fighting for victory! When the cars came to Parabolica for the last time, Cever led. Ronnie Peterson wanted to pass by braking very late.He took the lead for a few seconds, but Cevert and Gethin passed him on the inside.The last straight was ahead. 5 cars were still fighting for the victory, and everyone was driving 250 km/h! Peter Gethin was the first to cross the line. His team-mate Howden Ganley was 0.5 seconds behind him….but Ganley was 5th! Peterson in the March was second,0.01 seconds behind Gethin.
This was the closest finish in F1 history,and the fastest race ever, this can only happen at Monza!
