1966 Monaco F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results

Event: Monaco Grand Prix
Track: Monaco Circuit

Weather: sunny, dry, warm

Jackie Stewart won his 2nd F1 World Championship race at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. The BRM driver started from 4th on the grid and won on the Monte Carlo circuit for the 1st time. It was also his 1st win of the season and the 13th win for the BRM F1 team.

The new formula opens

The 1966 Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday 22 May was the opening round of the new 3-litre Formula 1 era and a season of widespread chassis and engine reorganisation. The FIA had doubled the engine capacity from 1.5 to 3 litres for 1966, but only one or two teams had genuinely ready 3-litre powerplants. Most of the field arrived at Monaco running stretched-1.5 V8s, 2-litre interim engines, or temporary stop-gap units. The race that resulted produced an unusual outcome: a BRM running a 2.0-litre stretched V8 won the most engine-dependent circuit on the calendar.

The grid included two notable historical debuts. The McLaren team, Bruce McLaren's own constructor operation, founded the previous winter in Colnbrook, made its first F1 World Championship appearance with a single car driven by McLaren himself. The Brabham-Repco partnership made its F1 debut with the new Australian-built Repco V8 engine in the Brabham BT19 chassis, the engine and chassis combination that would dominate the rest of the year and take the world championship.

Practice surprises

Practice put Jim Clark on his twenty-third pole position in the works Lotus 33 (still running the old 1.5 Climax stretched to 2.0). Surtees took second on the grid in the Ferrari Tipo 312 (the only proper 3-litre car in the field, with a V12 derived from the team's sports-car programme), with Bandini third in the second works Ferrari and Stewart fourth in the BRM. McLaren qualified the Mclaren M2B in tenth on his constructor debut.

The Stewart-Bandini duel

From the green flag Surtees led from Clark, with Bandini third and Stewart fourth. Surtees' race ended on lap 16 with a transmission failure that ended Ferrari's direct push for victory. Clark ran second behind Bandini's Ferrari for an extended period before being passed by Stewart, who proceeded to chase down Bandini through the closing two-thirds of the race. The Englishman in the BRM took the lead on lap 64 and held it to the chequered flag.

Stewart took the chequered flag 40 seconds clear of Bandini, with Hill third in the second BRM. Bob Bondurant brought the second Lotus home fourth, and Bandini took the fastest lap of the race for his first ever F1 fastest lap. McLaren retired with engine failure on his constructor debut.

The 1966 season opens

The result confirmed Stewart as an early championship leader and announced the new formula's teething troubles in front of the home crowd at Monte Carlo. The Brabham-Repco that would dominate the rest of the year had not yet made its presence felt, Brabham retired with a clutch problem on lap 17, but the new partnership would deliver Brabham's third world championship before the year was out. The next round at Spa in three weeks would test the new 3-litre cars in their most engine-dependent setting.

Classification 1966 Monaco F1 GP

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Car & Engine	Grid	Laps	Led	Time	Pts
1	12	JackieStewart	BRM	BRM P261BRM P75	3	100	86	2:33:10.500	9
2	16	LorenzoBandini	Ferrari	Ferrari 246Ferrari 312	5	100		2:33:50.700+40.200s	6
3	11	GrahamHill	BRM	BRM P261BRM P75	4	99		+1 lap	4
4	19	BobBondurant	BRM	BRM P261BRM P75	16	95		+5 laps	3
DNF	9	RichieGinther	Cooper-Maserati	Cooper T81Maserati 9/F1	9	80		Transmission
NC	21	GuyLigier	Cooper-Maserati	Cooper T81Maserati 9/F1	15	75		Not Classified
NC	18	JoBonnier	Cooper-Maserati	Cooper T81Maserati 9/F1	16	73		Not Classified
DNF	4	JimClark	Team Lotus	Lotus 33Climax	1	60		Suspension
DNF	10	JochenRindt	Cooper-Maserati	Cooper T81Maserati 9/F1	7	56		Engine
DNF	14	JoSiffert	Brabham	Brabham BT11BRM	13	35		Clutch
DNF	6	MikeSpence	Team Lotus	Lotus 33BRM P75	12	34		Suspension
DNF	7	JackBrabham	Brabham	Brabham BT19Repco 620	11	17		Gearbox
DNF	17	JohnSurtees	Ferrari	Ferrari 312Ferrari 312	2	16	14	Transmission
DNF	8	DennyHulme	Brabham	Brabham BT22Climax	6	15		Transmission
DNF	2	BruceMcLaren	McLaren	McLaren M2BFord 406	10	9		Oil Leak
DNF	15	BobAnderson	Brabham	Brabham BT11Climax	8	3		Engine

Fastest lap: 1:29.800 min by Lorenzo Bandini (Ferrari 246) in lap 90

✅ Check out 1966 F1 Championship Standings
✅ Check out 1966 F1 Teams & Drivers

✅ Check out All Time F1 Drivers Rankings
✅ Check out All Time F1 Driver Records
✅ Check out All Time F1 Teams Rankings

About the author

Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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