That Was The Week That Was: Anniversaries and Milestones From Motorsport's Past

July 11

1943: German ace Rolf Stommelen was born. He raced in 53 Grands Prix for Brabham, Surtees, March, Lola/Hill, Hesketh and Arrows between 1970 and ’78. He also won races in the World Sportscar championship, including the Targa Florio and Daytona 24 Hours, for Porsche. He was killed during an IMSA sportscar race at Riverside in 1983 at the wheel of a Porsche 935.

1964: Brands Hatch hosted the first of 14 World Championship Grands Prix – 12 British GPs and two European GPs. It was won by Jim Clark, the Scot’s Lotus defeating the BRM of Graham Hill and the Ferrari of John Surtees.

1971: Mexican superstar Pedro Rodriguez, twice a Grand Prix victor and multiple World Sportscar Championship winner, was killed at the wheel of a Ferrari 512M in an Interserie race at the Norisring. He was 31.

1993: Alain Prost took his 50^th and penultimate Grand Prix win – in Silverstone’s British GP for Williams. It was the Frenchman’s fifth win in the event, for a fourth different constructor. Prost’s team-mate Damon Hill looked to be on course for his maiden win, until engine failure scuppered his run with 18 laps remaining.

July 12

1930: Guy Ligier was born. The Frenchman raced in 12 GPs for Cooper and Brabham before forming his own team for 1976. The blue machines won nine races, courtesy of Jacques Laffite (six), Patrick Depailler, Didier Pironi and Olivier Panis (one each) between 1977 and ’96, before the team was sold to Alain Prost for 1997. Ligier died, aged 85, last summer.

1987: Nigel Mansell took his second British Grand Prix win – his first at Silverstone – after catching and passing Williams team-mate Nelson Piquet in a memorable move into Stowe corner with three laps remaining. Ayrton Senna finished third for Lotus, a lap in arrears.

1992: Briton Mansell completed his Silverstone dominance with a third British GP win for Williams, leading home team-mate Riccardo Patrese for another FW14B one-two. Third went to Martin Brundle, ahead of Benetton team-mate Michael Schumacher.

July 13

1918: One of F1’s greatest champions, Italian Alberto Ascari, was born. The ex-motorcycle racer became the first driver to win two world titles, for Ferrari in 1952-’53. He won 13 Grands Prix, but was killed during a test in a Ferrari sportscar at Monza in May 1955.

1957: Belgian GP driver Thierry Boutsen was born. A winner in the European F2 Championship, he made his Formula 1 debut for Arrows, in his home race in 1983. His CV includes 163 starts and wins in Canada and Australia in 1989 and Hungary in 1990 – all for Williams.

1986: Brands Hatch hosted its last Grand Prix, won by the Williams-Honda FW11 of Nigel Mansell, who outfoxed team-mate Nelson Piquet. The race marked the end of Jacques Laffite’s career, the Frenchman crashing his Ligier at the first corner and suffering severe leg injuries.

1997: Williams’ 100^th Grand Prix win came at Silverstone, courtesy of Jacques Villeneuve. The Canadian beat Benetton duo Jean Alesi and Alex Wurz to take his second consecutive British GP win.

July 14

1951: Ferrari racked up its first World Championship Grand Prix win, when Jose Froilan Gonzalez triumphed in the British GP at Silverstone. The Argentinian beat the Alfa Romeo of countryman Juan Manuel Fangio by 51 seconds.

1973: McLaren driver Jody Scheckter triggered a massive shunt at the end of opening lap of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone that took out nine other cars. After the event had been restarted, Scheckter’s team-mate Peter Revson scored his maiden win.

1979: Frank Williams’ eponymous team took its first Grand Prix win, when Swiss veteran Clay Regazzoni won at Silverstone.‘Regga’ beat René Arnoux’s Renault and the Tyrrell of Jean-Pierre Jarier after his team-mate Alan Jones had led the first half of the race only to retire with water-pump failure.

1985: The final World Sportscar Championship race at Hockenheim was won by Derek Bell and Hans-Joachim Stuck in the works Porsche 962C. They beat the privateer Brun Motorsport 956 of Oscar Larrauri and Massimo Sigala.

1996: Honda notched up its first British Touring Car Championship win thanks to David Leslie’s victory in the second race of the British Grand Prix-support meeting at Silverstone. The Scot beat the Audi A4 of championship leader Frank Biela.

2002: Colin McRae’s 25^th and last WRC career win came on the Safari Rally. The Scot and co-driver Nicky Grist took their M-Sport Ford Focus RS WRC to a 2m50s win over the Peugeot 206 WRC of Finn Harri Rovanpera in what was the last WRC-qualifying African enduro.

July 15

1952: Happy birthday to two-time British Touring Car Champion John Cleland! Cleland won the title for Vauxhall in 1989 and 1995 and took 17 career wins.

1972: Emerson Fittipaldi won the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch for Lotus. The Brazilian defeated the Tyrrell of World Champion Jackie Stewart by four seconds. Italian Arturo Merzario finished sixth on his debut for Ferrari.

1973: Poland’s inaugural WRC event was won by Achim Warmbold’s Fiat 124 Abarth Spider. The German, co-driven by future Peugeot WRC/Le Mans boss, Ferrari team principal and FIA president Jean Todt, defeated the Wartburg 353 of countrymen Egon Culmbacher and Werner by 2h47m.

1990: Nigel Mansell started the British Grand Prix from pole position for Ferrari and retired while leading with 20 laps to run. He would announce his retirement from F1 shortly afterwards – a decision he would reverse by later confirming his return to Williams for 1991. Team-mate Alain Prost won the race, his fourth victory at Silverstone. Italian veteran Riccardo Patrese became the first driver to start 200 GPs.

July 16

1953: German WRC ace Armin Schwarz was born. He contested 119 events at rallying’s top level, in Audi, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Ford, Skoda and Hyundai machinery, between 1988 and 2005. His only WRC win came in the inaugural Rallye Catalunya for Toyota in 1991.

1955: Stirling Moss joined the Formula 1 winners’ circle by beating Mercedes team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio in a sprint to the flag in Aintree’s British Grand Prix. The margin was 0.2s, with the third and fourth W196s of Karl Kling and Piero Taruffi a long way back.

1977: Turbocharged technology made its Formula 1 debut, in the back of Jean-Pierre Jabouille’s Renault RS01, in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The Frenchman qualified 21^st of the 26 starters and retired after 16 laps with – predictably enough – turbo failure.

1995: Johnny Herbert took his maiden Grand Prix win on home soil for Benetton, after Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher collided on lap 46 while disputing the lead at Silverstone. Jean Alesi finished second for Ferrari, with David Coulthard third for Williams.

July 17

1941: German WRC veteran Achim Warmbold as born. He won Rally Poland for Fiat in 1973, the first season of the WRC, and gave BMW its first victory by winning in Austria later that year.

1993: Welshman Nicky Grist, Britain’s most successful WRC co-driver, took his first win – alongside Juha Kankkunen in the Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD – at Rally Argentina. The crew beat the Ford Escort RS Cosworth of Miki Biaision by just under two minutes.

1995: Five-time World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio, a man regarded by many as the greatest driver of all time, died, aged 84. The Argentinian won 24 of the 51 races he contested between 1950 and 1958, taking the title in 1951 for Alfa Romeo, 1954 for Maserati and Mercedes, 1955 for Mercedes, 1956 for Lancia-Ferrari and 1957 for Maserati.

2015: French Grand Prix driver Jules Bianchi finally succumbed to the injuries he sustained in a collision with a recovery vehicle during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix the previous October. He raced in 34 GPs for Marussia, taking a best result of ninth in the Monaco GP of 2014.