The 1966 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Reims on July 3, 1966. It was the '60th Anniversary race' of Grand Prix racing, which had started with the GP of France in 1906. It was the third round of the 1966 World Championship. It was also the 16th and last time the French Grand Prix had been held on variations of French highways near Reims after a three year absence from the region. The race was held over 48 laps of the eight kilometre circuit for a race distance of 400 kilometres.
The race was won by the 1959 and 1960 world champion, Australian driver Jack Brabham driving his Brabham BT19. It was Brabham's eighth Grand Prix victory, his first since the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix, six years earlier. It was his first win since establishing his own team, Brabham Racing Organisation and the first win for the Australian developed Repco V8 engine. He became the first driver to win a World Championship grand prix in a car bearing his own name. Brabham took a nine second victory over British driver Mike Parkes driving a Ferrari 312. New Zealand driver Denny Hulme backed up team leader Brabham with third place in his Brabham BT20.
Brabham now led the championship on 12 points, two ahead of Ferrari driver Lorenzo Bandini and three ahead of BRM's Jackie Stewart and Ferrari's John Surtees. The win was the first of four consecutive victories for Brabham as he began his march towards his third World Championship.
Read more about 1966 French Grand Prix: Race Summary, Classification, Championship Standings After The Race
Famous quotes containing the words french and/or grand:
“Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite your
languid spleen,
An attachment a la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a
not-too-French French bean!”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“If the Christ were content with humble toilers for disciples, that wasn’t good enough for our Bert. He wanted dukes’ half sisters and belted earls wiping his feet with their hair; grand apotheosis of the snob, to humiliate the objects of his own awe by making them venerate him.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)