Lella Lombardi

Lella Lombardi

Maria Grazia "Lella" Lombardi (26 March 1941 – 3 March 1992) was a racing driver from Italy.

Born in Frugarolo, she participated in 17 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 20 July 1974. She scored a total of 0.5 championship points, and is the only female Formula One driver in history to have a top six finish in a World Championship race, at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. Half points were awarded for this race due to a shortened race distance, hence Lombardi received half a point instead of the usual one point. She is the sole female driver to score points in Formula One, as well as the only driver with that career total.

After performing well in Formula Three and Formula 5000 in the early 1970s, Lombardi entered Formula One in 1974 with an old privately-entered Brabham, but it was with March that she raced a full season in 1975. She then had a one-off drive for Williams before a short-lived and unsuccessful partnership with RAM Racing, driving another Brabham. Lella Lombardi had also started in NASCAR driving in the Firecracker 400 NASCAR race at the Daytona International Speedway in 1977. There were two other female drivers in the field: American Janet Guthrie and Belgian Christine Beckers.

Lombardi later raced in sports cars with some success. She died of cancer in Milan in 1992, aged 50.