On this day: the British GP down the ages

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July 15th has seen several British Grand Prix races over the years.

The first British Formula 1 race held on this date was in 1961 (above). Victory went to Wolfgang von Trips in a dominant wet weather performance for Ferrari which saw his team mates Phil Hill and Richie Ginther join him on the podium. Home favourite Stirling Moss had been forced out with brake issues but then took over Jack Fairman's Ferguson - only to be disqualified for receiving a push start.

©DavidPhipps

Six years later, Jim Clark held on to take victory in the 1967 British Grand Prix. The Lotus team had been going through a tough time with reliability problems, and Clark's team mate Graham Hill ended up retiring from the lead with suspension issues. Clark crossed the line 12s ahead of Braham's Denny Hulme to win his home race, but that year's title ultimately went ot the Kiwi.

In 1972 it was Emerson Fittipaldi who claimed the honours at Brands Hatch in the beautiful black-and-gold Lotus. He won by a narrow margin over Tyrell's Jackie Stewart. Jackie Icyx had been on pole before his Ferrari succumbed to oil pressure issues while Ronnie Peterson suffered a late spin and his March crashed into the retired cars of Graham Hill and Francois Cevert.

The next British Grand Prix on the 15th wasn't until 1990. That was another Ferrari victory, this time with Alain Prost at the wheel. He benefitted from mechanical issues for team mate Nigel Mansell and a spin for Aryton Senna. The McLaren driver eventually finished in third place behind Williams' Thierry Boutsen, but it was Senna who had the last laugh when he clinched that year's championship.

Ferrari should have won the 2001 British Grand Prix as well. Michael Schumacher started the race from pole position but he struggled with balance issues and the victory went to McLaren's Mika Hakkinen.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.