1956 Italian GP

## Track Facts

* Name – Monza
* Location – Italy
* Corners – 9
* Laps – 50
* Base (Worst) Lap Time – 3:00.000
* Road Circuit:
* Lap Record (Real Life) – 1:53.200 (Juan Manuel Fangio)
* Lap Record (F1R) – 1:42.299 (Hermann Lang)
* Combined Circuit:
* Lap Record (Real Life) – 2:42.600 (Juan Manuel Fangio)
* Lap Record (F1R) – 2:41.781 (Giuseppe Farina)
* Pit Lane Length – 40 seconds
* Fuel Consumption – High
* Tyre Wear – Medium

## Qualifying

Toulo de Graffenried, aka 'The Baron', takes his 2nd pole position ever here in an extraordinarily close session! The Swiss narrowly edges out the Maserati duo of Gerard and Perdisa with just 0.4 seconds covering the entire top 3!!!

Von Trips is a worthy 4th for Ferrari, with the Connaught duo of Piotti and Landi making a late surge to sit 5th and 6th at the end of qualifying. That pushes Villoresi to 7th, Brabham down to 8th (but still a great performance from the young Ferrari driver) and Maglioli to 9th place. Rounding out the top 10 is another Connaught in the shape of Fangio.

Collins surprisingly misses the top 10, as Vanwall shift their focus to looking at next year's car meaning he is the sole representative of the British marque on the grid. Fairman and Bonnier are next up in 12th and 13th, whilst Castellotti wasn't able to get a full run in and so starts in 14th.

Moss makes a solid return for BRM, and looks a whole new man, as he takes the under-powered and tricky to handle vehicle to a decent 15th. Menditeguy has a difficult session and can only manage 16th, with Emery and Godia sandwiching the Gordini of Hawthorn at tte back, as only 19 cars will start the Italian Grand Prix this year.

## Grid

De Graffenried is now inside the Top 10 most Pole Positions after a stunning performance in qualifying - Gerard is a close 2nd with Perdisa 3rd and the entire top 3 are covered by less than 0.5 of a second over what is a fairly long lap! Von Trips in 4th for Ferrari will be looking to get in amongst the leading trio!

Piotti and Landi are 5th and 6th for Connaught, with Villoresi 7th for Emeryson and Brabham 8th for Ferrari. Maglioli lines up 9th for Emeryson, with Fangio rounding out the top 10. Collins struggles in qualifying and is only 11th position, with Fairman 12th in the lone Cooper.

Bonnier is the final Connaught in a lowly 13th place, with Castellotti a long way back in 14th - Moss makes a return in the BRM in 15th, with Emery and Godia sandwiching Hawthorn in 17th place. Menditeguy had qualified in 16th position, but after taking to the track with time in qualifying lapsed and setting quick lap-times whilst marshalls were on track he is demoted to 19th and last on the grid.

## Race Commentary

If Gerard wins the race it will be his 20th victory – and has won here twice, but Ferrari look strong at the moment, and de Graffenried, von Trips and Brabham could all be a threat! His usual threat Collins is down in 11th place in what is hardly the ideal way to celebrate becoming the 3rd most experienced driver in F1R history.

*Lap 1* – Top 4 get away fine – Maglioli gets a great start but goes up the inside of Landi and out-brakes himself! He runs wide and becomes beached and is out on the spot!!! That delays Landi and Villoresi, who drop back as a result. Taking advantage of this are several drivers, including Piotti 5th, Collins who moves up to 6th place, Menditeguy into an incredible 7th place, Fairman 8th, Brabham 9th and Moss 10th.

Meanwhile outside the top 10 there is a big crash, as Castellotti and Emery come together with both eliminated on the spot! Quite a bit of debris on track as a result…

Several drivers starting on wet tyres elect to come into the pits to change over to dries at the end of the lap, including Piotti 5th, Fangio 10th and Godia 19th – they come out in 14th, 15th and 16th places. Still on wets are Bonnier 10th, Landi 11th, Villoresi 12th and Hawthorn 13th

*Lap 2* – De Graffenried is being hounded by the Maserati duo, and von Trips – several attempts by each to pass, but nothing successful as yet. Meanwhile Villoresi runs over the debris from the 1st corner accident, and spins…as he comes back onto the track Hawthorn is next round Curva Grande and collides with the Emeryson, which takes the Gordini out on the spot! Villoresi’s car is badly damaged.

Bonnier pits to change over to dry tyres on this lap, drops to 14th place, which promotes Landi to 10th, Villoresi 11th, Piotti 12th and Fangio 13th in what’s been an awful start for Connaught!

*Lap 3* – Villoresi’s damage is so severe that he’s helpless to defend against Piotti, Fangio and Bonnier - meanwhile Bonnier takes Fangio thanks to some excellent pace and the clear frustration of having been sent out on the wrong tyres by the team!

*Lap 4* – Menditeguy is closing up to the back of Collins for 5th place, meanwhile Piotti is pulling up to the back of Landi who is still on wet tyres in the dry! Villoresi drops to the rear of the field, even behind team-mate Godia

*Lap 5* – Piotti takes the wet-shod Landi with ease for 10th place, while at the front still only 4 seconds cover the top 4 drivers!

*Lap 6* – Moss is the latest driver to fall victim to the debris at Curva Grande, as he picks up some serious damage to one of his wheel-hubs. Bonnier meanwhile is pulling to within touching distance of Landi, with Fangio also closing in.

*Lap 7* – Gerard sets the FL, as the rain starts to fall!!! Menditeguy has a go at Collins, but the Vanwall shuts the door. Meanwhile Godia makes an error at the slick Lesmo 1 and finds himself crashing out of the race!!! Several drivers come into the pits to move onto rain tyres, with Gerard, Perdisa, Brabham, Piotti and Fangio all in – however it’s clear that Maserati weren’t prepared for this, as Perdisa is delayed by the team working on Gerard’s car. Far more prepared are von Trips mechanics at Ferrari and Fairman’s mechanics at Cooper as they are ready with the rain tyres when they enter the pits!

All of that moves Collins up to 2nd place, Menditeguy into an astonishing 3rd, with von Trips out of the pits in 4th, Gerard in 5th, Perdisa in 6th, Fairman in 7th, Brabham in 8th, Moss in 9th struggling for pace with Landi now up to 10th, Bonnier 11th and Piotti out in 12th ahead of Fangio 13th and Villoresi 14th still running with serious damage

*Lap 8* – De Graffenried still leads, but his dry tyres are beginning to struggle in the wet. Collins spins on his dry tyres and damages his car – he comes into the pits, and they fix the damage, but don’t change his tyres or refuel him!!! Menditeguy also comes in for a scheduled stop and takes advantage of this to switch over to wet tyres.

Maserati call Gerard back in, as it seems they forgot to re-fuel him last time round! Moss comes in to fix the damage and move onto wet tyres, whilst Bonnier also pits for rains too.

Von Trips is now up to 2nd place, with Perdisa 3rd, Menditeguy out in 4th, Fairman up to an impressive 5th in the lone Cooper, Collins out in 6th and Gerard out in 7th place! Not what the champion elect would have been hoping for here!!! Brabham retains 8th place, whilst both Moss and Bonnier pit to switch to the correct tyres.

Landi is up to 9th, with Piotti 10th and then the lapped cars – Moss out in 11th, Bonnier out in 12th, Fangio 13th and Villoresi 14th and still not pitting for his heavily damaged car!

*Lap 9* – De Graffenried and Perdisa both pit for a scheduled stop – in which de Graffenried changes his tyres over too but comes out just 5 seconds ahead of von Trips in 2nd! That promotes Menditeguy to a stunning 3rd place, and has set up a Ferrari 1-2-3. Fairman is now 4th, but cannot contend with the charging Gerard who passes him and Collins! Perdisa is out in 7th, JUST behind Collins and JUST ahead of Brabham!!!

Further back Bonnier passes Moss for 11th, and is followed through by Fangio, who has a go at his Swedish team-mate too – but fails to make the move stick!

*Lap 10* – Gerard is taking huge chunks out of the lead of Menditeguy in 3rd – but he’s a full 26 seconds back! Collins comes in for a scheduled stop to refuel, and Perdisa seizes the chance to overhaul Fairman and move into 5th place. Brabham is up to 7th, with Landi 8th and Piotti 9th. Collins emerges just inside the top 10.

Fangio does finally pass Bonnier for 11th place and looks like he’s in a good place to start challenging higher up the field!

*Lap 11* – Moss gets lapped by de Graffenried, who is starting to pull a gap at the front!

*Lap 12* – Gerard now within 20 seconds of Menditeguy and gaining around 3 seconds per lap. Brabham is chasing down Fairman, but gets blocked when he attempts to pass him for 6th – Landi is gaining ground on Brabham with Piotti also closing, though there are some significant time gaps in play here…

*Lap 13* – Perdisa spins! He gets it all crossed over at Parabolica, and drops a significant amount of time. Brabham finally passes Fairman for 6th, which could be a crucial pass given Perdisa’s damaged car, which will surely need to be looked at in the pits!

*Lap 14* – Gerard has narrowed the gap to Menditeguy to around 10 seconds, but crucially both de Graffenried and von Trips are going at roughly the same pace! Perdisa pits to fix his damage, with Brabham now up to 5th place – Landi is catching both Brabham and Fairman but is still around 16 seconds down. They are now 5th and 6th, with Landi up to 7th and Perdisa out in 8th.

Piotti is another to get fooled by the conditions, as he makes a mistake at Curva Nord, hits a barrier and causes a piece of his Connaught’s bodywork to become dislodged, and now has Collins gaining quickly on him! Not to mention the fact that he misses the chance to get ahead of the pitting Perdisa!

*Lap 15* – Gerard has the gap down to 8 seconds to Menditeguy and continues to push!

Landi trips over the wreckage from Piotti’s accident, and will surely have to pit as it looks like he has a puncture! Collins is catching Piotti too, as the Connaught still hasn’t pitted!

*Lap 16* – 5 seconds between Gerard and Menditeguy

Landi pits for a scheduled stop, where he fixes his damage too! Perdisa is now 7th, with Piotti 8th, Collins 9th and bearing down on the Connaught. Landi is out in 10th place.

*Lap 17* – 3 seconds gap between Gerard and Menditeguy

Perdisa is hauling Fairman in at a rate of 5 seconds per lap, but it’s a 30 second gap he’s working on!

Piotti pits, which moves Collins up to 8th place and Landi up to 9th.

Piotti gets lapped, and loses his top 10 place to Fangio as well!

*Lap 18* – Gerard makes the catch but finds Menditeguy in fighting mood as the Ferrari pulls out to block the champion elect!

Bonnier pits from 12th for a scheduled stop, but such is his lead over Moss that he comes out still 12th overall. He chooses wets again, despite there being much less precipitation out on track…

*Lap 19* – Gerard passes Menditeguy, and it looks like his podium chances are now gone. There are still 4 Ferrari’s in the points though, and no sign of that changing right now…

Perdisa has the gap to Fairman down to 21 seconds and is catching at an incredible 6 seconds per lap!!!

Fangio comes in for a scheduled stop, and also opts for rain tyres – though it’s definitely getting dry out there… he drops to 11th behind Piotti

*Lap 20* – Von Trips comes in, and switches to dry tyres – it’s still wet out there, but everyone is now waiting to see how the Ferrari performs!!! He comes out in 2nd place still, with Gerard 5 seconds behind him.

*Lap 21* – The rain is gone, the track now has a dry line appearing and all attention is on the pits – some teams are ready for their drivers, as Menditeguy and Fairman both get out quickly. Gerard, Brabham, Perdisa, Piotti and Fangio are all in to change tyres as well. That means Menditeguy comes out in 3rd place, with Gerard 4th!

Brabham is still 5th with Fairman 6th and Collins up to 7th ahead of Perdisa (though the Vanwall is yet to pit!). Bonnier also passes Fangio thanks to his pit-stop.

*Lap 22* – The leader comes in! De Graffenried comes out around 9 seconds ahead of von Trips.

Gerard comes in again, as it seems his mechanics once again have not elected to refuel whilst he changed tyres!!! The Englishman looks furious right now…he emerges in 4th still though, some 0.1 seconds ahead of Brabham in 5th place.

Perdisa takes Collins, who is still on wet tyres and starting to struggle for grip! And the Maserati is now just 2 seconds down on Fairman.

Bonnier and Moss both come in to switch over to dry tyres, which moves Fangio up to 11th place

*Lap 23* – Von Trips is gaining heavily on de Graffenried, who looks really tired now! The gap is 9 seconds, but the German is going about 3-4 secs per lap quicker.

Gerard is still gaining on Menditeguy, but only by 2 secs per lap and he’s 55 seconds down. However, he’s under pressure from Brabham, as the Ferrari challenges him – and makes the move stick to make it 4 Ferrari in the top 4.

Perdisa passes Fairman for 6th place and right now he’s the quickest car on track by some distance!

Landi crashes at Curva Grande, and retires from the race – leaving just 13 runners left in the race

*Lap 24* – Von Trips takes another 2 seconds out of de Graffenried to make a 4 second gap

Brabham is catching Menditeguy at a rate of 4 seconds per lap, but he’s about 50 seconds behind!

Perdisa pits for a scheduled stop and comes out in 8th place – JUST behind Collins, who is still on wet tyres and losing A LOT of time.

*Lap 25* – The gap between von Trips and de Graffenried is less than a second – and the German’s maiden win could be in sight here if he can make the pass!

Brabham pits from 4th, which promotes Gerard to 4th and Fairman back into the points in 5th place!

Unsurprisingly Perdisa passes the wet-shod Collins for 7th place

(Moss runs out of fuel for BRM, meaning that he ends his race here – only 12 drivers remain!)

*Lap 26* – It’s like a changing of the guard – as the old master passes over to the new kid on the block! Von Trips overhauls de Graffenried, as the Swiss doesn’t make it too difficult for his team-mate. What a servant he has been to Ferrari!

Perdisa is on a charge, and he’s going 5 seconds per lap faster than Brabham! And the gap is now down to just 4 seconds!!!

(Bonnier is now within 3 seconds of Fangio in the fight for the final top 10 spot!)

(Villoresi FINALLY pits to mend the damage to his car!)

*Lap 27* – Perdisa takes Brabham for 6th, who looks to have fuelled very heavily – and is probably going to try and go to the end of the race!

(Piotti is gaining hand over foot on Collins, with 30 seconds between them and that gap likely to evaporate in 2-3 laps)

(Bonnier passes Fangio for 10th place – and is also likely to catch Collins too, if nothing else changes)

*Lap 28* – Gerard is gaining on Menditeguy again for 3rd place – but at a rate of 2 seconds per lap and with a 45 second gap in play time may be against him!

Perdisa is catching Fairman for the final points place, and at a rate of 5 seconds per lap with a 20 second gap it looks positive for them

(Villoresi is only just out of the pits, with wet tyres on – and he goes wide and damages his car AGAIN!)

*Lap 29* – Perdisa just 7.5 seconds down on Fairman now

(Piotti within 5 seconds of Collins, and 8th place looks very much in his sights!)

*Lap 30* – Perdisa is just 2 seconds down on Fairman and continuing to push hard!

(Piotti overtakes Collins for 8th place, and is now catching Brabham at a rate of 4 seconds per lap!)

*Lap 31* – Perdisa passes Fairman for 5th place, and he’ll soon have von Trips coming round to lap him!

*Lap 32* – Gerard is still catching Menditeguy, with a 36 second gap – however he has Perdisa 37 seconds down on him and catching at a similar rate!!!

*Lap 33* – Both gaps down to 32 seconds in the Menditeguy-Gerard-Perdisa scrap!

*Lap 34* – Battles continue on track – but they are mostly focused on decreasing time gaps

(Piotti has gap to Brabham below 30 seconds – and continues to catch him)

*Lap 35* – Gerard getting closer to Menditeguy than Perdisa to him – 26 v 28 secs

(Piotti and Collins both pit, Piotti out in 8th, Collins out in 10th behind Bonnier and another lap down – but despite dry track conditions the Vanwall driver elects to go back out on wet tyres!)

*Lap 36* – Gerard comes in for a scheduled stop, and that puts Perdisa into 4th place

(Bonnier pits, scheduled stop which puts Collins back into 9th place)

*Lap 37* – Perdisa comes in, keen to avoid Gerard getting the undercut! However he falls behind Fairman as well, as all 3 of them get lapped by the relentless von Trips!!!

*Lap 38* – (Piotti still gaining on Brabham – he’s over a minute down, but catching at around 4 seconds per lap)

((Fangio pits, 11th place now looks like a serious likelihood for the Connaught))

*Lap 39* – (Perdisa catching Fairman at a rate of 4 seconds per lap with a 10 second gap)

((Bonnier right on the back of Collins for 9th place now))

*Lap 40* – (Perdisa now just 4 seconds down on Fairman)

((Bonnier passes Collins for 9th))

*Lap 41* – (Perdisa now right on the back of Fairman!)

*Lap 42* – (Perdisa passes Fairman for 5th place and is now just 8 seconds down on Gerard!!!)

*Lap 43* – Von Trips comes in and puts on wet tyres despite the track being dry, which puts de Graffenried back into the race lead

(6 second gap between Perdisa and Gerard)

*Lap 44* – Menditeguy pits from 3rd and still comes out in a podium position and is also now on wet tyres despite the track STILL being dry!

Perdisa is within touching distance of Gerard now, and both are back on the lead lap

(Fairman pits for wet tyres, and drops down to 8th place behind Brabham and Piotti)

*Lap 45* – De Graffenried pits from the lead and comes out in 2nd place behind von Trips – but goes for dry tyres, as there’s still no rain on track…yet!

Gerard is now catching Menditeguy at 10 seconds per lap thanks to being on the right tyres, with only a 13 second deficit!

But maybe Gerard should have paid more attention to his rear view mirror, as Perdisa ducks up the inside of his Maserati team-mate for 4th place

*Lap 46* – De Graffenried takes 8 seconds out of von Trips’ lead – with only 8 seconds left in the German’s pocket!

Perdisa passes Menditeguy for 3rd place! He is followed through by Gerard too!!!

*Lap 47* – The rain pours down again! This could change the race outcome entirely!!!

Perdisa, Gerard and Brabham all come in to change over to wet tyres! Menditeguy is back up to 3rd as a result, with Perdisa out in 4th and Gerard out in 5th

Brabham comes out in 6th place

*Lap 48* – (Piotti comes in to pit for wet tyres, which moves Fairman up to 7th place with the Connaught out in 8th position)

(Von Trips laps Perdisa and Gerard again – the wet tyres are working fantastically!)

*Lap 49* – The gaps at the front are now pretty sizeable – and though de Graffenried is on dry tyres he has over 2 minutes advantage on Menditeguy so he shouldn’t have to worry!

((Fangio comes in for wet tyres – comes out in 11th place))

*Lap 50* – Von Trips wins!!! His 1st ever victory, and the 1st by a German since Hermann Lang at the 1954 Spanish GP! De Graffenried signs off his career with a strong podium, and presides over a Ferrari 1-2-3, with not only Menditeguy’s first points but his first podium too!

(Piotti moves to within 8 seconds of Fairman, but looks likely to run out of time!)

((Bonnier pits to switch to wet tyres, comes out in 9th place still))

*1 LAP DOWN* – Perdisa finishes a solid 4th place in what’s been a good season for the Maserati youngster, with Gerard finishing in the points to end his championship season with a top 5 finish.

Brabham comes 6th, and should maintain a top 10 position in the season’s standings!

Piotti overtakes Fairman for 7th place, but 8th isn’t a bad result for the Cooper

*2 LAPS DOWN* – Bonnier comes 9th with Collins rounding out the top 10

*3 LAPS DOWN* – Fangio finishes 11th, with Villoresi the 12th and final finisher!

## Race Setups

**How close setups were to perfect**

* 0.0379512 Wolfgang von Trips
* 0.03818 Carlos Menditeguy
* 0.1247944 Toulo De Graffenried
* 0.298368 Jack Brabham
* 0.81825 Bob Gerard
* 1.5622208 Jack Fairman
* 1.65018038 Cesare Perdisa
* 2.5591504 Peter Collins
* 2.761722 Joakim Bonnier
* 5.1926337 Luigi Piotti
* 17.4536335 Luigi Villoresi
* 18.101088 Juan Manuel Fangio
* 21.284229 Chico Landi
* 22.2994928 Paco Godia
* 25.79638 Stirling Moss
* 27.9489094 Mike Hawthorn

## Milestones

* 30th race entry for Juan Manuel Fangio
* 20th race entry for Carlos Menditeguy
* 10th race entry for Paco Godia
* Collins now 3rd most starts ever, at expense of Farina
* Maglioli up to 7th most starts ever, from Salvadori 8th, Villoresi 9th and Pietsch 10th
* 3 points for Perdisa sees him move inside the Top 10 for Most points without a win
* Points score for Gerard sees him move into 3rd place on the all-time consecutive points-scorers list
* Von Trips win from 4th makes it into the top 10 for Wins from the lowest starting position
* Wins in Italy for Gerard in ’50 and ’51, Salvadori in ’53, Farina in ’55, also Pietsch in ’52 and Lang in ’54 (both now retired)
* FL for Gerard sees him once again achieve 3 x FL in a row (2nd time this season!)
* FL in Italy for Gerard in ’50 and ’52, Salvadori in ’53, Farina in ’55, also Whitehead in ’51 and Lang in ’54 (both now retired)
* Pole for de Graffenried moves him into top 10 for Most Poles (to 9th place)
* Pole in Italy for Gerard in ’50 and ’51, Salvadori in ’53, Villoresi in ’54, Farina in ’55, de Graffenried in ’56 and also Whitehead in ’52 (now retired)
* Podium for de Graffenried is his 10th podium