With only one week to go until the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix, CityOut looks back over the tyre-tracks of time to decipher who the top three drivers are in Monaco GP history.
Joint 2nd – Graham Hill – UK
Graham Hill won the Monaco Grand Prix an amazing 5 times between 1963 and 1969. In fact, he nearly won 7 consecutively between those years – only missing out in ’66 and ’67 when his run was interrupted by Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme respectively. Hill won the race for both BRM and Lotus-Ford, and it was in the Lotus Ford, in 1969 that Hill recorded his last ever GP victory. A devastating injury later that year meant he never hit the dizzying heights reached during the 1960s.
Joint 2nd – Michael Schumacher – Germany
Like Hill, Schumacher finished first in Monaco an incredible 5 times. The 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001 GP season all saw the flying German cross the checkered line first in Monte Carlo. His first victory in the 1994 race was the first GP following the tragic deaths of Aryton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at Imola. As a mark of respect, the first two grid positions were left empty and simply replaced by the national flags of the two fallen heroes. Schumacher was next on the grid and led throughout in his Benetton-Ford and said afterwards how pleased he was that F1 had “set such an example”.
First – Aryton Senna – Brazil
F1 Legend Aryton Senna won in Monaco a record six times. He achieved his first victory here in 1987 aged 27 and his inaugural win was notable as it was the first time a car with active suspension won a F1 race. Alain Prost was victorious is 1988 and then Senna matched the astonishing feat of Graham Hill and won an incredible 5 Monaco Grand Prix’s in a row. His winning streak was brought to a harrowing end by his untimely death at Imola in 1994. Who knows how many more times the great Brazilian may have won on our famous street circuit but we do know that we were lucky to have witnessed genuine genius in our principality.