The 1966 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Ciudad Deportiva Magdalena Mixhuca on 23 October 1966. It was race 9 of 9 in both the 1966 World Championship of Drivers and the 1966 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The race was the fifth Mexican Grand PrixPeter Higham, The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing, 1995, page 424 and the first to be run under the new three-litre Formula.Kettlewell, Mike. "Grand Prix Racing South of the Border", in Ward, Ian, executive editor. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974) Volume 12, p.1332. It was held over 65 laps of the circuit for a race distance of .

The race was won by British driver John Surtees driving a Cooper T81-Maserati, his first victory since leaving Scuderia Ferrari to join Cooper. Surtees led home reigning world champion Australian owner-driver Jack Brabham, driving a Brabham BT20-Repco,Kettlewell, p.1332. by eight seconds. A lap down in third place, also driving a Brabham BT20, was Brabham's teammate New Zealander Denny Hulme.

Surtees's victory promoted him to second place in the championship, vaulting past Austrian driver Jochen Rindt of the Cooper works team.

Race report

John Surtees dominated to take his first win since transferring from Ferrari to Cooper in mid season. He took the lead from Jack Brabham on lap 6 and was never challenged. With Jim Clark suffering gearbox problems and both BRMs retiring, Richie Ginther was the only contender left. However he too had mechanical problems, and dropped back. Brabham rallied at the end to close, but Surtees had lapped the entire field up to second. The first year of 3-litre engines had resulted in wins for five different makes of car, using five different engines.

Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap1 7 John Surtees Cooper-Maserati 1:53.18—2 1 Jim Clark Lotus-BRM 1:53.50 +0.323 12 Richie Ginther Honda 1:53.56 +0.384 5 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 1:53.95 +0.775 8 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati 1:54.19 +1.016 6 Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco 1:54.21 +1.037 3 Graham Hill BRM 1:54.61 +1.438 11 Pedro Rodríguez Lotus-Climax 1:54.78 +1.609 15 Dan Gurney Eagle-Climax 1:54.93 +1.7510 4 Jackie Stewart BRM 1:55.90 +2.7211 18 Mike Spence Lotus-BRM 1:55.98 +2.8012 19 Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati 1:55.99 +2.8113 22 Jo Bonnier Cooper-Maserati 1:56.49 +3.3114 14 Ronnie Bucknum Honda 1:56.59 +3.4115 17 Bruce McLaren McLaren-Ford 1:56.84 +3.6616 9 Moisés Solana Cooper-Maserati 1:57.44 +4.2617 10 Innes Ireland BRM 1:57.46 +4.2818 2 Peter Arundell Lotus-BRM 2:00.79 +7.6119 16 Bob Bondurant Eagle-Weslake 2:02.88 +9.70 Source:

Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 7 John Surtees Cooper-Maserati 65 2:06:35.34 1 9 2 5 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 65 + 7.88 4 6 3 6 Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco 64 + 1 lap 6 4 4 12 Richie Ginther Honda 64 + 1 lap 3 3 5 15 Dan Gurney Eagle-Climax 64 + 1 lap 9 2 6 22 Jo Bonnier Cooper-Maserati 63 + 2 laps 12 1 7 2 Peter Arundell Lotus-BRM 61 + 4 laps 17 8 14 Ronnie Bucknum Honda 60 + 5 laps 13 11 Pedro Rodríguez Lotus-Climax 49 Differential 8 17 Bruce McLaren McLaren-Ford 40 Engine 14 19 Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati 33 Suspension 11 8 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati 32 Suspension 5 10 Innes Ireland BRM 28 Transmission 16 4 Jackie Stewart BRM 26 Oil Leak 10 16 Bob Bondurant Eagle-Weslake 24 Fuel System 18 3 Graham Hill BRM 18 Engine 7 1 Jim Clark Lotus-BRM 9 Gearbox 2 9 Moisés Solana Cooper-Maserati 9 Overheating 15 18 Mike Spence Lotus-BRM 0 Accident

Notes

This was the 10th win for a Maserati-powered car.

Final Championship standings Bold text indicates the World Champions.

Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Jack Brabham 42 (45) 1 2 John Surtees 28 1 3 Jochen Rindt 22 (24) 3 4 Denny Hulme 18 1 5 Graham Hill 17Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Brabham-Repco 42 (49) 2 Ferrari 31 (32) 3 Cooper-Maserati 30 (35) 4 BRM 22 5 Lotus-BRM 13Source:

Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 5 results counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References