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This weekend saw the running of two legs of what is dubbed motorsport’s Triple Crown: The Monaco Grand Prix, and the Indianapolis 500, with the third leg, Le 24 Heures Du Mans (24 Hours of Le Mans), to be run in June.
The first Monaco Grand Prix was held in 1929. William Grover-Williams took the inaugural title in a Bugatti, and the event has gone on to see some legendary names etched into history.
When talking of the Monaco Grand Prix, many people bring up Graham Hill’s five victories in the 1960s (’63, ’64, ’65, ’68, ’69) which earned him the moniker King of Monaco.
Others bring up Ayrton Senna’s domination of the street circuit over the 1980’s and early 1990s. Senna earned his debut podium with a stunning wet-weather drive in 1984. He then set what some call the ‘perfect lap’ during qualifying for the 1988 race, a race that Senna threw away by putting it in the wall at Portier.
Senna would then go on and win the race for next five years from 1989 to 1993, adding to his victory in 1987 for Lotus.
My first memory of the Monaco Grand Prix is of 1996, when Olivier Panis won the race and only three drivers crossed the line.
It would be Ligier’s last victory, as the following year saw team was taken over by Alain Prost, a former Monaco winner himself.
More recently many people remember Michael Schumacher’s dastardly actions during qualifying in 2006. He kept championship rival Fernando Alonso from earning pole by parking his car along the exit at Rascasse.
In Australia, many remember Mark Webber’s two victories in the principality, winning from pole in 2010 and 2012. He became the 13th driver to win the Monaco Grand prix multiple times, and also backflipped into the pool to celebrate both victories.
Older readers may remember Sir Jack Brabham’s near-miss at victory in 1970, putting his car in the wall on the final corner of the final lap. This granted victory to Jochen Rindt, which gave him his second leg of the Triple Crown after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1965.
This would have been Brabham’s second victory as a driver at Monaco after he won the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix on the way to his first world championship.
Only one driver of the six to complete two legs has the Monaco Grand Prix as their final victory to achieve – AJ Foyt, a four time winner of the Indianapolis 500 and winner of the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Interesting to note is that he is the only driver to win two of the three races in the same year, with one of his Indianapolis 500 victories coming in 1967.
Even still, only 17 drivers have competed in all three legs of the Triple Crown, achieving a victory in at least one.
However, an alternative and apparently older edition of the Triple Crown exists, which substitutes the Monaco Grand Prix with the Formula One Drivers World Championship.
Substituting this would add Phil Hill to the list of drivers having won two legs in the same year, winning the championship in 1961, as well as his three Le Mans victories in 1958, 1961 and 1962. Jim Clark also won the Indianapolis 500 in 1965, the same year as his second world championship.
Using this criteria, the six to complete two legs becomes twelve, with Hill, Clark, Mike Hawthorn (Le Mans/F1), Mario Andretti (Indy/F1), Emerson Fittipaldi (Indy/F1) and Jacques Villeneuve (Indy/F1) all achieving this feat.
But one man still stands above the rest. Graham Hill is the King of Monaco with five victories, Formula One World Drivers’ Championships in 1962 and 1968, Indianapolis 500 winner in 1966 and a 24 Hours of Le Mans victor in 1972, making him the only man in history to achieve the Triple Crown of Motorsport.
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