In the Honda RA 301, at Monaco 1968, Surtees qualified 4th but the gearbox broke after only 16 laps.
Photo: Ed McDonough
How do you get to be the only man to have won both the motorcycle and Formula One World Championships in a single lifetime? Perhaps Mauro Forghieri, the man whose Ferraris won 11 world titles, got it right when he said John Surtees was a classy driver, a complete tester and a good technician.
Surtees was certainly blindingly fast which, added to his engineering and design prowess, meant he understood why and how things worked: a marvellous stock in trade with which to cross swords with the world’s best.
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