{"id":860988,"date":"2026-08-17T05:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T05:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/860988\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T05:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T05:58:12","slug":"on-this-day-in-formula-1-donohue-killed-on-day-that-brambilla-crashes-after-winning-in-austria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/860988\/","title":{"rendered":"On this Day in Formula 1: Donohue killed on day that Brambilla crashes after winning in Austria"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 17 once delivered a maiden victory for Vittorio Brambilla in one of Formula 1\u2019s strangest finishes after a tragedy robbed the sport of American legend Mark Donohue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 1975 Austrian Grand Prix produced perhaps the most bizarre victory celebration of them all. Vittorio Brambilla started eighth for March and worked his way through the field as heavy rain transformed the \u00d6sterreichring. He passed James Hunt for the lead before worsening conditions forced officials to stop the race after 29 laps.<\/p>\n

Brambilla crossed the line to claim his first and only Formula 1 victory \u2013 then promptly lost control while celebrating and crashed into the barriers. Despite badly damaging the front of his car, the Italian managed to continue his victory lap.<\/p>\n

Because the race had been stopped early, only half points were awarded. Hunt finished second for Hesketh, with Tom Pryce third for Shadow.\u00a0Earlier in the day, Donohue crashed his Penske (March 751) during a warm-up session, which also killed a marshal. Donohue died two days later of a cerebral hemorrhage.<\/p>\n

A major moment came at the 1952 Dutch Grand Prix, where Ferrari completely dominated Zandvoort. Alberto Ascari led Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Villoresi home for a Scuderia one-two-three.<\/p>\n

Ascari on another level\"5e3aa1412949390ad1be6010<\/p>\n

Victory was Ascari\u2019s seventh in Formula 1, taking him beyond Juan Manuel Fangio\u2019s then-record for Grand Prix wins. Mike Hawthorn briefly ran second for Cooper before eventually finishing fourth.<\/p>\n

August 17, 1952, was also the day Nelson Piquet was born in Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian would become World Champion with Brabham in 1981 and 1983 before claiming his third crown with Williams in 1987.<\/p>\n

Five years later, Jean-Pierre Jabouille won the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix for Renault. Alan Jones initially led for Williams before the Renaults moved ahead. Ren\u00e9 Arnoux later suffered clutch problems, leaving Jabouille to resist Jones and win by just 0.820 seconds. Carlos Reutemann completed the podium in the second Williams.<\/p>\n

Button loaned out\"button<\/p>\n

The \u00d6sterreichring again hosted Formula 1 on August 17 in 1986, when Alain Prost took victory for McLaren. Teo Fabi and Gerhard Berger initially led for Benetton, but both retired with mechanical problems. <\/p>\n

Williams drivers Nigel Mansell and Piquet also failed to finish, allowing Prost to lead Ferrari drivers Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson home.<\/p>\n

August 17 also produced an important career development in 2000, when Williams announced Jenson Button<\/a> would be loaned to Benetton for two seasons.<\/p>\n

The move cleared a Williams seat for Juan Pablo Montoya, who was arriving from IndyCar. Button said he would remain “eternally grateful” to Frank Williams and Patrick Head for giving him his Formula 1 opportunity.<\/p>\n

Finally, August 17 marks the 2020 passing of Mario de Araujo Cabral, the first Portuguese driver to start a Formula 1 World Championship race. His best result was tenth at his home Grand Prix in 1959.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 17 once delivered a maiden victory for Vittorio Brambilla in one of Formula 1\u2019s strangest finishes after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,195967,131404,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-860988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-history","tag-flashback","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}