The Monaco win that started another triple crown

By:

James Newbold

May 21, 2021, 12:01 PM

30 years ago, victory in the Monaco Grand Prix-supporting Formula 3 race – then a showpiece invitational event – began a young Jorg Muller’s pursuit of a unique set of street circuit wins that he’d later complete at Macau and Pau

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Despite Fernando Alonso’s best efforts to crack the Indianapolis 500 in recent years, Graham Hill remains the only driver ever to have completed motorsport’s official triple crown. Known as Mr Monaco, Hill claimed no fewer than five Grand Prix victories in the principality between 1963 and 1969, added the Indy 500 at his first attempt in 1966 before completing the set with glory in the 1972 Le Mans 24 Hours.

But while it may not be the best-known, there is another triple crown which has a similarly exclusive membership club of one. Made up of the big three street circuit races below Formula 1 – the Macau and Pau Grands Prix, plus Monaco (which held an invitational Grand Prix for Formula 3 cars between 1964 and 1997) – an illustrious list of drivers have won two out of three.

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James Newbold Autosport Plus Editor

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James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.