How Hill won what Alonso desperately wants

There's no evidence to suggest that Graham Hill was thinking about some kind of triple crown before he lucked into an Indy 500 victory on his debut in the race in 1966. Yet six years later he returned to the Le Mans 24 Hours after a long absence with a Fernando Alonso-like zeal to seal his place in motorsport history.

Hill achieved his goal in 1972, claiming a maiden win for Matra at the same time as future Le Mans legend Henri Pescarolo notched up the first of his four victories. But the Briton viewed the triple crown as slightly different to the one Alonso has in mind.

"Graham's ambition was to be the first driver to win the 24 Hours as well as the Indy 500 and the Formula 1 world title," recalls Pescarolo. "He really came back to the 24 Hours to do that, and he was happy to be in a good car again."

The nature of the triple crown for Hill is confirmed in his second volume of autobiography, the posthumously-published Graham. "This earned me the triple crown of motor racing as the first driver to have won the world championship, Indianapolis and Le Mans," he wrote of his victory with Matra.

Hill did, of course, also achieve the other triple crown, combining the world's most famous motor races. He was, after all, 'Mr Monaco', a five-time grand prix winner on the streets of the principality, so his reasons for choosing the world title as the F1 leg of the tripartite challenge went with him to his death in a light aircraft accident in November 1975.

But what is clear is that Hill was every bit as motivated when he went to Le Mans for his 10th participation as Alonso was for his first at the 500 last month. That was something Pescarolo didn't realise when he was told he was to be paired with Hill in one of the four V12-engined Matra prototypes - three new MS670s and one older MS660C - entered by the French manufacturer.

Pescarolo (pictured above driving a Williams-run March chasing Hill's Brabham at the '72 United States Grand Prix) had not been best pleased to learn that Hill was going to be his team-mate.

He had already taken some persuading to go back to Matra a year on from being dropped from its F1 line-up in favour of Chris Amon after an impressive rookie season in 1970, which had included a podium at Monaco. And now he was being asked to share with a 43-year-old who many suspected wasn't the same driver after breaking his legs at Watkins Glen in 1969.

"At first I refused to drive again for Matra, but I had no other good opportunity and thought it was the best chance for me to win Le Mans," recalls Pescarolo, who was embarking on a second stint with the French manufacturer that would yield a hat-trick of Le Mans victories from 1972-74.

"In the end I agreed, but right after they said that Graham would be my team-mate. So I told them again that I did not want to drive for Matra.

"I was not sure that Graham was ready to take the risks in such a race. He was already a legend and Le Mans at that time was still a very dangerous race. I thought if it was raining in the night, if there was fog in the morning, would he be ready to take the risks?

"I said that I didn't want to drive with him. I wanted to drive with someone who wanted to win."

Pescarolo made his protestations to Jabby Crombac, the pipe-smoking Frenchman who was much more than a journalist. The well-connected motorsport fixer, who was retained by Matra to help assemble its driver roster, recalled how Hill played up to his team-mate's concerns.

"Graham had an old neck injury and would wear a rubber brace from time to time," he said in 2002. "He played it beautifully and acted like an old man at the first test just to take the piss out of Henri. But once he started driving, he was outstanding."

Pescarolo was forced to agree, though he was quite surprised by party animal Hill's attitude outside the car.

"Graham always liked the good life and his way of preparing for Le Mans surprised me a little bit," he recalls. "He liked to have a good time, but when he was in the car he was very professional in the way he approached testing and the way he dealt with the engineers.

"He was a true professional with such experience. That was very important for us. I think he realised that he was in the right place at the right time to win Le Mans and from the very beginning he was really part of the team."

And when it came to the race weekend, Hill contributed his fair share to the victory. Perhaps even more than his fair share in a race that became a straight fight between the two MS670s that had qualified on the front row.

Hill and Pescarolo, who opted to run high-downforce bodywork, were up against Francois Cevert and Howden Ganley in the long-tail version of the MS670 for the honour of scoring the first Le Mans victory by a French manufacturer in more than 20 years.

"We had a lap time to respect and it was very strict," explains Pescarolo. "We were not allowed to fight between us, but the only time that it was not possible to control the drivers was when it was raining. During the night the conditions were very difficult and it was the time Graham chose to really to attack at the maximum."

Crombac offered a similar assessment of the race: "Graham won the race on two counts. He disobeyed instructions and blatantly overtook the Ganley/Cevert car during the night and then put on intermediate tyres at a pitstop in the early morning."

The late Gerard Ducarouge, who was effectively the chief engineer of the Matra Sport team, remembered Hill using all his experience in difficult conditions on Sunday morning.

"The weather was very unstable and Graham decided on his own to change from slicks to intermediates," said Ducarouge. "Then rain started and he began to catch the other car like hell and took the lead when it pitted."

The destination of the victory laurels was decided shortly before midday on Sunday when Ganley was hit by a slower car and lost 10 minutes to repairs. Ducarouge, though, was convinced that Hill and Pescarolo were already on course for victory at this point.

"I'm quite sure of that," he said. "Both of them drove brilliantly that day, but Graham was particularly special. He was not a loser and there was no way he was going to let the opportunity to win Le Mans pass him by.

"We tried to slow them down at one point, but forget it. They just said that they couldn't see the board because of the weather."

Victory at Le Mans was bitter-sweet for Hill. Swedish veteran Jo Bonnier, who he called his "oldest friend in motor racing" in the pages of Graham, was killed when his Lola prototype tangled with a slower car on the run from Mulsanne to Indianapolis.

But that didn't stop Hill celebrating the victory as you might expect of a confirmed bon viveur. The party, thrown by Moet et Chandon out at Genissel's restaurant on the Mulsanne, was an outrageous affair.

"There are pictures of us throwing glasses around the restaurant," says Pescarolo. "It was a fantastic party and I'm not sure Jo was on Graham's mind that evening. He was just so happy to win that race."