The final round of the 1964 Formula One season was poised to make history. For the first time, three drivers from three different constructors arrived at Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez with a mathematical shot at the championship. Graham Hill of BRM, John Surtees of Ferrari, and Jim Clark of Lotus were separated by just a handful of points, setting the stage for a legendary showdown.
The season had initially appeared to be a battle between the defending champion, Jim Clark, and Graham Hill. Clark had secured three victories early on, but a series of retirements in the latter half of the year opened the door for his rivals. John Surtees, who had started the year with Ferrari’s focus divided, found his form after the 24 Hours of Le Mans, taking crucial wins in Germany and Italy to insert himself into the title fight.
Surtees brought a unique pedigree to the grid. A former motorcycle world champion, he had dominated on two wheels before transitioning to cars. His raw talent and mechanical sympathy, honed from a young age in his father’s workshop, quickly made him a favourite within the Ferrari team.
As the cars lined up on the grid, the permutations were complex. Hill held a five-point lead over Surtees, with Clark a further four points back. Clark’s only hope was victory, and he started from the ideal position: pole position. Surtees qualified fourth, while Hill found himself back in sixth.
The race began in chaotic fashion. A broken goggle strap left Hill fumbling as the field surged past, dropping him to tenth by the end of the first lap. Surtees also suffered a poor start, his engine bogging down and relegating him to 13th. For Clark, the path to the title seemed to be clearing perfectly as he built a commanding lead.
Yet the drama was only beginning. Both Hill and Surtees began a determined charge back through the field. The pivotal moment came when Hill, battling for position, collided with Surtees’s Ferrari teammate, Lorenzo Bandini. The incident sent Hill into the barriers, damaging his car and forcing a long pit stop that effectively ended his championship hopes.
With Hill out of contention, the title was now a direct fight between Clark and Surtees. Clark continued to lead, but with just a handful of laps remaining, his Lotus began to leak oil. In an era without team radio, only Clark was aware of the terminal issue slowly crippling his car.
On the final lap, the inevitable happened. Clark’s car, its engine starved of oil, slowed to a crawl and eventually stopped. Dan Gurney swept into the lead to take the race win, but all eyes were on the battle for second. Bandini, in a display of team orders, moved aside to let Surtees through. Crossing the line in second place was enough for Surtees to clinch the world championship by a single point.
The result cemented John Surtees in the history books as the first and only racer to win world championships on both two wheels and four. His victory in Mexico was a testament to perseverance, team strategy, and the brutal, unpredictable nature of motorsport, where a title can be won or lost on the very last lap.
