Lella Lombardi

Lella Lombardi
Born	(1941-Template:MONTHNUMBER-26)26 1941 Frugarolo, Piedmont, Italy
Died	Template:Death date and age Milan, Italy
Formula One career
Nationality	Italian
Years	1974–1976

Maria Grazia "Lella" Lombardi (26 March 1941 – 3 March 1992) was a racing driver from Italy.

Born in Frugarolo, Piedmont, she participated in 17 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 20 July 1974. She is the only female Formula One driver in history to have a top six finish in a World Championship race, at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. Half points were awarded for this race due to a shortened race distance, hence Lombardi received half a point instead of the usual one point. As well as being the sole female driver to score points in Formula One, she is one of the two who managed to qualify at least for a Formula One race (the other being compatriot Maria Teresa de Filippis) and the only driver with that career total.

Lella Lombardi driving a March 751 Formula One car in practice for the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix

After performing well in Formula Three and Formula 5000 in the early 1970s, Lombardi entered Formula One in 1974 with an old privately entered Brabham. In 1975 she joined March and raced the full season. She then had a one-off drive for Williams before a short-lived and unsuccessful partnership with RAM Racing.

Lombardi had also started in NASCAR driving in the Firecracker 400 NASCAR race at the Daytona International Speedway in 1977. There were two other female drivers in the field: American Janet Guthrie and Belgian Christine Beckers.

Lombardi later raced in sports cars with some success. Her best season was in 1979 when she won the 6 hours of Pergusa and the 6 hours of Vallelunga. She competed four times at the 24 hours of Le Mans, her best result being in 1976 when she finished 9th in a Porsche Carrera. Lombardi retired from racing in 1988. She died of breast cancer in Milan in 1992, aged 50.

Racing record

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1974	Allied Polymer Group	Brabham BT42	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR DNQ	GER	AUT	CAN	ITA	USA		NC	0
1975	March Engineering	March 741	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA Ret														21st	0.5
	Lavazza March	March 751					ESP 6	MON DNQ	BEL Ret	SWE Ret	NED 14	FRA 18	GBR Ret	GER 7	AUT 17	ITA Ret
	Frank Williams Racing Cars	Williams FW04															USA DNS
1976	Lavazza March	March 761	Cosworth V8	BRA 14	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	FRA									NC	0
	RAM Racing with Lavazza	Brabham BT44B										GBR DNQ	GER DNQ	AUT 12	NED	ITA	CAN	USA	JPN

Formula One non-championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3
1974	Lella Lombardi	Lola T330	Ford V8	PRE	ROC NC	INT 13
1975	March	March 751	Ford V8	ROC	INT Ret	SUI 12

NASCAR

(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series

NASCAR Winston Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	NWCC	Pts
1977	Charles Dean	05	Chevy	RSD	DAY	RCH	CAR	ATL	NWS	DAR	BRI	MAR	TAL	NSV	DOV	CLT	RSD	MCH	DAY 31	NSV	POC	TAL	MCH	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	NWS	CLT	CAR	ATL	ONT	N/A	0

See also

• List of female Formula One drivers
• Driver Data Base profile

External links

• Lella Lombardi driver statistics at Racing-Reference

Template:Female Formula One drivers

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Lella Lombardi. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.