Three races, three wins ! Michael Lyons achieved a memorable hat-trick on Sunday at Grand Prix Historique de Monaco. The 30-year-old Anglo-Irish driver won Races E, F and G in the space of a few hours, abord three very different single-seaters : a venerable Surtees TS9 in Race E, thanks to a better start than his main rival, a McLaren M26, once driven by James Hunt, following the race incident between Jean Alesi and Marco Werner (then penalized) in Race F. Last but not least, he won Race G in a blue Hesketh 308 E dating back to 1977, after Jordan Grogor, the poleman, had to retire after hitting the wall with his golden Arrows… under the heavy pressure of Lyons. The hero of the day finished this last race with a 12-second gap on Mike Cantillon and the podium was completed by Matteo Ferrer-Aza, in a Ligier JS11/15.
A number of race incidents happened during the last race of the week-end, including French veteran Alain Ferté damaging the front left of his Arrows at the Piscine and young Frenchman Evens Stievenart losing the 2nd place when his blue Tyrrell 010 hit the wall at the Anthony-Noghès turn, the same as Jean Alesi.
The Cups were handed by Alain Pallanca, Race Director at Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM). We can bet that both Lyons and Alesi will be back next year, for different reasons.