Peter Arundell

A star whose meteoric trajectory was halted in an instant at Reims

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GRAND PRIX DRIVERS ARE an elite bunch. Naturally, there is a pecking order, but alongside the big stars - the legends we lionise - there are those whose names are not uttered with reverence but who deserved better. Bald statistics offer a skewed picture of a driver's talent, that's for sure. Some mobile chicanes have lucked-in and claimed glory while other, conspicuously more talented, drivers have fallen short, sometimes for reasons beyond their control. Peter Arundell is a case in point.

On paper, he achieved relatively little. He started a mere 11 points-paying Grands Prix, which surely marks him out as being just another also-ran, but consider this: the Team Lotus man finished third on his World Championship debut at Monaco in 1963. Yes, it was a race of attrition, but he had qualified sixth. To finish on the podium first time out placed Arundell in rarefied company, but then he did it again in his next race. He came home third in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.