Pescara and the Longest Lap Ever Raced

Hill roads and seaside straights formed a rough triangle behind Pescara, which held a single championship Grand Prix in 1957 on the longest lap Formula 1 has known.

A lap of Pescara was less a circuit than a day trip. Built entirely from public roads around the seaside town of Pescara, in Italy, it hosted the Coppa Acerbo from 1924. Its rough triangle began just outside the town center and passed westward through Rione Partenze, a suburb,, then climbed through a string of hill villages, Frascone and Valle Carbone first, then Spoltore, at 185 m above the sea the highest point of the lap, and Case Fornace. After a medley of slow and quick bends it descended to Cappelle sul Tavo and ran flat out along two straights of about 5.5 km apiece, out to the coast at Montesilvano and back into Pescara. In 1934 a chicane was placed on the start and finish straight to slow cars approaching the pits, the first artificial chicane on any circuit that would later host Formula 1.

The roads were narrow and bumpy. Like the old Nürburgring and Spa, Pescara earned the respect owed to a true driver's circuit and the caution owed to one that punished every error. Guy Moll was killed in 1934 on the fast stretch known as the Flying Kilometre.

Its championship moment came through the back door. In 1957, with other races cancelled in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis, the Pescara Grand Prix was added to the calendar and drew more than 200,000 spectators. Enzo Ferrari kept his cars away, fearing for his drivers. Stirling Moss won for Vanwall from second on the grid, more than three minutes ahead of Juan Manuel Fangio, who had started from pole in a Maserati. No circuit with a longer lap has ever staged a championship Grand Prix, and the winning margin was cut to match.

The last race came in 1961, a sports car event. After that the organizers retired the circuit, conceding that they could no longer promise safety to the drivers or the crowds.

Every Grand Prix here

• 1957 Pescara Grand Prix