Zeltweg, a Grand Prix on the Runway

In 1964 a rough airfield circuit in Styria staged Austria's first World Championship Grand Prix, which Lorenzo Bandini won for Ferrari from seventh on the grid.

The main base of the Austrian Air Force once doubled as a Grand Prix circuit. Zeltweg Air Base, or Fliegerhorst Hinterstoisser in German, is a military airfield near the Styrian town of Zeltweg, named for Franz Hinterstoisser, one of the first figures in Austrian aviation. In 1957 a racing circuit was marked out on the airfield, encouraged by the example of Silverstone, which had also grown from a wartime airfield. Its builders, however, underestimated how abrasive the runway would be, and the course became known as bland and bumpy, a combination rarely sought in either flying or racing.

Its single World Championship round came in August 1964. Graham Hill started from pole, but attrition was severe, and only nine of the 20 starters were classified. Lorenzo Bandini won for Ferrari from seventh on the grid, six seconds clear of Richie Ginther's BRM, with Bob Anderson third, three laps down. Dan Gurney set the Formula One lap record for the course in a Brabham.

Sports cars kept coming for the Zeltweg 500 Kilometres, but the airfield circuit was abandoned in 1969, when the purpose built Österreichring opened just across the expressway. That circuit, the Red Bull Ring of today, took over the Austrian Grand Prix from 1970. The airfield carries on as an active air base, and it also hosts the AirPower air show and a military aviation museum in Hangar 8, so the aircraft have the place to themselves again.

Every Grand Prix here

• 1964 Austrian Grand Prix