• May 18 down the years

Mr Monaco makes it five

1969
Graham Hill took his fifth and final Monaco Grand Prix victory, winning in his Lotus after Jackie Stewart and Chris Amon retired ahead of him. Hill was known as "Mr Monaco" after winning five of the seven races at the principality between 1963 and 1969, a feat only matched by Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. The 1969 win was also his last in Formula One as his career was disrupted by a massive accident at that year's US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

1933
Otto Merz was killed at a practice session for the AVUS race in Berlin. Trying out a Mercedes SSK on a soaking track, he lost control of his car which crashed into a cement milestone and somersaulted several times, finishing upside down. Merz was thrown clear but died later in hospital. A mechanic turned chauffeur, he was a driver in the motorcade when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914, later moving into racing where he won the 1924 German Grand Prix.

1952
Piero Taruffi took the only Formula One victory of his career at the season-opening Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten. Taruffi assumed the lead after his Ferrari team-mate Nino Farina broke down. Farina took over the car of Andre Simon and regained second place, only for that car's engine to let go as well. Stirling Moss put in a solid performance in just his second F1 grand prix but had to stop early and withdrew his HWM from the competition.

1958
A race of attrition in Monaco saw Maurice Trintignant take his second and final F1 win. Roy Salvadori led off the grid but a mistake in the first corner forced him to pit with a bent suspension arm. Tony Brooks moved into the lead but after 22 laps had to concede the position to Jean Behra due to a faulty spark plug. Brake trouble soon brought an end to Behra's race and the lead was inherited by a hard-charging Mike Hawthorn. Close on his tail was Stirling Moss and the Vanwall driver snuck past only to relinquish the lead with engine failure five laps later. Hawthorn eventually pulled over with a broken fuel pump, giving the lead to the small but nimble Cooper driven by Trintignant. He won by 20 seconds from the Ferraris of Luigi Musso and Peter Collins.

1914
The birth of the aristocratic Baron Toulo de Graffenried who was one of the leading drivers immediately after the war, winning the 1949 British Grand Prix in a Maserati. He drove the same car when the World Championship began in 1950 and struggled against his rivals' newer equipment. Alfa Romeo gave him a run at the non-championship Geneva Grand Prix and he came second. Alfa signed him for 1951. In 1952 and 1953, he raced with a Maserati, coming fourth in the 1953 Belgian Grand Prix - his best result. He also won the non-championship Syracuse Grand Prix.

1980
Carlos Reutemann won an action packed Monaco Grand Prix for Williams. A massive pile up at the start accounted for five cars as Derek Daly's Tyrrell ran into the back of Bruno Giacomelli's Alfa Romeo, got airborne and landed on his team-mate Jean-Pierre Jarier. Coming out of the chaos Didier Pironi led the field until a problem finding third gear saw him lose concentration and crash out of the race at Casino Square on lap 55. Reutemann took over the lead and kept his head to finish over a minute ahead of Jacques Laffite.

2003
Michael Schumacher contended with two aborted starts, a brief rain shower and flash fire in the pits on his way to winning the Austrian Grand Prix. A faulty launch-control system meant Christiano da Matta's car was twice left on the grid in a dangerous position, resulting in two aborted starts. When the pack did get away Schumacher was first but his lead was cut short when a brief rain shower made the track treacherous. When it came to the first pit stop, Schumacher's fuel hose caught fire and his pit crew had to be quick on the scene with fire extinguishers. Meanwhile, Schumacher sat calmly in his cockpit and rejoined the race when he was given the all-clear by the pit wall. He rejoined in third, passed the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen and on seeing Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams blow up in front of him, took the lead which he held to the end of the race.

1967
Three-time grand prix winner Heinz-Harald Frentzen was born in Monchengladbach, Germany. His most successful year was in 1999 driving for the unfancied Jordan team, when he finished third in the championship and took two race victories. His final F1 race was in 2003 for Sauber and since then he has raced in DTM, Speed Car and at Le Mans.

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