Van Lennep, great all-rounder

Gijs van Lennep, born 16 March 1942, in Aerdenhout, North Holland, is a Dutch racing driver who competed in eight Formula 1 Grand Prix, scoring two championship points. However, his main achievements were in sports car racing.

Picture above: Gijs van Lennep participated in three F1 races in 1975, in an Ensign entered by the HB Team Ensign. He is seen here in the team’s Ensign N174, at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, where he finished tenth.

Van Lennep is well-known for his numerous sports car wins, amongst which the most prestigious ones: his two victories at the Le Mans 24 Hours, in 1971 (with Helmut Marko, in a Porsche 917K) and in 1976 (with Jacky Ickx in a Porsche 936), but he was a very competent single-seater racer as well.

In only 8 Grand Prix starts, he managed to score a point twice in uncompetitive machinery; first in 1973 at Zandvoort, in a Frank Williams Racing-entered Iso-Marlboro and then in 1975 on the mighty Nürburgring, where he finished an excellent sixth in the HB Team Ensign (picture below).

And that’s not all: the Dutchman also won races in the competitive European F5000 championship: in 1972 at Snetterton and Silverstone, en route for the European title. An excellent all-rounder, without any doubt, the great Dutchman.