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Lella Lombardi . One women and LGTB icon in Motorsport



Motorsport has never been a sport with a large presence of women. Despite being formally co-ed, it's still a rarity to run into a girl at a car race. In fact, only two have ever participated in a Formula 1 race, and one stands out in particular: Lella Lombardi. Lombardi is the only woman who has scored points in a Formula 1 race.


She did so in 1975 in the disastrous Montjuïc tragedy that closed the Barcelona circuit forever. Additionally, Lombardi is one of only three drivers in Formula 1 history to have come out as openly gay. Born in 1941 in Italy in the midst of the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, Lombardi had two secrets hidden from her parents throughout her childhood: her passion for car racing and her homosexuality. Curiously, it was they themselves who had instilled her speed in him by making her deliver the orders from her family butcher's shop in a truck. It was after a great result in Formula Monza that Ella Lombardi started to appear in the newspapers and her parents found out about her other life. Already uncovered, "the Tigress of Turin", as she was nicknamed, she shone in the small categories: runner-up in Formula 3 Italy and winner of Formula 850. From there to Formula Ford Mexico, her definitive emergence. After an unsuccessful debut in a Brabham rented by Bernie Ecclestone at Silverstone, Lombardi found a seat as a regular driver with the March team for the 1975 season.


There she became the second woman to drive a Formula 1 race after Maria Teresa de Filippis. , which would surpass to be the best in history. Lombardi participated in as many as twelve races between 1975 and 1976, reaching its peak in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix, a fateful event in the history of Formula 1.


It was only his second race, but Lombardi managed to score points for the first time and only time, although he could not celebrate it. The weekend was turbulent. Most of the drivers, including Lombardi, refused to participate in free practice on Friday and wanted to sabotage the entire Grand Prix because of the unsafe circuit. Finally, after much pressure from the FIA, on Saturday they agreed to race without being very convinced. Someone like Emerson Fittipaldi only did a few laps at low speed to avoid pre-classification and return home that same day. Lombardi qualified in twenty-fourth place on the grid, just ahead of Arturo Merzario. But the race was a real chaos that the Italian managed to survive. The accidents followed each other until on lap 25 the German Rolf Stommelen went against the protections in an area packed with the public. The car overcame the barriers and hit the fans, with the disastrous result of four deaths and ten injuries. Obviously, the race was terminated immediately. After only 25 laps, only eight of the 25 cars that took the start were left on the track. One of them was that of Lella Lombardi, who was riding in sixth position, the last one that gave the right to points. As 75% of the race distance was not reached, only half was shared: Lombard

i added 0.5 points. The only ones of a woman in Formula 1.



Unfortunately, her life ended much earlier than expected, since Lombardi had to face breast cancer and she ended up dying in 1992, when she was only 51 years old. To remember her, her most famous phrase of hers: "I'd rather have an accident than fall in love. That's how much I love racing."

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