This high-speed slipstreaming circuit is built around Lake Pergusa in an arid and stifling bowl in central Sicily. On the original layout, drivers would only really brake for the first corner, but it has been interrupted by three chicanes since the mid 1970s, the first of which is almost certain to cause an opening lap shunt. The Mediterranean Grand Prix began as a non-championship Formula 1 race in 1962, and two years later Jo Siffert won the first of two successive victories, narrowly beating Jim Clark on both occasions. The race was a permanent fixture on the Formula 2 and F3000 calendars until the FIA decided that its second-tier races should exclusively support F1. Enna has also been threatened by environmental pressure, as it is just two miles from an area of natural interest. A swarm of baby frogs was killed during practice for the 1996 F3000 race, and two years later environmentalists threatened to disrupt the event until a compromise was reached with just 10 days to spare.
