Formula One entered the 1964 season finale at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City with a first for the championship: three drivers representing three teams were still in the fight for the title and what a lineup they presented. Graham Hill for BRM, John Surtees for Ferrari and Jim Clark at Lotus were all in contention in one of the great deciders that, by its close, established a motor racing milestone that decades later remains unmatched.
The season had opened by defining what was expected to become the championship battle. Clark, the defending champion, and Lotus looking defiant if not quite as dominant as in 1963, fighting off the BRM of Hill and the Brabham of Dan Gurney. Clark had won three of the opening five races, while Hill and Gurney had won in Monaco and France. Surtees, however, had struggled as Ferrari had focused on its battle with Ford at Le Mans.
