With China being Formula One’s 1000th race on this Sunday, I am looking back on what I feel were the top three moments from the F1 races in that time.
2011 Canadian GP
This race will go down in history for many reasons, one being it was the longest race in F1 lasting 4hrs 4 minutes and 39s and produced a spectacular victory by Jenson Button.
Another it had the most pit stops by a winning driver ever reaching a whopping six stops, not forgetting to mention the extra use of safety cars and it being one of the best come back stories of the modern era.
This being my top pick in best moments as it showed everything I love in the sport such as; variable weather conditions, top teams fighting throughout, heightened emotions displayed from frustration, pure joy and heartbreak along with numerous accidents along the way.
The race started without rain however with a wet track from earlier in the day resulting in all teams running extreme wet tyres under a safety car start, with further rain forecast during the race.
After the safety car returned to the pits at the end of lap 5, Button’s start to the race was terrible as just two laps later, he collided with teammate – Lewis Hamilton on the start finish straight and put the latter out of the race.
Button then got a drive through penalty for speeding behind the safety car and re-joined in last place but quickly recovered places, before a two hour red flag came out due to worsening track conditions.
Once the race restarted after a safety car restart, Button then collided with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso to earn himself another trip to the pits with a puncture which sent him crashing back to plum last.
Now a man on a mission, Button again regained places quickly and with six laps left, he made a pass on Red Bull’s Mark Webber for third place then proceeded by passing Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher.
He then proceeded to chase down Sebastian Vettel who made a last lap error in going wide into turn seven, therefore allowing Button to pass and ultimately complete an epic comeback which will goes down in the history books as one of the most remarkable.
1991 Brazilian Grand Prix
Although before my time, through viewing highlights of this race I couldn’t not include it in my best moments section.
Brazil 1991 was Ayrton Senna’s very first Brazilian Grand Prix victory and is one which captures the very emotion I love about the sport; the determination and passion displayed by Senna during and after this race was remarkable.
With everything building up to this race in Brazil and Senna stating he was “Treated like a criminal” in a press conference in 1990, he wanted to go out and prove that he should’ve been crowned champion previously.
Nigel Mansell of Williams was Ayrton’s closest rival throughout the race but Senna’s gearbox began to lose fourth gear shortly after Mansell pitted for fresh rubber due to a puncture on lap 50.
The Brit then set about chasing down the struggling Senna and set fastest lap after fastest lap until lap 61, when his own gearbox failed and sent him spinning out of the race.
Senna therefore just had to nurse the car home despite losing third and fifth gears, leaving him in sixth gear and nearly stalling the car when taking slow corners.
In the end, he somehow managed to drag it over the finish line in the lead by 2.9s ahead of second placed Riccardo Patrese, despite being left with muscle spasms & screaming down the radio in pure joy whilst crying just shows how much it meant to him to win on home soil.
1998 Belgian Grand Prix
This race had to be included after extremely wet conditions produced thrilling action from start to finish.
The rules now differ greatly compared to how they were during the 1998 season but in brief, each team had three cars – one car for each driver and a spare car in case of a red flag sit and my god did the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix give us that.
At the start of the race, McLaren’s David Coulthard lost control under power on the exit of turn one and caused a multiple collision, which involved thirteen drivers leaving them all rushing for the spare car as the race was halted under red flag conditions.
After a hour long red flag, the race restarted without four drivers due to their teammates taking the spare car, but there was further trouble on the restart when McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen spun and got hit by Sauber’s Johnny Herbert to send both out of the race.
Damon Hill took the lead but was over taken on lap 8 by Michael Schumacher who then built a huge gap over the next 16 laps, until he came across Coulthard who he needed to lap.
Coulthard had been instructed by his team to move over but due to heavy spray and poor visibility, Michael moved across to the same side and smashed into the McLaren’s rear and tore his right front wheel off whilst Coulthard’s rear wing was demolished.
Once back at the pits, Michael walked furiously down to the McLaren pit garage to argue with David, but mechanics got between them before things got heated.
Hill therefore reclaimed the lead and led home his team mate and Michael’s brother – Ralf for Team Jordan’s first ever 1-2 finish in what proved to be Hill’s final F1 victory.
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