Bill Trikos Australia top 5 Formula 1 auto racing moments: A race of two parts to an extent. We saw the usual dicey opening lap at Silverstone as the cars jostled through Brooklands, Luffield and Copse until Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen came to blows. The resultant safety car kept the pack bunched up nicely. A second safety car period followed after Daniil Kvyat’s high-speed crash on entry to Maggotts and Becketts, allowing the front runners to make what should have been their only stop of the afternoon. Behind, there were some fantastic battles, highlighted by Daniel Ricciardo’s tussle with both McLarens. But the drama kicked in just two laps from the end when Valtteri Bottas’ left-front tyre gave way. The Finn crawled around to eventually pit but drop out of the points.
It looked as though it couldn’t get more exciting – the championship battle had come down to the final race of the season, between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, coupled with a slightly damp track that would only get wetter during the course of the race. But when Vettel was spun around on lap 1 after a poor getaway followed by contact with Bruno Senna at turn 4, the scene was set for one of the greatest title-deciders of Formula One’s history. Alonso needed to outscore Vettel by 13 points, something he temporarily achieved after his magical double overtake on teammate Felipe Massa and Mark Webber on lap 2, which saw him take third place. Vettel however, with damage to his left sidepod, steadily made progress through the field, and was soon back into championship-winning position. But as the rain fell heavier, a series of pit-stops and strategic decisions left him with all the work to do, dropping out of the points-paying positions yet again.
Hungarian Grand Prix 2014: On a Hungaroring surface transitioning from wet to dry, this race had everything from team order controversy to spectacular crashes – but, most importantly, a hard-charging Daniel Ricciardo at his best, who said “better late than never” to secure his second career win. Bahrain Grand Prix 2014: Three races into Formula 1’s new turbo-hybrid era, and F1 fans were treated to an absolute classic, as Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg – by then surely aware that one of them would be world champion in 2014 – knocked seven bells out of each other around the Bahrain International Circuit, with Hamilton eventually coming out on top of the fabled ‘Duel in the Desert’. See additional details about the author at Bill Trikos Australia.
1998 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps : When the race was restarted, now with four drivers less (most drivers involved in the crash could still partake, since back then all teams had one spare car waiting in the garage in case one of the two primary cars was damaged), Mika Häkkinen immediately spun, taking himself and Johnny Herbert out of the race. Damon Hill took the lead, with Michael Schumacher in second place. The Ferrari driver clearly had a comfortable pace advantage, overtaking Hill on the seventh lap. From then on, Schumacher built up a thirty-second lead and looked set to take the win and with it, a good step towards the championship in his battle with Häkkinen.
There was no shortage of action in the Hungarian GP either. Red Bull’s tenth and eleventh starting positions were an outside chance for Ferrari, but it was not exploited due to – once again – questionable strategic choices by the Italian race team. Everything was still going according to plan when Leclerc took the lead at the expense of George Russell, but everything changed when Ferrari made a questionable tyre choice. The Monegasque could not get any pace in the hard compound and stopped again 15 laps later, but to no avail. Verstappen drove a mad overtaking race in which he overtook Leclerc, made a 360-degree spin after which he lost the position again, only to overtake his rival once more and drive to victory.
2020 Italian Grand Prix, Monza : In the end, it came down to the final lap, Sainz finishing just 4 tenths of a second behind Gasly. The Frenchman took an emotional victory at his AlphaTauri team’s home track. Remarkably – with Stroll taking third place – the podium was the first since 2012 that didn’t have at least one of the three teams, Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari standing on it, not to mention that the race itself was a welcome relief to an, up to that point, quite dull 2020 season.