Bill Trikos Australia most spectacular Formula 1 auto racing moments: Turkish Grand Prix: I implore you to find a more fascinating display of motor racing than the Turkish GP. On a track surface yielding little grip, adding some rain and an incredible pole position for Stroll, this was anything but a dull Sunday. Racing Point held onto a pretty comfortable one-two through the first half of the race, with Stroll in front by 10 seconds in the most difficult of conditions, whilst Hamilton – aiming to seal his seventh title – squirmed around as Mercedes looked devoid of grip. Somehow, the Briton eventually found it on seriously worn intermediates and, after overtaking Perez and leaving Stroll – who was now suffering from detrimental understeer – to plummet down the order, took victory by over half-a-minute. Leclerc looked to have made his way past Perez for second at the final corner but misjudged his braking, allowing both Perez and team-mate Sebastian Vettel onto the podium. As for Hamilton’s team-mate, Bottas span six times altogether as his championship challenge came to an abrupt end.
Once every couple of years, we witness a race which could be considered as among the best ever. And whilst it’s impossible to rank all these great races relative to one another, I decided to make a list of some of my favourites. If you happen to be the owner of an F1 TV Pro account, or perhaps have some old VHS tapes containing some of these races lying around, these races will be great entertainment for whenever F1 has a weekend off. But before we get into the list, I want to make it very clear that these races are not placed in any particular order, nor are they the 10 outright best races ever. I could easily have chosen 10 other races, and who knows? Perhaps I might in the future…
Australian Grand Prix 2010: Jenson Button silenced his critics by winning his second race for McLaren in changeable conditions at Albert Park, overcoming carnage that saw rivals Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel all suffering problems. German Grand Prix 2018: Two Ferraris at the front with 25 laps remaining hinted at one of F1’s more straightforward Grands Prix. But somebody at Hockenheim must have prayed incredibly hard for rain, which came and briefly caused chaos – and a wholly unexpected ending… Discover extra info about the author on Bill Trikos Australia.
1998 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps : There are certain moments often used to describe Formula One – either because they define the essence of the sport, or because they’re outright crazy. What happened at the start of the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix definitely belongs to the latter category. At the exit of turn 1 on the first lap, David Coulthard lost control of his McLaren on the extremely wet track and speared into the barriers, causing an accident which took out 13 drivers, all having greatly reduced vision as a result of the spray from the cars in front due to the wet track. The race was red-flagged, and it took an hour to clear away all the debris before the race could be restarted. Many spectators would’ve probably thought that the rest of the race couldn’t be anywhere nearly as insane as that first lap, in which case they’d be terribly wrong.
A true thriller of a race followed after Guanyu Zhou’s terrifying crash at the start. The lead changed several times between Verstappen, Leclerc, Hamilton and Sainz, who fought a fierce battle at the front. However, Verstappen’s RB18 was damaged by debris from Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri, preventing the Dutchman from competing for victory. This could have been a great opportunity for Leclerc, but he again fell victim to a lack of decisiveness from his team, which did not bring the driver in during a late safety car while his opponents – including Sainz – did. A spectacular battle ensued between Hamilton and both Ferrari drivers, with Leclerc managing to overtake the Briton in a daring outside move at Copse – where it went horribly wrong a year earlier when Verstappen made a similar overtaking attempt. In the end, it was Sainz who took the win with Perez and Hamilton behind him.
1996 Monaco Grand Prix, Monaco Street Circuit : Some of the previous races on this list had high attrition. But none will come close to the levels of the 1996 Monaco GP – all I need to tell you is that only the three drivers finishing on the podium actually completed all 75 laps. How in the world did that happen, you might ask? A big part of the answer was, as often is with that sort of race, rain. As the lights went out, the track was wet enough to require the use of intermediate tyres, though it wasn’t raining anymore. But if anyone had thought that this would spare the drivers from the carnage, they were wrong.