10 grands prix to make F1 proud

Ten great races? Obviously it's a personal and not a definitive choice. Some are obvious, some are not.

Silverstone 1969/Monaco 1970

Barely eight years old, what switched me on to Jackie Stewart? No idea, but I do remember taking time out from helping Mum wallpaper my bedroom to catch the Beeb's '69 Monaco coverage and being distinctly hacked off when Stewart's Matra retired early and Graham Hill won.

Between then and receiving, at Christmas, my JYS corduroy cap (later chewed up by a police horse outside Roker Park, sadly), there was the time when my Dad called me through to the front room one Friday night, just in time so see a news item confirming that Stewart was okay after a 150mph off at Woodcote in practice for the British Grand Prix. A piece of kerbing had worked loose and I can recall seeing a picture of a stern-looking Stewart holding the offending piece of masonry.

Next day came the absolutely fantastic battle between Stewart and Jochen Rindt's Lotus. That was the race that did it. The one where a fabulous sport made such an impression that it would come to dominate my life. So Silverstone '69 is choice number one.

Obviously I'd wanted Jackie to win, and he did, but Rindt was tremendous that day, and so unlucky to finish only fourth after having to stop for a damaged wing. It opened my eyes to the exciting Austrian and, the next year, after Matra pulled out and Stewart found himself rendered uncompetitive by March's first GP car - a bit of a Massey-Ferguson - I found myself rooting for Rindt.

Part of it was that Silverstone race, part of it was Colin Chapman's fabulous Lotus 72 and part of it was Monaco, where Rindt, still in the 49 at that race, suddenly woke up at half distance, started lapping quicker than he'd gone in practice. He caught Jack Brabham on the last lap and pressured Black Jack into going straight on at Gasworks Hairpin.

I was ecstatic.

Zandvoort 1975

Next up, Zandvoort '75. For no other reason than it was a fabulous crowning achievement for the little Hesketh team, with James Hunt using a mixed conditions race to score his first and their only win, overcoming the might of Niki Lauda and Ferrari.

Can't say I was too happy at the time though, being something of a Lauda fan after he'd dominated the '74 Brands British GP only to find himself trapped in the pitlane by a bunch of blazer-wearing pillocks after a late-race puncture.

Zandvoort 1979

My next hero, along with everyone else, was Gilles Villeneuve. A schoolmate and I had gone to Zandvoort '79 and in those days it was easier to break into the paddock than Fort Knox.

Late on Saturday night we'd been able to walk up and down the garages watching the mechanics prep the cars, taking some photos. We stayed until it was well past dark and, there at Ferrari, sat on a deck chair with his Alsatian on a lead, watching it all going on, was Gilles.

Wanting a decent vantage point for the race, we walked around the track in the dark, to Scheivlak, where we found a group of Dutch fans who'd marked off their own little bit of territory in the Dunes. They invited us in, gave us a beer or three and we all slept open under the stars on a fabulous night.

Gilles Villeneuve drags his damaged Ferrari back to the pits © LAT

I remember having a thumping headache when the race started but Gilles made that disappear when he started pulling away from Alan Jones's Williams with his Ferrari T4.

That shouldn't have been possible but he was doing it. Everyone cheered him on.
Suddenly a car came tooling through with a sick engine, coating the racing line with oil but the marshals seemed momentarily oblivious. With Gilles imminent, frantic shouts were accompanied by the odd hurled apple core and empty beer can until the red and yellow flag finally appeared, not quite in time for Villeneuve, who had a huge tank-slapper, ran wide and somehow managed to gather it all up.

Jones, a few seconds back, saw what was going on and a goodly portion of Gilles's lead was history. Nobody was very happy... Then came his three-wheeled antics which only underlined his valiant fighting spirit! Irresponsible? What's that mean?

Monaco 1982

Monaco '82 - the one nobody wanted to win. With five laps to go it started to rain.

Alain Prost's Renault, leading, had a big shunt at the harbour front chicane - still fifth gear in those days. Riccardo Patrese took over the lead but spun at Loews Hairpin with a lap and a half to go. Didier Pironi, Andrea de Cesaris and Derek Daly all went by before Patrese managed to restart his Brabham as it rolled down towards Portier.

Riccardo Patrese won the 1982 Monaco GP in bizarre circumstances © LAT

Unbelievably, all three cars ahead of him stopped on the last lap - Pironi and De Cesaris out of fuel. Only by reading a magazine interview years later did Patrese discover that Daly had crashed at Mirabeau, broken an oil cooler and put a load of oil down at the hairpin before stopping when he lost all the oil, thereby explaining why Riccardo had spun while hardly moving.

And so Patrese, thinking he'd finished second, parked up quietly not knowing it was his first grand prix win. Murray Walker had kittens.

Silvertone 1987

By the time Silverstone '87 came around I was at the race as an AUTOSPORT staffer. I used to take the odd picture back then as well, and had bought myself a cheap wide-angle zoom.

With the track as it was then, and the charging Nigel Mansell hunting down Williams team-mate Piquet after a pit stop, there was obviously only one place it was going to happen - Stowe Corner, so that's where I went. With Nigel about 50 yards back, I put the lens on its widest setting and panned through to get them both in.

Next time, Nigel was just about under Nelson's gearbox, which made a nice shot, and next time through he pulled 'that' move. I got it all, a nice three-lap sequence, and was chuffed with myself. The magazine ran it but then rather than being filed in 'used pictures,' my trannies disappeared into the abyss. Could probably have retired if I still had them... But what a race!

Adelaide 1993

Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost on the podium together for the last time © LAT

By Adelaide '93 I was on the F1 beat full-time and this one was very special. Any Australian race has a great atmosphere, helped by being end-of-term, as was, or, until recently anyway, the start of a new one. Mechanics sell - or even give! - team shirts to grateful punters and start to think about a bit of family time, the long slog over for another year.

But this was Senna's last race for McLaren in a year that had seen Alain Prost, the man Ayrton was about to replace at Williams, announce his retirement and win a fourth world title. Ayrton, in an improved MP4-8 McLaren wanted to have the last word. One last battle and Ayrton won it.

There was emotion aplenty that day, Senna up on stage for Simply the Best at Tina Turner's post-race concert. You're too busy right then to actually see it, but you can hear it going on.

As everyone finished up and collected their things that night, Tina had long since strutted her stuff and the skies were dark. As you shook hands and wished everyone well for the winter, it was different somehow. Many a wistful look. That day had seen the end of an era the like of which F1 might not ever see again. Everyone understood that.

Suzuka 2005

Suzuka '05 - single lap qualifying, skewed grid, fantastic from-the-back drives from Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. Kimi's last-gasp win, charging inside Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault into Turn 1 on the final lap, was great, but Alonso was robbed.

Fernando Alonso hunting Michael Schumacher at Suzuka '05 © LAT

Running ahead of Raikkonen on the road he got an undeserved stop/go. He'd passed Christian Klien at the chicane but went straight on. Realising he'd have to let Klien re-pass, he did so, overtook him again and carried on. That bit was missed though and he was told he had to let Klien by again, which involved ceding a place to Raikkonen in the process, ultimately costing him the win.

In the midst of his charge, Alonso encountered Mark Webber, who wasn't about to make it easy. Ferdy used a decent portion of the grass into Turn 1 to go by.

Even Pat Symonds shook his head when the telemetry revealed that Fernando had hit the rev limiter flat in top when he got wheelspin on the grass, but had kept his boot firmly planted anyway. The Renault boys love a racer and I think it's fair to say that they were somewhat more impressed with Fernando that day, than Fisi...

Interlagos 2008

Lewis Hamilton celebrates his title in 2008 © LAT

Lewis Hamilton - a British world champion against Ferrari opposition at the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season. What more can you say? If it had been scripted it would have been corny.

And finally...

And for my last pick? Valencia 2009. Yes, I know, you thought it was rubbish. But it wasn't. McLaren was very much on the up as Brawn started to struggle with tyre warm-up (although not in Spain) and poor Rubens Barrichello was six-nil down to Jenson Button.

On the Friday night we'd had dinner with Brawn's team manager, Ron Meadows. Rubens had been looking good and Ron told us that his feedback was probably better than anyone's in the paddock. This was no PR spiel for a guy going through a tough time - real racing blokes don't deal in that - and quietly he obviously fancied Rubens to be there or thereabouts on Sunday.

Everyone else already had the race chalked down to Lewis.

Brawn realised that given Hamilton's KERS it was probably pointless trying to get the pole and so they fuelled Rubens for a race strategy aimed at running longer than Hamilton and getting ahead at the stops. It might not have been a scrap from the Villeneuve/Arnoux Dijon '79 mould, but it was compelling from a different viewpoint, both men trying to run to a pace that would buy them the required pit-stop time. It was relentless.

Lewis's lost time at his second stop and, of course, headlines were all about how the team had cost him victory. It might have made a better story but it was twaddle.

When you did the maths, Barrichello had driven brilliantly, done the hard work and would have won anyway. In the paddock the team was delirious, greeting Rubens as if he was the Messiah. More subtle one, but still a great one.

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