Formula 1's top 10 lost circuits

Within a stone's throw of Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya lie two defunct World Championship grand prix circuits - Montjuich Park and Pedralbes - reminding us that for every new venue that joins the circus, there are myriad others that have faded into memory.

The below list is about picking the greatest tracks from among these 40-odd circuits, some of which are still operating in one form or another, some of which are long gone, that once played host to the greatest drivers in the world.

When it came to selecting the top 10, those holding only non-championship races have been disregarded, as have pre-war grand prix venues.

As for the main criterion used, it is all about the biggest drivers' challenge, which is why we make no apology for the dominance of classic road courses. It is also why some great 'event' races - such as Long Beach and Adelaide - missed the cut.

10 Rouen

The Rouen-Les-Essarts track held five world championship races between 1952 and 1968. But despite having to share the French Grand Prix with the likes of Reims, Clermont-Ferrand and the underwhelming Le Mans Bugatti circuit during that period, it was highly-regarded for its challenging nature, great spectator views and impressive pit facilities.

In 1955, the track was lengthened to four miles and it is this configuration that became most famous. It had all the classic ingredients of a road course - fast, sweeping corners (where the famous photograph of Juan Manuel Fangio drifting his Maserati 250F was taken in 1957), little margin for error and even the cobbled Nouveau Monde hairpin.

Despite holding relatively few world championship races, it remained a popular venue into the 1990s, continuing to hold French Formula 3 races early in the decade.

Here's a tour of the track with Graham Hill (plus an unnecessary musical accompaniment).

Rene Arnoux leads the field away in 1982 © LAT

9 Kyalami

Kyalami - the Zulu word for 'my home' - returned to the F1 calendar in 1992 and 1993 in its revamped form, but it's the original circuit that captures the imagination.

On the World Championship calendar from 1967-1985, it was fast, challenging and, like so many great tracks, tinged with tragedy after claiming the lives of both Tom Pryce and Peter Revson.

But it also held some great races, including Alain Prost's remarkable victory from a lap down in the 1982 South African Grand Prix. It was also at Kyalami that tobacco sponsorship first appeared in the world championship in the 1968 season opener with Team Gunston.

Here's a tour of the track with Prost.

Jean-Pierre Beltoise leads Jacky Ickx in 1969 © LAT

8 Watkins Glen

Formula 1 has led a nomadic existence in the United States, but from 1961-1980 it found its real home at Watkins Glen, near New York.

Narrow and with little run-off despite its high-speed corners, Watkins Glen was popular with the drivers despite some terrible accidents, one of which claimed the life of Francois Cevert in 1973.

It disappeared from the calendar amid financial problems after the 1980 race, but realistically the cars had already outgrown it. It remains a great track to this day, hosting top-line races for both NASCAR and Indycars.

Here are highlights of the 1970 United States Grand Prix, where Emerson Fittipaldi famously won for Lotus in the wake of Jochen Rindt's death at Monza.

Nelson Piquet is first through Paddock at the 1984 British Grand Prix © LAT

7 Brands Hatch

It has been a quarter of a century since the World Championship visited the classic British track, which started out as a car racing venue for 500cc machinery in the early 1950.

Paddock Hill Bend, a fast, swooping, downhill right-hander is the circuit's trademark, but the mighty grand prix loop, today used only occasionally for racing, is what makes Brands Hatch really special.

John Watson is your chauffeur.

Denny Hulme pulls away in 1973 © LAT

6 Montjuich Park

Located in the hills of Barcelona, you can still stroll around the circuit, which runs around the park renovated for the 1992 Olympic Games.

The track was a classic mixture of ballsy, high-speed sections, as well as a more twisty section that could be characterised as more typically street circuit.

Safety concerns cost Montjuich Park the Spanish Grand Prix after five people were killed when Rolf Stommelen's Hill suffered an airborne crash in the 1975 race. After just four visits, the World Championship never returned.

Here's some footage of the 1971 Spanish Grand Prix, won by Jackie Stewart to give a flavour of this stunning circuit.

Eau Rouge was even more glorious in 1966, as Jochen Rindt proves here in an F2 Brabham © LAT

5 Spa

Spa-Francorchamps is a great track today, but ask anyone who raced on the majestic 'old' Spa will tell you that it was twice the challenge.

Made up largely of public roads and at almost nine miles in length (in its post-war through to 1978 configuration), the old Spa was incredibly fast. The stretch that is no longer part of the track, but which is still drivable in a road car, is simply breathtaking. It was here that Jackie Stewart had the accident in 1966 that brought home to him the need for a safety crusade - for this was a track which, in places, had zero margin for error.

For the best view of Spa in period, check out John Frankenheimer's 1966 movie classic Grand Prix. It captures the peril and exhilaration of lapping Spa better than any words could.

Jo Siffert battles with his namesake Bonnier back in 1965 © LAT

4 Clermont-Ferrand

Built against that most underused of race circuit backdrops - an extinct volcano - the Clermont-Ferrand circuit had a lot in common with the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Namely countless corners, little run-off and a reputation for danger that eventually led to its demise as a top-line venue.

Four World Championship races were held at the circuit between 1965 and 1972; the list of winners telling you everything you need to know about what kind of track this was, with Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart (twice) and Jochen Rindt on the roll of honour.

The circuit continues to operate today, albeit in truncated form, although it is only a shadow of the great grand prix track.

Hella Licht had been emasculated by 1979, but was still a challenge. Here Gilles Villeneuve leads © LAT

3 Osterreichring

Reborn for a third time just a week ago as the Red Bull Ring, the Spielberg track's current configuration is not a patch on the awesome original, which hosted the world championship from 1970-1987.

In short, this was a circuit that had no interest in slow corners. It also had little run-off, and where there was space the ground was often so uneven as to create an accident even before a car reached the barrier (as Andrea de Cesaris famously found out in 1985).

It was narrow, too, creating little margin for error. But despite that, it could still produce some great racing, as Elio de Angelis's brilliant victory over Keke Rosberg in 1982 proved.

Here's Satoru Nakajima's Lotus during practice for the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix, the final time that the track was used for the world championship in that form.

Jackie Oliver gets some air during the 1967 German Grand Prix © LAT

2 Nurburgring Nordschleife

The holy of holies of race circuits, 'The Green Hell' is regarded by many as the greatest circuit of all time. It is the apotheosis of a natural road course - the great irony being that it was every bit as manufactured as a Tilkedrome of today.

It held its first grand prix in the year it opened - 1927. It was a near ever-present on the World Championship calendar from 1950-1976, save for one-off visits to Avus and Hockenheim in 1959 and 1970 respectively. Its demise as a World Championship venue is widely credited to Niki Lauda's near-fatal crash in 1976, but by the mid-1970s there was already disquiet among drivers at how dangerous the track was and it was on its way out before his Ferrari went off at Bergwerk.

Jackie Stewart is your guide for a tour of the awesome Nordschleife.

Check out the tree on the apex of this turn, as skillfully missed by Harry Schell in 1957 © LAT

1 Pescara

Used only once for a World Championship race - the Pescara Grand Prix in 1957 - this awesome 16-mile road course's top-level history stretches back to the pre-war years, when it staged the high-profile Coppa Acerbo.

Pescara was pure road course. Fast, tree-lined, dotted with roadside marker stones and with the kind of grit and dirt littering the track that you would expect to find on any country road, it was a fearsome challenge to the drivers. The track wound its way through the hills and roads of the Adriatic coast and a case can even be made for it being the most dangerous track ever to appear on the World Championship. It was certainly the longest.

Stirling Moss won the 1957 race, during which Jack Brabham famously recovered to seventh after running out of fuel on the last lap thanks to help from a roadside filling station.

As Richard Williams suggests in his outstanding book on the 1957 race The Last Road Race, the end of Pescara as a grand prix venue (it held its last race of any kind in 1961) marked the end of an era of no-holds-barred road racing deeply rooted in the early decades of grand prix racing.

"The race at Pescara marked the end of a certain philosophy of road racing," writes Williams. "No longer would massed-start races, on open roads from town to village and back again, be organised in that ad hoc way, without permanent facilities or even the vaguest notion of safety precautions."