McNish stars at Goodwood Festival
Timed runs might not be the done thing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed these days for the Formula 1 stars, but that did not stop Allan McNish unofficially breaking Nick Heidfeld's outright record up the hill on Sunday
The F1 aces mostly just show off to the crowds doing doughnuts and wheel-spin starts rather than go for all-out quick runs. But on his final run on Sunday, McNish decided to go for it up the 1.16-mile ascent. The result was an outstanding effort that lasted for just 41.565sec.
Six Grand Prix teams were in action at the Festival of Speed, as sunny weather brought out huge crowds. Williams, Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, BAR and Toyota supported the event, with current drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button joining McNish.
On Saturday the German made his first appearance at Goodwood at the wheel of last year's FW23, while Button was in this year's Renault. Luciano Burti represented Ferrari with the F2001 used earlier this year, and on Saturday the Brazilian found out that it's not as easy as it looks to do a doughnut in an F1 car, and suffered a broken clutch and overheating. The car was repaired for Sunday.
Test drivers Ryo Fukada and Darren Turner were on hand for BAR and McLaren respectively, while Marc Gene subbed for Ralf in the Williams on Sunday. F1 team personnel on hand included Patrick Head, Ove Andersson, Dave Richards and Ross Brawn.
A huge crowd saw many other familiar combinations including World Champions Emerson Fittipaldi in a Lotus 72, Alan Jones in a Williams FW07, Jackie Stewart in Tyrrell 002 and Phil Hill in the car he hated - the 1962 ATS! Others on hand included Jacky Ickx, Clay Regazzoni, Riccardo Patrese, Al Unser Sr, Bruno Giacomelli, Patrick Tambay, Jack Brabham, John Surtees and Tony Brooks,
A special tribute to the late Ken Tyrrell and a celebration of 25 years of Williams were among the highlights of the weekend.
For more details on this year's Festival Speed, plus all the best photos of the action, see Thursday's issue of AUTOSPORT magazine.
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