Michele Alboreto

It's difficult to remember only one race, because fortunately I had many nice times. Winning with Tyrrell in Las Vegas was a great day for me, because obviously it was the first Grand Prix that I won.

I had a really balanced car, it was good from the beginning to the end, and except the two Renaults nobody was able to catch me. But Las Vegas was relatively easy, so maybe I would choose the last winning race that I did, Germany '85.

It was a good situation on the championship with Ferrari against McLaren, but we were also worried that our car was not good enough to win the championship, so I had in that moment to go hard to keep the lead. And so we were in Germany, which was TAG Porsche country, with a good motivation...

The Nurburgring was very safe, but maybe not very good for the public because they were very far away from the track. For me it was the safest track in the world, maybe not so beautiful from a driving point of view, because there were not very quick corners, except one. It has a very good surface, one or two places to overtake other cars. A nice track.

I had some problems in the practice, and I started from the fourth row. I blew up a turbo in qualifying. But I had a very good start, and in the first corner I touched my team mate Johansson, and punctured his rear tyre. It was my fault, I just arrived too quick in the first corner.

He had qualified second, and I was very sorry because I'm sure that Stefan could have made a good race. There was a good chance because the cars had a good balance. On the start I pass also Prost, who was my biggest problem. So I was third after the first corner.

Rosberg was leading the race, Senna was second, I was third, and fourth was Alain Prost. Senna took the lead, but after a few laps he stopped.

Then, in a good overtaking, I passed Keke for the lead. To overtake him I pushed him a little bit. It was on the television also, really clear! He made a little mistake after the chicane, he was a little bit too long in the corner. I touched him with the front wheel, and he almost spun off, but I passed him.

After the race he came to me and said, "You're a bad boy!" So I just said, "Sorry, sorry..."

But the biggest problem was to keep Prost behind me, because he was very, very quick in the race, quicker than me I have to say. During the overtaking of the slow cars, on some occasions I was two or three seconds in front because he was still behind them, and I had passed them first. Then in one lap he was just behind me again.

So it was really, really difficult, not thinking about the guy in the back, just looking at the front. Two or three times he tried to pass me, but he was unable to.

It was really a war of nerves, you know. My car was a little bit quicker on the straight line, because I had less wing, and he was much quicker than me on the slow parts. But 10 laps from the end he tried a very late braking, made a mistake and spun off. So I was relaxed from that moment.

But my engine was starting to blow up in the last five laps, I saw there was smoke from the exhausts, the oil pressure was down, and the temperature of the water was high. So I was really afraid about the last three or four laps. I slowed down, but I finished, and I won my last race for Ferrari.

It was 40 or 45 laps, the two of us together, and it had been a very tough race, but good for me. It was so hard, a difficult race, trying to lead a guy with a car better than mine. If I'd blown up the engine I would have killed myself, because it was so hard!

I think because I won the race, the team forgot about the first corner. I was very happy...

I celebrated afterwards with the mechanics, and then the usual phone call with Mr Ferrari. He was really, really happy. Then I went to see him the day after in Italy, and we had lunch together.

He said, "If you do this every race I give you the permission to push out our other car from now until the end of the season!"

It was the last chance to win the championship that year, and with that win I increased my points on Prost. I really believed at that time that it was possible. But after that race we started to blow up engines because we were looking for power, and we finished second in the championship.

It was my last win. After that I did six second places! I have good memories of Ferrari, it was a fantastic five years, although with some trouble some times. But it was a great moment for me.