Motorsport Heroes: Hakkinen on his Macau 1990 clash with Schumacher
In Motorsport Heroes, the full-length feature film by Manish Pandey now available on Motorsport.tv, four legends of our sport share their successes, failures, personal struggles and life-threatening accidents
Double Formula 1 world champion Mika Hakkinen is one of those heroes, and in this clip from the film, he talks about the moment he clashed with Michael Schumacher in the 1990 Macau Grand Prix.
Macau is the biggest race of the Formula 3 calendar, and Hakkinen arrived as British champion, his Team Theodore-branded West Surrey Racing Ralt going up against Schumacher's German Championship-winning WTS Racing Reynard.
Hakkinen had already won the first heat, and only had to finish within 3s of Schumacher to take victory on aggregate in the second race.
Hakkinen was clearly quicker than Schumacher in the closing stages, and was all over the German as the race entered its closing stages.
"What can I do? I have to overtake him," says Hakkinen.
"But he was so slow, so I was running really close to him, catching the tow.
"I moved to overtake and I could see his eyes in the mirror... [moves an imaginary steering wheel to the right]"
After the race, Schumacher said: "I knew [he was there], I see him in my mirrors. And then the whole time I see him in my mirrors, he closed up to me.
"And then he goes off the gas and he stays behind me.
"This time, he closed up and closed up, and I see it, so I go to the right side, at this moment he tries to overtake me.
"And he's so quick at this moment that he couldn't brake."
Hakkinen rues: "Lost the whole race - terrible moment."
Schumacher went on to win, minus his rear wing. But Hakkinen's error wouldn't harm his career trajectory, and he joined F1 with Team Lotus at the start of the 1991 season, months before Schumacher would do likewise with Jordan and then Benetton.
Pandey, who wrote the multi award-winning Senna movie, interweaves the narratives of our Motorsport Heroes through the 111-minute film, telling their stories with both archive footage and first-hand testimony.
To stream the full movie, subscribe to Motorsport.tv from £3.99 a month.
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