Niki Lauda

The race of my life is very easy to choose. It was the last race in 1984 in Portugal, when I won the championship by half a point from my team-mate Alain Prost. I think this was the most difficult race for me.

I was driving for Ron Dennis and McLaren. The previous year we had developed the TAG turbo engine. It was really all my work, which I did together with John Watson. John was a very nice team-mate, and I enjoyed driving with him. I could have good competition with him, because when he really wanted to be he was quick, but on the other hand I was always ahead of him.

At the end of '83 John and his manager screwed around about his money, and he didn't sign his contract. Then Prost lost his drive with Renault at the end of the season - nobody expected that, John still hadn't signed his contract with Ron, and suddenly I ended up with that little Frenchman as my team mate!

I was not happy about that, because I had developed the McLaren-TAG turbo. But even when Prost joined I thought 'This no problem, I will just have to go quicker and quicker, and the little Frenchman will not give me a hard time.'

But when we went to the first race he outqualified me. Then in Brazil I was in the lead, but retired with an electrical problem. And when I came back to the hotel I saw him winning the race on TV. I thought, 'Shit that's a good start with Prost in the team!'

He was a bigger challenge than Watson was, so I really had to get going. I thought I'd better try to develop my qualifying performances, but I couldn't handle the double power we had available for one lap on qualifying tyres at that time as well as Prost did. I tried for three or four races, and then I realised I would never make practice laps like he does.

So I was clever enough to switch over to working on Friday and Saturday just for the race. So even though in the race I never qualified as high up as he did, in most of the races I was better than him.

It was a very close dice. He made some mistakes that season, and I made some. It came all the way to Portugal, and I had a little advantage in the points. Qualifying there was awful. In that race he was second, and I was about 11th on the grid. And I knew that I had to finish in second place
behind him to win the title.

But funnily enough, before the race I knew that if I didn't make a mistake, like running into somebody and breaking my wing or something like that, then I could make it. But everybody else was thinking that Prost would win the championship. I remember Marlboro printed thousands of posters with Alain as champion!

I was stuck in traffic for half the race. I couldn't pass anybody because right at the beginning my turbo broke. I couldn't develop the power, so I couldn't pass anybody. I was handicapped, and I was just sitting there.

Then after I passed a couple of people, I found I could get going again. Soon I was passing one after the other. I remember Mansell had a brake problem and I passed him for second, but I think I would have caught him anyway.

In the end my car was not bad, I was going quicker and quicker. The problem I had was that I had used a lot of fuel, and the turbo was broken, so I was getting the wrong indications about my fuel consumption. For the last five or six laps I was really worried that my car might stop - but thank God it didn't.

So in the end I finished second to Prost, which was enough. It was a very close and difficult race; it was special because it was so close. It was really a tough season for me, and for Prost too, because we were fighting from the beginning of the season, trying to win races and make points.

Prost really felt sorry. He was certainly disappointed, because he thought he had it all in his hands. He nearly cried on the podium!

But I told him, 'This is motor racing. You've done a good job, but I just made it. Don't worry about it, you will win next year.'