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Mansell's Indy 500 near-miss

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Nigel Mansell stormed to the IndyCar crown after leaving F1, but the big prize narrowly eluded him. James Allen, who was there for much of Mansell's American adventure, looks back

These days, it's hard to imagine Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton winning the Formula 1 World Championship and then taking off to race in the American IndyCar series the following year.

But that's what Nigel Mansell did 20 years ago, when he won the 1992 F1 drivers' title for Williams and then stormed off in a huff to America when it became clear to him that Alain Prost had signed for Sir Frank's team for 1993. Having been Prost's team-mate at Ferrari during 1990 and been on the wrong end of some political manoeuvring, Mansell had no desire to repeat the experience.

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