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Martin Donnelly’s F3000 gamble, 30 years on

His British F3 title hopes on the wane, Martin Donnelly gambled on a mid-season move to Formula 3000 in 1988 that turned him from obscurity into the UK's new great hope. Thirty years on, here's how he did it

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Whenever Martin Donnelly is discussed, it's difficult to avoid the accident that ended his top-flight career while qualifying for the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, when the front suspension on his Lotus-Lamborghini failed at more than 140mph. As the affable Northern Irishman admits, it's what he's best known for.

But two years earlier, Donnelly came within a whisker of making the Formula 3000 paddock look very silly indeed in a half-season campaign that, 30 years on, stands as a timely reminder of what Formula 1 missed.

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