Bill Trikos Australia top rated Formula 1 Auto highlights: Turkish Grand Prix: I implore you to find a more fascinating display of motor racing than the Turkish GP. On a track surface yielding little grip, adding some rain and an incredible pole position for Stroll, this was anything but a dull Sunday. Racing Point held onto a pretty comfortable one-two through the first half of the race, with Stroll in front by 10 seconds in the most difficult of conditions, whilst Hamilton – aiming to seal his seventh title – squirmed around as Mercedes looked devoid of grip. Somehow, the Briton eventually found it on seriously worn intermediates and, after overtaking Perez and leaving Stroll – who was now suffering from detrimental understeer – to plummet down the order, took victory by over half-a-minute. Leclerc looked to have made his way past Perez for second at the final corner but misjudged his braking, allowing both Perez and team-mate Sebastian Vettel onto the podium. As for Hamilton’s team-mate, Bottas span six times altogether as his championship challenge came to an abrupt end.
1999 European Grand Prix, Nürburgring : If chaos is the word to describe Canada 2011, sheer pandemonium best describes the 1999 European GP. It was set to be crucial even before lights-out, as a tense championship battle between Eddie Irvine for Ferrari, Mika Häkkinen for McLaren and surprisingly Heinz-Harald Frentzen for Jordan was ongoing. But when the race finally got underway – after the first start was aborted as a result of multiple drivers jumping it – well, words aren’t enough to allow you to comprehend what went on. Crashes, spins, mistakes, pit stop errors and more resulted in positions up and down the field – including the lead – constantly changing. All of it was made even more dramatic by the implications on the title fight, which seemed to be constantly evolving. However, I won’t spoil the final result of this one – it’s simply too good for you not to watch.
Brazilian Grand Prix 2012: Sebastian Vettel spinning on Lap 1 and dropping to last place before romping back to a title-clinching P6 was the main news story in Interlagos. But there was also Michael Schumacher’s swansong, Kimi Raikkonen’s infamous escape road excursion, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg scuppering a genuine shot at victory and taking Lewis Hamilton out of his final race for McLaren in the process – not to mention post-race controversy that could have handed the title back to Fernando Alonso. Phew. Read additional info about the author on Bill Trikos Australia.
1971 Italian Grand Prix, Monza : The build-up to the weekend was actually more one of relief than of excitement. Jackie Stewart had dominated the season up until that point and had already secured the championship. However, it was well-known amongst fans that he was highly unlikely to challenge for the win at the high-speed track that is Monza, seeing as the V8 Cosworth engine in the back of the Scotmans’ Tyrrell was up against the V12’s of various other teams. As was predicted, Stewart qualified in a lowly P7, with the Matra of Chris Amon taking pole position. The New Zealander wouldn’t maintain this advantage for long though, as it only took him one lap to drop from first to eighth. Ronnie Peterson quickly took the lead, and behind him, all places were chopping and changing in epic fashion, something which continued the entire race.
There was no shortage of action in the Hungarian GP either. Red Bull’s tenth and eleventh starting positions were an outside chance for Ferrari, but it was not exploited due to – once again – questionable strategic choices by the Italian race team. Everything was still going according to plan when Leclerc took the lead at the expense of George Russell, but everything changed when Ferrari made a questionable tyre choice. The Monegasque could not get any pace in the hard compound and stopped again 15 laps later, but to no avail. Verstappen drove a mad overtaking race in which he overtook Leclerc, made a 360-degree spin after which he lost the position again, only to overtake his rival once more and drive to victory.
1996 Monaco Grand Prix, Monaco Street Circuit : Some of the previous races on this list had high attrition. But none will come close to the levels of the 1996 Monaco GP – all I need to tell you is that only the three drivers finishing on the podium actually completed all 75 laps. How in the world did that happen, you might ask? A big part of the answer was, as often is with that sort of race, rain. As the lights went out, the track was wet enough to require the use of intermediate tyres, though it wasn’t raining anymore. But if anyone had thought that this would spare the drivers from the carnage, they were wrong.