FOR MANY, CLARK’S STILL ON POLE

MOTOR RACING aficionados of a certain age will still claim that Jim Clark, not Lewis Hamilton, is the greatest British driver. Clark (below) won two drivers’ championships and the Indianapolis 500 before his death in 1968. At the time he had taken more Grand Prix races and achieved more pole positions than any other driver. Who knows how good he might have been had tragic misfortune not intervened? Equally, Sir Jackie Stewart will always have a claim to be the most influential figure in British motor sport. His campaigning for better safety standards is one of the reasons Hamilton’s chances of walking away from a crash or a malfunction unscathed are so much better than those of previous generations. Hamilton suffered a serious puncture in Mexico, and that was a nuisance. The slow puncture it is believed Clark sustained at Hockenheim killed him.