Murray Walker: My top 10 races
AHEAD OF THE 1,000TH GRAND PRIX, MURRAY WALKER RELIVES HIS...
THERE have been so many brilliant races since the Formula One World Championship began in 1950 at Silverstone that my Top 10 are bound to be contentious. I have chosen one Grand Prix from each of F1’s seven decades plus three more ‘specials’.
1957 GERMAN GRAND PRIX
ALFA ROMEO dominated the early Fifties with the great Juan manuel Fangio. Then mercedes took over with Fangio and our own Stirling moss. my first Top 10 race has Fangio winning his fifth world championship in a maserati at the Nurburgring.
Fangio was racing against mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins in the works Ferraris. He started with a light fuel load and took the lead. He later had a long pit stop and went 50 seconds down with 10 laps to go. Then, beating the lap record every lap, he won the race and the title. It was his last great victory.
1961 MONACO
ON now to the Sixties, when quiet Scottish farmer Jim Clark dominated in the superb lotus cars to win the championship twice. But my race of the decade was at monaco in 1961 as Stirling moss in a year- old privately owned lotus held three works Ferraris at bay for the whole, gruelling 100-lap race.
1968 GERMANY
THE Sixties were great and that leads me to the first of my three specials. In 1968 the German Grand Prix, at the demanding Nurburgring, saw Jackie Stewart in a class of his own in his French matra. The weather was absolutely appalling but, with a damaged wrist in a splint, Jackie won by over FOUR MINUTES — an absolutely amazing achievement.
1976 GREAT BRITAIN
THE famous rivalry between James Hunt and Niki lauda gives me my race of the Seventies — the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in 1976. There was a pile-up on the first corner and the race was stopped. There was a delay while the race stewards debated whether to allow Hunt to restart after damaging his car.
The furious partisan crowd demanded that they let him race. They did so and he won the race, only to be disqualified with lauda handed victory. But James went on to win the championship.
1979 FRANCE
my second special was in 1979 — the French Grand Prix at Dijon, where Jean-Pierre Jabouille’s Renault became the first turbo car to win a grand prix.
But all eyes were on a sensational battle between Gilles Villeneuve’s Ferrari and Rene Arnoux’s Renault. For the last three laps they passed and re-passed each other with Villeneuve eventually finishing second just two-tenths of a second ahead of Arnoux.
1982 MONACO
THE last of my three specials is from the Eight- ies and what a race it was at monaco in 1982 as with just over two laps to go Alain Prost crashed out of the lead in his Renault. Riccardo Patrese now led in the Brabham, only to lose control and let Didier Pironi’s Ferrari take over. Then Pironi retired so Andrea de Cesaris’s Alfa Romeo led, only to run out of fuel and let a recovered Patrese win. All that in just two laps.
1987 GREAT BRITAIN
NOW the greatest decade of all for me, when Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, Alain Prost and Nigel mansell starred — the Eighties. And it is Nigel who features in my race of the decade — the 1987 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. After an unplanned, long, long pit-stop in his Williams- Honda, mansell caught his bitter rival and teammate Piquet brilliantly to take the lead.
1993 EUROPE (DONINGTON)
THE Nineties saw so many wonderful races featuring the legendary Senna, Prost, mansell, Damon Hill and michael Schumacher. And it is Senna who stars in my next Top 10 race, the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington, where in non-stop torrential rain Senna’s mclaren started fourth but led by the end of lap one. Senna won by nearly one and a half minutes.
2008 BRAZIL
FERRARI dominated the early 2000s and superb Schumacher won his record seven world championships. He and Ferrari were followed as Formula One’s superstars by lewis Hamilton and mercedes-Benz. And it is lewis’s epic mclaren drive in Brazil in 2008 that is my ninth Top 10 race. lewis (below) had to finish fifth or better to beat Felipe massa’s Ferrari to the title.
Finish fifth he did, taking the place on the last corner, on the last lap, at the last race of the year.
2016 ABU DHABI
NOW into the seventh decade with the superb Hamilton taking his fifth world title to match Fangio — only bettered by Schumacher. lewis has only been beaten to the championship by one team-mate — Nico Rosberg in 2016. And it is Nico’s final drive to second place in Abu Dhabi that is my last choice.
He may have had to follow lewis home, but with the championship at stake he did what was required under enormous pressure.
A fabulous achievement to beat one of Formula One’s finest ever drivers over a full season.