3) 1971 Italian Grand Prix
The Italian Grand Prix, primarily held at Monza, has given some high speed and nail biting showdowns in its glorious past. The showdown for the victory this year is etched in people’s memory as one of the greatest of all time. This race also set the record for the fastest average speed, with 242.615 km/h, a record which will only be broken 32 years later at the same track.
Chris Amon in his Maseratti took pole position, with Ickx in his Ferrari alongside him. Followed by Siffet and Ganley in their BRMs on the second row, Cevert and Peterson on the third row, and Stewart and Regazzoni on the fourth row. At the first lap, Regazzoni took the lead, but it did not last long, as there was huge tussle for the lead among numerous drivers. After Regazzoni, Peterson led, and then Stewart led before Regazzoni came back in the lead.
Later, both Stewart and Regazzoni retired from the race. After this, Amon took the lead for a while, but had to drop back later due to engine troubles. The fight among the five cars for the lead then lasted for the whole race. Gethin, after a huge tussle with his rivals, emerged victorious by a scarcely believable 0.10 seconds from Peterson. In fact, all the five cars finished within a distance of 0.61 seconds, with Gethin and Peterson followed by Cevert, Hailwood and Gainley.
Overall, eight drivers led the race, exchanging the lead twenty four times during the fifty five lap race.
2) 1957 German Grand Prix
The German Grand Prix, held at the great Nurburgring this year, is remembered for the display of absolute masterclass by one the greats of the sport, Juan Manuel Fangio. This year, he had stormed to the title, with no one able to catch him and after one of his great drives; he won his fifth and final title.
At the Qualifying session, pole position went to Fangio, driving a Maseratti, he was joined on the front row by Ferrari drivers Hawthorn and Collins and teammate Behra. After the first few laps of the race, Collins and Hawthorn went into the lead, but Fangio bounced back and took the lead on the third lap.
But earlier, Fangio had settled on a strategy that in contrast to the Ferrari drivers, who were going to race on a full fuel tank and without a pit-stop, he decided to run on softer tyres and half fuel load to give him extra speed round the corners, but this also necessitated a pit stop during the race.
Having a lead of over 30 seconds over his nearest rival Collins, Fangio came to his pit-stop, which went horribly wrong, as the mechanic had lost the wheel nut of the rear left wheel, when Fangio finally joined the race, he was down in 3rd, 48 seconds behind Collins in 2nd place.
From this point, began his charge to catch the rivals, during which he broke the lap record a jaw dropping nine times to finally close in on Collins’ 2nd place albeit at the second last lap of the race. Finally, after a long chase, he passed his rivals Collins and Hawthorn to claim the victory and his fifth world title.
1) 1981 Spanish Grand Prix
The Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, saw one of the most impressive victory of Gilles Villeneuve in an uncompetitive Ferrari.
Lafitte qualified on pole, followed by the two Williams of Alan Jones and Reutemann, while Villeneuve qualified only seventh on the grid. At the start, Jones went into the lead, with Reutemann close behind, while Villeneuve charged through to third place after overtaking Prost at the first corner. As Villeneuve’s Ferrari was such that it was competitive only for the first few laps, thus he had made the decision to pass as many cars as possible on these first few laps.
After taking third place, he overtook reutemann by the end of first lap, and was promoted into the lead when Jones crashed and retired. Reutemann later fell behind Laffite and Watson, but held off Elio de Angelis in the Lotus, all of them along with Villeneuve, now ran in a closed together pack with Villenuve in the lead.
Villeneuve tried to extend his lead at the straights as his car was competitive there, but at the corners, his advantage again vained as his rivals again closed up the gap. Tactically, Villeneuve placed his car at the right places in the corners, and never gave a chance to Laffite to pass him.
As the end of the race approached, all the five cars remained closed together and Villeneuve took the chequered flag by just 0.22 seconds from Lafitte, who was followed by Watson, Reutemann and Angelis. Incredibly all the five drivers were covered by just 1.24 seconds, and thus etching one of the most closest and historical wins in Formula 1.
