Great Drives by 'Non-greats'

[jclab]

Jean-Pierre Beltoise in Monaco in the rain at Monaco.
Giancarlo Baghetti in France in 61 in his first F1 GP and beat Gurney by inches.
Vittorio Brambilla in the rain in Austria in 75 lost control after crossing the line and smashed the front of his March in the railing.
Gunnar Nilsson in the rain in Belgium in 77.
Carlos Pace at home in Brazil in 75.

[DENIS G]

Originally posted by ASCII Man
Shouldn't that be Pierluigi Martini?

SORRY
YES PIERLUIGI OF COURSE
GIANCARLO,HIS UNCLE, WAS A FORMER MINARDI DRIVER TOO BUT IN FORMULA 2 AND ONE "RACE OF CHAMPIONS" WITH A FERRARI T2 ABOUT '76

[D-Type]

It's probably too long ago but I must mention Innes Ireland at Solitude and Watkins Glen in 1961.

And Trintignant's Monaco wins in 1955 and 1958 - admittedly both were races of attrition.

[santori]

Jo Siffert twice beating Jim Clark at Enna.

[x_dt]

Some more suggestions:
Jarno Trulli - Austria 1997
Jacques Laffite - Detroit 1986
Andrea de Cesaris - Spa 1983 in the Alfa Romeo (as well as 1991)

[Patrese256]

Originally posted by x_dt
Andrea de Cesaris - Spa 1983 in the Alfa Romeo

How about Andrea's drive in South Africa the same year:

Even by his own standards, Andrea de Cesaris was scary during practice. As a matter of course he had two wheels on the grass at the exit of downhill Barbecue, and the Alfa looked at all times to be on the verge of a large accident, twitching and darting all over the place. It made a big impression on the other drivers. ‘I tell you, I followed him at one stage,’ remarked Cheever, ‘and in the end I let him go. I didn’t want to be part of his shunt.’ And Warwick suggested that, in a couple of places, Andrea’s anatomy was especially well developed: ‘He’s the one bloke in this business who’s at 110% every second he’s in a car...’

In truth, the Alfa looked very much a handful at Kyalami, and de Cesaris’s effort in the last session was something quite amazing, an improvement of well over a second on what was acknowledged to be a slower day. ‘I would have been faster in the first session,’ commented Andrea, ‘but a turbo went in my race car, and I had to use the spare — which I didn’t like. We’re not so good at qualifying speeds, but I’m happy with the car on full tanks. The race could be good for me...’

Between the Brabhams (at the end of the race), of course, we had Andrea, who had driven perhaps the best race of his life, hard on it from green light on, never letting the Alfa’s wayward handling get the better of him.

from www.riccardopatrese.com

[chunterer]

I'd agree with a few of these like Rubinho at Donington '93 14th to 4th on opening lap or something then unlucky to retire from 3rd and stuff. 2000 Hockenheimring good too and of course the race of races at Silverstone last year!

Bellof, Capelli and Watson are good ones too.

I'd like to add some more that may not be obvious to some , indeed these guys may not have even finished the actual race i mention but it was still great stuff!

Zanardi x 2:
1/ Suzuka '91 Jordan. Flew through field in opening laps from modfield gird slot and passed Schu for 5th i think before car broke!
2/ Imola '93 Lotus. Drove like a man posessed in closing stages, taking at least a second a lap out of battling Herbert, Lehto in front, for 5th. Caught and passed passed Impey and lap later lunged at JJ chucking it in the barriers just before start finish straight in process! Then drove round a la Gilles with back wheel hanging off and car on fire! Marvellous stuff!

The whole episode was tough on me cos i was watching pretty much my three fav drivers in serious danger of taking each other out!

Herbert Interlgos '93. Stubbornly battled superior Benetton of Schu.
Brundle Montreal '92. God he was unlucky!

Mansell, Zolder '81. He put down a future marker at that race, before he was 'great' by fending off the overtaker of the century; Gilles!

Alesi: Phoenix '90, Mexico '91 ( he was quickest man on track but spun twice rooting his tyres, i fancy!) Spa '91. Can't remember the others!

Top thread!!

[Rafael]

Originally posted by ozrevhead
Mark Blundell, Adelaide 1995 - stil came 4th after what happend his team mate (Mika Hakkinen)

I know what you mean, it's hard to race with his teammate at hospital, standing between the life and the death. But he did a bad race anyway.

He only achieved the 4th place because only seven drivers got the cherchered flag, and missing a place at the podium to Panis and Morbidelli, that had less powerful cars (Ligier and Arrows). And the worse happened sooner. In the middle of the race, he was being overtook by Frentzen, who was challenging the second place with Herbert, when he closed the gap to the german, even with the blue flags waved for him. As an answer, the Sauber driver showed to him the middle finger of his hand... A bad end to his carreer at F1.

So, according to the subjetc of this post, another nice drives that I could remember and not mencioned before:

Trulli (Austria 97)
Moreno (Australia 87 and Japan 90)
Gugelmin (England 88)

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Rafael
As an answer, the Sauber driver showed to him the middle finger of his hand...

That was so funny, have that as an m-peg somewhere.

[Space Hopper]

fizzi. 1997 german gp. leading till he got a puncture. i THINK berger won that race

[Adam43]

It was a good race. Although IIRC Berger had overtaken him before the puncture. Still it was a good qualifying and race.

[Shoe-maker]

Jarno Trulli in Austria 1997 was very impressive and also Olivier Panis's win at Monaco in 1996.

[red5]

Originally posted by deeks6
Bellof? I didnt put that one down because I considered that he WOULD have been a great. Mind you, he was never heading for an old age pension the way he drove (died trying to pass in a non-works Porsche) Ickx at the EAU ROUGE of all places).

"There are lies, damned lies and statistics." Looking in the books I find the following: Stefan Bellof, GP starts 20, GP wins 0, Pole Positions 0, Fastest laps 0, Best qualifying 16th, Points 4. Bah!

There are texts that in a much better way give you Bellof's Formula 1 career in a nutshell. "Senna was catching Prost but Bellof was catching both of them and could well have won the Monaco Grand Prix if the race had been allowed to run longer."

And who knows, who decided to stop the Monaco-Race althoug the rain was reducing? J.Ickx!!! There are rumors that he wanted to see his Friend Prost as the winner.
There are also rumores (or facts??? )that J.Ickx set a trap for Bellof at the Eau Rouge to show him, who is the Boss in Spa.


The whole story (sorry, it is in german) here: click !!

for me Bellof is the one, who started my interest for Formula1

[santori]

No.

Ickx judged the situation at Monaco. He may have been incorrect but far less so than many in such positions. The conditions were very poor.
And those who whisper that he is to to blame for Bellof's death...
There is no way he would have done that and it is deeply unpleasant to suggest it. Stefan tried a risky move. An impossible move, perhaps. But when had that stopped him?
For once he didn't make the impossible possible. That's it.

[ASCII Man]

No, Jacky is not the kind of person to risk another competitor's life just to show that he's better.
He's not like Senna or TGF.

That someone would even think of implying that...

[Adam43]

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...5&pagenumber=4
for the bit where the Monaco/Ickx things gets going. Although it is mentioned before page 4 too.

[Ryo28]

Frentzen did a hell of a job throughout 99, and his drive for Sauber at Estoril in 95 also stands out. He stalled on the grid, and started last after a restart (due to katayamas multiple barrel roll off the grid!) HH was 13th by the end of the first lap, having passed 9 other cars (admittedly including the Pacifics/Fortis!) He eventually finished 6th in the race which had only 5 retirements, and only finished behind the two Williams, the two Ferraris and TGF. Magnificent drive!

Shinji Nakano drove very well at Hungary in 97, a drive which understandably went unnoticed because of Hills heriocs that day. Nakano finished 6th, battling in a group with the two Ferraris of TGF and Irvine, and Ralf in the Jordan. He even rammed Irvine on the last lap after a misunderstanding, but still finished 30 secs clear of his team mate Jarno Trulli!

Also Marc Gene had many good drives for Minardi, including his point at the Nurburgring in 99 and the following race in Malaysia where he beat Zanardis Williams to 9th place. I'd love to see him in a full time williams race drive...

[pb btcc]

Barrichello. Donington 93: in his 3rd GP and ran in the top 4 all race untill the car broke on him

Hill. Hungary 97: showing why he was world champion in 96 overtaking Schumachers Ferrari at the first corner and lead by up to 30 seconds.

Mansell. Hungary 89: proving that u can overtake after winning from 12th on the grid

[Mr V]

Originally posted by pb btcc


Mansell. Hungary 89: proving that u can overtake after winning from 12th on the grid

Surely that should be.........

proving that u can overtake before winning from 12th on the grid

[krt917]

Originally posted by AdamAshmore
It was a good race. Although IIRC Berger had overtaken him before the puncture. Still it was a good qualifying and race.

As usual Adam, correct! He gobbled Fisi up VERY quickly after his pit stop. It was a strong drive from Fisi, but it was on eof the drives of the '90s by Berger. Really great way to take your last GP win.

Originally posted by red5

There are also rumores (or facts??? )that J.Ickx set a trap for Bellof at the Eau Rouge to show him, who is the Boss in Spa.

As has already been stated, I don't think that Ickx was that sort of man. In Peter Morgan's excellent book on the Porsche 956/962, it is suggested that it was in fact Bellof who specifically wanted to pass Ickx at Eau Rouge, in from of everyone, to show Ickx who was the quickest. Whether that's true or not, I don't think Ickx can be blamed for the accident.

But yes, Bellof's was a huge loss.

[krt917]

Originally posted by pb btcc
Hill. Hungary 97: showing why he was world champion in 96 overtaking Schumachers Ferrari at the first corner and lead by up to 30 seconds.

Mansell. Hungary 89: proving that u can overtake after winning from 12th on the grid

Great drives both, though I'd class both Mansell and Hill as greats anyway. And both were World Champions, thereby being excluded from the list as set-up in this thread!!

[DENIS G]

AND CHRIS AMON IN CHARADE '72.
HE WAS A LORD

[Sato san]

Herbert Rio 1989 !

[Knowlesy]

Herbert Interlagos 1993!

[Jordi]

Herbert Hungary 1997? In a day where Goodyear users were suffering badly, he was the 2nd of them, ahead of the Macs, the Ferraris, Jordans and Prosts, which surely were a lot better than Sauber in 1997.