[Race] The GROAT - Round 1 - 1984 Monaco vs 2008 Interlagos vs 2020 Silverstone

[crmalcolm]

1984 Monaco
The race, held amidst heavy rain, was one of the most contentious in Formula One history, and announced the emergence of at least two new stars. Alain Prost took the first of his four victories at the circuit.

The race start was delayed by 45 minutes due to the heavy rain. With the rain soaking the track, Niki Lauda sought out Bernie Ecclestone on the grid in a bid to have the tunnel flooded as well. The tunnel was dry but coated with oil from the previous days' use (as well as from the historic cars which were on the program that weekend) which Lauda explained had turned it into a fifth gear skid pad when the cars came racing in carrying the spray from their tyres in the morning warmup. Ecclestone used his power as the head of the Formula One Constructors Association to do exactly that, with a local fire truck called in to water down the only dry road on the track.

Pole-sitter Prost led the race from the start, while first corner contact between Ferrari's René Arnoux and the Renault of Derek Warwick pitched Warwick's car into the fence on the outside of St. Devote and into the path of his team-mate Patrick Tambay. Both drivers suffered leg injuries; Warwick bruised his left leg while Tambay broke his leg after his car's suspension punched through the carbon fibre monocoque, causing him to miss the next round in Canada.

Prost was passed on lap nine by Nigel Mansell, to lead a Grand Prix for the first time, when Prost's TAG engine was misfiring and he was delayed by both Corrado Fabi's stalled Brabham and Michele Alboreto's about-to-be-lapped Ferrari just before the tunnel (Prost actually hit a marshal who was pushing Fabi's car away but with no serious injury). Mansell pulled away from Prost at around two seconds per lap, before going off six laps later on the run up to Casino Square after sliding on a painted white line, damaging his car and retiring from the race.

Lauda disposed of Arnoux but Prost assumed the lead again, only to have the Toleman-Hart of Ayrton Senna, who had also passed the Ferrari, quickly closing in. Senna had started thirteenth in the generally uncompetitive Toleman, in the first Formula One street race in his rookie season, and was showing his wet weather skills that would become legendary. On lap 29, Prost waved to the stewards of the race to indicate that he felt the race should be stopped. He was also suffering from a major brake imbalance as his McLaren's carbon brakes were locking due to not generating enough heat in the conditions, the same problem that had caused Lauda to spin at Casino Square on lap 23, whereupon he stalled his engine and was out of the race. A slowing Prost waved again on lap 31 as he passed the start/finish line.

The red flag to stop the race was shown at the end of the 32nd lap after clerk of the course Jacky Ickx decided that conditions were too poor for the race to continue. Senna passed Prost's slowing McLaren before the finish line, but according to the rules, the positions counted are those from the last lap completed by every driver – lap 31, at which point Prost was still leading. The stoppage was controversial, as it benefited Prost with a Porsche-designed engine, and was made by Ickx, the lead driver with the factory run Rothmans Porsche team in sports car racing. Ickx was suspended from his race control duties for not consulting with the stewards over his decision before making it.

Had the race been allowed to continue until 75% of the laps, full points would have been awarded and Prost could have had six points from a second place (or nine for a win) instead of 4.5 points from the half-race win. Prost eventually lost the championship to Niki Lauda by only half a point.

Stefan Bellof, running in the only naturally aspirated car in the race, finished third and had been closing on both Senna and Prost. Bellof had qualified 20th and last in his Tyrrell 012-Cosworth. His drive from last to third was a stand-out achievement in his short career, although he was later disqualified due to weight restrictions broken by Tyrrell. His drive led to negotiations with Ferrari for a drive for 1986 alongside Michele Alboreto, as René Arnoux was under contract in 1985. The Tyrrell team's results were erased later in the season due to weight infringements, meaning that Bellof was stripped of his podium finish, with his place being taken by René Arnoux. It would prove to be Bellof's only podium visit during his Formula One career.

This was the first time that Ayrton Senna had set a Formula One fastest lap. It was also Toleman's second and final fastest lap in Formula One (Derek Warwick had set the team's only other fastest lap during the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort).


2008 Interlagos
The conditions on the grid were damp before the race, the air temperature at 28 °C (82 °F); rain or thunderstorms were expected. The Grand Prix, which had a race day attendance of 149,600, was due to begin at 15:00 local time (UTC-2), but was delayed by ten minutes when heavy rain hit the track at 14:56. Every team but one changed the tyres on both their cars from dry-weather tyres to intermediate tyres. Kubica's car was the exception, remaining on the dry set-up. Following the formation lap, Kubica returned to the pit lane, his team changing the car's tyres to intermediates. This meant the driver would start the race from the pit-lane.

Massa retained his pole position lead into the first corner, followed by Trulli, Räikkönen, Hamilton and Kovalainen. Coulthard was hit from behind by Nico Rosberg into turn two, spinning him around. The Red Bull car then collided with Rosberg's Williams teammate Kazuki Nakajima. This damaged the suspension and forced Coulthard to retire in his final race. Piquet spun off at the next corner, his car hitting the barriers. Kovalainen was passed by Alonso and Vettel mid-lap, dropping him to seventh. The accidents of Coulthard and Piquet prompted the deployment of the safety car at the end of the first lap. The track conditions began to dry early on; Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella was the first driver to stop for dry-weather tyres, pitting at the end of lap two. He remained in 18th position. Racing resumed on lap five when the safety car pulled into the pit-lane. Rosberg and Button both made pit stops on lap seven, each changing to dry-weather tyres. Bourdais, Glock, Adrian Sutil and Nakajima followed a lap later. By lap 11, the rest of the field had changed to dry-weather tyres. Fisichella benefited from pitting the earliest for dry tyres, moving up the order to a high of fifth position.

Nakajima spun on lap 13, losing five seconds on the lap. On lap 15, Massa set a new fastest lap of 1:16.888, and extended his lead over Vettel. Hamilton remained behind Fisichella, and though his McLaren car appeared quicker, he was unable to pass the Force India driver until lap 18. Glock passed Fisichella two laps later. Trulli and Bourdais collided on lap 20 into turn one, sending the Toro Rosso driver across the grass. Bourdais lost six places and rejoined in 13th place. Trulli's Toyota teammate, Timo Glock, passed Fisichella later on in the same lap for sixth. Massa and Sebastian Vettel traded fastest lap times; Vettel's 1:14.214 on lap 25 was surpassed by Massa's 1:14.161 a lap later. However, Vettel made a pit stop soon after, having been lighter-fuelled than his Ferrari opponent. He rejoined in sixth position, behind Glock. Kovalainen passed Trulli and Fisichella in separate manoeuvres, gaining seventh position. On lap 36 Massa set the fastest lap of the race, a 1:13.736.

Timo Glock was fuelled so he could complete the race without stopping again, when he made a pit stop on lap 36. Massa was the first of the championship frontrunners to pit, on lap 38; Alonso and Hamilton made pit stops two laps after. When Räikkönen made a pit stop on lap 43, Massa had regained the lead, ahead of Alonso. Räikkönen rejoined ahead of Hamilton in third place. Fisichella's stop was marred by transmission problems, dropping him to 18th position when he resumed. Vettel made a pit stop again on lap 51, his team fuelling him to the finish. He rejoined in fifth. By lap 54, Massa had extended his already comfortable lead over Alonso to 9.6 seconds. Vettel was closing in quickly on Hamilton, the McLaren driver needing to finish no lower than fifth to win the championship.

Light rain began to fall on lap 63. Heidfeld made a pit stop and his BMW pit crew changed his tyres to intermediates, echoing their strategy at the Belgian Grand Prix which had granted the German a podium position. Kovalainen made a pit stop on lap 65; Alonso and Räikkönen made a pit stop a lap later. Hamilton and Vettel halted their battle for fourth position when they came into the pit lane to change onto intermediate tyres on lap 66. Glock chose to remain on his dry-weather tyres and rose from seventh to fourth place as those ahead of him made pit stops. Massa made a pit stop on lap 67, meaning that all of the frontrunners, with the exception of Glock, were now on intermediate tyres. The rain began to fall heavily on lap 69, as Hamilton ran wide, which allowed Vettel to take fifth position. As Massa crossed the finish line to win the race, Hamilton battled Vettel for the crucial point needed to win the championship. Hamilton did not know of his position upon beginning the final lap and was told over the radio to overtake Glock during the fifth-place battle. Vettel and Hamilton passed Glock in the final corners, the Toyota driver struggling for grip as his dry-weather tyres slid on the wet track. Premature joy in the Ferrari garage soon turned to disappointment as Hamilton finished the race in fifth position, clinching the championship by a single point and becoming Formula One's youngest championship winner until Vettel in 2010. Räikkönen's third-place finish behind Alonso secured Ferrari the constructors' title. After the race, Button's car caught fire in the pit lane.

ALLEN: [Massa] has done everything he needed to do and we wait now to find out who will be the World Champion of 2008. Can Hamilton do anything? Can he run it up the inside of Vettel? Only a few corners to go now, and desperation starts to creep into Lewis Hamilton.
BRUNDLE: Räikkönen's third and... is that Glock? Is that Glock going slowly? It is! That's Glock!
ALLEN: Oh my goodness me, Hamilton's back in position again! A hundred thousand local hearts sink in the grandstand. It's handed the place back to Hamilton. He comes through, and if I'm absolutely right, I'm sure, he's going to claim fifth place, which is all he needs to do to become the 2008 Formula One World Champion.


2020 Silverstone
Lewis Hamilton led from pole position at the race start. On the opening lap, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Daniel Ricciardo, starting seventh and eighth respectively, both made up two places by passing Lando Norris and Lance Stroll. 12th-placed Kevin Magnussen hit a kerb at the inside of turn 17, running wide. Alexander Albon then attempted to overtake Magnussen at turn 18, the two cars collided and Magnussen was sent through the gravel and into the barriers. He was uninjured and the safety car was deployed in order to recover his Haas. Albon was later issued a five-second time penalty after the race stewards deemed him responsible for the collision.

Racing resumed on lap six. At the end of the lap, Albon became the first driver to make a pit stop to change from medium to hard-compound tyres. On lap 12, 12th-placed Daniil Kvyat spun at turn 10 as a result of a right-rear tyre failure and crashed heavily into the barriers on the outside of turn 11. Kvyat walked away from the accident and the safety car was deployed whilst his car was recovered. All drivers except Albon and Romain Grosjean made pit stops during the safety car period, allowing Grosjean to jump to fifth place. The order of the top 10 was now Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Grosjean, Sainz, Ricciardo, Norris, Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, who had passed Esteban Ocon in the pits after the Renault suffered a slow pit stop.

The second safety car period ended on lap 19. Shortly after the restart, Vettel fell back behind Ocon, and Norris passed Ricciardo for seventh place. Grosjean was soon overtaken by both McLarens, and was shown the black-and-white flag for unsportsmanlike conduct after being judged to have defended too aggressively from Sainz. 14th-placed Albon made a second pit stop on lap 30, the first driver to do so, serving his time penalty and changing to soft-compound tyres. Antonio Giovinazzi was issued a five-second time penalty on lap 36 for speeding under safety car conditions. On the same lap, Grosjean fell to ninth place having been passed by Ricciardo and Stroll. He was again investigated for moving too aggressively whilst defending from Ricciardo, but no action was taken. He made his first pit stop at the end of the lap, falling to the back of the field. On lap 38, Vettel dropped out of the points positions after being passed for 10th place by Pierre Gasly. Ocon passed Stroll for eighth place on lap 46.

In the closing laps Bottas, who had been running closely behind teammate and race leader Hamilton for the entire race, began to fall back, complaining of poor visibility due to vibrations. Sainz also reported a similar issue over the radio. Kimi Räikkönen, last of the running cars in 17th place, suffered a front wing failure on lap 48 and returned to the pits for a replacement. On the following lap, Gasly passed Stroll for ninth place and Ricciardo overtook Norris for sixth. With three laps to go, Bottas' front-left tyre delaminated. After passing Bottas for second place, Verstappen made use of the gap to Leclerc in third and pitted for fresh tyres to safeguard against suffering a tyre failure himself and in an attempt to claim the fastest lap of the race. Bottas slowly completed his lap to return to the pits, changed tyres and emerged in 12th place.

With two laps to go, Albon, who had worked his way up from the back of the field and was promoted to 10th place by Bottas' pit stop, passed Stroll for ninth place. At the same time, fourth-placed Sainz suffered a front-left tyre failure. He returned to the pits and eventually fell to 14th place by the finish line. After Bottas' puncture, race leader Hamilton was warned over the radio to preserve his tyres. However this proved to be too late as, at turn eight on the final lap, Hamilton became the third driver to suffer a front-left failure. At this point, Hamilton had gained a lead of over 30 seconds after Verstappen's precautionary pit stop, although this gap rapidly fell as Hamilton slowly completed the lap.

Verstappen could only close the gap to six seconds by the finish line, and Hamilton took the chequered flag to claim his third consecutive victory of the season, 87th career win and his seventh at the British Grand Prix. Verstappen finished second and succeeded in claiming the fastest lap, with Leclerc completing the podium. Ricciardo and Norris finished fourth and fifth, with Ocon claiming his best finish since the 2018 Italian Grand Prix in sixth. Gasly, Albon, Stroll and Vettel rounded out the points positions.

[S griffin]

For sheer drama it has to be 2008 Brazil. Certainly Monaco 84 is a great race due to the emergence of two young stars, but Brazil still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, especially Brundle asking 'Is that Glock?'. And the title was decided on the last lap by circumstances rather than the race director changing the rules!