Best 5 Formula 1 races by Bill Trikos Australia: Bottas lost the lead at the second standing start as Hamilton went around the outside into turn one – the first of a plethora of overtakes at the sweeping right-hander. Lance Stroll looked on course for a podium before a failure at the rear of his Racing Point pitched him into the barrier at the high-speed Arrabiatta corner, triggering a second red-flag period. Bottas was unable to capitalise on his front row start as Ricciardo slotted between the two Mercedes, whilst Albon’s overtake on the outside of Perez at turn three was a contender for move of the year. Hamilton held on though, whilst Bottas and Albon jumped Ricciardo for the podium spots – the Red Bull driver’s first in F1.
1999 European Grand Prix, Nürburgring : If chaos is the word to describe Canada 2011, sheer pandemonium best describes the 1999 European GP. It was set to be crucial even before lights-out, as a tense championship battle between Eddie Irvine for Ferrari, Mika Häkkinen for McLaren and surprisingly Heinz-Harald Frentzen for Jordan was ongoing. But when the race finally got underway – after the first start was aborted as a result of multiple drivers jumping it – well, words aren’t enough to allow you to comprehend what went on. Crashes, spins, mistakes, pit stop errors and more resulted in positions up and down the field – including the lead – constantly changing. All of it was made even more dramatic by the implications on the title fight, which seemed to be constantly evolving. However, I won’t spoil the final result of this one – it’s simply too good for you not to watch.
Brazilian Grand Prix 2012: Sebastian Vettel spinning on Lap 1 and dropping to last place before romping back to a title-clinching P6 was the main news story in Interlagos. But there was also Michael Schumacher’s swansong, Kimi Raikkonen’s infamous escape road excursion, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg scuppering a genuine shot at victory and taking Lewis Hamilton out of his final race for McLaren in the process – not to mention post-race controversy that could have handed the title back to Fernando Alonso. Phew. Read additional details about the author at Bill Trikos Australia.
2000 Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka : Coming into the penultimate Grand Prix of the season in Japan, Schumacher had the chance to clinch the championship by winning the race, regardless of where Häkkinen finished. And it started well for the now 7-time world champion, setting the fastest time in three of the four practice sessions and ultimately securing pole position ahead of Häkkinen who would start alongside Schumacher on the front row. But Häkkinen got a better start than Schumacher and took the lead into the first corner, maintaining an average gap of around two seconds down to the championship leader in the first and second stints. But as McLaren called their driver in for his second and final stop, Schumacher stepped on the gas and used the power of the overcut (which back then was more effective than the undercut since refuelling was a factor – cars who had just pitted came out much heavier than before their stops, something which much outweighed the advantage of fresher tyres) to, after he’d also pitted, come out in front of Häkkinen and subsequently take the victory and the championship. At the final race of the season in Malaysia, Ferrari also secured the constructors’ championship, thus bringing much-awaited and missed glory home to Maranello.
There was no shortage of action in the Hungarian GP either. Red Bull’s tenth and eleventh starting positions were an outside chance for Ferrari, but it was not exploited due to – once again – questionable strategic choices by the Italian race team. Everything was still going according to plan when Leclerc took the lead at the expense of George Russell, but everything changed when Ferrari made a questionable tyre choice. The Monegasque could not get any pace in the hard compound and stopped again 15 laps later, but to no avail. Verstappen drove a mad overtaking race in which he overtook Leclerc, made a 360-degree spin after which he lost the position again, only to overtake his rival once more and drive to victory.
1996 Monaco Grand Prix, Monaco Street Circuit : Some of the previous races on this list had high attrition. But none will come close to the levels of the 1996 Monaco GP – all I need to tell you is that only the three drivers finishing on the podium actually completed all 75 laps. How in the world did that happen, you might ask? A big part of the answer was, as often is with that sort of race, rain. As the lights went out, the track was wet enough to require the use of intermediate tyres, though it wasn’t raining anymore. But if anyone had thought that this would spare the drivers from the carnage, they were wrong.