F1 classic races - Britain

IN A new series, I will be looking back at six classic races every weekend from the country about to stage an event in the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship.  This is my selection, of races held at Silverstone between 1991 and 2010.  Enjoy the archive!

1994

HOME: Success for Hill amidst controversy in 1994

WINNER: Damon Hill (Williams Renault), 2^nd: Jean Alesi (Ferrari), 3^rd: Mika Hakkinen (McLaren Peugeot)

MICHAEL Schumacher was coasting away with the 1994 championship, but lost his head at Silverstone, which turned the season on its head.  Having been beaten to pole by 0.003secs, Schumacher overtook Damon Hill’s Williams on the formation lap, not once – but twice!  Although he leapfrogged Hill at the first round of pitstops, Schumacher was shown the black flag on lap 22.  The Benetton team challenged the decision, with the German ignoring the order to come in and serve a five-second stop-go penalty for another seven laps.  Hill won the race, whilst Schumacher was disqualified afterwards and banned for two races for his transgression.  Mika Hakkinen earnt a much-needed podium for the McLaren team, despite a last lap run-in with Rubens Barrichello, but team-mate Martin Brundle’s Peugeot engine erupted in a ball of flame when the lights turned to green, leaving the Brit furious and stunned.

1995

WINNER: Johnny Herbert (Benetton Renault), 2^nd: Jean Alesi (Ferrari), 3^rd: David Coulthard (Williams Renault)

THE championship contenders clashed, which allowed the popular and usually unlucky Johnny Herbert to register his first ever Grand Prix win.  Damon Hill was on pole again, and led the early exchanges, but Benetton once again outdid Williams on strategy and had Michael Schumacher infront.  On lap 46, Hill, desperately wanting to take advantage of fresher tyres, made a desperate dive up the inside into the Priory bend and took the pair off into the gravel.  Hill insisted it was a racing incident, whilst the champion pointed the blame squarely at Damon’s door.  Herbert inherited the lead, but lost it to David Coulthard.  However, the Scot got a pitlane speeding penalty and dropped to third, so Herbert got his lead back and won the event.  Rubens Barrichello had a lucky escape when his Jordan nearly flipped the gravel trap after late contact with the McLaren of Mark Blundell.

1998

WINNER: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), 2^nd: Mika Hakkinen (McLaren Mercedes), 3^rd: Eddie Irvine (Ferrari)

FORTY laps into the 1998 race and Michael Schumacher’s chances can’t have looked great.  On a wet day, his Ferrari was no match for the dominant McLaren’s of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard.  However, Coulthard spun off on a puddle whilst lapping the Benetton of Giancarlo Fisichella.  With the rain level intensifying, Hakkinen spun off at Bridge and did some front wing damage to his car.  The Safety Car was deployed and Mika’s 40 second lead was washed away.  On lap 51, he ran wide at Becketts and Schumacher powered past, opening up a 20 second lead.  However, rather than a time penalty, he was wrongly given a ten second stop-go penalty with three laps to go.  The offence was for passing Alexander Wurz under waved yellows whilst Jos Verstappen’s Stewart was recovered.  On the last lap, Schumacher entered the pitlane to serve his penalty, crossing the startline in the process.  He effectively won the race in the pitlane.  McLaren appealed the result, but lost in the Court of Appeal, meaning Schumacher made it three wins in a row.  

1999

WRECKED: Schumacher's title hopes after his 1999 failure

WINNER: David Coulthard (McLaren Mercedes), 2^nd: Eddie Irvine (Ferrari), 3^rd: Ralf Schumacher (Williams Supertec)

DAVID Coulthard’s first triumph at Silverstone was overshadowed by the accident that ruined Michael Schumacher’s title chances.  Schumacher made a bad start from the front row of the grid and dropped behind Coulthard and team-mate Eddie Irvine.  As red flags were waving due to the stalled cars of Jacques Villeneuve and Alex Zanardi, Schumacher went to overtake Irvine on the Hangar Straight when he suffered a rear brake failure and pitched off the road at Stowe gravel trap, hitting the tyre barriers head-first.  Despite attempting to exit the cockpit on his own, the German realised his leg was trapped in the wreckage and had to be treated by marshals with a broken tibia and fibula in his right leg.  On the restart, Mika Hakkinen led away, but lost a wheel and was forced to retire with a faulty wheel hub.  Irvine overshot his pit box on his first stop, handing the lead and the race to an overjoyed Coulthard.  Considering he didn’t know the well-being of his brother, Ralf Schumacher raced brilliantly to a podium result for the Williams team and Damon Hill led a lap and finished a fighting fifth on his final British Grand Prix appearance.

2003

WINNER: Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari), 2^nd: Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams BMW), 3^rd: Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes)

RUBENS Barrichello won a crazy race in 2003, after pulling off some stunning overtaking manoeuvres.  He started from pole, but slipped to eighth on lap 11 as crazed religious lunatic Neil Horan ran onto the Hangar Straight and started waving signs about the bible as the cars were doing almost 200mph.  The Safety Car was sent out and the scramble saw the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso tumbling down the order.  Barrichello produced amazing passes on Ralf Schumacher, Trulli and Kimi Raikkonen and was a great winner of a great race which was full of overtaking.  Raikkonen ran wide at Stowe with 11 laps to go, gifting Montoya second place.  Michael Schumacher fought back from 14^th place to fourth to maintain his title advantage.  By use of a lucky strategy, 2002 CART champion Cristiano da Matta did a great job to lead the race for 17 laps, before finishing seventh.

2008

WINNER: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes), 2^nd: Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber), 3^rd: Rubens Barrichello (Honda)

UNDER pressure from two dismal performances in Canada and France, Lewis Hamilton arrived at Silverstone in desperate need for a result.  He produced a mesmerizing drive to win by an entire minute, lapping at times, some seven seconds a lap faster than anyone else.  His team-mate Heikki Kovalainen claimed his first ever pole position, but was all at sea on raceday and finished a lapped fifth.  Hamilton was under pressure from Kimi Raikkonen early on, but Ferrari made the decision to keep Kimi on old tyres and the move backfired.  Raikkonen dropped down to 11^th, before recovering to fourth.  Renault made a similar mistake with Fernando Alonso, which left the Spaniard down in sixth.  At the height of a tropical downpour, Nelson Piquet and Robert Kubica were caught out and lost possible podium finishes.  With championship leader Felipe Massa having a dire day, spinning five times and ending up last, this allowed the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld and Honda’s Rubens Barrichello to take the final two podium positions.  Barrichello’s came from 16^th on the grid, when the Honda team took a gamble on extreme wet weather tyres and started lapping 15 seconds quicker than the midfield.  However, the 2008 British Grand Prix belonged to McLaren and Lewis Hamilton who showed he was the new ‘rain master.’