Race narratives, championship battles, world context and the drivers who made history. One grand prix at a time.
British Grand Prix · Silverstone
On a converted RAF airfield in rural Northamptonshire, in front of King George VI and 100,000 spectators, the FIA World Championship for Drivers began. Nino Farina drove an Alfa Romeo to victory and into history.
Read the full story →German Grand Prix · Nürburgring Nordschleife
Juan Manuel Fangio pitted, fell 48 seconds behind, and came back to win by breaking the lap record on almost every single lap. He said it was the finest drive of his career. Most people who have studied the sport agree.
Read the full story →German Grand Prix · Nürburgring Nordschleife
Stirling Moss, in a privately-entered Lotus that had no right to win, drove the Nürburgring Nordschleife as nobody had ever driven it before and outran the all-conquering Ferraris. It was the finest victory of his career and one of the finest drives in the history of the sport.
Read the full story →Italian Grand Prix · Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Wolfgang von Trips died on lap two, along with fifteen spectators, in the worst accident in Formula 1 history. Phil Hill won the race and became the first American World Champion, in circumstances he never wanted.
Read the full story →Italian Grand Prix · Autodromo Nazionale Monza
A puncture dropped Jim Clark a lap behind the field. He drove back through it, retook the lead, and then ran out of fuel on the final lap — a race remembered as one of the greatest single drives never quite completed.
Read the full story →German Grand Prix · Nürburgring Nordschleife
The Nürburgring was shrouded in fog and rain so thick that drivers could barely see the road ahead. Jackie Stewart won the 1968 German Grand Prix by over four minutes. He drove what many consider the greatest wet-weather performance in motor racing history.
Read the full story →Monaco Grand Prix · Circuit de Monaco
Jack Brabham led the Monaco Grand Prix with one corner remaining. He ran wide. Jochen Rindt slipped through. It is the most agonising single mistake in Monaco's history.
Read the full story →Italian Grand Prix · Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Peter Gethin won the 1971 Italian Grand Prix by 0.01 seconds. Five cars crossed the finish line within 0.61 seconds of each other. It remains the closest finish in Formula 1 history and the fastest race the sport has ever run.
Read the full story →Spanish Grand Prix · Circuito del Jarama
James Hunt won on the road, was stripped of the victory over a technicality found in his car's bodywork, and had it restored to him four months later — a swing that proved decisive in the closest title fight in F1 history.
Read the full story →Japanese Grand Prix · Mount Fuji Speedway
Niki Lauda had cheated death at the Nürburgring ten weeks earlier. Now, in a Japanese typhoon, he chose life over a championship. James Hunt drove through the chaos and the title was his by a single point.
Read the full story →Italian Grand Prix · Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Mario Andretti won the 1978 World Championship at Monza. His teammate Ronnie Peterson, injured in a first-lap accident, died in hospital the following morning. Niki Lauda refused to race, walked away and never came back. It was one of the darkest days in Formula 1 history.
Read the full story →French Grand Prix · Dijon-Prenois
Jean-Pierre Jabouille won the race and made history with the first turbo victory. Nobody remembers that part. They remember Gilles Villeneuve and René Arnoux fighting for second in a battle so intense, so mutual, so reckless and brilliant that it redefined what racing could mean.
Read the full story →Spanish Grand Prix · Circuito del Jarama
Villeneuve's turbo Ferrari had no business winning at twisty, low-speed Jarama. He led anyway, and held off four faster-cornering cars for the entire race, winning by just 1.24 seconds across the top five — the tightest finish Formula 1 had ever seen.
Read the full story →San Marino Grand Prix · Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
Ferrari told both drivers to hold position. Didier Pironi kept going. He overtook Gilles Villeneuve on the final lap to win. Villeneuve never spoke to him again. Two weeks later, Villeneuve was dead.
Read the full story →Monaco Grand Prix · Circuit de Monaco
Ayrton Senna, 24 years old and driving a Toleman, was catching Alain Prost at three seconds per lap in a Monaco downpour. He was going to win. Then the race director showed the red flag.
Read the full story →European Grand Prix · Brands Hatch
Nigel Mansell had been racing in Formula 1 for five years. He had started 72 races. He had never won. On a cold October afternoon at Brands Hatch, in front of a home crowd that willed him across the line, he finally did it.
Read the full story →Australian Grand Prix · Adelaide Street Circuit
Nigel Mansell needed to finish third. He was leading. With 19 laps to go, his rear tyre disintegrated at 180 miles per hour. He kept the car on the road. He walked away. Alain Prost took the championship Mansell had been certain was his.
Read the full story →Japanese Grand Prix · Suzuka International Racing Course
Ayrton Senna stalled on the grid at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix. He rejoined from nearly last. He won the race and the World Championship in one of the most extraordinary drives of his career.
Read the full story →Japanese Grand Prix · Suzuka International Racing Course
Senna and Prost touched wheels at the chicane with six laps remaining. Prost stopped. Senna continued, won the race, and was disqualified. Alain Prost was World Champion. Neither man ever fully accepted the other's version of what happened.
Read the full story →Japanese Grand Prix · Suzuka Circuit
At the first corner, Ayrton Senna drove into Alain Prost's Ferrari, taking them both out of the race and securing Senna's second World Championship. A year later, Senna admitted it was deliberate — payback for what had happened at the same corner twelve months earlier.
Read the full story →Brazilian Grand Prix · Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Ayrton Senna won his home grand prix with his gearbox stuck in sixth gear for the final laps, steering the McLaren through slow corners by brute force alone. He had to be lifted from the car. It was one of the most celebrated victories of his career.
Read the full story →Monaco Grand Prix · Circuit de Monaco
Nigel Mansell's Williams was faster on every straight. He had fresh tyres and clear road. He had the gap down to one second. But Monaco doesn't have straights, and in front of him was Ayrton Senna. The gap stayed at one second.
Read the full story →European Grand Prix · Donington Park
On the opening lap of the 1993 European Grand Prix, in pouring rain, Ayrton Senna overtook four cars and went from fifth to first. It took approximately one minute. Those who saw it have never forgotten it.
Read the full story →San Marino Grand Prix · Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
Two men died at Imola in May 1994. Roland Ratzenberger on Saturday, Ayrton Senna on Sunday. The sport they raced in was never the same again.
Read the full story →Monaco Grand Prix · Circuit de Monaco
Olivier Panis started the Monaco Grand Prix eleventh. The rain came. The front-runners crashed or retired, one by one. Panis navigated everything and inherited a win that nobody had predicted, driving for a team that would cease to exist in its current form within two years.
Read the full story →European Grand Prix · Jerez de la Frontera
Michael Schumacher turned his Ferrari into Jacques Villeneuve's Williams at the hairpin with the championship in the balance. Schumacher's car stopped. Villeneuve drove on and finished third. He was World Champion. The FIA excluded Schumacher from the entire season's results — an unprecedented punishment for an unprecedented act.
Read the full story →Belgian Grand Prix · Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Damon Hill hadn't won a race in over a year. His Jordan team had never won at all. Then it rained at Spa, Michael Schumacher had an extraordinary altercation with David Coulthard, and the afternoon became one of the great upsets in Formula 1 history.
Read the full story →European Grand Prix · Nürburgring
Rain, chaos, and a title race hanging in the balance produced one of the strangest results of the era — Johnny Herbert winning for Stewart-Ford, a team barely two years old, after nearly everyone ahead of him crashed, spun, or broke down.
Read the full story →Belgian Grand Prix · Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Mika Häkkinen was behind both Michael Schumacher and a lapped car on the Kemmel Straight. He somehow passed both of them at once. It is considered by many the greatest single overtaking move in Formula 1 history.
Read the full story →Brazilian Grand Prix · Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Kimi Räikkönen was given the winner's trophy. Giancarlo Fisichella had actually won. The race had been red-flagged, the result misread, the trophies distributed to the wrong people. Räikkönen had to hand his back at the next race. Fisichella had been given somebody else's podium champagne.
Read the full story →British Grand Prix · Silverstone Circuit
A man in a kilt carrying religious placards ran onto the Hangar Straight at over 100mph closing speed, triggered a lengthy safety car period, and completely reshaped the outcome of an otherwise ordinary British Grand Prix.
Read the full story →United States Grand Prix · Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Fourteen cars did a formation lap in front of 120,000 spectators, then drove into the pit lane and stopped. Six cars remained to race. The crowd booed. It was the lowest moment in modern Formula 1 history.
Read the full story →Brazilian Grand Prix · Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Lewis Hamilton arrived at Interlagos needing only fifth place to become the youngest World Champion in history. A gearbox failure, a fall to eighteenth place, and a recovery that fell one position short left him seventh. Kimi Räikkönen took the title by a single point.
Read the full story →Brazilian Grand Prix · Autódromo José Carlos Pace
For 70 laps, Lewis Hamilton was going to be champion. Then he dropped to sixth with two laps to go. Then it rained. Then Timo Glock slowed on the final lap. Hamilton went through at the last corner of the last lap of the season. World Champion by one point.
Read the full story →Abu Dhabi Grand Prix · Yas Marina Circuit
Fernando Alonso sat behind Vitaly Petrov's Renault for 40 laps and could not pass. Sebastian Vettel won the race and the championship. Alonso, who had led the standings for much of the season, finished seventh. He was beaten by a driver most people had barely heard of.
Read the full story →Canadian Grand Prix · Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Jenson Button started seventh, spent time in the pits after a collision, ran last with twenty laps to go, and won. The race lasted four hours and four minutes — the longest in Formula 1 history. His final overtake on Fernando Alonso, with less than a lap remaining, is among the great moments of the modern era.
Read the full story →Brazilian Grand Prix · Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Sebastian Vettel collided with Bruno Senna on the first lap, dropped to last, drove through the entire field, and finished sixth. It was enough. Fernando Alonso, who needed Vettel to fail, finished second. The championship was Vettel's by three points.
Read the full story →Malaysian Grand Prix · Sepang International Circuit
Red Bull's code 'Multi 21' meant hold your positions. Sebastian Vettel was in second, Mark Webber in first. Vettel attacked. He passed Webber and won. On the podium, he apologised. Webber called himself a number two driver. The relationship between them never recovered.
Read the full story →Hungarian Grand Prix · Hungaroring
Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull had a problem that dropped him to the back early in the race. He came through the entire field, overtook Fernando Alonso for the lead, and won. He was grinning on the radio before he crossed the finish line. He was always grinning.
Read the full story →Austrian Grand Prix · Red Bull Ring
Nico Rosberg was leading with two laps to go. Lewis Hamilton was behind him, closing. They made contact at Turn 3. Rosberg took damage. Verstappen, who had been third, was suddenly leading. He won. He was 18 years old.
Read the full story →Brazilian Grand Prix · Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Lewis Hamilton won the race. Nico Rosberg held his championship lead for Abu Dhabi. But the story of the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix belongs to a 19-year-old Dutchman who drove through a storm as if it weren't there.
Read the full story →Azerbaijan Grand Prix · Baku City Circuit
Sebastian Vettel drove alongside Lewis Hamilton behind the safety car and deliberately steered into him. Daniel Ricciardo won the race from a grid penalty. Lance Stroll claimed a first career podium. Baku, in its second year as a Formula 1 host, delivered a race that nobody could have scripted.
Read the full story →German Grand Prix · Hockenheimring
Sebastian Vettel was cruising to victory at his home Grand Prix when a small error on a drying track sent him into the barriers. Lewis Hamilton, who had started fourteenth, won instead — a swing that reshaped the entire 2018 championship.
Read the full story →German Grand Prix · Hockenheimring
Sebastian Vettel qualified twentieth — last on the grid — after a crash. The race went from dry to wet to chaotic. Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat was on the podium. Lewis Hamilton hit the wall. Vettel drove through the carnage to win from dead last. It was one of the most improbable victories of the decade.
Read the full story →Brazilian Grand Prix · Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Max Verstappen won a chaotic Interlagos race after a last-lap clash between Alex Albon and Lewis Hamilton eliminated both from podium contention, gifting Pierre Gasly an unlikely second place for Toro Rosso — his first podium finish in Formula 1.
Read the full story →Bahrain Grand Prix · Bahrain International Circuit
Romain Grosjean's car split in two and exploded into flame on the first lap. He was trapped inside for 28 seconds. He climbed out over the barriers with burns to his hands. The halo device absorbed the impact that would otherwise have been fatal. He walked away.
Read the full story →Saudi Arabian Grand Prix · Jeddah Corniche Circuit
Formula 1's fastest street circuit hosted its first ever race, and the sport's most bitter title fight in a generation nearly boiled over completely — Verstappen and Hamilton collided after a staged overtake gone wrong, setting up a winner-takes-all finale in Abu Dhabi one week later.
Read the full story →Abu Dhabi Grand Prix · Yas Marina Circuit
Lewis Hamilton led with five laps to go. A safety car, a controversial decision about lapped cars, and fresh soft tyres for Max Verstappen produced an overtake on the final lap. Verstappen was champion. The sport has not stopped talking about it since.
Read the full story →Japanese Grand Prix · Suzuka International Racing Course
The race was red-flagged after a recovery tractor drove onto the circuit. When it restarted as a sprint, the points were halved. Nobody could agree in real time whether Verstappen had clinched the championship. The champagne was sprayed before the maths was confirmed. He had.
Read the full story →Monaco Grand Prix · Circuit de Monaco
Charles Leclerc is from Monaco. He had never won the Monaco Grand Prix. He had come agonisingly close, retired from the lead, watched rivals celebrate on his streets. On his eighth attempt, in front of his own family in the stands, he won it.
Read the full story →