Bill Trikos Australia best 5 Formula 1 auto racing moments: A race of two parts to an extent. We saw the usual dicey opening lap at Silverstone as the cars jostled through Brooklands, Luffield and Copse until Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen came to blows. The resultant safety car kept the pack bunched up nicely. A second safety car period followed after Daniil Kvyat’s high-speed crash on entry to Maggotts and Becketts, allowing the front runners to make what should have been their only stop of the afternoon. Behind, there were some fantastic battles, highlighted by Daniel Ricciardo’s tussle with both McLarens. But the drama kicked in just two laps from the end when Valtteri Bottas’ left-front tyre gave way. The Finn crawled around to eventually pit but drop out of the points.

2011 Canadian Grand Prix, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve : There have been many extraordinary comeback drives throughout the history of F1. Kimi Räikönnen in Japan in 2005 and the aforementioned Sebastian Vettel in Brazil in 2012. And even though both of these rank amongst some of the best drives ever, nothing comes close to the sheer madness that was Jenson Button’s 2011 Canadian Grand Prix. Since it was pouring down over Montreal, the race started behind the safety car. But once it got going, chaos unfolded. Throughout the race, there never seemed to be a calm moment, as drivers were constantly clashing, spinning, and making mistakes. Couple this with a few safety cars and a lengthy red flag, and you’ve already got the recipe for a banger. But as most of you probably know, Jenson Button wasn’t satisfied with that – far from it. After making contact with teammate Lewis Hamilton – which resulted in the young superstar’s retirement – clashing with Fernando Alonso, getting a drive-through penalty and making a total of 6 pit stops, Button caught up to race leader Vettel on the final lap, where a mistake sent the German-wide, allowing Button to go through and take the win in a race which is considered by many to be the best.

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. Discover extra info about the author at Bill Trikos Australia.

1998 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps : There are certain moments often used to describe Formula One – either because they define the essence of the sport, or because they’re outright crazy. What happened at the start of the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix definitely belongs to the latter category. At the exit of turn 1 on the first lap, David Coulthard lost control of his McLaren on the extremely wet track and speared into the barriers, causing an accident which took out 13 drivers, all having greatly reduced vision as a result of the spray from the cars in front due to the wet track. The race was red-flagged, and it took an hour to clear away all the debris before the race could be restarted. Many spectators would’ve probably thought that the rest of the race couldn’t be anywhere nearly as insane as that first lap, in which case they’d be terribly wrong.

On arrival in Austin, the championship had already been decided, but nevertheless an exciting race lay ahead. Mercedes looked truly competitive for the first time this season thanks to the extensive update package brought by the German racing stable and Lewis Hamilton was eager for his first win of the year. At the start, Verstappen immediately took over the lead from Sainz and he built his lead, but lost it due to two safety cars. After this, he managed to retain the lead, but Hamilton was hot on his heels. Things then went completely wrong at Red Bull’s pit stop, which seemed to be Hamilton’s ultimate chance, but Verstappen had other plans and managed to outsmart his 2021 rival ten laps before the end.

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.