Which was the best British Grand Prix? Thank Frankel it’s Friday

I’ll mention the 1957 event at Aintree only briefly because it too was a race of firsts: the first time a British team – Vanwall – won a World Championship event and it remains the only British Grand Prix to be won by more than one driver, Stirling Moss retiring his car and taking over that of Tony Brooks who was still recovering from injuries incurred at Le Mans.

The 1968 event at Brands Hatch was both significant and a true great. Jo Siffert was lucky to be on the grid in Rob Walker’s Lotus 49 at all, fire having ravaged Rob’s garage and the car therefore being prepared elsewhere and only completed during practice. Being privately entered and despite Siffert’s talent, Rob’s car was no match for the works machines of Graham Hill and Jackie Oliver, who romped away at the start. But when they retired they left Siffert dicing for the lead with the factory Ferrari of Chris Amon. Seppi clung on to win by just 4.4 seconds, in what would be not only the final Grand Prix victory for Rob Walker Racing, but that of any true privateer team, racing a car bought off the peg from another constructor.

Was 1975 a great British Grand Prix? If you’d been there you’d certainly not have got bored. As ever it was the great British weather that turned what could have been a fairly predictable race into one of the most extraordinary events ever held at Silverstone. It began well with brilliant Welshman Tom Pryce taking his first pole in what would be sadly short career; but things didn’t get really interesting until lap 50 when rain soaked part of the circuit, eased off and then came back with a vengeance with hail included. Twenty six cars started the race, of which four retired with mechanical damage and no fewer 16 crashing out in undrivable conditions. Emerson Fittipaldi was adjudged the winner when the race was stopped not a moment too soon on lap 56 by which stage the drivers who came second, third, fourth and fifth were all parked at odd angles in the Silverstone scenery, creating the bizarre spectacle of cars that were still running being classified behind those that had already crashed out.

A quick mention of 1985 now, only for Keke Rosberg’s freakish 160.9mph qualifying lap, an average so high it would take 17 years to be beaten, by Juan Pablo Montoya when he took pole for the 2002 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. I’ll mention 1998 too, as the weirdest win of all and probably the most controversial. Schumacher led but had to serve a stop-go for overtaking under yellow flags, which would have gifted the win to Hakkinen, but it took so long for the stewards to tell Ferrari to bring their man in, he was able to win the race while parked in the pitlane serving his sentence.

Perhaps the most impressive win was that of a very young Lewis Hamilton in 2008 when in dire weather he showed himself to be in a different league to everyone else out there. By the time the flag fell he was over a minute clear of the next fastest man on the track.

But for the best of the best we need to spool back to 1987. Nigel Mansell had already won the British Grand Prix the year before, the last to be held at Brands Hatch, and he had a taste for it. This year however it looked impossible because, with 30 laps to go, he was 28 seconds behind the already double World Champion Nelson Piquet in the same car. Undaunted by apparently insurmountable odds, Mansell broke the lap record nine times giving chase, catching his team-mate, selling him a superb dummy at 180mph on the approach to Stowe, sweeping past to take the lead with just two laps to go. It wasn’t just the greatest British Grand Prix we seen to date, but one of the greatest drives ever seen anywhere. Here’s hoping for another on Sunday.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.