That Was The Week That Was – Anniversaries And Milestones From Motorsport’s Past

October 17

1979: Happy birthday to ‘The Iceman’ Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn has raced in Formula 1 since 2001, with a few years off to go rallying, and since then has won 20 Grands Prix for McLaren and Ferrari. He remains the last driver to win the World Championship for Ferrari – in 2007 (see October 21).

1981: Alan Jones won the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix on a circuit laid out in the car park of the Caesars Palace Hotel. The Williams driver beat the Renault of Alain Prost and the Alfa Romeo of maiden podium finisher Bruno Giacomelli. Fifth place for Nelson Piquet was enough to give the Brabham ace his first drivers’ title, by a point from Jones’ team-mate Carlos Reutemann.

1982: Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell won the Brands Hatch 1,000km in the Rothmans Porsche 956, a victory that gave the Belgian his first World Sportscar Championship crown over Italian F1 driver Riccardo Patrese, the Lancia ace finishing second in Kent.

October 18

1987: Nigel Mansell closed on Williams team-mate and points leader Nelson Piquet by beating the Brazilian by almost half a minute in the Mexican GP at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The pair of Honda-powered FW11Bs were so dominant, in fact, that third-placed Brabham driver Riccardo Patrese was a minute behind Piquet. 

1992: French GP venue Magny-Cours held the last-ever FIA World Sportscar Championship race. It was won by the polesitting Peugeot 905 Evo 1 Bis of Philippe Alliot/Mauro Baldi, with the second French machine of Christophe Bouchut/Eric Hélary completing a Peugeot one-two. The two Toyota TS010s of Jan Lammers/Geoff Lees/ and David Brabham/Andy Wallace finished third and fourth.

1994: Current Manor Grand Prix driver Pascal Wehrlein was born. The German, who won the 2015 DTM touring car title for Mercedes, took a best finish of 10^th in July’s Austrian GP.

2009: Jenson Button finished fifth in the Brazilian GP to secure the F1 World Championship for the Brawn team after an incredible debut season for the team created from the ashes of Honda by former Ferrari tech chief Ross Brawn. Button won six of the first seven races and finished in the points in all bar one of the other 10 races to become Britain’s 10^th World Champion.

October 19

1958: The only World Championship Morocco GP took place at the Ain Diab circuit. The race was won by the Vanwall of Stirling Moss, although his victory was tinged with sadness for the British squad as Moss’ team-mate Stuart Lewis-Evans crashed heavily. The 28-year-old suffered severe injuries to which he succumbed six days later.

1985: Nigel Mansell backed up his maiden GP win for Williams at Brands Hatch with his second victory in as many weeks in South Africa. He led home team-mate Keke Rosberg in what was the last World Championship GP to be staged on a Saturday. Alain Prost, who clinched his first title in Kent two weeks before, was third for McLaren.

1987: Pre-war Grand Prix ace Hermann Lang died at the age of 78. The former Mercedes mechanic-turned racer won the European Championship in 1939 – a season cut short by the outbreak of World War 2. He went on to win the Le Mans 24 hours for the Three-Pointed Star in 1952 and compete in two World Championship GPs – for Maserati in the 1953 Swiss GP and for Mercedes in the ’54 German race.

October 20

1974: Italian Lancia star Sandro Munari won the Rideau Lakes Rally, Canada’s inaugural World Rally Championship qualifier. His Stratos HF finished 2m18s ahead of the Lancia Beta of Finn Simo Lampinen.

1978: Swedish racer Gunnar Nilsson lost his fight with cancer, aged just 29. He contested 31 GPs for Lotus and took his only win in the 1977 Belgian GP at Zolder in the JPS Lotus 78.

1983: Ayrton Senna completed his dominant season of Formula 3 by adding victory in the end-of-season Macau GP to his British F3 title success for West Surrey Racing. The Brazilian’s Ralt-Toyota beat Colombian Roberto Guerrero and Gerhard Berger in the blue-riband street race around the then-Portuguese-owned territory off the south coast of China.

October 21

1984: Estoril held its first Portuguese GP, in which Niki Lauda battled from 11^th on the grid to finish second for McLaren, thus denying team-mate and race winner Alain Prost the F1 crown by a scant half-point. Third went to Ayrton Senna in his last race for the Toleman team before joining Lotus for 1985.

1990: Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost tangled for the second successive Japanese GP at Suzuka when the Brazilian McLaren driver deliberately fired his French Ferrari nemesis off at Turn 1 after feeling aggrieved at pole position being on the dirty side of the track. Their controversial collision paved the way for the Benettons of Nelson Piquet and Roberto Moreno to take a famous one-two, with local hero Aguri Suzuki completing the podium for the Larrousse Lola team. 

2007: Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen sneaked up and pinched the F1 crown from McLaren duo Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in the season-closing Brazilian GP. The Finn won the race to take the title by a single point – it was the only time that year he had led the standings! His team-mate Felipe Massa was second, with Alonso third and Hamilton down in seventh after early problems with his MP4-22 shutting down.

October 22

1989: McLaren team-mates Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost collided while disputing the lead of the Japanese GP at Suzuka. Prost retired on the spot, while Senna continued. The Brazilian won the race on the road but was later disqualified for cutting out the chicane while rejoining after the Prost incident. Victory went instead to the Benetton of Alessandro Nannini, from the Williams-Renaults of Riccardo Patrese and Thierry Boutsen. It would be the Italian’s only GP win.

2006: Michael Schumacher called time on Formula 1 in the end-of-season Brazilian GP. The German finished fourth for Ferrari in his 248^th race, while team-mate Felipe Massa won. After three years into his retirement, the seven-time champion made a comeback with the Mercedes team. After three more seasons that yielded no more wins and only one more podium finish, he brought his illustrious career to a definitive end in 2012.

October 23

1960: American motorcycle hero Wayne Rainey was born. He won 23 500cc GPs for Yamaha and took a title hat-trick between 1990, 1991 and 1992. His career ended with a crash that confined him to a wheelchair in the Italian GP at Misano in 1993.

1966: Happy 50^th birthday to Grand Prix driver, IndyCar Champion and multiple Paralympic gold medallist Alex Zanardi. The Italian raced in 41 GPs for Jordan, Minardi, Lotus and Williams between 1991 and 1999. He then took two IndyCar crowns for Chip Ganassi Racing in 1997/’98. He suffered an horrific accident at Lausitzring in 2001, in which he lost both his legs, but he soon returned to competition, with BMW in touring cars and took four wins in the World Touring Car Championship aboard a 320i fitted with hand controls. He then turned his attention to paralympic hand-bike competition and coolly secured gold medals in London 2012 and Rio 2016!

1977: McLaren’s James Hunt won the Japanese GP at Fuji, scene of his World Championship success 12 months earlier. This time he beat the Ferrari of Carlos Reutemann and the Tyrrell of Patrick Depailler for his 10^th and final F1 win.

1993: Yorkshire-born, Scotland-raised Innes Ireland died, aged 63. He raced in 50 GPs for Lotus, BRP and BRM, famously giving the works Lotus team its maiden win – at Watkins Glen in 1961. He also won the Goodwood Tourist Trophy in 1962 at the wheel of a Ferrari 250 GTO.

2011: Marco Simoncelli was killed during the Malaysian MotoGP race. The Italian, who had taken a top-class career-best second place for Gresini Honda in Australia in the previous race, was 24.