Greatest Wins- Nigel Mansell

[darth_timon]

Welcome to the start of a new series- my personal take on the greatest wins of various F1 drivers, past and present. To begin, I look at some of my boyhood hero's best wins.

The Great Moustachioed One has been involved in some thrillers and dramatics- tangling memorably with the likes of Senna, Prost and Piquet. A lot of his fans will probably point to his 1987 chasing down of Piquet at Silverstone, finished with his feint to trick his teammate and get past him.

However, in the eyes of this humble fan, Mansell's 1989 win in Hungary is his best.

He qualified only 12th. On a track noted as being very difficult to overtake on. Hardly ideal. However, he drove his Ferrari ferociously, wasn't afraid to go for overtakes, and was able to do this despite lacking modern driver aids like KERS and DRS (oh, and the cars back then were wider than they are today). He got up to 8th at the start, and between pitstops and simply going past people (such as Prost, amongst others) he rose to 3rd. Patrase, who had been leading from Senna, was easily dealt with when his Williams developed trouble, and then Mansell was chasing Senna, one of the best drivers at holding the line and denying his opponent room.

His move on Senna, taking advantage of a backmarker to get past him at Turn 3, was a great one. He would then surge on to take the win, over 25 seconds ahead of Senna come the end. A great recovery after poor qualifying.

 

[NSWCROW]

I'll nominate this -




Here's 2 of the best 2nd places you'll see too -

 

[rayven]

Top thread top idea So why was Mansells Qualy so bad? Issues with the car? Did he prang it? Was passing the senna piloted Lotus really all that much of a feat for a scuderia?

 

[hey shorty]

Senna was driving a Mclaren I think. Anyway ill concur with the great thread comment. I remember the first indycar win, his back was so stuffed he couldn't get out of his car. Mansell was a rare breed, a likeable English sports person. Wheres his knighthood ??

 

[rayven]

Senna was driving a Mclaren I think.

Yes my bad, I thought I read 87...

 

[darth_timon]

I'll nominate this -




Here's 2 of the best 2nd places you'll see too -

I have to admit, I'd never even thought of Indycar. I think it says a lot about Mansell's ability that he could jump to a different code, with tracks he was unfamiliar with, against opponents who were used to those tracks and cars- and win his first race.

 

[imadodgyumpire]

IIRC, watching a video where Mansell talks about all of his wins. The car wasn't handling well in Hungary, then his engineer made some changes to the car (I'm assuming it was a bit of a gamble), where it then transformed into a supercar. I think h then pumped himself up for a massive start, which worked cause he made up 6 places off the start. Then one by one, picked off the others til he lurked up behind Senna where he made a opportunistic move at the right time.

I didn't see that race. I'm trying to think what I thought was the best one (of the ones I'd seen). 1991 French GP was good, a race long battle with Prost.

I read other racing forums, and even from blokes who take themselves seriously as fans, don't acknowledge how impressive his record was on ovals, especially one mile ones. They also assume that because he won on them, Prost and Senna would've as well. Probably they would've, but they didn't, so it doesn't count. It's also assumed that he was an aggressive driver who was hard on his car. You can't dominate on ovals unless you are as smooth and gentle as Rick Mears.

I actually watch the whole of the 87 British GP on yt once. What struck me, more than what that race is known for, is how mind numbingly processional that race was til the last 10 or so laps.

 

[Macca19]

The overtaking move to get past Senna & Johannson in the one swoop is probably in the top 2-3 I can remember. Only one that tops it was his move to get around Berger in Mexico in 1990.