The drivers' and constructors' titles may have already been won by Jenson Button and his Brawn GP team, but Formula One has traditionally had plenty of excitement when there has been nothing at stake. Graham Caygill looks at five of the best Grand Prix races from the past where the championships have already been decided.
Fernando Alonso had won his first championship in Brazil in his Renault but the following race at Suzuka proved to be easily the best of that season. Wet weather had caused chaos in qualifying with the champion starting 16th and the man who had pushed him hardest in the title race, Kimi Raikkonen, was a further place back on the grid. But the race turned out to be a cracker as both Alonso and Raikkonen charged through the field from their lowly starting positions. Pole-sitter Ralf Schumacher led early on in his Toyota, before Alonso's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella took the lead at the first round of pit-stops and began to pull clear.
Raikkonen rapidly moved up into the points positions in his McLaren-Mercedes and by the second round of pit-stops was second, with Alonso overtaking Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button and Mark Webber to move up to third heading into the closing stages. But now the action was at the front as Raikkonen caught Fisichella quickly and bravely went around the outside of the Renault at the first corner at the start of the final lap to take the lead and claim an astonishing victory.
Ferrari and Michael Schumacher had dominated the year, winning 12 of the 14 races held prior to the visit to Monza, with the championship having been already been won by the German a race earlier in Belgium. Italy would see more Ferrari glory, but this time in much more exciting circumstances. Schmacher's teammate Rubens Barrichello had started on pole, but had wrongly chosen to start on intermediate tyres in damp conditions and he would drop down to ninth after having to pit to change to slicks on the fifth lap.
It was worse for Schumacher, who had dropped from third to 15th after spinning on the first lap following contact with Button's BAR-Honda. Despite at one stage trailing Button, who took over the lead from Alonso after the first pit-stops, by 30 and 45 seconds respectively, the Ferraris showed stunning speed as both cars lapped often two seconds a lap faster than anyone else on the track. Barrichello made up so much time on Button that he passed him in the pits at the final stops, while Schumacher passed the Briton moments later on the track, and the Ferrari pair went on to complete a memorable one-two.
The final race at the popular Adelaide track proved eventful for the drivers' inability to keep out of trouble with only eight cars credited as finishing. Michael Schumacher had claimed his second world title two races early at the Pacific Grand Prix in his Benetton-Renault, but his hopes of winning his last race for the team before joining Ferrari were ruined by a collision with Jean Alesi, which forced his retirement.
The Williams-Renault drivers David Coulthard and Damon Hill battled at the front, but the race was handed to Hill when his Scottish teammate unbelievably crashed into the pitlane as he made his first pit-stop. Hill cantered to his fourth win of the season, which would galvanise him nicely for his 1996 title win, but behind him his rivals dropped like the proverbial flies. Engine problems accounted for Gerhard Berger, Johnny Herbert and Eddie Irvine, leaving the Frenchman Olivier Panis to take a distant second, he was two laps down, although he was lucky to make it as his Ligier engine began smoking in the closing stages. Gianni Morbidelli completed the podium in his Arrows in third.
Nigel Mansell and Williams-Renault had crushed the opposition as the Briton won seven of the first 10 races to have the title wrapped up with six races still to go. But a season of processional races was enlivened at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps track as mixed conditions provided a thrilling race. Mansell had started from pole, but it was Ayrton Senna who led the early stages in his McLaren as he stayed out on dry tyres as rain doused the circuit. The Brazilian showed astonishing car control to keep his McLaren on the road, but his gamble failed to pay off and he was caught by Mansell and overtaken before having to pit to put on wet tyres.
For a while it looked like it would be another routine Mansell win, but critically on lap 30 as the track began to dry, Michael Schumacher went off in his Benetton from third place, but got back on the track having lost only one place to his British teammate Martin Brundle. Schumacher, in his first full season in the sport, noticed his teammate's rear tyres were badly worn and immediately pitted for slick rubber, which proved to be an inspired decision as he immediately starting to lap two or three seconds a lap faster than the rest of the field. The German went so quick he leapfrogged Mansell when the Briton made his pit-stop and led by six seconds. Mansell briefly hinted at a fightback but an engine misfire delayed him and he had to settle for second, allowing Schumacher to claim the first of his 91 race wins.
Formula One came to Adelaide for the final race of the year under a cloud and needing a good race following the controversy of Japan two weeks earlier where Ayrton Senna had won the second of his three titles by crashing into Alain Prost at the first corner.
Purists were hoping to get talk back on to the track action following that sour note and they got it with a thrilling event that came alive in the latter stages. Senna and his McLaren teammate Gerhard Berger had led from the start, but Berger dropped to third behind Nigel Mansell's Ferrari after he briefly lost power. Mansell harried Senna for a while, but a pit-stop dropped him back and left the world champion leading from his Brazilian compatriot Nelson Piquet, who, inspired by winning in Japan, had driven a strong race as he moved up from seventh on the grid.
Senna looked in control, but he had started to experience gearbox problems and, on the 61st lap, a missed gear caused him to spear off the track and into the barriers and out of the race. Piquet was now in front but was being caught by Mansell, who was the fastest man on the track on fresh rubber. Going into the 81st and final lap, the two former Williams teammates were less than a second apart, and Mansell tried to go for the lead at the end of the back straight, but braked fractionally too late and overshot the corner, allowing Piquet to go on and triumph as Mansell recovered to take second.
@Email:gcaygill@thenational.ae
