1990 Australian Grand Prix
The last race of 1990 took place under the shadow of the controversial way Ayrton Senna had clinched the title at the previous race in Japan. A still-furious Alain Prost had walked out of the drivers briefing and didn’t to turn up to a photo shoot featuring a number of world champions, while Jackie Stewart accused Senna of dangerous driving.
About the only person who seemed to be enjoying the fun ‘end of term’ feeling was Nelson Piquet, who managed to take his second victory in a row after running the entire race without pitting and having to defend hard from Nigel Mansell in the closing laps. Prost finished third with Gerhard Berger fourth, while Senna crashed out of the lead after missing a gear change.
2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
After several races of seeing his championship lead eaten into and eventually overhauled by Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso was thrown a lifeline when Vettel was disqualified from qualifying for not having enough fuel in his car.
In the race, Lewis Hamilton led the early stages before breaking down (typical of much of his season), leaving Kimi Raikkonen out in front for Lotus. Alonso was second but unable to really challenge Kimi, who took his first win in more than three years. In third? That’d be Vettel, who shot up through the order after starting from the pit lane, meaning he still had a 10-point championship lead with two races left to go.
Birthdays
Eric Thompson (born 1919) started a single race – the 1952 British GP – and finished fifth, scoring two points in a Connaught. The other Jacques Villeneuve (born 1953), brother of Gilles, was enormously successful in Canadian motorsport and snowmobile racing, but his F1 attempts didn’t go especially well. He failed to qualify in all three attempts – twice for Arrows at the end of 1981, and once for RAM in 1983.
