Six of the Best: Defeats snatched from victory's jaws

Lewis Hamilton can perhaps take heart that Mercedes' strategic Monaco faux pas certainly isn't the first F1 race to see defeat snatched from the jaws of victory...
Six of the Best: Defeats snatched from victory's jaws

Lewis Hamilton's strategy debacle in Monaco turned what looked set to be a certain victory into a trailing third place, but he's far from the first driver in Grand Prix history to see a potential win go up in smoke.

Fittingly, we now head to Canada, a race that has proven more than once that it is never over until the fat lady sings as she waves the chequered flag - as these six drivers learned in snatching defeat from the jaws of Grand Prix victory.

Kimi Raikkonen - 2005 European Grand Prix

2005 was the season that the Michael Schumacher/Ferrari stranglehold broke, and Renault and McLaren quickly leapt into the power vacuum and took up the mantle of championship contenders. Renault and Fernando Alonso had started the season in superb form and quickly opened a championship lead from the fast but unreliable McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen. Heading to round seven the Nurburgring having won the past two races, the pressure was on Kimi and McLaren to keep the momentum up and continue eating in to Alonso's 22-point advantage.

Starting second with Alonso down in sixth, Raikkonen quickly dispensed with polesitter Nick Heidfeld into the first corner to take a lead that he would comfortably maintain through the first half of the race.

One of the more curious additions to the F1 regulations was the 2005 rule that stipulated that drivers had to use the same set of tyres for the duration of the race. After severely flat-spotting his front right tyre lapping Jacques Villeneuve midway through the race, Raikkonen was forced to continue circulating with increasingly severe vibrations hampering his performance.

During the closing laps, the vibrations from the tyre began to significantly worsen, visibly shaking on the straights and causing Raikkonen difficulty in corners and under braking. At this stage, with the tyre a clear potential safety hazard, McLaren had the option of bringing Raikkonen in - but with Alonso now in second place and closing fast the stop would have meant losing further ground in the championship.

McLaren gambled, and could only watch nervously as Alonso homed in lap by lap. With two tours to go the gap was down to 2.7 seconds, and Raikkonen's tyre was wobbling violently and flexing the suspension on the straights. As Raikkonen started his last lap, the suspension gave way, exploding on the main straight and sending Raikkonen careering into the gravel trap.

Alonso coasted to his fourth victory of the season and extended his championship lead to 32 points, but Raikkonen was the real story of the day. To pit Raikkonen and accept a comfortable points finish from a winning position would have been to miss the true nature of sport - and although hindsight ultimately proved McLaren wrong, a glorious burn out is always more memorable than sensibly fading away.

Chris Amon - 1968 Canadian Grand Prix

It takes some going to earn the moniker of Formula One's unluckiest driver, and despite the strong challenge of Jean Alesi in the 1990s the undisputed king of F1 misfortune remains, and perhaps always will, New Zealander Chris Amon.

Amon himself has disagreed with the notion, countering that he was fortunate to survive a fifteen-year racing career in an era of during which death stalked the circuit.

The stats though do offer compelling evidence of Amon's enduring bad luck. Although he started five races from pole position, and led 183 laps across seven Grands Prix, Amon was unable to ever take an elusive victory - despite multiple wins in non-championship races, drives in front-running cars and a reputation as one of the very best racers on the circuit.

1968 may have been Amon's unluckiest campaign. Driving for the Ferrari works team, three consecutive pole positions early in the season demonstrated the car's raw pace. Unfortunately for Amon, persistent mechanical gremlins saw him take only one point from such auspicious portents.

By the Canadian Grand Prix, round 10 of 12, Amon had only ten points and one podium finish to his name despite consistently qualifying and racing among the frontrunners. At the Mont-Tremblant circuit, Amon qualified second but a flying start saw him pass polesitter Jochen Rindt off the line.

Amon raced off over the horizon unchallenged, building a substantial lead as his rivals foundered in a race of high attrition. As the laps ticked by, Amon's lead looked ever more assured.

Then, on lap 73 of 90, Amon's transmission broke, pitching the Ferrari into an immediate retirement and handing a commanding victory to countryman Denny Hulme in the McLaren. Amon, who was still relatively inexperienced in F1 terms, had plenty of years ahead of him, and there would surely be multiple victories ahead.

Unfortunately for Amon the day would never come, with misfortune repeatedly striking every time the Kiwi had a sniff of victory. Rather than being a one-off event that Amon could write-off as simple bad luck, the 1968 Canadian GP became one of many ones that got away for F1's enduring Mr Misfortune.

Damon Hill - 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix

Perhaps no victory in F1 history would have been as unlikely, and therefore no failure was more glorious, than Damon Hill's bittersweet second place for Arrows at the 1997 Hungarian GP.

Hill had a history with late race heartache, having seen potential victories thwarted by mechanical gremlins at the 1993 British GP (losing what would have been a maiden win on home soil), the 1993 German GP (losing what would have been a maiden victory at the very next race two laps from home due to a tyre failure), and the 1996 Monaco GP (losing a huge lead through a rare Renault engine failure and missing out on his best chance to live up to father Graham's 'Mr Monaco' legacy).

Nobody expected Hill to be in such a position in 1997 however. Despite winning the 1996 world championship, Hill was not retained by Williams and had landed instead at the struggling Arrows team. The number one on the front of his car was not only a suggestion of how many laps he was likely to complete at any race, it also gave his season's points tally heading to race 11, the Hungarian GP.

A combination of Hill's affinity with the Hungaroring (he had won there twice, including his (eventual) first win in 1993) and the strong performance of the Bridgestone tyres in the Hungarian heat saw Hill qualify a surprise third, mixing it with the front-runners for the first time that season.

Even more surprisingly, after a strong start to the race, Hill found himself challenging old foe Michael Schumacher for the race lead on lap 11. Diving down the inside into turn one, Hill was through, and he quickly disappeared off over the horizon.

The die seemed cast from the moment Hill took the lead. He dominated the race, building a margin of over 40 seconds to former teammate Jacques Villeneuve heading into the closing stages. Barring unforeseen misfortune, Hill was on course to take the Arrows team's first ever victory in remarkable circumstances.

Three laps from home though, disaster struck. Hill's hydraulics failed, and all of a sudden the Arrows was crawling, stuck in third gear and suffering from a throttle problem. With Hill powerless to prevent his lead being decimated, Villeneuve was able to catch and pass up the hill towards turn six on the very last lap.

Hill's advantage was such that he was able to hold off Johnny Herbert and retain second place, but as he crossed the line the celebrations were muted - having lost out on what would have been a maiden F1 win for Arrows, Bridgestone and engine supplier Yamaha. Taken in isolation second place was still a stunning result, but it had been a performance that deserved so much more.

Juan Pablo Montoya - 2001 Brazilian Grand Prix

For every great sportsman there's a signature 'coming of age' performance, the moment at which it becomes abundantly clear that a particular driver has something that marks them as being out of the ordinary.

For Juan-Pablo Montoya, that performance arrived in just his third Grand Prix, as the Colombian rookie announced himself as an aggressive, opportunistic and supremely quick driver at the 2001 Brazilian GP. Montoya had enjoyed considerable success in the US, and came to F1 with a glowing reputation as a rookie CART champion and Indy 500 winner, but his performance at Interlagos was a stirring declaration that his talent was readily transferrable to Formula One.

An early safety car caused by Mika Hakkinen's stalled McLaren combined with an initial fast standing start had seen Montoya's Williams-BMW jump from fourth to second - behind reigning world champion and polesitter Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.

It was a clich? writ true in a bygone age that drivers who had raced Stateside had a natural acumen for safety car restarts due to their experience of racing 'under yellow'. Montoya put those skills to good use as the race restarted on lap three to slipstream Schumacher on the start-finish straight and attack into the Senna S. Braking hard for the inside apex, Montoya positioned his car perfectly, getting alongside Schumacher and squeezing the Ferrari to the outside to claim the racing line for the second part of the corner.

It was a true statement overtake, dispatching Schumacher with a no holds-barred aggression few drivers had had either the nerve or the skill to attempt in recent memory. For a rookie driver in only his third Grand Prix to serve Schumacher with such manners was nothing short of a sensation. Montoya proceeded to pull away at a rate of knots, and by half distance held a lead of over 30 seconds from Schumacher.

Then, on lap 39, Montoya came around to lap Jos Verstappen on the back straight. Verstappen pulled offline to let Montoya past, but as he tucked back in behind the Williams into the braking zone for turn four the Dutchman lost his bearings and slammed violently into the back of Montoya's car - eliminating both drivers on the spot.

There are a million ways to lose a race, but being rammed off the circuit by a backmarker must surely rank among the most galling. Montoya was phlegmatic after missing out on what would have been an incredible maiden victory, and could only watch on as David Coulthard went on to take the win after passing Schumacher during a late-race downpour.

Jack Brabham - 1970 Monaco Grand Prix

The uniquely demanding nature of Monaco has seen many a driver suffer late race heartache - with a combination of breakdowns, driver errors and sudden downpours denying seemingly certain victories to the likes of Hill in 1996, Nigel Mansell in 1992, Ayrton Senna in 1988 and Alain Prost, Didier Pironi and Andrea de Cesaris in the madcap conclusion to the 1982 race.

Senna's infamous slide into the Portier barriers in 1988 may be the defining Monaco mishap, but in 1970 Jack Brabham arguably went one better - blowing a certain victory on the very last corner of the race.

Having qualified fourth, Brabham made a strong start and ran third behind Jackie Stewart and Chris Amon in the early stages. On lap 22, Brabham passed Amon for second place - which became first when Stewart pitted with a misfire on lap 27.

Brabham therefore led from Amon, Denny Hulme and Jochen Rindt, but he was untroubled - especially as first Hulme and then Amon (inevitably) hit trouble with mechanical issues of their own.

After Amon retired with 20 laps to go, Rindt was promoted to second place - and the Austrian quickly set about eradicating Brabham's 10 second lead, homing in on the back of the Australian.

Rindt pressurised Brabham over the closing laps but, this being Monaco, there was no way through. However, heading down to the old Gasworks hairpin, the very last corner of the last lap of the race, Brabham moved offline to pass a slower car. The three-time champion lost control, sliding off the dusty surface and into the straw bales - gifting victory to Rindt.

Brabham was able to reverse back on to the track and finish second, but the three-time champion was left cursing a mistake that cost him what would have been a glorious Monaco swansong in his final season of Formula One.

Nigel Mansell - 1991 Canadian Grand Prix

Nigel Mansell was a driver prone to notorious bad luck before finally claiming the World Championship in 1992, but rarely can his penchant for the unfortunate have been as pronounced as when he retired from the lead during the last lap of the 1991 Canadian Grand Prix.

After qualifying second, Mansell overtook teammate Riccardo Patrese at the start of the race and built up a huge lead as one by one his rivals fell by the wayside. Crucially in terms of the world championship, Ayrton Senna, who thus far had enjoyed a perfect start to the year in winning all four of the opening races, retired with electronics problems. Mansell did not intend to pass up the opportunity to eat into his rival's lead in the standings, and everything seemed to be going to plan as he started his final lap with a comfortable lead.

Suddenly, exiting the hairpin for the last time with less than half a lap to complete, Mansell was coasting. The Williams crawled to a dismal halt along the back straight while, most galling of all, Mansell's bitter rival Nelson Piquet cruised past to take a gifted swansong victory for Benetton.

But why had Mansell's Williams broken down at such a crucial time? The official explanation was an electronics problem, but conspiracy theories abounded that Mansell had accidentally turned the car off or stalled while prematurely waving to the crowd in celebration.

Mansell and Williams strongly refuted the claims, but whatever the truth of the matter the fact remained that Mansell, as so often in his career, had somehow managed to once again snatch defeat from the gaping jaws of victory.

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