Ranked - Top 10 F1 championship seasons [Pt 2]

Nigel Mansell's tyre blows at Adelaide in 1986 — Photo: © LAT Images

F1 2021

Ranked - Top 10 F1 championship seasons [Pt 2]

As F1 prepares for a potential title battle, these are the seasons it must live up to

Will Gray

Sunday 25 April 2021 12:44

3. 2008 – Hamiton v Massa

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This season had seven different winners and ended with the closest finish possible as McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton snatched victory from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa on the very last corner of the very last race.

Early season form swayed between Ferrari and McLaren before Robert Kubica put BMW-Sauber in the mix by winning in Canada. Sebastian Vettel took a debut win with Toro Rosso in Italy and Fernando Alonso ‘won’ in Singapore amidst the ‘crashgate’ scandal in which his team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr crashed to secure the victory.

If that wasn’t enough drama, in the final race, Massa’s win on home soil in Brazil moved him three points clear and looked like it had given him the title until that last-gasp pass for fifth gave Hamilton the points he needed to claim his first crown.

2. 1989 – Prost v Senna

Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna were in their second year together in the dominant McLaren cars when their simmering rivalry truly exploded in this unforgettable season.

It began at the second race of the year, in Imola, when the pair agreed to hold position at the restart following Gerhard Berger’s fiery crash. Instead, Senna passed Prost to take the lead and went on to begin a three-race winning streak. Prost was so angry he almost retired from the sport.

But the Frenchman hit back with three wins in four and the title race culminated in the penultimate race in Japan, where Prost led by 16 points. He led the way but Senna, needing to win, lunged at him at the chicane and Prost closed the door. Prost stopped, Senna recovered to win but was disqualified and the title battle was over.

1. 1986 – Prost v Mansell v Piquet v Senna

This season involved some of the most competitive drivers and teams of all time, with Alain Prost at McLaren, Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet at Williams and Ayrton Senna at Lotus.

All four shared the spoils throughout the season but four wins in five in mid-season moved Nigel Mansell into the lead. At the season finale in Australia he was six points clear of Prost, seven of Piquet, and was set to win the title when his left-rear tyre spectacularly exploded with 18 laps to go.

The failure handed Prost his second consecutive title with the Frenchman victorious by a margin of just two points from Mansell, with Piquet third only one point further back.