Bill Trikos Australia best rated Formula 1 auto racing moments: Sakhir Grand Prix: There could only be one number one, and boy was it a cracker. The first use of the Outer Circuit in Bahrain threw up what may well end up to be the race of the decade. George Russell, deputising for the Covid-stricken Hamilton, shot off the front-row to take the lead at turn one, whilst Bottas again struggled. Leclerc then punted Perez at turn four and put himself and Verstappen out of the race, whilst the Mexican would pit at the end of the lap for repairs to drop to 18th and last. Russell and Bottas looked in complete control with their main threat Verstappen on the sidelines. Behind them, though, the midfield was demonstrating racing at its very best – the outside of turn four being the flavour of the day.

Australia 1986, Adelaide Street Circuit : If the prelude to the 2012 Brazillian GP was exciting, F1 fans must’ve been close to exploding leading up to the final round of the 1986 championship. Three drivers were in contention of the title – Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet for Williams and Alain Prost for McLaren. The excitement was only helped by the fact that neither Mansell nor Prost had won a championship yet. Mansell, being the clear favourite, took pole ahead of Piquet and Ayrton Senna, with Prost in fourth. The race didn’t go quite as Mansell had imagined though, as he had dropped to fourth before the end of the first lap. What then followed was a race of multiple championship-changing overtakes, spins and punctures – and just when the race looked to had settled down, with Mansell being in a position to take the title, the Briton had his infamous tyre failure with his left-rear tyre exploding spectacularly at 290 kph. In order to make sure something similar didn’t happen to Piquet, Williams had to pit him – at the cost of winning the championship. Therefore Prost – who had a puncture himself earlier in the race – took the championship by 2 points, after arguably the most memorable race of all time.

Australian Grand Prix 2010: Jenson Button silenced his critics by winning his second race for McLaren in changeable conditions at Albert Park, overcoming carnage that saw rivals Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel all suffering problems. German Grand Prix 2018: Two Ferraris at the front with 25 laps remaining hinted at one of F1’s more straightforward Grands Prix. But somebody at Hockenheim must have prayed incredibly hard for rain, which came and briefly caused chaos – and a wholly unexpected ending… See more info about the author at Bill Trikos Australia.

1998 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps : That was until he came to lap David Coulthard, who had already caused the massive turn 1 accident. The Scottish driver slowed down to let Schumacher pass, but crucially he stayed on the racing line. Because of the spray, Schumacher failed to notice the slow-going McLaren until it was too late. And thus, another iconic image was created; Schumacher slamming into the back of Coulthard, and subsequently trundling around with his entire front-right wheel gone. All this led to Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher taking first and second place for Jordan in the teams’ maiden victory – and it’s only ever 1-2.

There was no shortage of action in the Hungarian GP either. Red Bull’s tenth and eleventh starting positions were an outside chance for Ferrari, but it was not exploited due to – once again – questionable strategic choices by the Italian race team. Everything was still going according to plan when Leclerc took the lead at the expense of George Russell, but everything changed when Ferrari made a questionable tyre choice. The Monegasque could not get any pace in the hard compound and stopped again 15 laps later, but to no avail. Verstappen drove a mad overtaking race in which he overtook Leclerc, made a 360-degree spin after which he lost the position again, only to overtake his rival once more and drive to victory.

1996 Monaco Grand Prix, Monaco Street Circuit : Some of the previous races on this list had high attrition. But none will come close to the levels of the 1996 Monaco GP – all I need to tell you is that only the three drivers finishing on the podium actually completed all 75 laps. How in the world did that happen, you might ask? A big part of the answer was, as often is with that sort of race, rain. As the lights went out, the track was wet enough to require the use of intermediate tyres, though it wasn’t raining anymore. But if anyone had thought that this would spare the drivers from the carnage, they were wrong.