F1 Nurburgring Grand Prix 2020: 3 historic moments at the famous German circuit as it is set to return after 7 long years.
F1 is now set to go to Germany for the Eifel Grand Prix, as the tour to Russia is now over and well conquered by Mercedes.
Based amidst the gigantic Eifel mountains (after which the Grand Prix is named) near the city of Cologne. The race is in the home country of Michael Schumacher- one of the greatest drivers of all time.
Hence, it will be a bit heartbreaking for the local [population to witness a Brit equalize their legend’s record of most wins at their own soil if Lewis Hamilton wins at Nurburgring.
But it is not like people at Nurburgring haven’t witnessed their local heroes winning over there. Schumacher has won 5 races at Nurburgring in his illustrious tally of 91 victories across his career.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel, another legendary driver to hail from Germany won the last Grand Prix happened in Nurburgring back when he was with Red Bull in 2013.
Last time F1 went to the Nurburgring…
Just sayin’ pic.twitter.com/b0l2Fh6Fly— Sara|| Seb in Aston Martin✨🐊 (@saradlmstr1) July 24, 2020
The German track is full of thrill and excitement; it surely has a long history. Thus the Sportsrush will list 3 historical events of Formula 1 at Nurburgring.
F1 Nurburgring Grand Prix 2020- 3 historic moments
1. Niki Lauda crash
The huge Nordschleife version of the Nurburgring was completed in 1927 and was used until the scarring crash of Niki Lauda in 1976 where he fortunately made out alive of his burning car, heroically rescued by Arturo Merzario, Guy Edwards, Harald Ertl and Brett Lunger.
Such were his injuries that he was never expected to come out alive and even he received last rites. But by his own admission, Lauda had a miraculous fightback to life when he heard the priest administering those rites.
The scars on his face caused by fire remained with him until his last days, but the man psychologically overcame the incident and soon enough came back to racing.
On the other side, the officials in Germany were propelled to re-design the circuit after Lauda’s crash and the circuit emerged in its current version in 1984 with more manageable and modern design.
2. Mark Webber first F1 win
Mark Webber a hardworking Red Bull driver, but never looked upon as one of the greatest in the game had his redemption in 2009 at Nurburgring when he tasted the ultimate glory for the first time.
The Australian driver won a Formula 1 race for the first time in his career, even though he had been in the sport for seven long years back then.
Webber in qualifying for the first time took a pole position and was tipped to win the race with all the excitement generating around the possibility.
He started the race brilliantly but an incident with Michael Schumacher in the race led FIA to penalize him. Despite this Webber gave a powerful performance and managed to defeat all odds to win the first race of his career.
3. Fight between Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa
Formula 1 is not behind when the competitors take a jibe against each other. A similar thing happened in the European Grand Prix 2007 between Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso.
The two were involved in a verbal spat before heading to the podium. The reason was a wheel-to-wheel racing moment between the duo.
The two even got a little too close for comfort on a couple of occasions and even touched wheels at one point. Alonso back then driving for McLaren accused Mass of deliberately doing it.
Whilst, Massa completely denied it, which led to contrasting views and led to a heated argument. Fortunately, in the following years, both drivers reconciled their friendship and even went onto drive for the same team- Ferrari.
