The worst examples of Choking in Motorsports.

[anthonyvop]

With Hildebrand's Indy 500 last corner crash being called by some a case of choking I was wonder what some of you consider the biggest examples of Choking in Motorsports History?

[BDunnell]

A rather obscure one, perhaps, but I can think of no finer example than this ending to a British Touring Car race in 1990. It was a two-driver affair, which saw Robb Gravett in his Sierra Cosworth building up a huge lead over Andy Rouse's car, before they handed over to Stig Blomqvist and David Sears respectively. The lead gradually diminished, and diminished, and diminished...

YouTube - ‪BTCC 1990 Round 2 Pt 3‬‏

[Mark]

Perhaps the most famous example is Senna crashing out of the Monaco Grand Prix despite having a substantial lead.

[Bob Riebe]

Perhaps the most famous example is Senna crashing out of the Monaco Grand Prix despite having a substantial lead.

I would add Black Jack Brabham at Monaco in 1970.

[Rollo]

Nigel Mansell 1984 also at Monaco.

In his autobiography he mentions that whilst he was leading his first GP, he was probably too excited and pushed to hard after the news that Prost had gained 1.5s on the previous lap. He states that he ran over a white line a the tail stepped out.

[Mark]

Also Nigel Mansell in Canada who when celebrating his win before the end of the race managed to hit the kill switch.

[D-Type]

Before we go much further let's define "choking". Is it simply making an unforced error like Senna and Brabham at Monaco; or is it failing to deliver the expected performance over a whole race, or end of season.

[Bruce D]

I would say a good one would be Carlos Reutemann at Las Vegas 1981 where he was on pole and then just faded in the race and loses the championship to Piquet.

[MrJan]

Lewis Hamilton 2007

[D-Type]

I would say a good one would be Carlos Reutemann at Las Vegas 1981 where he was on pole and then just faded in the race and loses the championship to Piquet.

Apparently it wasn't Reutemann at fault. The car developed a handling problem that even Reutemann couldn't drive around. But Reutemann was not prepared to publicly blame the car.