Nigel Mansell is a Legend!

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Originally Posted by SGWilko

You tell me - you had him behind me old mucker.....

You can't go charging in lambasting others about facts when yours are.....


.....poorly researched and dubious.

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I dont have the time to recheck everything, there is so much crap that I have to dismantle :D

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Originally Posted by Garry Walker

I dont have the time to recheck everything, there is so much crap that I have to dismantle :D

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No need to re-check. QC in the first instance should suffice.

Unless you are training to become a journalist, then just talk bollocks all day long..... :p

Gary:

No, I'd rather not retract my statement as it still stands. Your position, correct me if I'm wrong, is that Rosberg was a strong team mate and Prost simply mullered him?

That being the case it does not "nicely dismantle" my point. Which is;

Had Prost's team mate been able to hustle the car round as fast, therefore taking away points from the frenchman, it would be very unlikely that Alain could have scored enough to stay in the championship fight to the end - its just simple maths. So regardless of whether Rosberg beat Mansell in '85, Nigel was not fighting Keke in '86 - he was up against his team mate and Prost held onto the coat tails because he didn't loose points in an inter team rivalry like PK and Mansell did.

Also, I should like to point you that 12 points behind with two races to go in '87 was still well in contention - Kimi proved that in 2007.

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Originally Posted by Garry Walker

If Mansell had pitted, he would still finished third and taken the title by virtue of 1 more win compared to Prost.
But as I remember, the goodyear mechanics had inspected the tyres of Prost who picked up a puncture in the early stages of the race and concluded from looking at those that doing the whole race on them would be okay. But of course, Prost took care of his tyres in an extraordinary way.

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Add to that - Rosberg deliberately set out as a "hare", to force Piquet to chase him (because he needed to win to take the title), which forced Mansell to go offensive and chase Piquet. Result was all three destroying their tyres. Even without a puncture early on, Prost would have won....by a bigger margin.

Inspired and genius team tactics and kudos to Rosberg for being willing to help his team-mate in what was his last GP.

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Originally Posted by V12

I've had a look at the Forix lapchart for Mansell and he was in third place from lap 44-ish until his tyre blew, I am guessing then that Prost passed him on the same lap Rosberg retired.

Either way, my point was that Mansell wasn't racing Prost that day.

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I should like to take some issue with the assertion that Mansell was not racing Prost.

After Prost's visit to the pits for new tyres on lap 32, he began a furious chase after Rosberg, Mansell and Piquet. On his fresh tyres he closed on Mansell and Piquet up ahead who Mansell had allowed to pass.

I live in Adelaide and I was present at that race. I still recall Mansell driving with noticeable restraint during the middle part of the race.

However, the threat he increasingly faced during those 25 or so laps after Prost left the pits with his new tyres was that Rosberg appeared to be untouchable at the front, Piquet was swapping fastest laps with Prost in his attempts to get to grips with Rosberg and Prost was getting closer and closer, threatening to relegate him to 4th. Mansell needed 3rd and he could not bank on either Rosberg or Piquet failing to finish 1st or 2nd.

By the end of lap 57 Prost was right with Mansell. If not before, he was undoubtedly racing Prost by now.

Rosberg's tyre let go on lap 63 and during that same lap Prost finally passed Mansell.

One might say that Mansell could have eased off at that point but the point would be moot. According to Christopher Hilton's biography on Mansell, the Goodyear man (Barry Griffin) saw Rosberg's tyre failure on a TV monitor and immediately set off to the Williams pits intending to tell them to bring both cars in.

Mansell's tyre exploded on his 64th lap.

In a previous post, you said that "Mansell could have pitted or dramatically eased off and still finished third..."

My point is that the situation vis a vis holding onto 3rd changed so dramatically in the space of one lap that he not was provided with any opportunity to do as you suggest.

As a slightly ironic aside, I noticed, in reminding myself of all this, that Piquet had spun to a halt on lap 23 trying to fend off Prost, immediately donutted through 369 degrees to chase after Prost who'd nipped by, and drove like the wind in pursuit of Prost initially, and then to keep Prost at bay after Prost fitted new tyres. If either williams driver was setting himself up for a tyre disaster it was Piquet!