The Athletic

Nigel.

Nigel was an unstoppable force at the start of the 1992 season, setting a new record by winning

the first five races of the season.

The stage was set for Mansell to break what he described as his Monaco jinx,

and for the first 70 laps of that year's Monaco Grand Prix around the Principality,

he appeared on his way to a record extending sixth straight win.

Then disaster struck.

Mansell crawled back to the pits with what he thought was a puncture.

More on that later, and Ayrton Senna blasted through into the lead,

setting up one of the most famous finishes in F1 history,

as Senna used all of his monocon mastery to somehow fend off a charging Mansell to the checkered flag.

Joining me, Glenn Freeman, for this look back to when Mansell's winning streak came to an end in his title winning campaign of Sam Smith and Mark Hughes.

Sam, I'll come to you first. You were quick to volunteer for this episode when we were discussing series six.

So what's the first thing that comes to mind for you about Monaco 1992?

Wait, it should be the last three laps, shouldn't it? All that ducking and diving that was

going on. But actually, I'm torn between whether it was the genuine exhaustion or just another

mansolesque sort of dying Swan act at the end when he was on the podium or just offset from

the podium, because in from the podium because in

those days I think they had this rather typically monogasque way of doing the podiums but I mean

let's face it this unfortunate pantomime-esque habit of Nigels of the theatrics coming on that's

what I remember just that sort of I I suppose, the human touch, really,

...