There have been some controversial ends to championships in F1's 70-year history, but none quite come close to the back story of 1958. During the Portuguese Grand Prix, Sir Stirling Moss took his ninth victory in F1 ahead of Mike Hawthorn in second, who passed away on this day 64 years ago. Driving the Vanwall, Moss had lapped Hawthorn in his Ferrari but elected to let him un-lap himself before the Ferrari driver took the chequered flag. On his final lap, Hawthorn spun in front of Moss – who stopped to see if he could recover – but managed to keep his engine running and rejoin to secure his second place. But post-race there was confusion when Hawthorn crossed the line and was disqualified by the officials. Their reasoning was that he briefly drove in the wrong direction to rejoin the track, a breach of rules that warranted disqualification. Moss was told of the minor indiscretion and went straight to Race Control to argue the case for his fellow compatriot. Moss explained to the officials that his manoeuvre was done on the footpath which was not part of the circuit, and that it was neither dangerous nor illegal. This ultimately led to his disqualification being overturned, with Hawthorn's second place being reinstated and allowing him to retain his seven points and a point for the fastest lap.
Would Verstappen, Leclerc or Hamilton help their rivals?
Hawthorn would later go on to win the Drivers' Championship by one point to Moss, becoming the first British driver to do so in the history of F1. It appeared that the sporting gesture made at the race in Portugal by Moss seemingly helped his main rival Hawthorn win the championship battle. Would such a gesture happen today between rivals Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton? It would be almost unthinkable for either driver to attempt to overturn a disqualification of their main rival. Although it has to be said that drivers today tend to exhibit their sporting merits on track, as opposed to the politics off track where vested interests can take over.
Most read
