Formula 1 has witnessed some astonishing grands prix across the past 10 years so what better way to celebrate the decade than to draw up a list, argue and try and rank the very top 10? That's what the Motorsport Week team decided to do…
There have been 197 races since we waved goodbye to the 2000s and welcomed the 2010s, and there’s just one remaining until everyone looks ahead to the 2020s. With due respect, it is improbable that the Yas Marina Circuit will deliver an enthralling dead rubber season finale, though we still hope for an entertaining round in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Still, whatever happens, it will be the best December F1 race of the decade!
It got the Motorsport Week team thinking – what were the best races of the 2010s? To even begin with there was the question: what makes a great race? There are the examples of superb wheel-to-wheel encounters and others that were simply bonkers and wildly unpredictable.
We racked our brains, had a few arguments, and whittled down the near-200 races to a list of around 25, from which eventually around 15 were left, and until finally we had our chosen top 10.
Just missing the cut were the likes of Korea 2010, China 2011, Europe 2012, Hungary 2015, USA 2015, Monaco 2016, Italy 2018 and Brazil 2019 – all superb races but ones which weren't quite top 10 material.
10. Azerbaijan 2017: Clash of the titans
Formula 1’s first visit to Baku in 2016 had been a disappointingly sedate affair but 12 months later there was drama. The Finns collided, the Force Indias clashed, Daniel Ricciardo bagged victory with a stellar three-in-one move for the lead while rookie Lance Stroll captured a shock podium. The major talking point, though, was the contact between then race leaders Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. The Ferrari driver erroneously accused his rival of brake-testing him prior to a restart, pulled alongside, and made contact. Vettel faced an in-race penalty that dropped him to fourth and was later summoned by the FIA to Paris for a hearing. Vettel apologised and was given an educational penalty.
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9. Britain 2019: Young guns go to war
We’ve decided to be a little cheeky and merge two races almost into one, with the titanic tussle between Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc having been spread across Austria and Britain. The epic ending at Spielberg spilled over into Silverstone as a fired-up Leclerc reeled from his defeat and put up a far steelier fight against his long-time opponent. The Ferrari and Red Bull youngsters duelled around the high-speed circuit while up front title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas also put on an edge-of-the-seat scrap. Hamilton triumphed, while Verstappen edged Leclerc before being rear-ended by Sebastian Vettel into Club, elevating the Monegasque onto the podium.
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8. Canada 2014: Ricciardo ends Mercedes’ run
Prior to Formula 1’s visit to Canada talk had focused on whether Mercedes could go through 2014 unbeaten, such was its advantage. In Canada the fall-out from Monaco was still fresh, leading to a tense tete-a-tete between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg early on. But both drivers lost MGU-K, robbing them of crucial straight-line speed, and forcing Hamilton out. Rosberg soldiered on and kept the lead, aided by the tyre-saving Sergio Perez keeping rivals behind. Daniel Ricciardo boldly cleared Perez, passed Rosberg with just laps to go, and picked up his maiden win, with Perez’s brilliant run ending via a huge last-lap shunt with Felipe Massa.
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7. Azerbaijan 2018: Everything happened
If Baku 2017 was an aperitif then Baku 2018 was the main course. An enthralling strategic grand prix up front simmered for a long period while a little further back Red Bull pair Verstappen and Ricciardo fought tooth-and-nail until the inevitable happened. Their high-speed clash precipitated Ricciardo’s eventual departure from the team. On-track Bottas was set for victory until a heart-breaking and dramatic penultimate lap puncture, the stand-out Perez grabbed a podium, while there were messy collisions and dramatic incidents elsewhere from start to finish.
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6. Germany 2018: The greatest comeback of the decade?
On Saturday afternoon at Hockenheim Hamilton’s title aspirations had taken a sizeable blow, as a loss of power in qualifying left him 14th on the grid, while points leader Vettel claimed pole position. Vettel remained up front in race trim while Hamilton carved his way forwards on an alternative strategy, setting the timing screens alight after fitting softer compounds. A shower caught out several drivers but most crucial was the mistake made by Vettel, who skated into the Sachs Kurve gravel. He was out, Hamilton inherited the lead when Bottas and Raikkonen pitted, and went on to win the race.
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5. Germany 2019: And you thought 2018 was good
Germany was given a one-year reprieve on the calendar and Hockenheim did not fail to deliver. The sweltering European heatwave broke in spectacular fashion, resulting in a grand prix that took place in changeable – but largely wet – conditions. Mercedes’ 125th anniversary celebrations unravelled as both drivers crashed before it endured a horror pit stop, Leclerc was one of many to go off at the ice-rink final sector, Verstappen survived a spin to triumph, home favourite Vettel achieved redemption of sorts by surging from last to second, while Toro Rosso took an unlikely podium courtesy of Daniil Kvyat. Even Williams scored.
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4. Brazil 2016: Lagos, lagos, everywhere
Torrential rain drenched Interlagos and a race that was delayed and twice red-flagged was mastered by a dominant Hamilton, who ended his long wait for a victory in Brazil. It was a crushing display that ensured his title fight with Rosberg would go down to the wire in Abu Dhabi, while Hamilton’s performance was matched only by the sensational Verstappen, who put in a series of stunning moves after a wild moment through the final corner. With slips and slides on almost every lap it was a race that had so many twists and turns that it was nearly impossible to keep up with all of the developments!
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3. Brazil 2012: Vettel triples up
Brazil has hosted two of Formula 1’s most scintillating finales, and while 2012’s showdown didn’t have the crescendo of 2008 it was a race-long nail-biter as drivers grappled with Interlagos’ typical unpredictable conditions. Jenson Button claimed his and McLaren’s last wins while Lewis Hamilton’s stint with the team ended in a clash with hero-to-zero Nico Hulkenberg. But much of the focus was on Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. Vettel dropped to last after a first-lap clash and recovered his damaged Red Bull to sixth, sealing a third title by just three points, as Alonso surged to second in a race with some spectacular moves. Elsewhere Felipe Massa took a home podium, Kimi Raikkonen famously got lost while Michael Schumacher bowed out of F1 for good in seventh. It was a fittingly thrilling end to an enthralling season.
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2. Bahrain 2014: The duel in the desert
It was clear which two races were the stand-out of the decade. Bahrain 2014, just, gets edged into the silver medal position. In 2014 Bahrain switched to a twilight race and it worked wonders with a scintillating grand prix. Rivals Hamilton and Rosberg went wheel-to-wheel as a simmering rivalry ignited, the pair testing their Mercedes engineers by flicking to usually unused power settings, as their divergent strategies played out. In spite of a tyre disadvantage Hamilton won out as Mercedes racked up another 1-2. Behind them Sergio Perez claimed a podium from a race in which the rest of the teams also diced around the Sakhir Circuit, with the Force Indias, Williams and Red Bulls trading blows, as Ferrari’s engine deficiency was brutally exposed.
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1. Canada 2011: A four-hour epic
Unbelievable? Nearly. Had a script been written for this race then Hollywood would have rejected it on account of being too cliched. In a wet/red-flagged/damp/dry race that ran to over four hours Button clashed early on with McLaren team-mate Hamilton, collided with Alonso, suffered a puncture, and had six trips to the pits – one of which was a drive-through penalty – that surely condemned him to obscurity. Not in the slightest. Button surged from last to emerge in podium contention and had enough pace to pressure long-time race leader Vettel into a mistake just five corners from the finish. The McLaren garage erupted as Button breezed by to claim his first victory in over a year. It is a grand prix that has gone down in history as an all-time classic.
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