The Legend That Was Almost Marcus Winkelhock

by Sanchez, Shot To Nothing

Marcus WinkelHock is the reserve driver for the worst team in Formula-1, The Spyker Team. They have the worst car, the least money and the lowest prospects and yet, in yesterdays European Grand Prix, Winkelhock led the race for five laps and damn near could have won the whole damned thing.

Thrown in at the deep-end after Christian Albers departure from the team, Winkelhock (from here on known as 'The Super Winkel') qualified last on the grid for his debut Grand Prix and it wasn't looking good for him, despite the race being held in his home country.

And then a miracle happened. On the warm up lap somebody in the Spyker team randomly decided to bring Marcus in to put on the extreme wet tyres, guessing that it was about to rain. This meant The Super Winkel would start the race from the pit lane, which is even worse then starting in last place.

But as the race started the heavens opened and a torrential down pour the likes of which have never been seen in these parts came down. Cars flew off the track left right and center on their aqua-planing dry weather tyres. Those that made it around to the pits elected for intermediate tyres, wrongly predicting that this was only a mini shower. Before long drivers were either spun off the track or radioing in to say that it was 'Un-driveable out there'.

One man remained speeding around the track however. By some ridiculous stroke of luck, Winkelhock had avoided all the spin offs and had the perfect tyres on for the ludicrous conditions! He was leading the Grand Prix by 33 seconds and soon after would have a one lap advantage over the entire field!

"Go Winkel dude!" I was shouting, "Drive like you've never driven before, You can win this thing!"

And for the briefest of moments it looked like the least experienced driver in the worst car really would win the European Grand Prix. That was until the officials, deciding that too many cars had gone off (ie 18 of 22) and that a restart once the rain had stopped, was necessary.

The Super Winkel had had his day, and though he got to be first on the grid at the restart, by the second corner he was down to 14th. Not long after that his car's engine would let go and it was all over. In an interview afterwards The Super Winkel would claim that he was over the moon to have led his home Grand Prix for five laps and that, as they say, was that.

The race was eventually won by Fernando Alonso, who once again found it impossible to win gracefully, shouting at Felipe Massa before the trophy presentation about a tyre touch earlier in the race. This result is terrible for rookie Lewis Hamilton who finished out of the points. His lead is now cut to two points and with things heading the way they are (See: Downhill), it is unlikely he will win the World Title. Australian Mark Webber came in an impressive third for the Red Bull team.

Source: BBC Sport, The Super Winkel Wiki