Australian Grand Prix Tickets Continued
The Australian Grand Prix is a Formula One race held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Albert Park as part of the annual Formula One championship season.
Australian Grands Prix, not part of the World Championship but featuring F1 open-wheeler racing vehicles, were held at various circuits around Australia for many years. A notable venue in the 1950s was a road circuit at Albert Park in Melbourne, for many years. They sometimes attracted the world's top drivers of the era, who competed against (and were challenged by) local entrants. The last such race was held in 1984.
Australia became part of the F1 world championship in 1985 with the last race of the season held on the street circuit in Adelaide. The circuit, whilst not as ridiculously tight as Monaco, was notoriously tough on drivers and gearboxes. The most famous race there was undoubtedly the 1986 event, where Nigel Mansell, and Nelson Piquet in a Williams, and Alain Prost in a comparatively underpowered McLaren were still competing for the title. Mansell needed only third to guarantee the title, whilst Prost and Piquet needed to win and for Mansell to finish lower than third to take the title. Whilst leading comfortably with a few laps to go, Mansell's Williams suffered a spectacular mechanical failure, with a rear tyre puncture at very high speed near the end of the main straight creating a huge shower of sparks as the floor of the vehicle dragged along the bitumen surface. Mansell fought to control the violently veering car and steered it to a safe stop. Prost took the lead and won the race and the championship. Prost himself came incredibly close to failure, as his vehicle coasted to a halt on his warm-down lap, out of fuel.
