You’ll never be as cool as Mansell giving Senna a lift in '91

Going into the halfway stage of the 1991 Formula One season, Ayrton Senna in his McLaren had already clocked up four pole positions and four race wins. The then double-world champion was in imperious form ahead of that year’s British GP.

Step forward, our Nige. Mansell, in his Williams, had at that point clocked up a fair few fastest laps and won the French GP the week before Britain. For Silverstone, he activated his moustache’s top secret ‘hammer-time’ mode, putting on a masterclass in front of his home crowd.

He’d scored pole position. He took the fastest lap. And dicing with Senna, he took the win. Senna might have won the season, giving him his third (and sadly final) world championship, but Britain belonged to Nige that day.

Speaking later about the event, Mansell would recall how this British GP win would rank among his greatest achievements. But even he conceded that the race would be most famous for him giving a post-race lift to Ayrton; the Brazilian had apparently run light on fuel in a bid to catch the charging Williams to no avail. This left him stranded at the end.

Mansell, ever the gent and no doubt responding to Senna’s five-star passenger rating, stopped off and gave him a lift back to the pits.

And lo, a historic picture was made.