Mansell had no other option but to charge after Piquet like a maniac. With 16 laps to go Piquet had what looked to be an insurmountable lead of 16.8 seconds over the other Williams-Honda of Mansell. Mansell however proceeded to take large chunks out of Piquets lead (more than a second per lap) until eventually with only five laps remaining, Piquets once gargantuan lead had been whittled down to only 1.6 seconds.
The crowd went wild as Mansell, slip streaming Piquet down hangar straight with two laps to go, faked left and then dived right to pass Piquet going down into Stowe corner. To an epic reception, Mansell went on to win the race by 1.9 seconds and ran out of fuel on his victory lap, setting off a massive track invasion by overjoyed British fans.
The following years of 1988 and 1989 also produced memorable victories by Ayrton Senna in his first championship year showing off his impeccable wet weather skills by dominating the race in monsoon-like conditions, and by Prost for McLaren after then teammate Senna span out with a gearbox issue at Becketts.
The 1990's ushered in more major changes to the layout of the Silverstone circuit such as the the all new Becketts sequence, the vale link between Stowe and Club, the plunging bridge bend, and the infield loop at priory. All changes were given a universal thumbs up by both drivers and spectators.
This certainly proved to be the case with Nigell Mansell who took back to back wins in the 1991 and 1992 events.
Further changes then came in June of 1994 in the aftermath of the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenburger at Imola.
One month later Damon Hill made up for the disappointment of his retirement in the 1993 race, doing what his father could not by notching an emotional home win in 1994. Disappointment for Hill returned in the 1995 race after again retiring, this time due to a tangle with Michael Schumacher while dicing for the lead. Johnny Herbert took victory.
The following years saw Williams improve on its already impressive record at Silverstone with Jaques Villeneuve taking out the 1996 and 1997 events. Micheal Schumacher then broke his curse at the venue by achieving a dominating victory in 1998. However 12 months later the German broke his leg at the race following a break failure at Stowe.
The decade then ended on a high note for local fans in 1999 when David Coulthard triumphed in his McLaren.
The 21st century started as the previous one had ended, with David Coulthard taking his second victory in a row in 2000. Following that were victories by a group including five world champions: Hakkinen, Schumacher, Barrichello, Montoya, Alonso, Raikonnen, and Lewis Hamilton in arguably one of the greatest wet weather drives in the history of the sport which resulted in him dominating the race and winning by over a minute.
Yesterday Sebastian Vettel took victory at what seems to be the last formula one race staged at Silverstone. Since 1950 Silverstone has followed the the formula one world championship in its progression through the ages and produced some of the greatest moments in the history of the sport.
For the past couple of decades Silverstone has reminded us what formula one is all about amidst ever growing political power struggles within, and the ever increasing grab for cash. It is this which has now resulted in the demise of one of the most famous races on the calender.
In 50 years will someone be able to write a similar article about the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi? No, because the history at Silverstone is too unique, and due to the direction the sport is heading in, history will not repeat itself elsewhere.
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