F1 GP Monaco 1992

Wow, what a surprise to find this on Sky F1 this evening.
This was my first experience of a Monaco F1 GP and what a blast it was.

I was there with my brother, 1 of his friends and 2 of mine.
The nearest airport we could get to was Turin and the last car they had left for hire was a Fiat Uno.
I was the nominated driver to get us to Nice.
(no GPS either - in those days we had paper maps!)
Can you imagine, the five of us + bags crammed into a Fiat Uno being overtaken by Ferraris and Lambos all the way down through some absolutely stunning scenery.
We even had our own F1 style spin in a tunnel through some mountains on the way.
I just don't think the poor wee Uno could take any more and we were very tail heavy.
Anyway we span round a few times before eventually coming to a standstill facing the wrong direction in the wrong lane with a huge lorry screaming towards us.
We were very lucky to get away with only a scratched door mirror (touched up with some nail varnish before handing the keys back to Hertz by the way - oh the shame!).

One of our party also forgot to mention that he'd brought some, erm, 'herbal' cigarettes with him so we had a scary few minutes getting through customs - yep, in those days you were checked between Italy and France!
We hadn't even booked a hotel - imagine that today, rolling into Nice 2 days before a Monaco GP without a hotel room :-)
Anyway, we managed to dump the Uno somewhere and pitch up at a zero star establishment popular with inter-railers.

The race itself was amazing, viewed from the grass bank above Rascasse overlooking the harbour.
With 8 laps to go Mansell was in the lead and the crowd were going wild.
Senna wasn't far behind him in 2nd.
We saw them disappear round the corner and then missed what happened till we saw Senna emerge 1st out of the tunnel.
Turns out Mansell had a puncture and had needed to pit.
Over the remaining laps he edged closer and closer and the crowd were going demented but he just couldn't pass Senna who eventually won by less than half a car's length.
What a nail-biter and a race I'll never forget.
Rounded off with many a few beers in the now no-longer Rosie's Bar half way up the hill of Beau Rivage (I think it's been replaced by some high end clothes boutique now).

Great to watch it on TV @ last, especially with the inimitable Walker/Hunt commentary :-)

Those were the days - proper racing :-)