Nigel Mansell: ‘Ayrton could block like a double-decker bus at Monaco’

Marshals and fans salute winner Ayrton Senna in his McLaren, and second placed Nigel Mansell in his Williams as they negotiate the hairpin following the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix. Photograph: Rainer Schlegelmilch/Getty Images

The Monaco Grand Prix is the race many Formula One drivers want to win most but for Nigel Mansell it was always the one that got away. The former world champion has no regrets, however: well, perhaps that he didn’t quite go far enough during his magnificent battle with Ayrton Senna on the streets of Monte Carlo in 1992.

“We got so close and he blocked so well, and badly,” Mansell recalls. “All these years later I think perhaps I should have just nudged him up the back at one of the corners. If we had switched sides and Ayrton had been following me I feel sure he would have knocked me at one of the corners, but it was still a fantastic race.”