Sir Stirling Moss: his five greatest drives

Moss returned to the driving seat of the Aston trailing by more than a minute, but quickly overcame the deficit and built another lead of more than three minutes before another driver swap. Fairman soon lost the lead again, and was quickly called back in so that Moss could finish the race. He put on another charge, battling past Ferrari’s Phil Hill to secure the first of three consecutive Nürburgring 1000km wins.

Notably, on his charge to victory Moss lowered the Nordschleife's sports car lap record by 11 seconds.

3: Argentine Grand Prix, 1958

Vanwall’s new cars weren’t ready for the start of the season due to a late regulation change, so Moss agreed a one-off drive in a Cooper-Climax entered by privateer owner Rob Walker. The modified Formula 2 car’s 2.0-litre engine had a 500cc deficit compared with Maserati and Ferrari rivals, resulting in Moss qualifying seventh. But the tiny Cooper did have one advantage: Moss and his team worked out that, if driven carefully, it could just about complete the race without refuelling or changing tyres.

As the race progressed, Moss rose through the order and took the lead when his faster rivals pitted. He was helped by the other teams believing the Cooper would have to pit, a belief furthered by Walker's team even faking preparations for a stop. By the time they realised, it was too late and Moss, tyres worn down to the canvas as he crossed the line, narrowly led home the Ferrari of Luigi Musso.

His success was the first World Championship win for a rear-engined F1 car, a milestone that convinced other teams that had long insisted grand prix cars should be front-engined where the future lay. 

As if Moss's drive wasn't impressive enough, he also completed the race with an eye patch on after his wife had accidentally poked him in the eye earlier in the weekend…

2: Monaco Grand Prix, 1961

The Ferrari 156 was the dominant car of the season, with Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips finishing first and second in the championship. Yet despite driving an underpowered Lotus 18 entered by Walker’s privateer team, Moss still took two wins.

The first came in the season-opening Monaco Grand Prix, where the tight confines of the street circuit helped offset the power deficit of the Lotus. Moss qualified on pole ahead of Ferrari's Richie Ginther and Jim Clark (Lotus). Ginther took the lead ahead of Clark and Moss at the start, but Clark soon suffered mechanical issues and Moss muscled past Ginther to take the lead.

He built his advantage to around 10 seconds, before Ginther and Hill worked their way back into second and third and began to close in. With 60 of the 100 laps left to run the lead gap was down to three seconds, but Moss delivered a faultless and sublime drive to hold off Ginther.