Pick your classic grand prix - race 19

Welcome to the final classic grand prix selection of the 2010 Formula 1 season.

We have an eclectic but hopefully fascinating mix of races with which to whet your appetites for the potentially explosive showdown between Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi this weekend.

In their way, our choices collectively sum up everything that is on the table at the Yas Marina circuit on Sunday - there is a title decider, a last race of a classic season, a twist in a battle between two of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport and a showdown between two drivers in one of history's defining cars.

Your job is the same as ever - tell us which is your favourite and we will use the responses on this blog to help us choose from which race to show you the full 'Grand Prix' highlights programme broadcast on the BBC at the time, as well as the shorter highlights edits we cut for all the races.

We will also make available short and long highlights of last year's inaugural race at Abu Dhabi.

The classic races will be available on this website on Wednesday.

I'll run through the choices chronologically.

First is the 1979 United States Grand Prix East - the last race of a classic season.

It was won by Ferrari's Gilles Villeneuve after a battle with Williams driver Alan Jones, the two fastest drivers of the season, both men overshadowing the new world champion, Villeneuve's team-mate Jody Scheckter, as they had all year.

Villeneuve underlined his status as the fastest driver in the world with a scarcely believable performance in practice at the demanding Watkins Glen track in upstate New York. On Friday, in the streaming rain, he had been fastest by a quite staggering margin - nearly nine seconds - from Scheckter.

In dry qualifying, though, the Ferrari, which lacked the downforce of the English-built cars, could manage only third in Villeneuve's hands, with Scheckter 16th. Jones and Brabham's Nelson Piquet were on the front row.

Villeneuve was the star of the 1979 season in the Ferrari 312T4. Photo: Getty

But the race started wet, giving Villeneuve his chance, and the great Canadian duly stormed into the lead from Jones.

Villeneuve built a five-second lead in two laps but after that the gap between the two varied. The Michelins on Villeneuve's Ferrari performed better when the rain was heavier, while the Goodyears on Jones's Williams were faster when it eased off.

As the circuit began to dry, Jones closed on Villeneuve and took the lead on lap 31. Three laps later, Villeneuve came in for dry-weather slick tyres, with Jones coming in after a further three laps. There were problems with the right rear but the Williams was waved out when the team manager thought the wheel was on firmly.

As Jones accelerated away, though, the mechanic fitting the wheel signalled frantically that he had not finished and the wheel came loose at the beginning of the back straight, leaving Jones ruing a lost opportunity.

A classic battle was over - and Villeneuve cruised to an ultimately comfortable win.

The next choice is the 1988 Portuguese Grand Prix, our twist in what was to become the long-running battle between two of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport - with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna taking the place of Alonso and Hamilton in our analogy.

This was a season utterly dominated by McLaren, who won 15 of the 16 races. Their drivers, Senna and Prost, locked out the front row, and Prost started the race knowing he absolutely needed to win after a devastating run of form through the summer by Senna.

Senna led off the start but Prost tracked him all the way around the first lap, and was clearly faster and in a position to try to pass as they entered the pit straight.

The Frenchman pulled out of Senna's slipstream to the right, but Senna moved violently over on him, forcing him almost into the pit wall - a move that found an echo in Michael Schumacher's controversial defence from Rubens Barrichello in Hungary this year.

Prost, though, was not to be intimidated. He kept his foot in it and passed the Brazilian into the first corner of the second lap.

Prost went on to a win that was less comfortable than it looked - the McLarens, with their Honda turbos, were very marginal on fuel and Prost had to manage his car carefully while holding off the challenge of the Adrian Newey-designed March of Ivan Capelli, which finished a superb second.

Things did not go so well for Senna. To add to his fuel consumption problems, Senna's digital fuel read-out was proving unreliable, and he slumped defencelessly to finish sixth, putting Prost back into the championship lead with three races to go.

The Mexican Grand Prix of 1991 is our next race, contested between two drivers in one of history's defining cars - the Williams-Renault FW14 representing the 2010 Red Bull-Renault RB6.

Senna, still at McLaren, had won the first four races of the season, but by the time of Mexico, the sixth race, it was clear that the Williams - designed, like the 1988 March and the 2010 Red Bull, by Newey - had moved F1 car design on to a new level.

Unexpectedly, though, it was Williams's unfancied second driver, Riccardo Patrese, who initially got the most from the car, rather than their returning leading star, Nigel Mansell, who was fresh from a difficult season being overshadowed at Ferrari by Prost.

Patrese took pole on the superb Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, from Mansell and Senna.

But the Italian made a poor start, dropping to fourth behind Mansell, Senna and Ferrari's Jean Alesi.

Patrese was soon past Alesi and Senna, and set off after Mansell, who he passed on lap 15, continuing on to a superb, unchallenged win. Only later in the season did Mansell get on top of his team-mate, and go on to push Senna hard for the title.

Finally, there is Portugal 1993 - our title decider.

It is a somewhat overlooked grand prix, which is odd, because in many ways it was a defining race in F1 history.

Prost clinched his fourth, and final, world title at Estoril that sunny Sunday in September, but the weekend -my first foreign grand prix as a reporter, as it happens - was rich with intrigue.

It was overshadowed by Prost's announcement on the Thursday that he was retiring at the end of the season, a decision forced upon him by his Williams team's decision to employ Senna for what turned out to be an apocalyptic 1994 season.

At the age of 38, Prost, whose contract included a clause which said he would not drive alongside Senna, had no stomach for another bitter battle with his arch-rival, and decided to call time on his wonderful career.

But that was not the only way in which the race marked the beginning of the end of one era and the start of another.

That feeling was enhanced by events at McLaren, who had dropped the struggling Michael Andretti after the previous race in Italy and drafted in their test driver, Mika Hakkinen - who proceeded to outqualify Senna and take third place on the grid. The great Brazilian was not amused!

The race, too, had more than a hint of the changing of the guard about it.

Schumacher, the race-winner, pours champagne over the new world champion, Alain Prost, at Estoril in 1993. Photo: Getty

Prost had unusually been outqualified by team-mate Damon Hill, who then proceeded to stall on the formation lap, forcing him to start at the back.

Prost would almost certainly have cruised to victory had he got a good start. But he had struggled all season with the clutch on the Williams, and he was swamped by the McLarens - with Senna passing Hakkinen at the start - and, particularly, Alesi's Ferrari, which took the lead.

The top six circulated together for the first part of the race, with Alesi leading Senna, Hakkinen, Prost, Michael Schumacher's Benetton and the second Ferrari of Gerhard Berger.

The race distilled down to a battle between Prost and Schumacher, the only two cars stopping only once.

After the stops, Schumacher was in the lead. Prost was right behind, and much faster, but second place was enough for him to clinch the title, even though Hill had now worked his way back up to third place.

Prost made a few attempts to pass, but Schumacher employed some of the tricks that were to become notorious in later years and, not wishing to risk an accident, Prost decided discretion was the better part of valour, and settled for second.

So there it is - what we hope is a great choice to end not only a great F1 season, but our second year of classic grand prix.

I look forward to reading your views.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/11/pick_your_classic_grand_prix_-_1.html

Peter Arundell Alberto Ascari Peter Ashdown Ian Ashley Gerry Ashmore