Year of triumph, tragedy and confusion

IT was a year of triumph, tragedy — and confusion. Triumph for Sebastian Vettel, notching up 11 wins as he became Formula One's youngest back-to-back champion in dominant style. Tragedy as we lost British IndyCar star Dan Wheldon in a crash that shocked us to the bone — a week before MotoGP ace Marco Simoncelli was killed in Malaysia. And confusion inside the head of the world's fastest F1 driver, Lewis Hamilton. Maybe Hamilton will tell us one day what was going on inside that famous yellow crash helmet. Maybe we will never know. Maybe he doesn't know... As usual, motorsport around the globe provided us with a non-stop fiercely-fought kaleidoscope of thrills, drama, intrigue and disappointment. I lapped it up, if you'll forgive the expression. And here are my Top 20 defining moments of 2011, in no particular order, half from F1 and half from all the other exciting categories that made this year so special. 2. ALLAN McNISH'S LE MANS SHUNT The wee Scot nearly wiped himself out along with a dozen photographers when his Audi R18 pirouetted on top of the barriers after shooting off the track at 120mph. The spectacular smash was trumped later on by team-mate Mike Rockenfeller's 200mph crunch, which he somehow survived. Yet the sole remaining Audi went on to whip the Peugeot posse to top one of the most dramatic weekends of mixed emotions ever experienced by a single racing team. 3. BUTTON'S BUNGLE One of the comic moments of the year — along with the Canadian marshal who fell over in front of the F1 pack — came in China as Jenson dived in to Red Bull's pit box by mistake for a tyre change. Rather than block his path, which they could have done to cost him extra seconds, the Red Bull boys ushered him through to the McLaren garage next door. How's that for courtesy? 4. MATT NEAL'S KAMIKAZE SWOOP So there they are, two Honda team-mates heading serenely for a comfortable 1-2 in a British Touring Car Championship race at Oulton Park, when second-placed Matt Neal suddenly decides to overtake leader Gordon Shedden at the last corner. But he cocks it up, both Hondas shoot off the track and a giggling Jason Plato bombs through for the win. Just as well Matt made amends several times over to take the BTCC crown. 5. HAMILTON'S ABU DHABI TRIUMPH After a string of bizarre clashes with Felipe Massa, swipes at his lifestyle and general puzzlement over the malaise that gripped him in mid-season, Lewis answered his critics in the best way possible by sweeping past the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi. "Lewis is back!" we all shouted. Question is: Where had he been? 6. SEB VERSUS SEB While Sebastien Loeb won the World Rally Championship for the eighth time, which on the face of it could have induced yawns all round, the series was enlivened by the acrimonious duel between him and his Citroen team-mate Sebastien Ogier. It got to the point where each was SLOWING DOWN on day two of rallies to make sure they didn't sweep the road clean for the other on day three. It was clear only one Seb would be at Citroen in 2012. Exit Ogier to join VW. 7. ALONSO'S SUPER START Fernando Alonso started from fourth on the grid in Spain but was in the lead before the first corner. It looked even more breathtaking from his Ferrari's on-board camera, as he stormed past Lewis Hamilton, then jinked to the right to squeeze through a tiny gap to shoot by both Red Bull drivers. The home hero led for the first 18 laps but eventually finished a lapped fifth as the Ferrari struggled desperately on hard tyres. What a let-down. Wheldon did not land a seat for the 2011 IndyCar series but picked up a ride for the Indianapolis 500 with old mate Bryan Herta's little team. No one — except perhaps Dan — expected much. But going into the last lap he was second and when the leader, Indy rookie JR Hildebrand, made the mother of all goofs in the final corner, the Brit swept by for his second guzzle of the 500 winner's pint of milk. 9. WILLIAMS ON THE BACK ROW Saddest sight of the F1 season was in Abu Dhabi, where the back row of the grid was made up of both cars from the once dominant and still much-loved Williams team. It wasn't quite how it seemed, as Pastor Maldonado had a grid penalty for exceeding his engine allocation and Rubens Barrichello did not run in qualifying thanks to an oil leak. But it summed up the team's wretched year. 10. PIT CREW'S DAY OF GLORY After SunSport columnist Jason Plato rolled his Chevrolet Cruze into a mangled ball of metal in race two of the BTCC round at Donington, his undaunted RML pit crew rolled up their sleeves and glued it all back together in the garage inside a couple of hours. It was an achievement that astonished all who witnessed it. Plato, who had changed into his civvies, pulled his racesuit back on and swept up to sixth in race three from the back of the grid. 11. KUBICA'S KO F1 drivers like to have a bit of fun over the winter — and Renault's Polish star Robert Kubica thought he would try rallying. Alas, he crashed his Skoda into a barrier on the Ronde di Andora event in Italy, emerging with life-threatening injuries including a smashed right arm that may yet end his career. The accident was also a blow to Renault's F1 challenge, from which the team never really recovered — although their radical exhaust system didn't help. 12. HUFFY'S LAST HURRAH Rob Huff went to the World Touring Car Championship's last round in Macau knowing he had to win both races to have any chance of overhauling his Chevrolet team-mate and arch-rival Yvan Muller. It had never been done at Macau before — but Huffy pulled it off with a pair of brilliant drives around the treacherous street track. Frustratingly, it still wasn't quite enough for the title. But Rob, another SunSport columnist, earned the BRDC's Gold Star for top British racing driver of the year. 13. WEBBER'S BRAVE PASS Spa's Eau Rouge is one of the most daunting bends in F1. But that didn't stop Mark Webber from slicing his Red Bull inside Fernando Alonso's Ferrari going into the flat-out uphill sweep. Lewis Hamilton is fond of telling anyone who'll listen that he has "big cajones". But judging by Webber's raw courage in making the pass of the year, Mark's are bigger. 14. ANDY'S SECRET SCARE Andy Priaulx kept a chilling secret to himself throughout the Le Mans 24-hour classic, where he drove BMW's fabulous M3 GT car. Little did we know that before the race, doctors had found a tumour on his thyroid during a routine health check. Andy, yet another super SunSport columnist, bravely drove on at Le Mans not knowing if the tumour could be the worst news for him and his cherished family. Mercifully, it proved to be benign in a further test and was removed. Phew! 15. MERC IN THE MIRE Pre-season testing quickly showed that Mercedes' new F1 car, on which such high hopes were pinned, was two seconds or more off the pace of the front-runners. It was a bitter blow for the car giant, for F1 fans who yearned for Merc to challenge at the front — and for Michael Schumacher, who quickly realised his comeback was doomed to failure for a second year. Will it be third time lucky? Don't hold your breath, as Schuey was again outperformed by Nico Rosberg. 16. ANDY MICK NICKS IT He crashed seconds after the start in the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally, but by mid-year Andreas Mikkelsen had shrugged off that disaster to become the Intercontinental Rally Challenge's fastest driver. "Andy Mick" was still prone to gaffes, though, and it looked like his championship hopes were over — until the last handful of events, when he was simply unstoppable and took the title at the last gasp for The Sun's motorsport partners Skoda. 17. LEWIS'S RACE RANT The most bizarre incident of a bizarre season for Hamilton came at Monaco. He was given two penalties after colliding with Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado. Afterwards he branded both "stupid". Asked why the stewards had singled him out, he replied: "Maybe it's because I'm black." And he described his frequent visits to race officials as "an absolute fricking joke". Hamilton's inner demons stayed with him through most of the season, resulting in a series of untypically crass incidents such as his crazy tangle with Kamui Kobayashi at Spa. Roll on 2012, eh Lewis? 18. THAT SPAT Old foes Jason Plato and Matt Neal played out the bust-up of the year after the BTCC's qualifying session at Rockingham. After returning to the pits, Plato gave Neal the finger. Neal, a martial arts expert, responded by raising a fist and threatening to rip Plato's face off. Luckily, Plato's dad Tim was there to separate them before too much damage was done. The warring pair tried to patch it up afterwards but the years-old flames of fury are still burning brightly. 19. BUTTON'S DRIVE OF THE YEAR On Lap 37 of the wet-dry Canadian Grand Prix, Jenson Button was last of the lot after clashing with Hamilton and Alonso, and pitting three times over punctures and a speeding penalty. Just 33 laps later, he won the race after a mesmerising drive through the entire field, boosted by a series of cleverly-timed pit stops. The icing on the cake came at turn six on the very last lap when leader Sebastian Vettel, spooked by the ever-closing Button, slid wide and let the Brit through to win what he described as "definitely my best race ever". 20. THE DAN WHELDON MEMORIAL KART RACE It was grotesquely ironic that Dan Wheldon only became a household name in his homeland after his death. But the motorsport community was in no doubt about the chirpy Buckinghamshire man's supreme ability. And the most moving moment of the year came on December 5 at a kart track in Milton Keynes. The cream of British racing talent, including Jenson Button and IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti, turned out for a charity event in Wheldon's memory. It was a fitting tribute showing that although there may be fierce rivalries on track, there is a passionate comradeship off it.    THE SUN .