A summer of champions

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A champion of the future, a champion of the past: Motor Sport salutes Lewis Hamilton’s glorious summer in the September issue, on sale now – and also brings you an exclusive with ‘Il Leone’ himself, Nigel Mansell, who could be gearing up for that well-worn comeback trail once again. He just can’t leave it alone, can he?

Hamilton returned to form after disappointment and embarrassment in Canada and France, with one of the great wet-weather Formula 1 victories at Silverstone, then backed that up with a beautifully taken win at Hockenheim. In between the two races he found time to steal the show at the Goodwood Festival of Speed as the partisan crowd showed their support for Britain’s biggest sporting hero. Thus, he graces Motor Sport’s cover for the second time this year, as Nigel Roebuck reflects on Silverstone and Hockenheim, and the rest of the team bring you the highlights from another glorious Goodwood.

As for Mansell, we shuffled some pages to make room for this story as Rob Widdows headed off to Portugal as the only journalist invited to watch the 1992 World Champion sample a Lola LMP1 sports prototype. As you can read, Mansell is playing down the significance of the test, which he shared with his son Leo. But it was very evident that the two-day Estoril trial was not just for fun. That’s not Mansell’s way. Could a sports car programme for a father-and-son team be on the cards? We reckon…

Elsewhere in the issue Nigel Roebuck pays tribute to a childhood hero, Peter Collins; Simon Taylor enjoys a rare lunch interview with Lola founder Eric Broadley (joined by current chairman Martin Birrane); Gordon Kirby celebrates the 40th anniversary of Formula 5000 in the US; and Andrew Frankel brings us news of Gordon Murray’s latest design revolution. As ever, an eclectic mix.

If you popped by our stand at Goodwood to say hello, it was good to see you. If you missed us, please do come and find us at the Revival meeting next month. We’ll be there in force.

Enjoy the issue.