Nigel Mansell CBE

Nigel Mansell 

World Champion in 1992 and winner of 31 Grand Prix races. Nigel Mansell made his Grand Prix debut at the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix driving for the Lotus Team. His first victory came in the 1985 European Grand Prix driving for the Williams Team. Mansell totally dominated the 1992 season driving the Williams FW14B Honda. That year Nigel took 9 Grand Prix victories starting 14 of these races from pole position. At the end of the title winning season he announced his retirement from Formula 1 racing in the Cart IndyCar World Series in the USA in 1993 winning the title in his "rookie" year. Nigel briefly returned to Grand Prix racing in 1994 racing for Williams taking his final Grand Prix victory in Australia. After 2 challenging races for McLaren in 1995 he finally retired from Formula 1.

A Kyalami Legend.

Nigel Mansell won the last SAGP at the original Kyalami in 1985 (Williams FW10B Honda) and the first Grand Prix on the revised Kyalami in 1992 (Williams FW14B Renault). With Alain Prost, the only person to win Grand Prix on both versions of the circuit. Nigel won both races from pole position also taking fastest race lap in 1992. One of the most incredible moments of the "old" circuit was Nigel Mansell taking pole position for the SAGP in 1985. His time of 1'02.366 (62 seconds to cover 4.104km) at an average speed of 236.898 km/h was the fastest ever official lap recorded at the original circuit. His top speed on the main straight was estimated at 340 km/h. This was a heroic effort from a great champion and Kyalami legend. Nigel also won the inaugural round of the ill-fated GP Masters series at Kyalami in 2005. He once again took victory from pole position. 

A true Kyalami legend.

Denis Klopper

Career Statistics.

Grand Prix Debut - Austrian Grand Prix 1980

Starts - 187 (191 entries)

Wins - 31

Podiums - 59

Pole Position - 32

Fastest Laps - 30

World Champion - 1 (1992)

Kyalami Grand Prix Starts - 5

Kyalami Grand Prix Wins - 2

Kyalami Pole Positions - 2

Kyalami Grand Prix Podiums - 2