Classic onboard - Montoya fights back at Spa

Having put in an incredible performance in qualifying, Juan Pablo Montoya was supposed to start the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa from pole position. But after Heinz-Harald Frentzen stalled his Prost at the end of the formation lap, the Colombian then found his Williams unwilling to fire up at the beginning of the second lap to the grid. That lumbered Montoya at the back of the field, and when the race was red flagged following a monster accident involving Luciano Burti and Eddie Irvine on the fourth lap, the burly racer was still in the lower reaches. And that’s where we join a feistier-than-normal Montoya as he tackles the re-start and a busy opening lap, a lap which includes a superb getaway, a spot of first-corner wheel-banging with Jaguar’s Pedro de la Rosa, and a string of confident passes. Sadly, though, the Williams man’s early efforts would be in vain - on the second lap, with a brilliant recovery drive in the offing, his BMW engine let go.