Three Formula One races share the date of May the seventeenth. Each one is a story in its own right. Together, they trace something larger.

In 1981, the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder was overshadowed before it began — a mechanic killed in practice, another seriously injured at the start, and a race that should never have been run. 

In 1987, Spa-Francorchamps witnessed the most explosive flashpoint of the Mansell-Senna rivalry, and a paddock confrontation that went far beyond racing. 

In 1992, Nigel Mansell arrived at Imola needing one more win to make history — and delivered it with the kind of authority that made the outcome feel inevitable.

Running through all three races, across eleven years, is a single career. And on this date, that career tells a story of its own.

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