14/09/2016
NEWS STORY
Former F1 driver Alex Zanardi has won his third Paralympic handcycling gold medal.
The Italian, who raced with Jordan, Minardi and Lotus in F1 before heading off to the United States where he twice won the Champ Car title, returned to F1 with Williams in 1999 but with little success.
Returning to Champ Car he was involved in a horrific accident in the German round at the Lausitzring, the Italian losing both his legs.
The accident and its consequences however resulted in a form of re-birth for Zanardi, who returned to racing, enjoying success in the World Touring Car Championship and Blancpain Sprint Series. He even returned to the Lausitzring to symbolically finish the infamous race that almost cost him his life.
Zanardi then targeted handcycling, winning gold in the Men's Individual H4 Time Trial and Road Race at the 2012 London Olympic games.
Today, twenty years after his legendary move on Bryan Herta at Laguna Seca, and fifteen after the infamous accident in Germany, Zanardi claimed his third Olympic gold when he beat Australia's Stuart Tripp by 2.74s, despite being 10s down at the halfway point of the 20km H5 Time Trial.
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An absolute legend and an inspiration to all.