Jimmy Clark (1936 - 1968):

Jimmy Clark is one of Formula One's all-time great racers. He won two World championships and 25 Grand Prix crowns. His initial career was quite controverisal. He collided with the Ferrari of German driver Wolfgang von Trips, sending the car into the crowd and killing several spectators. The accident ended the Germans march towards the championship.

In 1962 , he lost the World championship to Graham Hill. He was cruising to victory in the final race when his car broke down, and Hill went on to take his only championship.

Hill could not come that close in 1963, when Clark won seven out of the ten races.

Clark again lost the World championship narrowly in 1964, when his engine seized in the final lap of the final race, but he won it back in 1965, in a season that saw the emmergence of a fellow-Scotish rival 'Jackie Stewart'.

In 1968, Clark won the season opener race in South Africa to ecclipse Juan-Manuel Fangio's then record of Formula One wins. He died in a rather inconsequential Formula 2 race in Hockenheim that season, when the Lotus he was driving left the tracks and crashed into the nearby trees.

Jimmy Clark finished first four times in a row at Spa, Belgium, a track marked by pundits as the most difficult.

Jochen Rindt (1942-1970):

A former Graham Hill partner at Team Lotus, this Austrian became the team leader in 1970 after Hill crashed at the US Grand Prix.

Having won the Monaco Grand Prix earlier in the season, Rindt drove a Lotus-72 model in the Dutch Grand Prix from pole to finish. The race was marred by the death of his close friend and colleague Piers Courage. Rindt went on to win the French, British and German GPs that season. But Courage's death left a deep imprint on his psyche and media reports suggested that he thought of quitting at the end of the season.

But as fate would have it, during a practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, Rindt crashed into the barriers and was declared dead before medical aid could be administered. With just three races left in the season, he still emerged champion; no one could eclipse his tally of 45 points.

Jochen Rindt remains Formula One's only posthumous World champion.

Gilles Villeneuve (1950-1982):

Gilles Villeneuve is without doubt Canada's favourite racing son. This all-or-nothing driver replaced Niki Lauda in the Ferrari hot seat in 1977 and won six races in the F1 car.

In the 1982 race at Imola, he was overtaken by Didier Pironi, his team mate, after slowing down in the final laps, thinking the race was in hand. Having lost the race to his unsuspecting team mate, Villenuve perhaps carried emotions to the Belgium GP two weeks later and fataly crashed in the qualifying session there.

In 1997, Canada issued a stamp in honour of him. The same year saw his son Jacques grab the World championship.

Jacques has more victories today than Gilles, though he is, perhaps, just a shadow of the legend that his father was.

Ayrton Senna (1960-1994):

It is very difficult for many to belive that this racing genius could die in a racing car.

When Ayrton, after winning three World championships with McLaren joined Williams in 1994, the racing world wrote that they had the best human machine combination ever.

As always, the first races with a new car were tough for Senna. The F1 circuit had reached Imola, which would witness the three most tragic days ever in Formula One.

On Friday, Rubens Barrichello, driving a Jordan, lost all control and crashed into the Marlboro chicane. He suffered several injuries but stayed alive. The next day, during qualifying, Roland Ratzenberger crashed into the walls after the stabalisor fell off from his car. Ratzenberger was not so lucky and succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

On Sunday, Senna started at pole after the organisers decided to continue with the race. He took the lead after a restart, when a car stalled at the start. At the sixth lap of the race, he was leading Schumacher till the now infamous Tamburello corner.

The Brazilian's car hit the wall and the front suspension hit his head. He was rushed to hospital in a helicopter. The race continued after a brief halt. Schumacher went on to take the lead and the race, but Senna succumbed to his injuries.

The sport lost its biggest hero.

Senna, a proud Brazilian, had planned on waving the Austrian flag in memory of Ratzenberger had he won the race that day.

Compiled by: Rishi Maker