Niki Lauda's crash to be relived...

It was the year 1976. The Austrian Ferrari driver Niki Lauda entered the 10th race of the Formula One season with a healthy lead at the top of the drivers' charts, looking to extend it further in the German Grand Prix as he sought a second consecutive World Championship title. Many points behind him languished the British driver James Hunt in his McLaren-Ford. It was turning into a question of not who, but when would Lauda win the World Championship. But sporting stories are never written in stone, are they? 

August 1, 1976, was the day of the German Grand Prix. Niki Lauda was starting second behind James Hunt who had taken pole position. The rains made most of the drivers start on wet tyres but by end of the first lap, the weather had dried up and so most of the drivers, including Lauda, changed back to dry weather tyres. And soon came a moment to change the course of not only the race, but possibly the championship. But the incident that was to determine this was so heart-wrenching that the Championship would have been a distinct second on the minds of many. Trying hard to make up for lost ground, Lauda's Ferrari "snapped to the right and spun through the fencing into an earth bank. The car bounced back onto the track, enveloped in flames." Niki Lauda was trapped in the flames! The picture above is from the actual crash scene and the burning car is Lauda's Ferrari. Other drivers rushed to rescue him from what was turning into his coffin, but by the time he was brought out of the burning car, he had suffered serious injuries. Niki Lauda fell into a coma soon after and battled for his life for the next few days. Thankfully, he survived. After missing two more races, Niki Lauda returned back to the circuit!

A story of grit and determination, a story of how the human mind can overpower the frailties of the human body, Niki Lauda battled right till the end of the 1976 Formula One season with James Hunt for the World Championship title. A championship that was alive right till the last race! It is the story of this championship battle which is largely being showcased in this year's film Rush. While I had found the story interesting enough beforehand to include this film in my watchlist for the year, the first trailer has raised my expectations further. The trailer, in its brief spell, manages to highlight the risks taken by the Formula One driver, and the grittiness of one to overcome the obstacles in his path and fight for the title. Directed by the highly acclaimed Ron Howard, who has brought multiple real life stories to the big screen with aplomb in the past including A Beautiful Mind and Frost / Nixon, Rush features Daniel Bruhl as Lauda and Chris Hemsworth as Hunt. Now, only if 42 and Rush live upto the expectations that the trailers have set, 2013 could indeed be a great year for sports biopics to be brought onto the theatre screens! And maybe more will follow...