The 1979 Belgian Grand Prix is the chosen race for the latest edition of our classic Formula 1 series.
That means you have a chance to watch the full 'Grand Prix' highlights programme of the time as well as the shorter highlights edits we produce from the other selected races, which were the 1987, 1993 and 2000 Belgian Grands Prix.
There will also be short and long highlights of last year's event.
The extended race highlights are embedded below, with links to the other events underneath.
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WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1979 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1987 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1993 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2000 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2009 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
WATCH EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2009 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
The classic races will be broadcast on the BBC red button in the UK on satellite and cable television from 1500 BST on Wednesday 25 August until 1900 on Friday. Unfortunately, they will not be available on Freeview this time.
The 1979 race was a defining moment in a season that delivered Ferrari their final drivers' title for 21 years and it was the overwhelming favourite among respondents to my last blog.
Ferrari's Jody Scheckter took the chequered flag after an epic race-long battle also involving the Ligiers of Patrick Depailler and Jacques Laffite and the Williams of Alan Jones.
It was one of three victories by the South African on his way to winning the title that year. But the star of the race - and the season as a whole - was Scheckter's team-mate Gilles Villeneuve.
Although Scheckter joined Ferrari for 1979 as the man expected to lead their title charge, he had not won in the five races preceding Belgium while his younger team-mate had taken two brilliant victories.
Back then, the Belgian race was held at Zolder, before its move to Spa in the early 1980s, and the Canadian qualified one place ahead of Scheckter in sixth.
But before the race had a chance to settle down, Villeneuve's hopes of victory were dashed when he got tangled up in a collision between Scheckter and the Williams of Clay Regazzoni, and broke his nose cone.
He returned to the pits for a new one, and rejoined in 23rd, and last, place, whereupon he began a quite stunning comeback drive, scything through the field and setting fastest laps as he climbed back into the points, which went down to sixth place.
His charge came to a temporary halt behind the obstinate Riccardo Patrese's Arrows for 10 laps, before he passed the Italian at the chicane in a move that combined skill and muscularity, feinting one way then the other before forcing his way alongside and banging wheels as he went past.
Villeneuve then set off after Didier Pironi's Tyrrell, closing a 14-second gap in 10 laps before starting to chase down Laffite. With a 21-second advantage and the race almost over, the chase appeared fruitless, but Villeneuve - as was his way - gave it a go.
He reduced the gap by 11 seconds in seven laps but as they headed into their last lap, the Ligier was edging clear again, and Villeneuve's Ferrari sounded terrible. It was running out of fuel. He made it round to 300m from the finish line before the flat 12 engine coughed its last, and its driver was classified seventh, costing him four points that would have come from finishing third.
After the race, Villeneuve appeared satisfied to have demonstrated once again that he was the fastest driver of the day. But according to Gerry Donaldson's excellent biography, he later confessed to his wife, Joann: "I hope those four points are not going to be important when this is all over, but I'm afraid they will be. Maybe I've just lost the championship."
There would be other dropped points that year, and Villeneuve ultimately lost the title at the Italian Grand Prix, obeying team orders to sit behind his team-mate on his way to victory. But the fact remains that, as Villeneuve suspected, had he finished third at Zolder, he would indeed have been world champion rather than Scheckter.
Zolder was not a popular track, and it was even less so after Villeneuve was killed there in 1982, by which time he had become firmly established as the finest driver in the world. But this race was a deserving selection this time.
It's certainly worth watching the other highlights, though, for Mika Hakkinen's stunning pass of Michael Schumacher in 2000, the controversy between Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna in 1987, Damon Hill's victory over Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost in 1993 and what looks like being Kimi Raikkonen's final career F1 victory in 2009.
I hope you enjoy them all.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/08/your_classic_belgian_grand_pri.html
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