This circuit was situated in a hazardous area; it was laid out through the town and included sections of cobbled streets and even tramlines.

British drivers Stirling Moss in a Vanwall and Mike Hawthorn in a Ferrari were at the top of the championship table, battling it out for the first eight rain-interrupted laps.

Moss then pulled away as Hawthorn slipped behind Frenchman Jean Behra in a BRM until the British car hit spark plug problems.

Had the protest been upheld, Hawthorn would have lost seven points – six for finishing second and an extra one for recording the fastest lap.

The seeds for the return of the Portuguese Grand Prix were planted with the inauguration of the Autódromo do Estoril near the capital of Lisbon in 1972.

In 1985, the Grand Prix was moved to 21 April and held under heavy rain, the ideal conditions for Ayrton Senna to win his first race.

Coming out of the long Parabolica corner, Prost lined up to pass Senna but in an attempt to stop him, the Brazilian squeezed the Frenchman and he nearly hit the wall separating the pit lane from the track; but Prost kept his foot flat and passed Senna going into the first corner.

This one incident between the world's two best Formula One drivers at the time led to one of the most famous sporting rivalries in history.

Mansell and Prost fought back; it also saw backmarker Philippe Alliot nearly take out the leader Mansell and crash heavily at the second corner; Alex Caffi and Aguri Suzuki crashed their cars on lap 59; the marshals could not get the cars off the track and the race was called short.

1992 saw Mansell win and Patrese have a horrific crash after he hit the back of Gerhard Berger's McLaren and was launched into the air while next to the pit lane.

1993 saw Alain Prost win his fourth and final Drivers' Championship driving for Williams; he finished 2nd in the race to German Michael Schumacher in a Benetton.

In 1997 the governing body called Portugal's bluff; promised renovation work was not done and so the race was cancelled.

Estoril was planned to be the final race of the 1997 season, but it was replaced with the European Grand Prix, which was held at Jerez in Spain.

Portugal's Economy Minister Augusto Mateus immediately announced that the government was going to provide the $6 million necessary for the work and that the race was not going to be cancelled but he was wrong.

In an effort to speed up the work the Portuguese government bought a controlling interest in the company that owned the track.