Phil Hill's Ferrari was just ahead. A little further in front of the American was team-mate Wolfgang von Trips' similar car. In his mirrors, Graham Hill could feel Jack Brabham hovering like a Nemesis. His own brakes were fading. Did he try to pass Hill before Copse, or dare he risk leaving the move until they were through the corner, when Brabham might have even greater momentum?
History, of course, relates that Graham Hill chose the first option. And when he got on the brakes his BRM's middle pedal went further to the floor than he'd expected and he spun into ignominy. With that one, small error, went his hopes of winning the 1960 British GP, a race he had come to dominate. And try as he might in subsequent years, when more often than not he shared the front row with Jimmy Clark, it was the one race he never did win.
Thirty three years later his son Damon came within 18 laps of exorcising that family ghost, and was leading team-mate Alain Prost when his Renault engine exploded.
