'A man who inspired millions in the face of unbelievable adversity'

Zanardi found a seat back in Cart in 2001, driving for a team set up by his former Ganassi engineer Mo Nunn. He was leading the race at Germany's Lausitzring oval held just four days after the 11 September attacks in the US when the accident that changed his life took place. Exiting the pits in the closing stages of the race, Zanardi made a mistake and spun on to the track. Canadian Alex Tagliani hit Zanardi's car broadside, at close to 200mph, tearing off its nose. The crash was like a bomb going off, and in the aftermath Zanardi's noseless car lay across the track, a river of blood flowing from it. His heart stopped seven times. He survived for nearly an hour with less than a litre of blood. He was saved by the expert intervention of the medical team, led by Dr Steve Olvey. Talking about regaining consciousness in hospital in Berlin eight days after the accident, Zanardi said: "I surprised myself feeling, or sensing, the highest joy I have ever had in my life. The pain was incredible. I cannot describe it. But I was alive. Who cares about my legs? I am alive. It was the most natural thing for me to focus on what I had left." It was the end of his career in single-seater racing, but he set upon an extensive rehabilitation programme and was fitted with prosthetic limbs. In 2003, he was given a run in a Cart car fitted with hand controls back at the Lausitzring, symbolically completing the 13 laps remaining from the race he never finished two years before. …