NIKI LAUDA'S DUEL WITH DEATH

THE ACCIDENT AT NÜRBURGRING SHOULD HAVE MEANT THE END OF HIS RACING CAREER. INSTEAD IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THIS CHAMPION'S GREATEST TRIUMPH

- BY Lawrence Elliott

When Marlene Lauda arrived at Cologne airport on the evening of 1 August 1976, she expected to meet her husband, world-champion racing driver Niki Lauda. Lauda was competing in the German Grand Prix at nearby Nürburgring, but Marlene, whose heart hammered even when she watched televised reruns of races, often stayed away from the track. She and Niki were to meet at the airport after the race and fly home to Salzburg.

LAUDA WAS NOT waiting for her in the airport lounge. Instead, she was met by strangers who broke the bad news: There had been an accident; Niki was in a hospital at Mannheim, 240 kilometres away.

Time blurred, and then she was standing in an intensive care unit looking down at a monstrous mask that bore no resemblance to her husband. The face was brutally burned and swollen to three times normal size; eyes and nose were swallowed up in a balloon of charred flesh. Each frightful gasp from the shrivelled mouth seemed to be a final act.

A doctor led Marlene outside.

"Will he live?" she asked.

The doctor shook his head. The exterior burns might be dealt with, but Niki had sucked flame and poisonous gases down through his bronchial passages. Now the scalded lungs were failing. It could only be a matter of hours.

Marlene, waiting, wept through the night. But behind closed doors, Niki Lauda, who sensed the presence of death in the room, refused to die.