Hamilton, Massa and five other great sporting rivalries

ANOTHER Grand Prix and another bust-up between Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa. The pair, who have been involved in half a dozen incidents so far this season, collided again in India on Sunday and have been ordered to kiss and make up by their respective teams, though there appears little likelihood of that happening.

They are fast developing the sort of rivalry that could go down in sporting legend...

Alain Prost vs Ayrton Senna
Formula One has a proud history of feuds. Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna were team-mates at McLaren in the late 1980s, but frequently clashed on the circuit as well as off it.

At the Japanese Grand Prix in 1989 a collision between the two men’s cars handed Prost the drivers' title, but only after Senna was disqualified. A year later Prost, now with Ferrari, and Senna went into the race at Susuka with the title up for grabs. At the first corner Senna, who had more points than his rival, deliberately crashed into Prost taking both cars out of the race and winning the title.

After a year away from the sport Prost returned to win the 1993 championship with Williams. When he learned that Senna was to join him on the team the following year he decided to retire.

Sebastian Coe vs Steve Ovett
In the late 1970s and early 1980s these two Brits dominated middle-distance running, trading world records and titles, mainly over 800m and 1,500m. At the 1980 Olympics Coe won gold in Ovett's favoured event, the 1,500m, and Ovett took the 800m gold, despite Coe's dominance in that. In 1981 the pair broke the mile world record three times between them in the space of 10 days. 

Their rivalry captured the popular imagination mainly because of their different upbringings. Ovett came from a tough working-class background while Coe was a more sensitive, upper-class character.

Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier
Another feud that echoed social divisions was between Muhammed Ali (above right) and Joe Frazier (above left). Ali was well known for working over his opponents verbally in the build-up to a fight, but in 1971 he really went to town on Joe Frazier before the first of their three bouts. He meted out the usual insults, calling Frazier stupid and ugly, but he landed a low blow by branding him an "Uncle Tom". 

Frazier won their first bout, and the pair ended up brawling on TV as they reviewed the fight. A rematch in 1974 was won by Ali and a year later Ali also won the 'Thrilla in Manila', during the build-up to which he called Frazier a "gorilla".

The feud lasted even after the boxers had retired and when Ali developed Parkinson's disease Frazier said: "They want me to love him, but I'll open up the graveyard and bury his ass when the good Lord chooses to take him."

Tonya Harding vs Nancy Kerrigan
The two American ice-skaters were considered no more than friendly rivals until, in the run-up to the 1994 Olympics, Kerrigan was attacked by a man armed with a piece of lead piping. It was later discovered that Harding's on-off husband, Jeff Gillooly, and bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt, had hired Shane Stant to break Kerrigan's right leg.

The attack on Kerrigan left her badly injured and forced her out of the US Championships, which Harding won. But she recovered to make the Olympic team. By now it had emerged that Harding had helped cover up the attack but she could not be forced off the team. In the end Kerrigan won silver at Lillehammer, and Harding came eighth.

The case caused a media sensation and Harding became something of a celebrity. After being thrown out of ice skating she had a brief career as a boxer.

Jimmy Connors vs John McEnroe
Jimmy Connors was enjoying life as America's most successful tennis player in the late 1970s when John McEnroe burst onto the scene and stole his thunder.

Connors did not take kindly to the arrival of the mouthy New Yorker he once described as a "fuckface". The pair had some epic battles on the court and played each other 34 times in 14 years. McEnroe won 20 of those matches and Connors 14. They met in two Wimbledon finals, in 1982 and 84, and won one apiece.

Although Connors is six years older than McEnroe the rivalry was ended when 'The Brat' called it quits in 1991. Connors carried on playing until 1996.

Nowadays the pair occasionally appear together on TV coverage of tennis events. There is often a frisson of tension. ·