Mark Sutton grew up with motorsport photography, at first assisting his older brother Keith before his own career blossomed in the mid-1980s. "As a young boy my favorite driver was Emerson Fittipaldi, only because Keith's favorite was Jackie Stewart and they were rivals!" he chuckles. "In 1983 I met Ayrton Senna in F3 because my brother was taking pictures of him." Mark sporadically shot at Grand Prix but focused mainly on the British racing scene until 1992 when he joined the F1 ranks full-time. "That was Nigel Mansell's year when he won the first five Grand Prix, so it was quite an interesting time to start my career as an F1 photographer: you had Mansell, Senna, Alain Prost, and Damon Hill was just starting too."
Capturing 'Mansell-mania' at Silverstone that year remains a special memory, but an early landmark followed a year later at the Australian Grand Prix. "My famous picture was of Mika Hakkinen flying over the kerbs in Adelaide – the Flying Finn," recalls Mark. "That launched me into the spotlight because I was a young kid getting to know my trade. After that, it was about trying to be in the right place at the right time with 60 or 70 other photographers. There were a lot more back then."
Mark recalls hectic Sundays and Mondays in the days when everything was shot on film, dashing back on the first flights after Grand Prix to get rolls of race films processed, duplicated, and sent out to clients all around the world. The Sutton Images agency employed up to 25 staff at its base in Towcester back then, for what Mark describes as a "huge production line" pumping out images from up to six photographers at the races.
The F1 photographer's job evolved as digital camera technology improves, and like all his colleagues Mark is now used to sending his images direct from his camera seconds after they have been taken. The adrenaline rush of capturing F1's great moments still keeps him hooked now his agency is part of Motorsport Images. "This has been the Lewis Hamilton era, but it's great to see Red Bull fighting back," he says. "It's a full-on battle this year. After all that happened at Silverstone, I went to the press conference in Hungary where Lewis and Max were sat next to each other. I’d got the fist-bump moment between them after qualifying, but Lewis had his helmet on so you couldn't see the eye contact. Then at the press conference, they didn't look or talk to each other once. It was really tense, and then came the question again about what happened at Silverstone, and obviously, Max's fuse was lit. It almost felt like the Senna/Prost era – it's going to be an amazing end to the season."
On race day, Mark was at Turn 1 to capture a sequence of the multi-car accident triggered by Valtteri Bottas which wiped out both Verstappen and Sergio Perez. "I haven't lost any passion from when I first started," he says. "I still love what I do after all these years and getting those shots in Hungary reminds me that it remains a great emotional ride."
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