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Zanardi celebrates more Paralympics success

Alex Zanardi has successfully claimed his fourth Paralympics gold medal as part of the three-man Italian hand-cycling team that won the H2-H5 mixed team relay event in Rio.

The former Formula One driver and CART champion was taking part in the event alongside Vittorio Podesta and Luca Mazzone. Podesta took part in the opening stint and was in third place when he handed over to Mazzone, who had put them into the lead in time for Zanardi to take over.

Zanardi was able to extend the team's lead over the USA team from 13 to 21 seconds by the time he handed back to Podesta. When Zanardi resumed for his second stint the lead was up to 40 seconds and Italy were never really troubled again, the gap eventually opening up to more than minute by the final stint which was anchored by Zanardi.

Zanardi said afterwards that the biggest scare was when he came round a blind corner and encountered a large dog on the course which he had to slap out of the way with one of his hands before he was able to continue.

"It was pretty funny because that would have been the only way we could have lost it, strong as we were,: he said afterwards.

Zanardi had previously won two golds in London 2012, and added a third earlier this week in Rio by winning the H5 time trial event. He also claimed a silver medal on Thursday in the H5 road race, where he was pipped to victory in a sprint finish with South Africa's Ernst van Dyk.

The 49-year-old made 41 starts in Formula One with Jordan, Minardi, Lotus and Williams between 1991 and 1999, and also won the US open-wheel CART series in 1997 and 1998. However he lost both legs in a horrific crash at the Lausitzring in 2001 when he was hit side-on by another car at full speed.

The Italian overcame this near-fatal trauma and made a successful return to motorsports with BMW in the World Touring Car Championship, before taking up hand-cycling in 2007. Zanardi's fourth Paralympics gold came just one day after the 15-year anniversary of his near-fatal accident.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.