By Simon Wright – Follow
me on Twitter @Siwri88
Sunday, 1 May
1994 – what were you doing at around 1.17pm on that beautiful summer’s
afternoon? That was the exact moment of time when three-time Brazilian world
champion Ayrton Senna crashed head-on into a concrete wall at the Tamburello
bend on the seventh lap of the San Marino Grand Prix. He had been leading the
race and was building up speed not much below 200mph.
Senna died in
hospital, although many believe he was killed on impact when suspension debris
pierced his helmet, causing his fatal injuries. He was just 34 years old.
20 years on
and whilst Williams have found replacement drivers since to fill the void left
by the great Brazilian, Formula One hasn’t. To mark this anniversary; IMOLA AT
20 looks back at the top five races I believe Ayrton Senna had in his 161-race
career.
There are my
own personal choices, so I apologise if your preferred selection didn’t make
the cut. It was very hard to omit races such as Jerez 1986, USA 1990, Monaco
1992 and his final win at the Australian Grand Prix in 1993. However, this is
AYRTON’S AWESOME TOP FIVE.
5. 1988 Japanese Grand Prix
The setting
for many of Senna’s most dramatic moments at the wheel of a racing car was to
be at Suzuka in Japan. His bitter rivalry with the Frenchman Alain Prost led to
contentious collisions in the following two years. Before these though came a
titanic scrap for the 1988 championship as McLaren teammates. Their car was by
far and away the best – winning 15 of the season’s 16 races. Due to countback
and an unpopular dropped scores rule in those days in which only the best 11
races counted to the final championship positions, victory in Japan would seal
Senna’s first title.
He started
from pole position but stalled on the line and only Suzuka’s sloping downhill
gradient kept him going. By the time he had full speed though, he was down to
14th and Prost stormed into the lead with an enormous advantage.
Senna though
was a man possessed and cut through the field very rapidly. He was back to
eighth by the end of lap two and by lap six, had forced his way past Michele
Alboreto’s Ferrari into fourth spot. Just Prost, Ivan Capelli’s Leyton House
and Gerhard Berger were infront.
Senna caught
and passed Berger, Capelli’s car broke down and then Prost was hampered by his
turbo boost causing concern, plus a small sprinkling of rain – something the
Professor never enjoyed. Midway through the race, Senna closed his teammate
down and edged past entering the first corner to lead. He then pulled away
enough distance to secure his seventh win of his debut season with McLaren and
with it, his maiden world championship title (pictured below).
 |
| Thierry Boutsen soaks Ayrton Senna after he clinches his first title |
It was some
way to clinch the title for the first time and few could begrudge Senna his
moment.
4. 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix
Senna’s first
victory arrived in the driving rain in Portugal, 1985. After a strong debut
year in which he learned a lot about the sport, Ayrton took his driving talents
to Lotus. Lotus was the perfect team for him at the time. It was a team that
could build around the Brazilian, and one where he could showcase his driving
skills in a car that could occasionally win races but wasn’t a championship beater.
He claimed
pole position in Estoril in what was only his second race with the British
squad and pulled away serenely whilst his rivals were caught out by the wet
conditions, notably Prost who spun into the wall on the start-finish straight whilst
running third. Senna lapped everyone apart from Alboreto’s Ferrari and he was a
minute behind in arrears. It was a copybook performance and continued his
reputation as the ultimate F1 rainmaster in the 1980s.
3. 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix
This is one
of my favourite drives from Senna. The Brazilian Grand Prix was a race he was
desperate to win but by 1991, this had eluded him through a combination of
unreliability and clumsy driving errors (running into backmarker Satoru
Nakajima whilst leading in 1990 as an example).
Starting from
his customary pole position, Senna led from lap one but was hunted down all day
by the much-improved Williams Renault package of Nigel Mansell. However, when
the Williams weak spot of its misbehaving gearbox span Mansell out of the race
at three-quarters race distance, all was set for a comfortable run to the
chequered flag for the local hero.
Not so
though, as his gearbox also began to develop a mind of its own. Then, Sao Paulo
was hit by a typical cloudburst. Stuck in one gear, his lead was being slashed
into by Riccardo Patrese in the second Williams. Senna was frantically waving
his hand for the race to be stopped in the closing laps but he completed the
required distance of 71 laps, and held off Patrese by just over three seconds.
Another one or two laps and it would have been another tale of home heartbreak.
In the pits,
Ron Dennis was ecstatic and in the car, Senna was overcome with emotion. The
effort of finishing the race meaning he needed medical assistance to extricate
himself from his chassis. He was physically shattered and mentally exhausted
but also emotionally delighted. This was a memorable and popular victory for
the whole of the country.
2. 1984 Monaco Grand Prix
Despite
testing for the likes of McLaren, Williams and Brabham during and after his
British Formula 3 championship success in 1983, Senna opted to drive for the
unheralded Toleman team for his first break into Formula One. In the dry, the
car had no hope of winning and he even failed to qualify once, but it was a
totally different story in the wet.
Having got
the maximum out of the equipment he had available to him to start 12th
on the grid around the streets of Monte Carlo, Senna moved forward to eighth in
the early laps on Sunday, as the track surface turned into a skating rink in
the principality. With devilish overtaking and sheer speed, Senna moved past
Keke Rosberg, Rene Arnoux and then drove clean around Niki Lauda approaching
the first corner to claim second place.
He then
relentlessly closed down race leader Prost before politics got in the way.
Jacky Ickx, a former Grand Prix driver himself, brought the red flag out to stop the
race before half-distance after Prost had wanted the event to be stopped. Senna
just failed to catch the Frenchman for what would have been a sensational
victory.
It was a
terrific performance and the start of something special on his journey. It cost
Prost too though. With only half points awarded for this race, he lost the 1984
world championship crown to teammate Lauda by just…half a point!
1. 1993 European Grand Prix
Number one
for me without a doubt is Ayrton’s performance in the 1993 European Grand Prix.
With McLaren having lost their works Honda contract at the end of the previous
season after the Japanese manufacturer pulled out of the sport, Ron Dennis’
team had to soldier on with a customer Ford V8 engine.
Senna had
only agreed to drive on a race-by-race deal days before the season opener in
Kyalami but arguably put in some of the greatest drives of his career. He won
his home race for a second time, claimed top spot in Monaco for the sixth time
in seven years and ended the year with superb back-to-back triumphs in Japan
and Australia. However, it was this performance at a damp and murky Donington
Park in Leicestershire during Easter weekend that clearly stands out.
It was the
third round of the championship and Senna qualified fourth in the dry, but a
considerable distance in time behind the dominant Williams cars of the
returning Prost and rookie Damon Hill. On raceday, the weather turned in his
favour. What happened next is quite probably the greatest lap ever seen on the
racetrack.
A slow start
dropped Senna to fifth, but he fought his way back from being squeezed out into
turn one to outdrag Michael Schumacher exiting Redgate. Next, Senna powered
around the outside of the Sauber Ilmor of Karl Wendlinger to claim third in the
Craner Curves. Within two corners, he was right on the back of Hill and found a
gap on the inside of McInnes to snatch second spot with just Prost infront.
Alain’s one
second advantage was obliterated in one right-hander and a tight chicane. Going
into the Esses, Ayrton outbraked his chief adversary and claimed the lead in
breathtaking fashion. He went on to set fastest lap in the pits and won by over
a minute with only Hill finishing on the same lap. It was simply stunning and
ranks as the top race of Ayrton’s Awesome Top 5.
Ayrton Senna
da Silva didn’t endear himself to everyone but he has left a legacy that can
never be damaged. Legend is an overused word in sport, but that is what Ayrton
Senna was. He was the greatest of his generation – possibly the greatest ever
to have raced in Formula One. 20 years on from that dark day at Imola, his is a
life that was lived to the absolute maximum.
