5 best races of Ayrton Senna

He has long been regarded as one of the greatest drivers Formula One has ever seen, if not the greatest. The Brazilian legend won 3 world championships before his untimely demise at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, at a corner long regarded as dangerous – the infamous Tamburello.

Could he have won more championships had he not perished in Italy that fateful race? Given his form and prodigious skill, it seems likely.

Most enthusiasts of the sport agree that there will never be another driver like Ayrton Senna, the man with a masterful handling of every racing condition imaginable and an aggression and ability to race as few others have since.

We profile 5 of his best races:

Australian Grand Prix, 1991

In more recent years, the Australian Grand Prix has come to be the year-opening race on the Formula One calendar, but in earlier years it was the final race on the Formula One Calendar.

This particular race, at the Adelaide Street Circuit, was hit by a torrential downpour that saw the 81-lap reduced to 16 laps. After securing pole position in a sunny qualifying session, Senna was given chase by Briton Nigel Mansell, driving for Williams, but early on passed frontrunners by a significant distance to take the lead.

With drivers struggling for visibility, Senna held on to his lead in a race where multiple drivers ran wide of track repeatedly, spun out and crashed.

European Grand Prix, 1993

Held that year at UK circuit Donington Park, the European Grand Prix is regarded as one of Senna’s grandest displays of skill. The Brazilian did not even qualify on the front row, finishing the session in 4th with longtime rival Alain Prost in pole position. The opening lap of the race is considered to be the greatest lap ever in F1 by many, the race itself alternated between wet and dry, with unreliable English weather throwing a spanner in teams’ tyre strategy.

Prost, in front and followed by Williams teammate Damon Hill, were given chase by Michael Schumacher in his Benetton-Ford, and Senna, blocked by Schumacher, dropped further down the grid.

He took a march on Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger and then proceeded to go after the Williams drivers in the lead, catching them out too to go up front – with his battle with Prost especially notable.

Senna would end up losing 20 seconds and the lead further into the race – but it was extremely quick tyre strategy and adapting to quickly-changing conditions that gave the Brazilian the lead again.

His racing and tyre strategy were so effective that he made only 4 stops to the seven of Alain Prost, who finished in second behind him.

Brazilian Grand Prix, 1991

A home race for Senna, the Brazilian Grand Prix was held at Interlagos, now known as the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace. He had qualified on pole at the race, and quickly strengthened his lead over the Williams pair of Riccardo Patrese and Nigel Mansell. Interestingly, Senna found himself repeatedly in competition with a number of Williams drivers over the years.

However Mansell, who was constantly a thorn in Senna’s side and able to reduce the Brazilian’s leads on a regular basis, came within under a second of the leader. On the verge of catching Senna up, Mansell was forced to pit after a puncture caused by debris on the track, and he lost his chance to take the lead.

In this time, however, Ayrton Senna was having problems of his own; his McLaren, unbeknownst to anyone else on track, had lost fourth gear. That meant that even when making corners after high speed straights, Senna was unable to change gears – meaning that his car nearly stopped on multiple occasions, with the Brazilian forced to slow down very carefully each time.

As if that was not difficult enough, Senna then lost both third and fifth gear – restricting him immensely in having to navigate the twists and turns of Interlagos, all while maintaining his lead.

That race had been so taxing for Senna that he suffered from serious muscle cramps, fatigue and total exhaustion afterwards. He was lifted from his car and given medical attention at the time.

Japanese Grand Prix, 1988

At this time teammates with fierce rival Alain Prost, Senna secured pole position at qualifying, with Prost behind him in second. With McLaren-Honda on the front row on what was essentially Honda’s home circuit, it was the Professor, Prost, who took the lead quickly ahead of Ferrari’s Gerhard Berger. Polesitter Ayrton Senna’s car stalled completely on the track on the first lap, with other drivers quickly overtaking him.

Despite seeming doomed to a retirement, Senna managed to get his car moving again courtesy the sloping nature of the Suzuka Circuit. Despite this, he had dropped to near the back of the grid by that time, so returning to the front seemed near impossible for the Brazilian.

But once his car was back in action, Ayrton Senna pulled out all the stops to flat-out race, and by the second lap had already overtaken 6 drivers. Another two laps later, he was almost in podium contention.

He pushed through a series of very fast laps to take the lead from his teammate, and with the end of the race inching towards a wet track, he would end up lapping a number of drivers he had been trailing to take a 1-2 for McLaren-Honda and taking his 8th win of the season.

He would eventually win that year’s championship title as well.

Portuguese Grand Prix, 1985

Ayrton Senna proved himself to be a master of wet conditions over his shortened 10-year career, and the Brazilian demonstrated this ably at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix at the Estoril circuit.

Driving at the time for Lotus in only his second year in Formula One, Senna completely dominated proceedings at that race weekend. He would take pole position – the first ever of his career, driving in overcast conditions with sporadic rain in the initial part of the weekend.

On race day, Senna started ahead of the McLaren of Alain Prost and the Williams of Keke Rosberg, with Prost leading the championship standings and Rosberg, who was by then already a world champion.

Their experience seemed not to have any effect at the race, however, with both the Frenchman and the Finn spinning off track and eventually retiring.

Senna held his own in the downpour to not only win the race but lap every single driver with the exception of the second-placed Ferrari of Michele Alboreto.

It was Senna’s first ever pole position – which became his first ever race win.