5 best races of Ayrton Senna

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.