When Ayrton Senna was physically assaulted by Nigel Mansell after the 1987 F1 Belgian GP

Three-time world champion Ayrton Senna was caught in a physical altercation with Nigel Mansell after both drivers collided during the 1987 Belgian GP.

After overtaking Mansell at the restart of the Belgian GP, Senna was unable to get rid of the British driver and establish a gap. After safely negotiating the first couple of corners, the Brazilian crashed into the Williams driver as he was trying to overtake him on the outside of a right-hand corner.

Ayrton Senna got onto the slippery side and slid into Mansell, who was furious with the Lotus driver as he took them both out of the race. Back in the garage, Mansell grabbed Senna by the overalls and pushed him up against the wall. As per BBC, in his post-race interview, Nigel Mansell said:

"He wore loose overalls in those days and I pulled the zip up beyond his chin to just below his nose. You can't control yourself when you see the red mist. Everyone has a chip inside them called self-preservation and it's activated when you're on the edge. I'd never experienced that before in my life. I saw red like there was no tomorrow."

Senna, while recollecting the events, said:

"When a man holds you round the throat, I do not think that he has come to apologize."

McLaren driver Alain Prost went on to win the 1987 Belgian GP, with his teammate Stefan Johansson finishing second.

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F1 pundit explains how Ayrton Senna's driving style was different than anyone else

F1 pundit Peter Windsor has said that Ayrton Senna had a very linear driving style, which aided him in certain areas, and is better in some aspects than that of Mercedes driver and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

As per Silver Arrows.net, he said:

"I think Ayrton Senna was fairly linear actually in the way he drove, which was very Lewis-like, but his corner entries weren’t as early as Alain Prost’s to my eye."

"And Ayrton always had that business of the throttle blipping where he just wanted to feel that moment to get the power on, whereas Lewis and Michael never had to do that in order to find that moment. So you may think, what made Ayrton so great? Well, what made Ayrton so great was his incredible precision."

Hamilton has said on several occasions that Ayrton Senna was his childhood hero in motorsport and that he wanted to emulate the Brazilian on the track.