11 April, 1993-Donington Park
His command of the race was so absolute that the Grand Prix of Europe became the Grand Prix of Ayrton Senna. While the changing weather caught out many drivers it provided Senna with the opportunity to use his superior skills to overcome the handicap of having the second best car. Displaying pure genius in mastering the constantly changing track conditions, his brilliant driving in the rain was matched by his superb tactics.
The alternating wet and dry track surface produced a race that must have set a record for pit stops to change tyres. Senna timed his four changes to perfection, not only with careful regard to the track conditions but also in such a way that he covered any move by the vainly pursuing Williams Renaults of Damon Hill and Alain Prost in order to protect his lead.
Senna's win was set up by the most sensational first lap I can remember in a Grand Prix. Realising that the Williams cars have at least as big an advantage in wet conditions as dry, Senna resolved to get in front of them before Prost and Hill could hit their strides. However, Senna gave himself more work to do at the start when he fell back to fifth place going into the first corner. Then - on a wet track and on two difficult corners - he swept majestically round the outside of the two cars separating him from the Williams team mates. They, too, were duly picked of by Senna before the end of the first lap and, while his rivals either fell foul of the conditions or gingerly felt them out, Senna stormed away to establish a seven second lead in just five laps.
With this lead and his genius on slick tyres in damp conditions Senna was able to control the race completely, using the mastery of tactics he started to add to his repertoire in 1990 and has now perfected to such an extent one wonders how Prost was ever regarded as the master tactician.
But for two pieces of minor misfortune Senna would have had the race won before half distance. Still, it was as well for us that his bad luck kept the race alive. Whilst the Williams drivers had taken the soft option and changed to the more sure-footed wet weather tyres as rain began to fall again, Senna, correctly, decided to stay on slicks until such time as he actually started to lap more slowly than those on wets - which did not happen.
Luck intervened for Williams just as their hastiness in changing tyres was beginning to look embarrassing. The rain suddenly increased to the extent that Senna was clearly going to lose time and he was forced to go in for a tyre change straight away in order to protect his lead and the control of the race it gave him.
Equally suddenly the rain abated, and with Senna's lead reduced, the race was alive again. Had Senna been able to delay his decision for two laps he would not have needed to make those two pit stops and, when the Williams cars changed back to slicks, he would have been nearly a lap ahead. In any case, the proceedings were further enlivened by Senna's second misfortune.
During Senna's stop to change back to dry tyres the McLaren team had a problem with replacing a rear wheel and the delay cost Senna the lead he had so brilliantly snatched and nurtured. However, justice was soon done and, appropriately, the architect was the man Senna had run rings around all day. As the next shower began to gently mist over the circuit Alain Prost immediately surrendered the lead by diving into the pits again, without any regard for the fact that the track was still much more suited to slicks. Indeed, it stayed that way because the shower soon stopped. But the Williams team, doubtless influenced by Prost's supposedly superior racecraft, called in Damon Hill to duplicate the change made by Prost. Then, by the time the Williams pair made yet another pit stop to change back to dry tyres, Senna had lapped them both.
Alain Prost's oft stated distaste for wet weather driving has seemed in the past to be accompanied by an inability to think, or compete. This was never more obvious than at Donington Park where he seemed to get more and more flustered and distracted as the race progressed. He visited the pits with such frequency it appeared he might prefer to stay there. Every time he saw a spot of rain he came in to change tyres; his seven pit stops set the record for the day.
Damon Hill, I thought, again drove a well-managed race. Because he doesn't have enough experience the timing of his pit stops was stage managed by the Williams team, but Hill did all the rest. This was an impressively competent job in the treacherous conditions and he thoroughly deserved his second place. Certainly he deserved to beat his team mate, even if Prost had had a troublefree race.
Senna saved the final, crushing humiliation for the post race press conference. There, a rather sheepish Prost cited a variety of technical trivia (incorrect tyre pressures, faulty gearbox, difficult clutch) by way of excuse. Senna, again with incisive timing, quietly suggested that perhaps Prost would like to swap cars.
No comments:
Post a Comment