1989 Japanese Grand Prix
Senna won the 1988 Championship in his first season with McLaren beating Prost by 3 points and there had been bad-blood and feuding between the McLaren drivers throughout the 89’ season. The bitterness came to a head when the teams arrived at Suzuka for the penultimate round of the Championship and Prost made a press statement claiming that he wouldn’t leave the door open for his teammate to pass and that he wasn’t going to give up position simply to save McLaren the embarrassment of a double-retirement. And so it went. Senna had qualified in pole but Prost beat him into the lead at the start. Senna chased Prost the entire race until lap 46 (7 laps before the end) when he made a dive to pass Prost entering the chicane before the start/finish straight. True to his word Prost closed the door and both of them skidded off the track and stalled. Prost jumped out of his car satisfied the Championship was his. Senna asked the track marshal’s for a push, got started again and fought his way back to win the race. However, his altercation with Prost meant he’d skipped a chicane and he was controversially disqualified by the FIA after the race. Prost won the World Championship.
Senna won the 1988 Championship in his first season with McLaren beating Prost by 3 points and there had been bad-blood and feuding between the McLaren drivers throughout the 89’ season. The bitterness came to a head when the teams arrived at Suzuka for the penultimate round of the Championship and Prost made a press statement claiming that he wouldn’t leave the door open for his teammate to pass and that he wasn’t going to give up position simply to save McLaren the embarrassment of a double-retirement. And so it went. Senna had qualified in pole but Prost beat him into the lead at the start. Senna chased Prost the entire race until lap 46 (7 laps before the end) when he made a dive to pass Prost entering the chicane before the start/finish straight. True to his word Prost closed the door and both of them skidded off the track and stalled. Prost jumped out of his car satisfied the Championship was his. Senna asked the track marshal’s for a push, got started again and fought his way back to win the race. However, his altercation with Prost meant he’d skipped a chicane and he was controversially disqualified by the FIA after the race. Prost won the World Championship.
1990 Japanese Grand Prix
Prost moved to Ferrari in 1990 due to what he perceived as favouritism towards Senna at McLaren. Again after stoushing all through the season they made it to Suzuka with Senna leading the Championship on 78 points… ahead of Prost who had 69… the Championship was still wide-open with two races to go. Senna qualified in pole position at Suzuka but was unhappy with his position on the dirty side of the track. He requested that FISA change the side of the track on which pole was located as the second place grid position was located in the racing line and had the advantage into the first corner. His request was denied. Who qualified in second place? Alain Prost. At the start of the race Prost had the advantage into the first corner and pulled ahead. Senna wasn’t going to let him get away and dove into the gap from the inside crashing into the side of Prost’s Ferrari as he closed the door into the first apex. Both cars spun into retirement in the gravel trap… and Senna clinched the Championship. He later admitted that he’d intentionally crashed into the side of Prost’s car.
CLASSIC!!
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