One Lap in the Rain: The Greatest Lap in Formula 1 History

There is a hierarchy of great drives in Formula 1 history and the opening lap of the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington Park sits at or near its summit. Ayrton Senna, fifth on the grid, in a McLaren MP4/8 powered by a Ford-Cosworth engine that was significantly inferior to the Renault V10s dominating the field, produced in the course of a single rain-soaked lap a sequence of overtaking manoeuvres that no television camera could fully capture because they happened so quickly and in such unlikely places.

Prost's Williams was on pole. The race began in heavy rain. At the first corner, Senna had already moved to fourth, passing Karl Wendlinger's Sauber. Along the straight toward the chicane, he went past Michael Schumacher. Before the corner at the bottom of the hill he was past Damon Hill. And then, in the spray and the grey of the Donington Park circuit — a track that had not hosted a Formula 1 race in over fifty years — he passed Alain Prost, the championship leader, the man in the fastest car, for the lead. It was lap one.

What makes the Donington lap transcend simple sporting achievement is its context. Senna had no right to be leading. His car was slower than the Williams on any road in the dry. In the rain, his feel for the car — his ability to sense grip levels that other drivers could not detect, to commit to lines that others held back from — made him untouchable. He led for most of the race, managing the gap, managing his tyres, managing the conditions with the kind of authority that suggested he was operating on a different plane from his competitors. He won by over a minute.

Ayrton Senna won the European Grand Prix by a commanding margin, his drive in the wet conditions producing one of the most complete race victories the sport had seen. Damon Hill finished second for Williams — a good result for the championship leader's team, though Prost himself did not finish. Karl Wendlinger was classified third for Sauber.

The victory was Senna's 38th, moving him closer to Alain Prost's record of 51. In the context of the 1993 season — in which he was driving the second-fastest car with notable regularity — his wins were achievements of a different order from those collected in machinery that was simply the quickest on the grid.

Alain Prost dominated the 1993 championship in the Williams FW15C and won the title in comfortable fashion. Senna's McLaren MP4/8, with its Ford-Cosworth customer engine, could not match the pace of the Williams in normal conditions. That Senna won five races that season — all of them demonstrating adaptability rather than raw pace — was remarkable.

At the end of 1993, Prost retired from racing. Senna joined Williams for 1994, finally in the fastest car. At the third race of that season, at Imola, he died. The Donington drive — one of the last times he had to find a way to win in inferior machinery — stands as one of the finest arguments for his place in any discussion of the sport's greatest drivers.

April 1993 was the month of the Waco siege's catastrophic end. On April 19 — eight days after the Donington race — the 51-day standoff between US federal agents and the Branch Davidian compound in Texas ended when fire engulfed the building, killing 76 people. The event dominated American public discourse and fuelled a period of profound anxiety about government overreach and civil liberties. Bill Clinton, who had been inaugurated only three months earlier, faced the most severe crisis of his new presidency.

In Britain, the recession of the early 1990s was beginning to ease, though confidence remained fragile. Donington Park, which had last hosted a World Championship race during the 1938 Donington Grand Prix, welcomed Formula 1 back to the British midlands for the first time in over half a century. The occasion was significant for British motorsport — and the race it produced was worthy of the occasion.

Heavy rain at the start, changing through the race. The opening laps were run in near-tropical downpour conditions, the circuit under water in several sections, spray making visibility extremely limited. The conditions were the canvas on which Senna painted his masterpiece. By mid-race, the circuit was drying in places, creating a tyre strategy puzzle that Senna managed expertly. Rain returned briefly in the final stages.