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The Prost–Senna rivalry, or Senna–Prost rivalry, was a Formula One rivalry between French racing driver Alain Prost and Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna.Widely regarded as one of the fiercest rivalries in Formula One history, [a] Prost and Senna together won seven of nine Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles between 1985 and 1993, including two whilst teammates at McLaren ...
Polesitter Alain Prost has stated that Ayrton Senna forced him off the track on the first lap, taking a lead he would not relinquish. Meanwhile, Prost had a run-in with Elio de Angelis , causing de Angelis to lose two laps in the pits repairing his car and relegating Prost to fifteenth by the end of the race.
At the start, Prost took the lead but Senna attempted to take the inside line into the first corner. The two drivers made contact, sending both off the track and into instant retirement. The crash meant that Senna had clinched the Drivers' Championship for a second time, as with one race left in the season, Prost could not overtake his points ...
As in 1988, the McLaren team had been dominant throughout 1989.Going into this race, Prost had a 16-point lead in the Drivers' Championship over Senna, 76 to 60. The Brazilian had won six races to the Frenchman's four, including the previous race in Spain, but had only finished in the points on one other occasion, while Prost had only finished out of the points once all season.
Prost's pole was also the first pole for the McLaren MP4/2 as well as for the TAG-Porsche engine. Stefan Bellof was the only non-turbo qualifier in his Tyrrell - Cosworth . Bellof qualified 20th and last while Brundle's crash behind the pits at Tabac saw him as a spectator for the race.
With 11 laps remaining, McLaren team boss Ron Dennis radioed Senna to slow down to ensure a safe 1-2 finish, allowing Prost to gain six seconds. [ 2 ] On lap 67, Senna lost concentration at Portier, causing him to spin his McLaren into the barrier and damage the car's front suspension.
Renault's Patrick Tambay, who qualified sixth, had a huge crash at nearly 322 km/h (200 mph) in the Sunday morning warm-up following a suspension failure on the start-finish straight. Tambay escaped shaken but unhurt, and took the start in the spare car. Rosberg took the lead ahead of Senna, Prost and Fabi, while Piquet's Brabham stalled at the ...
[36] In 1985, the Autocourse editor wrote of Prost: "In the long run, Ayrton Senna may be the better driver, but in 1985 for speed and consistency Prost had no equal", [37] while in 1986, the Autocourse editor commented on Prost's season "Alain had an almost faultless year. 1986 was a year of Prost's outstanding all round ability."