“In another dimension”

Monaco, 1988. Ayrton Senna completed – in his McLaren-Honda – arguably the greatest qualifying lap in the history of the sport, but unfortunately, there is no onboard footage available of it. One can find on YouTube his 1989 qualifying lap, that is nearly as impressive.

In his dominant McLaren MP4/4 designed by Steve Nichols, and alongside French ace Alain Prost, he lapped the Monaco circuit a whopping 1.427s quicker than his team-mate, and was 2.6s (!) clear of Berger (Ferrari), third on the grid. Senna declared: “Suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension.” 

A lapse of concentration while he was leading the race by more than 50 seconds, cost him race victory on Sunday, but to go that fast on the toughest circuit of them all, is the stuff of legend. The great Brazilian went on to win three World Championships, 41 Grand Prix and 65 pole positions in his 162 race starts.