F1's Greatest Lap? Ayrton Senna at Donington 1993

On this day, April 11th in 1993, Ayrton Senna produced one of the greatest opening laps ever seen in Formula One history.

It happened at Donington at the European Grand Prix.

And Jamie Brito was there working for TV Globo.

Jamie, great to see you.

What are your memories of that day?

Well, I think it is, I'm sure it is, the greatest lap of Formula One history, the greatest first lap of a Grand Prix.

It was raining and I remember I was looking obviously for him.

And by the middle of the first lap, I said, I cannot believe this.

Where is he going?

Well, let's have a look at that opening lap.

And of course, it was wet on race day.

It was drying qualifying, but it was a wet race day.

That didn't matter to the Brits because they're used to that.

Alan Prost on the pole, Damon Hill second, and the other Williams Renault, Michael Schumacher.

And then Ayrton Senna was fourth, only fourth on the grid.

We should remember that in the dry.

And here's Ayrton on the grid.

So over to you, Jaime.

I'll let you take over here.

Well, that's when he was on the grid preparing to the start.

And there goes the start.

And he drops to fifth place.

As you can see, he drops to fifth place.

And he goes...

a bit nervous about that so he start going up and picking up one and the second and the third and the fourth and then i'll let you talk who he overtook there well this is an amazing piece of road because it's downhill it's fast it's the crane of curves and here he is around the outside of carl venlinger he's already got michael and he's just makes it look easy doesn't he and look at the exit speed he's got there on damon hill almost runs into the back of him coming out there and it's an easy piece of

of passing there, really, down the inside of Damon.

Damon lets him go, and already I suspect Ayrton's thinking, right, I can do Alan Prost here.

Well, the best thing on that one was Prost, because I did ask him after the race, how was coming up to Prost?

You thought, oh, that was the best taste.

The good taste of it was that one.

Because the rivalry between them, you know.

Oh, of course.

And Alain, I can't imagine what he was thinking at this point with Ayrton in his mirrors already from P4 on the grid.

I can tell you that Ayrton Senna was very happy when he overtook Prost.

And we shouldn't forget that Alain had a very good reputation at that point as a wet weather driver too.

He'd won some very good races in the wet.

It was funny because we always said that Senna loved the rain and then I did ask him once, you love the rain?

He said, do you think I'd like to drive there without seeing five centimeters in front of me?

No, I don't.

And there we are, the end of lap one, Ayrton Senna in front from Alain Prost and Damon Hill and the two Williams.

That is the best first lap in Formula One history.

What was the impact in Brazil after that race?

Oh, it was every newspaper, every television show was talking about that first lap.

We should make the point that he actually lost the lead to Prost.

He had a problem with the pit stop, but he got it back again by staying out on the slicks in the wet.

Yeah.

Actually, I did ask him about that and he said it was his call because he looked and said that the rain was not going to come anymore.

So he stayed on the drives and Cross made seven pit stops.

I remember talking to Patrick Head.

He said, oh God, he was calling, I'm coming in.

No, stay out.

No, I'm coming in.

Memories of the great Ayrton Senna, April 11th, 1993.

Anyone who loves Formula One will never forget that day.

Thanks for watching!