2. Senna and Prost collide part two – 1990
It is hard to think of Suzuka and not think about Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s rivalry, for it always seemed to culminate at this track.
A year after the drama of 1989, the pair returned with both in the championship hunt once again. Senna qualified on pole position, and Prost, now driving for Ferrari, started alongside him on the front row. However, before the race, Senna was aggrieved at the decision to put pole position on the “dirty” side of the grid. He argued that it left him at a disadvantage, but nothing was changed. Senna promised to take matters into his own hands.
At the start, Prost made the better getaway from second place as expected and took the lead on the run two turn one with Senna just behind. But then Senna did as he promised, and quite clearly and deliberately, failed to brake for the first corner and took Prost out of the race. Both cars were terminally damaged, but it resulted in Senna taking the second of his three titles. Prost meanwhile was left disgusted, and Senna soon appeared genuinely ashamed of what he’d done. Yet he stopped short of issuing an apology to his great rival.
Murray Walker summed it up brilliantly: “And it has happened immediately! Well this is amazing, but I fear…absolutely predictable.”
Photo Credit: LAT Archive
