F1's Great Drives: Ayrton Senna - 1988 Japanese Grand Prix

As the first race of the season approached, speculation mounted as to which of the two chargers would claim supremacy.

In some ways Senna was still the coming man, a challenger to the undisputed heavyweight Prost. To others, the Brazilian had long since arrived. He just needed the machinery to prove it.

The two would go at it hammer and tongs all year. By the time F1 fraternity touched down in Suzuka, Senna simply had to win and he was champion. By virtue of the “eleven best results” scoring system employed that year, Prost could only add three points to his total even if he won in Japan.

In qualifying, Senna maintained his imperious one-lap form of that year, besting the other McLaren by 0.3sec. The Brazilian had scored 13 poles that season, whilst Prost had two.

“Alain always accepted and never hid the fact that Ayrton on one lap on was absolutely unbelievably fast, with the way he managed to build up the engine revs in a corner” says Ramirez. “[Prost] tried to do the same but never managed.”

It was what happened on race day that really mattered though, and on Sundays the McLaren pair were much more closely matched.

“He didn’t tolerate the mistakes of the team and his mistakes he would tolerate even less.”

Senna lined up first on the grid with Prost alongside him, with the Ferrari of Gerhard Berger just behind in 3rd.

The poleman, as Murray Walker put it, had been “tight as a violin string” pre-race. This might just have contributed to what happened next.

As the lights went out, as rev-limiters hit their peak and Goodyear tyres squealed, most of the field got away well – apart from Senna.

The car juddered as the Brazilian suffered every racing driver’s nightmare. He’d stalled it.

The onrushing field swarmed around him, with Berger just managing to swerve and avoid the polesitter. It was only the Austrian’s razor-sharp reactions that prevented a collision.

Luckily for Senna, the Suzuka pit straight is on a slope. As he waved his arms frantically in the air – to warn other oncoming drivers – his car began to roll down the hill.

He had further help from Nigel Mansell who, in his eagerness to make first lap progression, had speared his Williams into the back of Derek Warwick‘s Arrows. Both had to pit, with Senna benefiting once more.

Next up was the Williams of Patrese and Alessandro Nannini’s Benetton. Both were quickly disposed of and by lap two, Senna was now in sixth position.

The Benetton of Thierry Boutsen fell on lap three, Michele Alboreto’s Ferrari at the final chicane a lap later. Even with his superior car, Senna seemed to have reached a higher, previously unseen level of driver performance.

Berger’s Ferrari proved a trickier proposition. On lap one he had hustled Prost for the lead, but the fuel consumption problems which had plagued the Scuderia all season were coming into play once again.

Although Berger had dropped back to third, he still kept Senna behind for five laps before eventually falling prey to the McLaren.

Further up the road was the Leyton House March of Ivan Capelli – a joker in the pack. The March car, powered by a naturally aspirated 3.5-litre Judd engine, had been steadily improving through the second half of the season, to the point where it was now challenging the McLarens.

After scoring a third in Belgium and then finishing second in Portugal, Capelli wanted more.

With Berger behind him, the Italian had begun closing down Prost. On lap 16, he got a better run off the chicane and managed to nose ahead of the Frenchman as they crossed the start finish line. Prost had the inside line however, and managed to regain the advantage as the pair snaked into Turn One.

“Prost could see him coming, coming, but he could do nothing about it. It was bad for him.”

While these two fought and rain began to fall, Senna closed in. It took four laps.

As Capelli and Senna exited the final chicane on lap 20, the former over-revved his Judd engine, causing an electrical failure. The Italian’s car spluttered to a halt and Senna moved into secon. Prost was now in his sights.

Prost was able to hold the advantage for a while longer. The rain began to ease off slightly, allowing lap times to return to dry weather pace.

Coming round to end lap 27, Prost found himself hemmed in by backmarkers, as he had been with Capelli.

This time he had Gugelmin and de Cesaris fighting ahead of him. With the pair focused on their own battle and not getting out of the way, the leader’s pace became limited.

Senna saw his chance, and pounced. Trailing the two backmarkers, Prost’s acceleration out of the final chicane was far from optimal. The Brazilian slipstreamed up behind him and took the inside line.

At the same time the McLaren pair negotiated de Cesaris, the cars almost three wide as they entered Turn 1. Senna kept his nerve, and emerged from the corner in front.

Ramirez says there was a sense of the inevitable as Senna loomed down on Prost. “He could see him coming, coming, but he could do nothing about it. It was bad for him.”

In 27 laps, Senna had gone from first to 14th – and back again. He’d achieved what was almost unthinkable in just over half a race distance.

The São Paulo native might have fought back from the depths of the field, but he still had his foe right on his tail. In contrast to the rapid progress he had made thus far, four laps after taking Prost, Senna’s advantage was only 2.5sec.

Prost shaved the gap down to 1.25sec a lap later. As more rain began to fall, Senna began to pull away again. As had been seen several times earlier in the season, it was a racing duel of the highest order.

But the moment may have come too quickly for McLaren, says Ramirez, who suggests that some of the McLaren team harmony may have been maintained had Prost emerged victorious and not Senna:

“To be honest, I would have preferred if Alain would have been champion in ‘88. If Ayrton hadn’t won it that year, but he just maybe won it the next year [‘89], and perhaps the next year [after that], maybe the relationship would have been longer there, Alain wouldn’t have the left team.

“For sure, Ayrton was the future and in Ron’s eyes, he was definitely the man that was going to take the team to the next stage, but it just happened too soon. I would have loved to have had that partnership for a few more years.”

Tremayne wrote: “In truth [Senna] had mainly been luckier than Prost with the backmarkers.” Was it luck? Or was Senna simply better at dealing with the racing problems as they presented themselves?

It’s open to conjecture, but it was the Brazilian who ultimately proved victorious.

There’d be more wins, more championships and more iconic moments, but Japan ‘88 will always be one of Senna’s, and F1’s, greatest drives.