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<strong> Ayrton Senna Special:</strong> Part 28 - The beginning of an era - Absolute dominance (1988)

Ayrton Senna Special: Part 28 - The beginning of an era - Absolute dominance (1988)

Published on 21 Apr 2019 19:00
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By: Fergal Walsh

After the victory at a wet Silverstone and at Germany, Hungary and Belgium was on the program.

Germany

In a stormy weekend Ayrton drove to his seventh pole position of the season. Teammate Alain Prost was three tenths slower than Senna. The Ferraris of Berger and Alboreto followed in the second row, Nelson Piquet was fifth and Alessandro Nannini in his Benetton Ford was sixth place on the grid.

The rain, which fell all weekend, stopped on Sunday morning. However, there was some discussion about the type of tyre the drivers would start on. Race management gave them the opportunity to do an extra warm-up for fifteen minutes. At the start, the whole field, with the exception of Nelson Piquet, was on rain tyres. Senna held onto the lead. Prost stumbled to get away, he was already passed before the first corner by Berger and Nannini. Piquet spun in the Ostkurve-chicane and was allowed to join in at the back. The Brazilian drove back to the pits and parked his car.

Prost only passed Nannini on the eighth lap, while his gap to leader Senna was now more than nine seconds. The track was now in a condition where it might be possible to switch to slicks. Alliot decided to pit and spun when Senna put him down one lap. In the meantime, Senna had driven the fastest lap with a time of 2:05.271. This lap was driven on rain tyres, which meant that the track was drying out. This turned out not to be the case. The rain was dormant and Prost had to deal with an unmanageable car, he even spun at the exit of the Ostkurve-chicane but was able to continue his way.

Prost's gap to Senna was almost half a minute by now. With its sixth one-two of the season, McLaren finished at the top again. Gerhard Berger finished third. In the battle for the title, Prost kept a lead over Ayrton. Senna was behind by just three points. McLaren had such a big lead in the constructors that their 117 points could not be surpassed by all the other teams put together.

"I wanted to drive this race as fast as possible in the safest possible way", Ayrton answered to the question what the conditions were like. "I tried to consolidate the gap, because I had no reason to push. If I were to push, it would be risky. It was a good race. It was difficult to keep up the speed because there was a lot of traffic. The tyres also played a big role, they were wearing particularly hard."

Prost was upset: "It wasn't good to mess up the start again. I was stuck behind Nannini and Berger. I had no visibility at all and it was very dangerous. I couldn't even see anything on the straights. I tried to catch up with Ayrton but was held up by Arnoux and Nakajima. In the end I was still spinning and had braking problems", Prost excused himself. Berger said afterwards: "It's impossible to win another race this year because McLaren is too strong."

Hungary

Hungary marked a second consecutive victory for Ayrton. In a race where teammate Alain Prost started seventh, Ayrton came under pressure at the start of the race. During qualifying, it was exciting. The Williams-Judd of Mansell, the Benetton Ford of Boutsen, the March-Judd of Ivan Capelli and the Benetton-Ford of Alessandro Nannini were within one second of the Brazilian. Mansell tried it at the start, but the supremacy of the Honda V6 prevailed.

In a race where fuel would become a critical point, Ayrton set the tone without having to push. Until the 48th lap there seemed to be no problem for the Brazilian but Prost had great pace and Thierry Boutsen tagged along in his wake. The Belgian was able to follow the pace of Senna and Prost very well and there seemed to be a surprise in the making. Ayrton saw in his mirror that the two were chasing him and decided that he shouldn't play the game hard if Prost would make an attack. When Tarquini dropped out, the attack came from Prost, and Ayrton gave him just enough space not to touch each other.

"I wasn't sure if I had enough room," Prost said after the battle. However, team boss Ron Dennis later gave both the credits that racing at the cutting edge of the field had worked out so well. Prost put pressure on Ayrton again but made a small mistake and got dirt on his tyres. At the end of the race Prost came to Ayrton's tail, but that was because the Brazilian could manage the speed. Nigel Mansell, who drove the weekend in Hungary with measles, finally dropped out. He was no longer a threat to Ayrton after the first turn. In an interview after the race, Ayrton made fun of the sick Briton: "Does everyone now understand why I won the race? I was afraid of getting sick because of Mansell, so I had to accelerate to keep him away from me." Mansell would be replaced by Martin Brundle at the Belgian Grand Prix and Jean-Marie Schlesser at the Italian Grand Prix. Note: remember the last name.

"I saw him coming straight behind me, I think he used a little more power. Alain wanted to catch up and there was nothing I could do because he is my teammate. I tried to avoid him, he went a little wider and so I could cross behind him and overtake him again", Ayrton said. "I drove a bit too fast at a certain moment and didn't lose the race today, but yesterday in qualifying.

Belgium

The battle for the world title continued at the Spa Francorchamps circuit. With a score of 66-66 it seemed to be a 50-50 case concerning the championship. In fact, the score was different because in 1988 only the best eleven results were counted for the championship. The one who would win the most Grands Prix would in fact become the world champion. Ayrton had six victories at the start of the Belgian race, Alain Prost had four. Ayrton could become champion with three more victories, which would mean that the Brazilian would already be champion in Portugal. During practice Ayrton drove the fastest time on Friday.

On Saturday it rained and the times were not improved. The irony of qualifying was that both 'competitors for the British Formula 3 Championship in 1983' were the fastest in one qualifying session. Ayrton did it on Friday, Martin Brundle was the fastest in his Williams debut on Saturday. We've always talked about Ayrton Senna's abilities in the rain, but Martin Brundle was definitely a more than excellent rain driver. Alain Prost started second and Gerhard Berger third.

At the start, Prost took the lead in the race by breaking later at the La Source-hairpin. The Frenchman initially wanted to make a gap through Eau Rouge but Ayrton quickly closed the gap and then slipped behind his teammate at Kemmel. The Brazilian had enough speed to put his MP4-4 next to his teammate's and eventually catch up with him. After that it was a cruising race for Ayrton. Prost was down by more than half a minute and McLaren had nothing to fear from the non-turbo cars on the fast circuit in the Ardennes. Thierry Boutsen crossed the line in third place for Benetton in his home race, but unfortunately was disqualified as he was using illegal fuel. As a result, Ivan Capelli finished third in the March-Judd. In the championship it was 75-72 in favour of Ayrton.

After the eleventh Grand Prix of the season it also became clear that the rivalry between the two drivers was at its peak. This was reinforced by Prost's comments on the podium towards Ayrton: "Congrats Champ", said the Frenchman. Prost continued his conversation with the press: "McLaren has two world champions that year." The Frenchman somehow wanted to put bad blood on Ayrton and added: "Ayrton is faster than me. He just deserves to be this season's champion." Normally a driver wouldn't say this, but Prost was already known for playing 'mindgames' and thought he had found a victim in Ayrton. Ayrton, on the other hand, was not intimidated by Prost's provocation: "If he thinks I'm going to rest on my laurels, he's wrong."