Motorsport · 1993 · Donington Park, England
The Lap
Starting fourth on a wet track, Ayrton Senna passes four cars in the opening lap alone, in what is still regarded as one of Formula 1's greatest single laps.
4th
Grid position
3
Positions gained, lap 1
1 lap+
Winning margin
The 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington Park was run in changeable, often torrential wet conditions that punished driving mistakes all afternoon. Ayrton Senna started fourth, well behind both Williams cars of Alain Prost and Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher's Benetton.
By the end of the first lap Senna had passed all three, along with Karl Wendlinger, moving from fourth to first in a single tour of the circuit through a mix of committed overtakes in treacherous conditions that other drivers simply were not attempting that day.
He went on to win the race by over a lap as track conditions swung repeatedly between wet and dry, but it is the opening lap itself, four positions gained in changing weather at a circuit he barely knew, that is replayed most often as a demonstration of wet-weather car control at its highest level.
Watch the Moment
