Racing | Formula 1 | 1993 European Grand Prix — Senna Takes the Lead on Lap One at Donington

On 11 April 1993, the SEGA European Grand Prix brought round three of the Formula One World Championship to Donington Park in Leicestershire, where intermittent rain repeatedly changed the fastest tyre choice.

The race used Donington’s 4.023-kilometre Grand Prix course, including the Melbourne Loop added in 1985 and the pre-2010 form of the Goddards chicane.

Alain Prost started from pole for Williams-Renault, with teammate Damon Hill second, Michael Schumacher third for Benetton-Ford, and Ayrton Senna fourth in the number 8 McLaren-Ford MP4/8.

As the field left a wet grid, Senna was pushed back to fifth, behind Prost, Hill, Karl Wendlinger, and Schumacher.

He passed Schumacher after Redgate, moved alongside Wendlinger through the Craner Curves and ahead before the Old Hairpin, overtook Hill at Coppice, then passed Prost on the inside at the Melbourne Hairpin to lead before the first lap ended.

Senna opened a gap, but alternating rain and dry spells repeatedly reshuffled the order as drivers changed between wet-weather tyres and slicks.

At one stage Prost regained the lead after Senna lost time in the pits, yet Senna stayed on slicks during another shower while both Williams drivers stopped for wet tyres and then had to return for slicks as the circuit dried.

Later, with his crew unprepared when he approached the pits, Senna drove through without stopping; Grandprix.com’s report records that passage as the lap later credited as the race’s fastest, and Formula 1’s official table lists 1:18.029 on lap 57.

After 76 laps Senna won in 1:50:46.570, with Hill second 83.199 seconds behind and Prost third, one lap down; those are the final positions in Formula 1’s official classification.

It was Donington Park’s only Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, and the opening lap remains a concise demonstration of how quickly a race can be transformed by grip, positioning, and decisive overtaking.

Sources:
Formula 1, 1993 SEGA European Grand Prix race result, starting grid, and fastest laps.
Grandprix.com, “European GP, 1993.”
Motor Sport, 1993 European Grand Prix database entry.
Donington Park, official GP Circuit map and specifications.

Image: “Donington as of 2006” by Will Pittenger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; this PNG is a rendering of the licensed SVG showing the Donington Park GP circuit from 1985 to 2009.