The race was won by Ayrton Senna, with Nigel Mansell in second position, and Gerhard Berger's third place finish plus Senna's victory meant that the McLaren team clinched the Constructor's championship.

During the televised post-race press conference, Schumacher broke into tears when asked if matching Senna's number of wins meant a lot to him.

However, as hard as he tried, the combination of the small circuit and Senna's skills in defending meant that he could not pass.

Examples include " We've had cars going off left, right and centre ", " do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna's Lotus sounding rough?

This made no difference to Barrichello's position, and he became the highest-scoring Brazilian driver in Formula One history, overhauling Ayrton Senna's career tally of 614 points, that Barrichello had been tied on since the.

At the first event, the United States Grand Prix at Phoenix, he was a sensation, leading for 25 laps in front of Ayrton Senna with a car powered by a customer Ford V8 considered as vastly inferior to the V10 Honda in Senna's McLaren, and also re-passing Senna after the Brazilian had first overtaken for the lead.

While Ratzenberger's death was overshadowed to some extent by Senna's, barely 24 hours later, his death nonetheless had one lasting legacy.

Watkins had concerns about Senna's mental state following two crashes earlier in the weekend that had injured Senna's countryman and protege Rubens Barrichello and killed Austrian Roland Ratzenberger, suggesting to him that the two leave the track, go fishing, and forget about the race.

In an interview after the race, Mansell said he had no problems with Senna's defensive driving ( blocking ) at the end of the race when the Williams was clearly the quicker car, saying that Senna was entitled to protect his lead.

On the parade lap, Senna's gear selector mechanism broke and he had to complete the lap jammed in first gear.

Years later, former McLaren Team Coordinator Jo Ramirez revealed that Senna's crash had been caused by the steering wheel coming out of his hands when he was driving to the absolute limit to beat Prost.

As had become standard practice in 1988, the Lotus-Hondas of Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakajima weren't able to match the similarly engined McLarens, with Piquet qualifying 3, and Nakajima 4 seconds slower than Ayrton Senna's pole time.

By lap 30 he had reduced Senna's lead to only 2 seconds but as he went by the pits at the end of lap 30 the misfire got worse and by lap 35 had been passed by Berger and Alboreto and was heading for the pits and his first mechanical retirement of the season.

Prost was not impressed with Senna's tactics and this led to some angry, but controlled, words in the McLaren camp after the race ( Senna countered Prost's anger by stating that he had almost been pushed onto the grass by Prost before the first corner after the start, though many saw this as a tactic used by drivers at just about every start ).

Alex Caffi, who had started in sixth, was up to second with Senna's retirement.

His nearest competitive rival, Ferrari driver Alain Prost had less than half of Senna's points.

Ayrton Senna's new McLaren-Honda had not turned a wheel prior to arriving in Phoenix for the start of the 1991 Formula One season, but when it did, no one could even stay close.

Unknown to observers, Senna's gearbox was failing, having lost fourth gear and by lap 60 the lead was halved and Mansell had set fastest lap.

Prost's championship ambitions had been given a major boost with Senna's retirement.

At the end of lap 42, after he and Prost had made their pit stops for slicks, Senna's lead was back up to 24 seconds.

After the race, a poignant detail was revealed when an Austrian flag was found in Senna's car ; he had planned to dedicate the win to Ratzenberger had he won the race.

At the end of lap 42, after he and Prost had made their pit stops for slicks, Senna's lead was back up to 24 seconds.

A further incident followed in which Berger replaced Senna's passport photo with what Ron Dennis described as " an equivalent-sized piece of male genitalia ".

In 1994 Ayrton Senna's fatal crash was also shown on live television but he died later in a hospital.

In Australia, he went on to finish eighth, moving him to within two points of Senna's mark.

In Spain he benefited from Lewis Hamilton's late crash to score two points, finishing in 9th, despite starting 18th on the grid and equalling Senna's record.

FIA President Max Mosley attended the funeral of Ratzenberger, despite the overwhelming attention on Senna's funeral, both in the world of motorsport and worldwide.

* Ayrton Senna's fatal accident during the San Marino Grand Prix on 1 May 1994 ( Sunday Grandstand ).

Mansell started from pole position but yielded the lead to Ayrton Senna's Lotus at the second corner on lap 1 and fell behind both Piquet and Keke Rosberg on the same lap.

Finally Capelli managed to pass Patrese to gain 4th place on lap 36 and then three laps later at exactly the same corner he passed Senna's McLaren.

In the late stages Senna started to slow, which allowed the Alesi / Berger battle to close up on him, but Senna's McLaren would survive to the finish for his third career win at Monaco.

Finally, on the last lap, Senna's car ran out of fuel.

Brazil was Senna's home race but he was able to do nothing to prevent the Williams being 1 – 2 in qualifying with Prost on pole ahead of Hill.

Finally, on the last lap, Senna's car ran out of fuel – again.

This was Senna's sixth win of the season, and third on the trot, with Prost on just four wins.

He would go on to win in Adelaide, and score eleven more points in total than Senna, but only the eleven highest scores counted, with Senna's eight wins and three seconds giving him a total of 90 points to Prost's 87.

The right rear wheel of the Brabham was launched into the air and landed on the front of Senna's Toleman, breaking the suspension.

Within moments of each other on Lap 22, Senna's right rear wheel came of in 5th gear on the main straight and he spun into the tire barrier in Turn one while under pressure from Keke Rosberg, and Cheever retired from third place with a cracked inter-cooler.

It was also reported by Toleman that Senna's suspension was on the point of collapse after an earlier incident, with the team believing that the damage was sufficient to cause his retirement within 2-3 laps of when the shag was shown.

Three times world champion Ayrton Senna's first F1 win in 1985, Nigel Mansell's notorious black flag incident and subsequent collision with Senna in 1989, Jacques Villeneuve's overtaking Michael Schumacher around the outside of the final turn in 1996, and Riccardo Patrese's being launched airborne in a near-backward flip after colliding with Gerhard Berger on the main straight in 1992.

Also, on several occasions third drivers have acted as reserves, racing if one of the team's two race drivers is injured or otherwise unable to race, as in Bruno Senna's case in the Renault F1 team in the 2011 season.

After a spin at the chicane on the first lap, Nakajima charged hard through the field, setting the fastest lap of the race ( 1: 38. 480 compared to Senna's pole time of 1: 16. 665 ) and was rewarded with 4th place, only 4. 648 seconds behind the Williams of Riccardo Patrese.

Her short story collection titled You Are Free ( 2011 ) contains eight stories, all of which draw upon Senna's familiar focus on black – white relations but also introduce a significant new theme of the contrast between motherhood and non-motherhood.