How much do you know about Ayrton Senna? | Quiz

Answer: 21st March 1960

Answer: 1977

Only four years after competing in his first professional kart race, Senna wrapped up his first SA title quite comfortably.

Answer: 12

Senna dominated the 1981 Formula Ford 1600 Championship. He won races at Brands Hatch (2), Oulton Park (all 3), Mallory Park (2), Snetterton (2), Donington (2) and Thruxton. Senna won both the RAC FF Championship and the Townsend-Thoreson (TT) Championship.

Answer: West Surrey Racing

Senna dominated Formula Three like he had the previous two years in Formula Ford, although he met some stern resistance from young British star Martin Brundle. Combined with the Ralt-Toyota, Senna marched to the title, taking 14 pole positions and 11 wins, including an incredible 9 in a row from the 1st race of the season. Senna's performances that season immediately caught the eye of many prospective Formula One teams, including the likes of Williams and McLaren.

Answer: South Africa

It would not take Ayrton long to get to grips with Formula One, finishing in 6th place in only his second Formula One start.

Answer: Jacky Ickx

One of the most exciting, and wettest, races ever was deemed to be too wet to continue, which caused an uproar as conditions were no worse than previous when the race was stopped. Some saw the decision to stop the race as favouritism towards Frenchman Prost. Ayrton was just pleased to be on the podium, alongside another hard charger, Stefan Bellof, who had come from well back to finish third.

Answer: 6

Ayrton won 6 races for Lotus, 2 in each season 1985-86-87. He would take an emotional first victory in atrocious conditions at Estoril and another one later in the year at Spa-Francorchamps, a circuit he would win at another 4 times. In 1986, Senna won in Spain, in the famous duel with Nigel Mansell in which they were seperated by only a tenth of a second at the finish.

He would also win the American GP mid-year. 1987 saw Ayrton with the potent Honda turbo now behind him instead of the ripsnorty, but thirsty Renault unit.

However, Ayrton could still only manage two victories, his first one at Monaco (a circuit he would come to dominate) and again in the USA.

Answer: Stefan Johansson

Sadly for Stefan, he was seen as only a stop-gap measure until McLaren could sign Senna.

Answer: Derek Warwick

Ayrton's main reason for not letting Lotus sign Warwick was that he believed Lotus were incapable of supplying two equally competitive cars, and to a point Ayrton was justified. However, there was a bitter reaction from sections of the press, most notably the British, who crucified Senna from blocking one of Britain's best hopes for a championship.

Answer: Imola

It was this incident at Imola that is reckoned to have set off the bitter feud that would consume these two drivers from then until the time of Prost's retirement. Prost assumed that the first 'real' corner was Tosa, and having got the better start, did not reckon on Senna overtaking him. Senna had two arguments: he said he did not know of any such agreement, and also stated that the first corner was the Tamburello or Villeneuve, and as such was free to overtake Prost at Tosa.

Answer: Gearbox selector problems

From about the 50th lap onwards, Ayrton started suffering various degrees of problems with his gearbox. Sometimes the shifter would miss a gear, other times it would jump out of gear, and this was frustrating for Ayrton as he was leading the race comfortably. Seven laps before the end, he only has sixth gear left but managed to stroke the car home to take an emotional hometown victory.

The pictures and footage after the race showed how hard the race had been. He could barely lift his trophy!

Answer: Jean Alesi

It was a case of absolute driving perfection, a thing of beauty. There is no real need to describe it as I'm sure everyone has surely seen it at least once. Absolute brilliance.

Answer: Nigel Mansell

From laps 70 to 77, Ayrton had to resist unbelievable pressure. But Mansell, in a superior car and on brand new tyres which gave a tremendous amount of grip, could not find a way past Ayrton.

Answer: Nacional

Answer: 65

65 poles in 141 races. Quite an achievement.