Throwback Thurs | Remember Senna

A Look Back to the 1988 Monaco GP Lap

Ayrton Senna’s qualifying lap during the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix is widely regarded as the best single lap in F1 history.

On May 1st, 2014, 20 years to the day since Ayrton was killed in a fatal crash in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, the Official McLaren YouTube channel presented an epic portrayal of Senna’s Monaco 1988 qualifying lap to commemorate the life and career of a legend. Here’s the video:

Video | Remember Senna

Ayrton Senna’s career spanned 161 races and included 41 wins and 65 pole positions. At the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix, he took the pole position with a time of 1:23:998. Senna himself described the practice sessions for the 1988 Monaco GP as an incredible experience that scared him a little.

“On that day, I said to myself, ‘That was the maximum for me; no room for anything more,’” Senna once said. “I never really reached that feeling again.”

“I was kind of driving it by instinct, only I was in a different dimension. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more. Then, suddenly, something just kicked me. I kind of woke up and I realized that I was in a different atmosphere than you normally are.”