Ayrton Senna qualified fourth for the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington Park, behind two Williams cars that were, by common consent, close to a second a lap quicker than his McLaren. He dropped to fifth at the first corner.
The opening lap
He passed Michael Schumacher at Redgate, Karl Wendlinger at the Craner Curves, Damon Hill into the Old Hairpin and Alain Prost at the chicane. By the end of the lap he led, in conditions that were wet in places and drying in others.
The rest of it
The race featured repeated changes between wet and dry tyres — Prost stopped seven times — and Senna made fewer errors than anyone in judging them. He won by 1 minute 23 seconds from Hill, having lapped the entire field bar the two Williams cars.
It was one of three wins he took in 1993 in a car generally regarded as the third-quickest on the grid. He moved to Williams for 1994 and was killed at Imola in May of that year.
The opening lap at Donington remains the piece of driving most often cited when people argue about which of them was the best, which is an argument that a single lap cannot settle and has never stopped fuelling.
