Video worth watching: Sit onboard with Ayrton Senna as he blitzes the 1990 Monaco GP qualifying
Formula One has had many greats come and go, but few stand on the same platform as Ayrton Senna does. The Brazilian racing driver is famous for his ridiculous skill and pace, not on in the dry but also in the wet. Another talking point when it comes to Senna is his mastery over the Monaco circuit in Monte Carlo. During his Formula One career spanning 10 years, Senna won the Monaco Grand Prix a record six times.
Senna's driving abilities, however, were at their peak during qualifying, when race cars were driven to their absolute limits to get the fastest lap times. An example of this is Senna's onboard lap at the Monaco GP qualifying in 1990. His extension for the season was the Mclaren MP4/5B, churning out around 700PS from its longitudinally mounted 3.5-litre V10. Screamer of an engine, that. With a weight of 500kg, that's good for an obscene power-to-weight ratio of nearly 1,400PS/tonne. Senna's ability to fly through Monaco's technical corners with just a hair's width between his tyre and the barrier is a testament to the man's status in the motorsport. It's a shame that his brilliance was cut short after his fatal crash at Imola in 1994.
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