Finally he was king at his
own country.
Senna took pole. 1'16"392.
Senna led from Mansell and deep into the race Mansell stopped when
his gearbox failed. On lap 60 (of 71) Senna led Patrese by
40 seconds.
On lap 50 rain spattered. And Senna suffered a serious gearbox
problem. 'I lost third and fifth gear and one point just hooked into sixth.
I saw Patrese coming for me and I really didn't think I'd made it'.
Senna
Patrese
Lap 60 1'24"033
1'24"237
Lap 61 1'26"449
1'22"116
Lap 62 1'27"487
1'22"985
Seven laps to go and the gearbox went completely crazy. 'I thought
about it for one lap and decided to leave it in sixth and drive around
the circuit completely differently. In the high speed corners it
was not so bad in the medium and slow speed sections it was a disaster'.
On lap 67 the gap of 14.080 tumbled into a cascade. A lap later
9.6. On lap 68 5.4.
'I was suffering from cramps and muscle spasms in my upper body, partly
because the harness was so tight, partly because of emotion'. Two
laps to go and Patrese enlarging in the mirrors. On lap 40 the gap
was 4.1, and rain fell harder. Into the last lap (3.6) Senna stabbed
his arm upwards. Stop the race. He didn't need that. The rain
slowed Patrese.
'After the checkered flag I lost the engine completely.
And then the pain was unbelievable. I tried to relax a bit.
I had such a huge pain in my shoulders, in my side, and I didn't know whether
to shout or cry, or to smile. I didn't know what was going on.
I just wanted to get back to the podium'.
Senna won his home-Gp for the first time, after having so much problems
in the previous races, even though he still had a lot this race, he still
managed to win it.
Page created on 28/02/2000 - SWORLD-
