It was under heavy rain, with Grand Chelem humiliating the second placed and the rest of the grid
EXACTLY 40 YEARS AGO
It was raining as if the world was melting.
And it was in this watery chaos that Ayrton Senna won his first F1 race — impressively, with more than 1 minute ahead of the second-place driver.
Yes, one minute.
Senna started from pole position in the black and gold Lotus 97T (the iconic John Player Special).
In the standings, he was 0.4 seconds ahead of P2, a certain Alain Prost
But it was only the second race of the season… and of his career with Lotus.
No one expected such an absurd dominance.
And that was exactly it: dominance.
Senna led every lap.
He took pole, won and even set the fastest lap.
A GRAND CHELEM IN HIS FIRST VICTORY
In the wet.
Without traction control.
With a manual gearbox.
And with his right foot heavier than the rain.
While others made mistakes and spun, he danced with the car in the water.
🟡 A Lotus engineer, Steve Hallam, said:
“Senna got into a rhythm that no one else could match. Asking him to slow down was more dangerous than letting him speed up.”
The legend of the Rain King began
And look at the podium:
🥇 A. Senna (Lotus)
🥈 M. Alboreto (Ferrari)
🥉 P. Tambay (Renault)
He would go on to win 40 more races,
take a total of 65 pole positions, and win 3 world titles.
But you never forget your first time — especially when it's in the middle of a downpour, with the world watching.
And there's more: at the beginning of that year, Senna suffered from partial facial paralysis, known as Bell's palsy (visible in interviews).
Even after recovering, the victory in Estoril had an even more special flavor.
It was the first major achievement after overcoming a real personal challenge.
🏁 40 years ago, Senna didn't just win his first F1 race.