Ayrton Senna won the 1993 Australian Grand Prix which was his 41st and last career victory in his last race for McLaren, where he won all of his three drivers’ championship while it was also the last F1 race for four time world champion Alain Prost.

The second was Alain Prost in Williams, world champion in 1993. who was driving his the last race of his career and who secured his fourth title two races earlier. Senna was very emotional after the race and embraced his biggest rival on the podium.

Also, at that time it was announced that the Australian Grand Prix in 1996. will be held in Melbourne.

For Senna, it was the fifth victory of the season and he won the first and only pole position this year, which was the only pole position in 1993 which did not win any of the Williams drivers.

Also, it was the last race for the active suspension that will be banned from 1994 (as well as traction control, anti lock brakes, etc.).

Senna was also the driver who won the first (1987 Monaco Grand Prix in a Lotus 99T Honda) and final race with the car with an active suspension (McLaren Ford MP4/8).

1993 Australian Grand Prix was the last race for Riccardo Patrese and Derek Warwick. It was the record 256th race for Patrese, which was equalized only by Rubens Barrichello in 2008 Canadian GP and surpassed at the next race in France.

After this race the two major sponsors of the Williams team withdrew from Formula 1. Canon, which was their sponsor from 1984 and Camel, which was one of the most recognizable liveries in history of motorsport. After Camel withdrawal Benetton turned to Japanese cigarette brand Mild Seven in 1994. Next time Canon appeared as a sponsor on the F1 car was at the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix on the sidepods of Brawn BGP001 car.

Senna halts Williams’ pole streak

Senna Ford won the first pole position in 1993 in his McLaren MP4-8 (1:13.371) after the 1992 Canadian Grand Prix which broke Williams’ streak of 24 pole positions and prevent their superior FW15C to win all pole positions in 1993.

Prost joined Senna on the front row (+0.436 s) and third was his team-mate Hill (+0.455 s), ahead of Michael Schumacher in Benetton (+0.727 s) and Hakkinen in McLaren (+0.735 s). Although he posted the fastest time, Senna in his McLaren with a Ford V8 engine was 15 km/h slower than Williams with Renault V10 engine on the 890 m long Brabham straight.

Alain Prost completed the clean sweep of front row starts in 1993 which was also achieved by only two more drivers in F1 history – Senna in 1989 and Hill 1996, both in a 16 races calendar.

The race has started only at third attempt, after unsuccessful starts of Brundle and Katayama and Irvine who missed his place and stalled on the second start. Katayama and Irvine were sent to the back of the grid and the third start was successful.

Senna led almost the entire race (74 of 79 laps) while Prost led remaining five laps. The exciting moment was in lap 61 when Hill tried to surprise Prost but Frenchman blocked him, after which Hill spun and lost time, but not the third place.

Senna won nine seconds ahead of Prost and 24 seconds ahead of Hill. Alesi and Berger were fourth and fifth, one lap behind the winner, and Patrese should have finished his 256th and last F1 race in sixth, but a drop in pressure in the fuel injection system in the last lap forced him to slow down. He fell to eight place, behind Brundle and Suzuki, and missed the points in his final race.

Senna and Prost last time on the podium

Australian Grand Prix 1993 was also the last race with both Senna and Prost on the podium. The Brazilian died at the third race of the championship at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in Imola (after retiring in the first two races from pole position) while Prost retired at the end of 1993.

Alain Prost demanded from Williams that Senna cannot be his team-mate in 1993, but that was not the case for 1994 when Prost retired and Senna joined Williams.

Prost had plenty of negative experiences with Senna at McLaren in 1989 when he claimed he ‘was impossible to work with’ because the Brazilian turned the whole team on his side and didn’t respect team agreements (Imola).

However, Senna has repeatedly emphasized that his biggest rival was Prost, with whom he had a much better relationship when he retired from Formula 1. But on track, Senna found harder to motivate himself once when his arch rival retired from the sport.

RESULTS

1Ayrton SennaMcLaren/Ford791:43’27.476 
2Alain ProstWilliams/Renault791:43’36.7359.259
3Damon HillWilliams/Renault791:44’01.37833.902
427 Jean AlesiFerrari781:43’28.0211 Lap
528 Gerhard BergerFerrari781:43’28.4521 Lap
625 Martin BrundleLigier/Renault781:44’23.7451 Lap
710 Aguri SuzukiFootwork/Mugen-Honda781:44’37.0991 Lap
8Riccardo PatreseBenetton/Ford771:43’16.832fuel system
926 Mark BlundellLigier/Renault771:44’07.0112 laps
10Derek WarwickFootwork/Mugen-Honda771:44’33.9792 laps
1114 R.BarrichelloJordan/Hart761:44’18.8203 laps
1220 Érik ComasLarrousse/Lamborghini761:44’19.5373 laps
13A.de CesarisTyrrell/Yamaha751:44’35.4064 laps
1419 Toshio SuzukiLarrousse/Lamborghini741:44’45.3575 laps
1529 Karl WendlingerSauber731:37’54.093brakes
 
(10)30 J J LehtoSauber561:15’45.119spun off
(16)23 Jean-Marc GounonMinardi/Ford3447’46.198spun off
(6)Mika HäkkinenMcLaren/Ford2837’54.134brakes
(4)M.SchumacherBenetton/Ford1925’17.566engine
(18)Ukyo KatayamaTyrrell/Yamaha1115’35.117spun off
(18)15 Eddie IrvineJordan/Hart1014’07.301spun off
(14)12 Johnny HerbertLotus/Ford912’29.181suspension
(15)24 P.MartiniMinardi/Ford57’07.277gearbox
 11 Pedro LamyLotus/Ford0collision
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