Today marks the anniversary of one the biggest tragedy in motorsport history. It was today, 20 years ago, that Ayrton Senna died at the San Marino Grand Prix at the age of 34. Senna was the F1 World Champion in 1988, '90 and '91 and during his decade long career, remained one of the most dominant forces of the game.
His rivalry with, then McLaren teammate, Alain Prost filled pages on pages of newspapers as both vied for supremacy. It was in 1994, that Senna moved to Williams from McLaren and was said to be unhappy with the car he was driving. He did say that the car got better during the practice sessions but that weekend in Imola started off with tragedies.
Two days prior to the Grand Prix, Senna's protege, Rubens Barrichello, clipped a curb and crashed at the Variante Bassa chicane at high speed knocking him unconscious. Senna visited Barrichello at the medical centre. A day prior to the race Roland Ratzenberger died in qualifying at Imola which deeply moved the Brazilian ace driver.
With the weekend already off to a bad start, Senna set foot on the Imola circuit and was fastest during the warm-up laps. On the seventh lap, Senna's car spun off at the Tamburello curve and crashed into a concrete barrier at a speed of over 300km/h. Many news channels and experts of the sport say that Senna's head tilted towards the left before he crashed into the barrier. He never moved again.
Senna was airlifted to Maggiore Hospital and was kept on life-support. His heart stopped beating at 6:37pm and the legendary racer was pronounced dead. Brazil mourned the passing of Senna by declaring it a national tragedy and three days mourning.
There have been no fatalities in F1 since then but we all know that had Senna lived, he would have gone on to win more championships to become one of the greatest drivers that lived.
