Ayrton Senna’s record-breaking Monaco Grand Prix McLaren to be auctioned in May
The car in which Ayrton Senna took his final Monaco Grand Prix victory, the 1993 McLaren MP4/8A, will be auctioned by Bonhams on May 11.
Senna won the Monaco GP a record six times, with five consecutive wins between 1989 and 1993. He competed on a race-by-race basis in 1993 for a rumoured fee of $1million per race, driving this MP4/8 (chassis number 6) for eight races.
He was injured on the Friday of the Monaco Grand Prix at Ste Devote corner but the chassis was repaired in time for Saturday, allowing Senna to qualify third behind Alain Prost and polesitter Michael Schumacher. Prost received a 10sec penalty for jumping the start, and then Schumacher retired with a hydraulic failure on lap 33.
Senna came through to win the race, 15 seconds ahead of Williams’ Damon Hill, breaking Graham Hill’s long-standing record for most Monaco GP victories.
This McLaren was raced in the Canadian, French, British, German and Italian GPs, and is now being auctioned at Bonhams’ Monaco Sale on the 25th anniversary of his Monaco GP victory. It will be displayed at Le Grand Palais, Paris, on February 6-8.