20th, Ayrton Senna's Epic Rain Masterclass at the 1993 GP of Europe
It was always going to be a momentous day. Since reopening the Donington Park circuit in 1977, driving force Tom Wheatcroft had pledged to bring Grand Prix racing back there for the first time since the Silver Arrows captured local imagination in the 1930s.
Mission accomplished. Wheatcroft defied medical wisdom to attend – he was recovering from a recent heart attack – but that was too great a trifle to keep him away… or prevent him completing a pre-race demonstration run (via a gravel trap detour) in a Mercedes-Benz W154.
The mood was bright, but the same could not be said of the conditions. The Williams–Renaults of Alain Prost and Damon Hill had dominated Saturday’s sun-dappled qualifying, but now things were distinctly British Racing Grey. Prost and Hill led away, while serial nuisance Ayrton Senna made an uncharacteristically sluggish start from row two and was scrapping for fifth place as the field scrambled through Redgate for the first time. When he reappeared at the same spot 90-odd seconds later, he led by several lengths. Where others wondered about grip on the greasy surface, he’d simply found it and sliced his way to the front. Such was the Brazilian’s lead that McLaren assumed Prost must have been off the road – which he hadn’t.