1993 Australian Grand Prix

1993 Australian Grand Prix
Race details
	Race 16 of 16 in the 1993 Formula One season
	;
Date	7 November 1993
Official name	LVIII Australian Grand Prix
Location	Adelaide Street Circuit; Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Course	Temporary street circuit ; 3.780 km (2.362 mi)
Distance	79 laps, 298.620 km (186.598 mi)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Time	1:13.371
Fastest lap
Time	1:15.381 on lap 64
Podium

The 1993 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Adelaide on 7 November 1993. It was the final round of the 1993 Formula One season.

Ayrton Senna finished his six-year spell with McLaren (before joining Williams for 1994) by taking his only pole position of the season (the only pole for the season not won by Williams drivers), and his fifth victory of the year. It was the last race that Senna won. This was the last race for cars with active suspension, which was banned from the 1994 season. Having taken his actively suspended Lotus 99T-Honda to victory in the 1987 Monaco Grand Prix, Senna was the first and the last driver to win a race driving an active suspension car.

It was the last race for four-time World Champion Alain Prost. Senna was so overcome with emotion, knowing his great rival was retiring, that he embraced Prost on top of the rostrum. (Prost's contract with Williams initially included a clause forbidding Senna from joining the team as his team-mate). Riccardo Patrese and Derek Warwick also retired from Formula One after this event, the former having competed in 256 Grands Prix (a record that stood for fifteen years until being beaten by Rubens Barrichello), and the latter signing off on a return year after two seasons' absence from the sport.

Two of the sport's more prominent sponsors withdrew from Formula One after this race. The Williams team's association with both Canon, which had started in 1984, and Camel led to the retirement of one of the sport's more iconic liveries; the famous Williams white, red, yellow and blue colour scheme being replaced by the blue and white of the Rothmans cigarette brand for 1994. Camel's withdrawal also meant the Benetton team were obliged to switch to sponsorship from Japanese cigarette brand Mild Seven for the following season. Canon would not reappear as a Formula One sponsor until the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix, in which the logos appeared on the flanks of the Brawn GP team's cars.

Report[]

Qualifying[]

Senna took his first pole position since the 1992 Canadian Grand Prix, in the process breaking a run of 24 straight poles for Williams and preventing that team from achieving a clean sweep for the season. Prost was alongside on the front row, with Damon Hill in the second Williams and Michael Schumacher in the Benetton on the second row, and Mika Häkkinen in the second McLaren and Gerhard Berger in the Ferrari on the third. Berger had his Saturday qualifying times removed after doing 18 laps, above the limit of 12. The top ten was completed by Jean Alesi in the second Ferrari, Martin Brundle in the Ligier, Patrese in the second Benetton, and Aguri Suzuki in the Footwork.

Despite being the fastest qualifier in his Ford V8-powered McLaren, Senna was some 15 km/h (9 mph) slower on the 890m-long Brabham Straight than the Renault V10-powered Williams of Hill.

Race[]

It took three attempts to get the race underway. On the first attempt, Brundle's Ligier was left on the grid at the start of the formation lap, before Ukyo Katayama stalled his Tyrrell and the start was aborted. On the second attempt, Eddie Irvine missed his grid slot and stalled his Jordan. Again, the start was aborted. Katayama and Irvine were sent to the back of the grid for the third, successful, attempt.

The top four retained their positions into the first corner, while Häkkinen made a bad start and fell behind Berger.

While Senna pulled out a small lead, the two Williamses and Schumacher stayed together. Schumacher passed Hill on lap 8 and attacked Prost. He pitted early on lap 15 and rejoined in fourth but his engine failed on lap 20. Senna pitted on lap 24, allowing Prost to lead until his own stop five laps later, while Häkkinen's race went from bad to worse as he had a slow stop, allowing Alesi and Brundle to get ahead of him, before his brakes failed on lap 29.

Senna pitted for the second time on lap 55, by which time the Williamses had already made their second stops, and this enabled the Brazilian to retain a healthy lead. Meanwhile, Alesi got ahead of team-mate Berger while Patrese got ahead of Brundle. On lap 61, Hill tried to catch Prost by surprise for second place. Prost, however, moved over to block, causing Hill to back off and spin, losing time but no places.

Senna duly won from Prost by nine seconds, with Hill a further 24 seconds back. Alesi and Berger were fourth and fifth, one lap down, while Patrese was set to finish sixth in his 256th and last race, only for his fuel pressure to drop on the last lap and thus hand Brundle the last point.

Prost thus signed off on his F1 career with his fourth Drivers' Championship and 99 points. Senna's win enabled him to secure second place in the standings with 73 points, just ahead of Hill on 69. Schumacher was fourth with 52, with a big gap to team-mate Patrese in fifth with 20, followed by Alesi (16), Brundle (13), Berger (12), Johnny Herbert (11) and Mark Blundell (10). In the Constructors' Championship, Williams finished with 168 points - four more than their tally from 1992, and double the tally of McLaren (84). Benetton were a close third with 72, while Ferrari (28) edged out Ligier (23) for fourth.

With Prost not defending his title, the Williams cars would once again bear the numbers 0 and 2 for 1994. This race was also Derek Warwick's last race.

Classification[]

Qualifying[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	8	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Ford	1:13.371	1:14.779	—
2	2	Alain Prost	Williams-Renault	1:13.807	1:14.595	+0.436
3	0	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	1:14.721	1:13.826	+0.455
4	5	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	1:14.098	1:14.494	+0.727
5	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Ford	1:14.106	1:14.596	+0.735
6	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:14.194	—	+0.823
7	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:15.332	1:15.619	+1.961
8	25	Martin Brundle	Ligier-Renault	1:16.022	1:16.710	+2.651
9	6	Riccardo Patrese	Benetton-Ford	1:16.077	1:21.076	+2.706
10	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:16.079	1:16.567	+2.708
11	29	Karl Wendlinger	Sauber	1:16.106	1:17.132	+2.735
12	30	JJ Lehto	Sauber	1:16.286	1:17.118	+2.915
13	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Hart	1:16.459	1:16.723	+3.088
14	26	Mark Blundell	Ligier-Renault	1:16.862	1:16.469	+3.098
15	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1:17.350	1:16.892	+3.521
16	24	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:16.905	1:17.816	+3.534
17	9	Derek Warwick	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	—	1:16.919	+3.548
18	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1:17.018	1:18.406	+3.647
19	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Hart	1:19.733	1:17.341	+3.970
20	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	1:17.612	1:17.450	+4.079
21	20	Érik Comas	Larrousse-Lamborghini	1:17.750	1:17.815	+4.379
22	23	Jean-Marc Gounon	Minardi-Ford	1:17.754	1:18.035	+4.383
23	11	Pedro Lamy	Lotus-Ford	1:19.628	1:19.369	+5.998
24	19	Toshio Suzuki	Larrousse-Lamborghini	1:21.793	1:23.167	+8.422

Race[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	8	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Ford	79	1:43:27.476	1	10
2	2	Alain Prost	Williams-Renault	79	+9.259	2	6
3	0	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	79	+33.902	3	4
4	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	78	+1 Lap	7	3
5	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	78	+1 Lap	6	2
6	25	Martin Brundle	Ligier-Renault	78	+1 Lap	8	1
7	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	78	+1 Lap	10
8	6	Riccardo Patrese	Benetton-Ford	77	Fuel system	9
9	26	Mark Blundell	Ligier-Renault	77	+2 Laps	14
10	9	Derek Warwick	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	77	+2 Laps	17
11	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Hart	76	+3 Laps	13
12	20	Érik Comas	Larrousse-Lamborghini	76	+3 Laps	21
13	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Yamaha	75	+4 Laps	15
14	19	Toshio Suzuki	Larrousse-Lamborghini	74	+5 Laps	24
15	29	Karl Wendlinger	Sauber	73	Brakes	11
Ret	30	JJ Lehto	Sauber	56	Accident	12
Ret	23	Jean-Marc Gounon	Minardi-Ford	34	Spun off	22
Ret	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren-Ford	28	Brakes	5
Ret	5	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	19	Engine	4
Ret	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	11	Spun off	18
Ret	15	Eddie Irvine	Jordan-Hart	10	Accident	19
Ret	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	9	Suspension	20
Ret	24	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	5	Gearbox	16
Ret	11	Pedro Lamy	Lotus-Ford	0	Accident	23

Lap leaders[]

Lap Leaders: Ayrton Senna 74 (1-23, 29-79); Alain Prost 5 (24-28)

Standings after the race[]

Bold Text indicates World Champions.

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Alain Prost	99
2	Ayrton Senna	73
3	Damon Hill	69
4	Michael Schumacher	52
5	Riccardo Patrese	20

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Williams-Renault	168
2	McLaren-Ford	84
3	Benetton-Ford	72
4	Ferrari	28
5	Ligier-Renault	23

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Previous race: 1993 Japanese Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1993 season	Next race: 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix
Previous race: 1992 Australian Grand Prix	Australian Grand Prix	Next race: 1994 Australian Grand Prix

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