1989-90 SeasonRaces: 1989 GER-1990 GBR (Best 11 Results out of 16; Total Points/Tiebreaker Criteria in Brackets)
Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Locked in battle (and in this case, wheels)
throughout the 1989-90 season.
Senna versus Prost. The rivalry for all the ages. Things were heating up between the two, especially with the tight battle the two McLaren teammates have had for the past two seasons of the In-Betweener Championships. Prost, the
six-time In-Betweener champion had managed to eke out championship victories over Ayrton Senna with the slightest smidges of luck; DNFs and DSQs aplenty for Senna over the past two seasons, but safe and simple driving from Prost has led him to success. Where does this go from here?
Why, to this wonder of a season, of course.
The season started with Ayrton Senna having a cracker of a start to the season, scoring two victories and a second place in the first three races of the season as Alain Prost lagged behind fairly uncompetitively. Prost went on to furiously claim that Senna's McLaren was being treated much better by the garage and given significantly better Honda engines than him and, in a huff, announced that he will depart to Ferrari come the new year. Until then, he'd just have to rely on his raw pace and a little dash of luck to catch up to Ayrton...
...and Prost got two heavy dashes of such luck. At the Italian Grand Prix, with eight laps to go and in the lead of the race,
Senna's Honda engine blows right up, gifting Alain the victory. And in the next race in Portugal, Senna gets
punted off by an already-disqualified Nigel Mansell. Two incidents ending Senna's races, both completely not of his own doing, pushed Prost to within a point of Senna come Japan. And, in Japan, whatever chemistry and camaraderie the two incredible talents had left were burnt at the stake as they locked wheels in Japan, forcing Prost out of the race. Senna went on to fight back to take an incredible victory after said impact, only for it to be taken away via disqualification after a driver complained that he cut the chicane after the collision. That driver?
Duh. Prost. Who else did you think it would be?
And as 1990 rolled around, with Prost in a new set of wheels, the battle continued to rage on, with Senna and Prost both trading results within the first three races of 1990, with both drivers ending up honours even come the end of the San Marino Grand Prix. These next five races, from Monaco to Great Britian, will write history and tell the tale of who was really the
better driver. And, yes, the dropped points rule is still in effect.
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Championship Standings: 1990 San Marino Grand Prix (5 Rounds To Go)1. Ayrton Senna -- 46 -- 4 wins, 1 2nd, 1 3rd
2. Alain Prost -- 46 -- 2 wins, 3 2nds, 1 3rd -- Drops a max. of 3 points
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The next race of the season is Monaco, and the one rule of Monaco is that nobody stops Senna in Monaco except for the wall. Senna kept a cool head to maintain a one-second lead ahead of the French driver in 2nd place as he crossed the line. The only problem for Prost? Prost wasn't the French driver in 2nd place, that was Jean Alesi. Prost succumbed to battery problems midway through and dropped out. Canada, likewise, was not a good race for Prost. In fact, it may have just been his worst race of the season. Botched the start and fell to sixth, couldn't even find his way past Nicola Larini until the Italian was wiped out by Thierry Boutsen, succumbed to Nelson Piquet and his now-teammate Mansell and he couldn't even make up on Gerhard Berger's one minute time penalty.
Senna, meanwhile, won the race, and the gap extended by quite a bit...
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Championship Standings: 1990 Canadian Grand Prix (3 Rounds To Go)1. Ayrton Senna -- 64 -- 6 wins, 1 2nd, 1 3rd
2. Alain Prost -- 48 -- 2 wins, 3 2nds, 1 3rd -- Drops a max. of 2 points
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All Senna needed to really seal the championship up was a win. He already had six of those to Prost's two. Prost had to pull back with three victories in the final three races, but with the way his season was going, it surely seemed improbable.
In Mexico, Ayrton Senna went for a risky strategy: Don't stop for tyres. It would've had made Senna's championship had it all worked out. Only problem was that it didn't. Senna's tyres kept degrading and degrading, and eventually, pop went the weasel. All Senna needed to seal the championship up was a win. Instead, he ended up with a big fat DNF and the win went to Prost.
Senna -- 64
Prost -- 57The next event was in France. That day, Senna once again blasted into a lead ahead of Prost from the start of the race until the Ferrari made the decision to pit earlier than the McLaren for tyres. This time, Senna made the wise decision to actually pit for tyres, wary of his blowout in Mexico. Only problem was that his mechanics on the left-rear tyre
bungled their job, and Senna was dispatched behind Prost and a bunch of other cars. No problem for the Brazilian though. He'd just pass everyone he could and wait for the surprises of the day, Leyton House, to make their pit stops.
Except that none of the sky blue cars pulled into the pits. And Prost had overtaken Ivan Capelli for the lead. Surely, as Senna experienced in Mexico, Capelli's tyres will weather and blister, degrade and fade, and Senna will slip and slide into a comfortable second place. And yes, Capelli's tyres did fade. But Senna never overtook the Leyton House. And finished third.
Senna -- 68
Prost -- 66 -- Drops 2 points
And so it would come down to the final race: the British Grand Prix. Senna would need a second place if Prost wins. A fourth place if Prost comes in second. A sixth if Prost is third. And The Professor couldn't afford to finish fourth.
At the start, Senna rocketed off into the lead ahead of Nigel Mansell and Gerhard Berger. Mansell was determined to make his home fans happy, as he should. He started harrying Senna for the lead. He'd dive up the inside, but it wouldn't quite stick. On lap 12, he did so again and finally stuck it, placing the Ferrari ahead of Senna's McLaren. Still second place, and ahead of Prost in fourth, it was an alright position to be in...
On lap fourteen, Senna made a very, very uncharacteristic mistake. He took Copse a bit too hot, ran a little wide, bottomed out his car on the kerb...
...
and spun.Flat-spotted his tyres, necessitating a pit stop all the way down to tenth. He would climb back up to third place.
As for Prost?
He would muscle his way past Berger on lap 31, and then Mansell's Ferrari started to peter out bit by bit. And, on lap 43, Prost was past and in the lead.
And he would not give it up at all.
And so, in the 1989-1990 season, your champion is Alain Prost for the
SEVENTH time. And, for the second consecutive time, a spin in the British Grand Prix has denied Ayrton Senna of an In-Betweener Championship.
Alain Prost setting off a spark at the 1990 Canadian Grand Prix1. Alain Prost -- 73 (75)2. Ayrton Senna -- 72
3. Gerhard Berger -- 46
4. Thierry Boutsen -- 41
5. Nigel Mansell -- 30
6. Riccardo Patrese -- 28
7. Alessandro Nannini -- 27
8. Nelson Piquet -- 24
9. Jean Alesi -- 18
10. Ivan Capelli -- 6
11. Stefan Johansson -- 4 (1 3rd)
12. Satoru Nakajima -- 4 (1 4th,1 6th, 1 7th)
13. Eric Bernard -- 4 (1 4th, 1 6th, 2 8ths)
14. Derek Warwick -- 4 (4 6ths)
15. Pierluigi Martini -- 3 (1 5th,1 6th, 2 7ths)
16. Martin Brundle -- 3 (1 5th, 1 6th, 2 8ths)
17. Alex Caffi -- 2 (1 5th, 2 7ths)
18. Stefano Modena -- 2 (1 5ths, 1 7th)
19. Emanuele Pirro -- 2 (1 5th, 1 8th, 1 10th)
20. Eddie Cheever -- 2 (1 5th, 1 8th, 1 12th)
21. Aguri Suzuki -- 1 (1 6th, 1 7th, 8 DNPQs)
22. Philippe Alliot -- 1 (1 6th, 3 9ths)
23. Jonathan Palmer -- 1 (1 6th, 1 10th)