Prost v Senna, Suzuka '89: Malice in Hondaland
From the Autosport magazine archive, this is the full race report from the October 26 issue in 1989, when the F1 World Championship was decided after Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna collided, leading to a surprise victory for Benetton's Alessandro Nannini – but only after the stewards had intervened...
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Alain Prost is World Champion. Or was, for a few minutes at Suzuka on Sunday evening. In their penultimate race as team-mates, he and Ayrton Senna finally tangled; and in extraordinary circumstances the Brazilian, despite the delay, went on to ‘win’ the race, only to be swiftly disqualified. That left victory to Sandro Nannini. But then McLaren appealed against the decision on Senna.
All the gloomy predictions of wet days at Suzuka were dismissed finally on race morning. There was not the heat of Friday, nor the blue skies, but the day was warm enough, dry. Perfect for a day of reckoning, with no wild card in the elements.
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