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
Driver	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Ford
Time	1:13.371
Fastest lap
Driver	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault
Time	1:15.381
Podium
First	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Ford
Second	Alain Prost	Williams-Renault
Third	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault

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 a Lotus 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 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 but it expired for the upcoming 1994 season, so Prost opted to retire rather than partner Senna.) Riccardo Patrese also retired from Formula One after this event, having competed in 256 Grands Prix; a record that was only broken fifteen years later, by Rubens Barrichello. Derek Warwick also retired from Formula One for good after the 1993 season being a return year for Warwick after 2 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 Mild Seven sponsorship 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

The last race of the season was in Adelaide and Senna prevented the Williams team from a clean sweep of poles by taking pole ahead of Prost, Hill, Schumacher, Häkkinen and Berger. On Saturday afternoon, Gerhard Berger did an incredible 18 laps (12 were allowed), and promptly had his Saturday qualifying times removed.

Race

There were difficulties getting the race going. When the drivers started warm-up lap, Martin Brundle's car was left on the grid. While cars returned to the grid to get ready, Ukyo Katayama stalled and the start was aborted. Brundle was allowed to get his original position back. While cars lined up for the second time, Eddie Irvine missed his grid slot and stalled his car. Again, the start was aborted. Katayama and Irvine had to start from the back of the grid when the race got going on third attempt.

At the start, the top 4 stayed the same while Berger got ahead of Häkkinen.

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. During the stops, Häkkinen was slow and Alesi and Brundle got ahead of him. His brakes failed on lap 29.

During the second round of stops, Senna kept his 10 second lead while Alesi got ahead of Berger and Patrese got ahead of Brundle. On lap 61, Hill tried to catch Prost by surprise to take second. As Prost moved over to block, Hill had to back off and he spun, losing time but no places. Patrese was set to finish sixth in his 256th and last race but his fuel pressure dropped on the last lap. Senna won with Prost finishing his last race in second ahead of Hill, Alesi, Berger and Brundle.

At the end of the season, Prost finished off his career with the World Championship with 99 points with arch-rival Senna second with 73, Hill third with 69, Schumacher fourth with 52, Patrese fifth with 20, Alesi sixth with 16, Brundle seventh with 13 and Berger eighth with 12. In the Constructors' Championship, Williams were dominant World Champions with 168 points, double the tally of second-placed McLaren who got 84 and just beat Benetton with 72 into third. Ferrari were fourth with 28 - better than 1992, but still a disappointing season by their high standards, but way better than Tyrrell, who failed to score championship points for the first time in a long time (remember: in 1984 when the Tyrrell team had its results disallowed, they had gained points on several occasions, which were eventually taken away from the Tyrrell team).

With Prost not defending his title, the Williams cars would once again bear 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.