The Race Ayrton Senna Won With One Gear Left

Second place had never been the problem. In six previous attempts at his home Brazilian Grand Prix, Ayrton Senna had come agonizingly close and found new ways to fail — engine failures, spins, a puncture. By 1991, his home crowd's patience had a real edge to it: the country's biggest star, and still no home win to show for it.

A lead that should have been comfortable

Senna took pole at Interlagos and led from the start, building what looked like a routine victory over Riccardo Patrese's Williams. Then, with around 20 laps still to run, his McLaren's gearbox began failing. Fourth gear went first. By lap 60 his lead over Patrese had been cut in half. Fifth and third followed soon after, and for the final seven laps of the race, Senna was left holding only sixth gear, nursing the car through every slow and medium-speed corner at Interlagos without stalling, a circuit that has no shortage of either.

Seven laps in one gear

Losing gears one at a time is bad enough; losing all but one, at the end of a Grand Prix, in front of a home crowd expecting a first win, is close to undriveable. Patrese closed the gap at roughly four seconds a lap. Senna held on to win by 2.9 seconds, a margin that had been comfortably larger only laps earlier, and nearly wasn't a margin at all.

What it cost him

The physical toll showed the moment the race ended. Senna needed help out of the cockpit and was taken to the podium in a medical car, gripped by cramps and muscle spasms so severe he could barely stand for the anthem. He later put it down to two things at once: a harness pulled slightly too tight, and the sheer emotional weight of finally winning at home. It remains one of the most-replayed finishes in the sport's history, not for the racing, but for what it took out of the man driving.

Senna would win at Interlagos again in 1993, his last home victory before his death the following year. But 1991 is the one every Brazilian fan brings up first — the year their driver won on one gear, and needed carrying afterward to prove it.