“It was impossible! We had a race, a very bad one”: Ayrton Senna fumes after winning the second shortest race F1 race

Let us look back at the second shortest race in Formula 1 history which gave Ayrton Senna his third championship and hospitalized the retiring Nigel Mansell

The 1991 Australian Grand Prix held at Adelaide Street Circuit is the second shortest race in F1 history just behind the Belgian Grand Prix of 2021.

Rainy weather welcomed the drivers and the team to Adelaide. Aryton Senna had already won the championship ahead of Nigel Mansell. However, the constructor’s championship fight was still ongoing between McLaren and Williams.

On the previous day of qualifying, Senna put a stellar lap and secured the pole position ahead of Gerhard Berger and Nigel Mansell. While Ferrari fired Alain Prost after he complained that the Ferrari642 handled like a truck. Italian driver Gianni Morbidelli replaced him for the race.

Spinning cars and incidents

After a slippery start, Mansell started closing on the Brazilian and the fans were excited about the duel. However, the fans were disappointed with the aftermath as the race was yellow-flagged due to incidents. Five drivers including Michael Schumacher, Jean Alesi retired from the race. It became very difficult for the drivers to view as the rain kept increasing.

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This was Nigel Mansell’s last race in Formula One and he spun twice. However, he passed Barger for the second position but later crashed out. He was taken to the hospital and said to the media: “Everything was ok other than it was a complete joke. I mean there was debris all over the place. I’ve got a headache like there’s no tomorrow, so I’ve probably had a little bit of a concussion”.

There were no signs of rain stopping and the conditions were worsening. Drivers spinning around, Ayrton Senna requested the race officials to stop the race as he waved furiously on track.

Today was even worse! – Ayrton Senna

The Brazilian eventually won the race followed by Nigel Mansell and Gerhard Berger. The Lion could not attend the podium celebrations as he was still in the hospital.

The FIA announced that half points were distributed between the drivers as the race was just 16 laps. Berger and Senna admitted that the constructors’ championship battle was the only reason they started the race.

The World champion added: “The biggest mistake we made was starting the race. I don’t think that was a race, it was just a matter of staying on the circuit, and there was no point to try to go quick at all.”

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“It was impossible! We had a race, a very bad one, here a couple of years ago and then was impossible and today was even worse! There was even more water on the back straight.” he concluded describing his experience over the race.