“It frightened me because I realized that I was well beyond my conscious understanding. It happens rarely, but I keep those experiences very much alive in me because that is something that is important for self preservation.”
In that same 1988 Monaco Grand Prix, Senna was leading with a 50-second advantage over McLaren teammate Prost. Suddenly, inexplicably, Senna crashed into the barrier at the Portier corner just before the tunnel.
Senna was so upset with his mistake that he walked immediately to his apartment and did not talk to anyone for several hours.
“His post-accident emotion was pure anger with himself,” recalled McLaren team owner Ron Dennis. “I have never seen or heard him more frustrated and angry. He couldn’t cope with it at all. He was almost incoherent when he ultimately sort of spoke. He walked back to his apartment and it was two or three hours before he surfaced, but when he surfaced he had regained composure and was still very, very negative about his own performance, and very apologetic to the team.”
Senna later said he had a religious experience based on what happened that afternoon in Monaco.
“I am religious,” he said in the book “Grand Prix People.” “I believe in God, through Jesus. I was brought up that way, was maybe drifting away from it, but suddenly turned the other way. It was a buildup of things that reached a peak and then I had a kind of a crisis. Monaco was the peak, and it made me realize a lot of things.”
Besides that unbelievable sequence of laps that put him on the pole in 1988, Senna also started from the pole in 1985, ’89, ’90 and ’91.
His first victory at Monaco was in 1987. He challenged Mansell for the lead, but Senna’s Lotus was no match for Mansell’s Williams. When Mansell retired on lap 30 with a turbo failure, Senna cruised to victory.
After the infamous episodes of the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix, Senna returned as world champion in 1989, qualified on pole and led every lap. He did the same thing to win in 1990 and in 1991.
In 1992, the Williams was by far the best car in the field and Mansell won the first five races of the season. Then came round six in Monaco. Mansell qualified on the pole and led until eight laps from the end when he had to pit because of a punctured rear tire. Senna was now in first place and he held off Mansell in an intense and closely fought duel to the checkered flag.
Prost and Schumacher both led the 1993 Monaco Grand Prix, but each suffered a mechanical failure and Senna went by to win the race for a record sixth time.
They called Hill Mr. Monaco. Senna, however, was the Monaco Master.