A series of mistakes during the British Grand Prix held at Silverstone on 21 July 1985 had a direct impact on Ayrton Senna’s performance in the race.
Initial errors were on the part of his team, Lotus.
First, the amount of time it took to change Ayrton’s engine between the practice and qualifying sessions, took up precious minutes for fine tuning. During qualifying, the Lotus car was oversteering on the high-speed corners, and the driver had to wait another half hour for it to be set up again.
When he finally returned, there were less than five minutes left in the qualifying session, and shortly afterward, the front brakes of his car went out.
Despite the challenges, Senna kept pushing for the pole position. However, while approaching the last corner, a brake failure emerged as a critical issue. He still secured the fourth-best time.
At the start, there were no mistakes: the takeoff was good, he outpaced several drivers and assumed the lead on the second lap, maintaining this position until his car broke down at the 60th lap – only six to the end.
Or should we say five? The race director called off the race one lap before the established 66, another letdown in the trajectory of events.
British gp
1º
T. Fabi
2º
S. Johansson
3º
A. Prost
4º
K. Rosberg
5º
Ayrton Senna
6º
N. Piquet
7º
E. de Angelis
8º
M. Alboreto
9º
R. Patrese
10º
N. Mansell
11º
M. Surer
12º
N. Lauda
13º
J. Laffite
14º
A. de Cesaris
15º
T. Boutsen
16º
P. Tambay
17º
G. Berger
18º
E. Cheever
19º
S. Bellof
20º
D. Warwick
21º
P. Alliot
22º
M. Winkelhock
23º
F. Hesnault
24º
J. Palmer
25º
H. Rothengatter
26º
M. Brundle
27º
P. Martini
65
laps
26
cars
15
Retirements
1’09”886
fastest lap
1º
Cloudy weather
podium
1º
A. Prost
2º
M. Alboreto
3º
J. Laffite
–
final position (retired on lap 60)
8º
position in championship following the race
4º
starting place
0
championship points accumulated
1’10”032
best lap
