British F3 round 11 – Cadwell Park

19 June 1983.

Qualifying: 1:22.57 (1); did not take part.

Pole: Brundle 1:22.58.

Result: Did not start the race.

In first qualifying Senna and Brundle dueled  and were within that fraction of each other -0.01 – but, lapping a second under Mansilla’s year-old record, Senna “strayed slightly wide on to the grass exiting the right-hander at the foot of the hill. He kept the power on in an effort to regain the track but simply ran out of road and smashed virtually headlong into the marshals’ post at the top. His car was a sorry mess indeed and both he and the nearby marshals, one of whom was treated for bruises and shock, were most fortunate not to be hurt” (Autosport).

Here, ultimately and perhaps inevitably, was a single question: could Senna take the heat he himself generated? He’d habitually laid it on others. Eddie Jordan, an arch psychologist, had been exerting his formidable powers of persuasion on Brundle and Brundle was responding.

• Podium: Brundle, Fish, Jones.

• Fastest lap: Brundle.

• Championship: Senna 88, Brundle 64, Jones 39