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VIDEO: Ayrton Senna's 5 greatest moments

Celebrating the Brazilian's finest achievements on the 21st anniversary of his death

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Today marks the 21st anniversary of Ayrton Senna's death at Imola.

There is no need to go back over the story, it's been told far too many times, but it is a good opportunity to remind ourselves why he was so revered by watching what he did best, drive cars faster than anyone else.

Even now, two decades after his death, those that worked with and raced against Senna continue to rank him as the greatest driver Formula One has ever seen.

So without further ado, here are five of Senna's greatest moments.

1990 Spanish Grand Prix - Pole lap Jerez

This is Senna at his finest, absolutely flat-out during qualifying, a lap that would win him pole by almost half a second from Prost. The Jerez track is bumpy and fast, a real physical test, and listen to the scream as Ayrton gives it every possible rev on downshifts. Oh, and watch for the avoidance at 0:34.

1985 Australian Grand Prix - Pole lap Adelaide

The honour of pole position for the first Australian Grand Prix went to Senna, who wrestled his circa 900kW Renault-powered Lotus around the tight Adelaide circuit.

1991 Belgian Grand Prix - Pole lap Spa-Francorchamps

This is the video that best displays Senna's unique style. The constant mid-corner throttle blips were a unique feature of his driving, used to devastating effect here by qualifying over a second ahead of second-placed Prost. And the noise of that V10 in the Ardennes hills...

Honda NSX test drive - Suzuka

Now for something a bit different. Many of you will be familiar with the video of Senna driving an NSX in loafers, and it's worth a look for his heel-toe technique, but perhaps fewer have seen this video. It's an incredibly display of driving a car on the absolute ragged edge.

Ayrton Senna goes rallying

And now for something really different. In 1986, 26-year-old Senna was invited to try a number of rally cars in the Welsh forests for a magazine article. You can read the full article here - and we recommend you do - but we'll pull one quote from it: "In a matter of hours [Senna] would be a national class forest driver and I would say after a week in a car he would be taking on the World class drivers." That's talent.

Scott Newman
Contributor
Rainer Schlegelmilch
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