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I think Gilles getting 3rd in 81 will do it (he finished without front wing). but I have my own. Here it goes.
It was a day in 1989 when Prost had the pole and Senna was second. The Sunday morning just before the race a heavy rain came down and that track was totally wet although there was a drying car going around the circuit. In the warm up lap Mansell and Naninni went back to the pits to change tires, everybody was on intermediates, and both went for slicks. They were disqualified afterwards. In the second lap Senna went by Prost and took the lead, prost went immediately for slicks and Senna followed.
I was in the casino corner on the outside stand, just in front of me there was a giant screen so the place was ideal to follow everything. Towards mid race a heavy rain was coming down again, Senna was 2nd, like 12 seconds behind Butsen. In the part where I was, the cars come to an almost stand still, is the slowest corner of the circuit after a long straight, so the breaking is very important.
Senna’s style at that moment was completely different from that of the other drivers. He was the only one to break so late that all the public around that corner would stand up thinking that he was going to go off track. Few laps after Senna took the lead and was pulling a lead at a rate of about 4 seconds a lap. The track was getting worse and worse. In every lap Senna was taking different drivelines in that part of the circuit, like he was trying to go even faster, like he didn’t know he was leading the race or like he was going to pit again. There seemed to be an urge to go even faster.
With few laps to go we decided to go where the podium was. But Senna’s car would not make it to the end. He got out of the car not far away from the finish line. In order to get back to the pits he had to take the route of the Olympic basin where we were. When my friend and I saw a bunch of people rushing towards the pits, we did the same thing. And there was the man, behind a protected barrier, calm and collected, signing autographs for his fans that were in a line up. He signed T-shirts, caps, race memory books and almost anything you can imagine. I myself got signed my light blue cap reading “NACIONAL”.
I guess that would qualify as a priceless Canadian GP for me.
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