F1: Top 5 Wet Races of Ayrton Senna

#2 - Monaco 1984

Senna catapulted himself onto the world stage thanks to an incredible drive at Monaco in his rookie year.

When it comes to Formula 1's great champions, there are certain drives that stand out from the rest as being true masterpieces. Ayrton Senna has at least two, with this being one of them. Senna had turned down offers from Williams and McLaren to join Toleman for his rookie year, as he wanted more control over his career. The Toleman was not a good car, in fact, it was a backmarker car, but that didn't stop Senna from pulling off one of the most surprising results ever. Like Portugal a year later, this race wouldn't have been run had it taken place in recent years, being extremely wet from the outset and getting progressively worse throughout the race.

Senna had qualified in 13th for what was only the sixth Grand Prix of his F1 career but sliced his way through the field rapidly during the race. After just fifteen laps, Senna had caught Keke Rosberg and soon passed him for fifth place. The Ferraris would soon suffer a similar fate, as would Niki Lauda, the man who would go on to win the championship that year. To put this in perspective, this is like Alexander Albon starting in the mid-pack and working his way up to second place ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc, and Valtteri Bottas behind only Lewis Hamilton, this level of performance is rarely seen in sport. Alain Prost was the only man who stood in Senna's way of the lead, but a thirty-second advantage had been reduced to 7 seconds by Lap 31.

The rain had become so intense by this point that Prost was demanding the race be stopped and he got his wish, the red flag being shown less than halfway through the scheduled distance. Senna crossed the line ahead of Prost, but because of the way the timings worked, he finished second, a marvelous achievement that could've been the first victory had it not been for a corrupt FIA.