Controversial 1984 Monaco Grand Prix

Published: 624 days ago

Category: 1984, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Monaco Grand Prix

Description:

Rain Stopped and Prost Wins Amid Controversy

Mansell Leads Race for First Time And Senna’s First Street Race

The rain soaked Monaco Grand Prix of 1984 ended in controversy as the race was red flagged due to the poor conditions.

The controversy came about because Ayrton Senna passed Alain Prost’s slowing McLaren to cross the line ahead. However the times were counted to the previous lap when Prost was leading.

Prost was driving a Porsche powered McLaren while the man operating the red flag was Jacky Ickx who was driving sports cars for Porsche at the time.

Ickx was suspended from his race control duties over the incident, but the result stood.

Prost received only half points as the race had not reached full distance. Interestingly he would have won the championship that year if he had got full points as he lost out by just a half a point.

Another interesting thing is that it was Ayrton Senna’s first Monaco race and he came second in an uncompetitive Toleman-Hart. He eventually went on to win the race 5 times.