Your classic grand prix - race 16

The 1993 Japanese Grand Prix is the selected race in the latest edition of our classic Formula 1 series.

Last week, we asked readers to tell us which of three great races they would most like to see - the 1990, 1993 and 1995 Japanese Grands Prix - and the overwhelming choice was Ayrton Senna's victory in 1993.

The full 'Grand Prix' highlights programme broadcast on the BBC at the time is embedded below, with the shorter highlights of it and the other races linked underneath. There are also short and long highlights of Sebastian Vettel's victory in an incident-packed Suzuka race last year, too.

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WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1990 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1993 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1995 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2009 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
WATCH LONG HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2009 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX

Because of the Commonwealth Games, the classic races will not be shown on the red button, either on digital and satellite or on Freeview.

I have to say that I was surprised by just how popular the 1993 race was - it outdid the other two choices by something like five to one.

The 1993 race witnessed a great drive by Senna, and was full of action and intrigue both during the race and afterwards, but I have to say I thought the famous crash between Senna and Alain Prost at the start in 1990 would be the most popular choice.

There was all the drama of the start, Nigel Mansell putting paid to his chances by breaking his Ferrari's driveshaft with an over-exuberant getaway from a tyre stop, and the unusual podium of two Benettons and local hero Aguri Suzuki.

The 1995 race also made a strong case for itself - a superb drive from Michael Schumacher, comedy retirements from Williams drivers Damon Hill and David Coulthard (although it's fair to say the team's no-nonsense technical director Patrick Head wasn't laughing) and a battling drive from Ferrari's Jean Alesi before his retirement (also with a driveshaft failure).

Having said that, it is hard to argue against 1993. It was one of Senna's great wet-weather victories after a race-long battle with arch-rival Prost and there was the sub-plot of Eddie Irvine's electrifying grand prix debut.

Drafted in by Jordan for the last two races of the year, the Northern Irishman qualified an excellent eighth, and used his knowledge of Suzuka gleaned from three years in Japanese Formula 3000 to pass Schumacher and Hill at the start.

Later in the race, while battling with Hill, Irvine had the temerity to unlap himself from Senna. And when the great Brazilian, a little the worse for wear, confronted Irvine about it after the race, he did not find the novice as apologetic as expected - the two got into a heated argument which ended with Senna punching Irvine.

A number of you asked on my last blog whether there was film of this argument. There isn't. But the journalist Adam Cooper was in the room with Irvine at the time, and he recorded the whole thing. A transcript of the row was published in Autosport magazine - for which both Cooper and I were working at the time - and you can read it here.

There were also questions about why we had not chosen the 1996 race, when Hill clinched the world title.

The answer is in the name of this series - classic grands prix. Hill is a popular man, and with good reason, but in no way could that race be called an all-time classic in comparison with others we have chosen.

To recap, the title battle had distilled by the time of Japanwhich was the last race of the season, into a fight between Williams team-mates Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

Hill led by nine points going into the race - which meant the only way Villeneuve could be champion was if he won and the Englishman was out of the points.

Villeneuve increased the tension by qualifying on pole, ahead of Hill, but his chances were effectively ruined within seconds of the green light, when the Canadian made a poor start and dropped to sixth, behind Hill, Benetton's Gerhard Berger, Mika Hakkinen's McLaren, Schumacher's Ferrari and Irvine's Ferrari.

Villeneuve managed to get past Irvine, but was still in only fifth place when he retired when a rear wheel came off going into Turn One with 15 laps to go. Hill, meanwhile, led untroubled from the start, going only as fast as he needed to, keen to conserve his car.

A popular result, yes, especially in Britain. But a classic grand prix it was not.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/10/your_classic_grand_prix_-_race_3.html

Alex SolerRoig Raymond Sommer Vincenzo Sospiri Stephen South