Ayrton Senna legendary defensive display secures historic Monaco victory

On this day 34 years ago, Nigel Mansell arrived at the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix as a man utterly untouchable. 

Five races into the season, five victories, zero defeats. The Williams FW14B was in a class of its own, and the Briton had pole position on the streets of Monte Carlo to boot. Everything pointed to a sixth straight triumph.

It never came.

Mansell dominated from the outset, pulling away from the field with the kind of ease that had defined his entire campaign. 

Ayrton Senna, who had jumped Riccardo Patrese's sister Williams off the line to take second at Sainte Dévote, could do little but watch the gap grow. By half-distance, Mansell's advantage was somewhere in the region of 30 seconds. The race, it seemed, was over.

Then, with just seven laps remaining, Mansell felt a vibration at the rear of his car. Suspecting a puncture or a loose wheel, Williams hauled him in for an unscheduled tyre change. 

He rejoined roughly five seconds behind Senna, but now on fresh rubber and with the fastest car on the grid.

Senna impossible to pass

What followed was extraordinary. Mansell tore through the gap at a ferocious rate, setting a new lap record in the process. 

Within two laps, the deficit had been halved. With three laps to go, the Williams was glued to the McLaren's gearbox.

Mansell tried everything. He probed into Rascasse, showed his nose down the pit straight into Sainte Dévote, and looked for a gap at the chicane after the tunnel. Senna, on worn tyres and in a markedly slower car, gave him nothing. 

His positioning was inch-perfect, shutting off every angle before Mansell could commit to a move. At Monaco, where track position is king, that was enough.

Senna crossed the line just 0.215 seconds ahead, claiming his fifth Monaco victory and equalling Graham Hill's record at the principality. It was also his fourth consecutive win on the streets of Monte Carlo.

For Mansell, who would go on to clinch the title with five races to spare, it was his only defeat in the opening six rounds of a historically dominant season. The 1992 Monaco GP, though, belonged to Senna and one of the finest defensive drives the sport has ever witnessed.