More than anything, Ayrton Senna wanted to win the Brazilian Grand Prix for his adoring home crowd, but by 1991, he had still not delivered.
But the McLaren-Honda MP4-6 would change all that in a defiant heroic stand from Senna, whose car developed gearbox gremlins, leaving him stuck in sixth gear as light rain began to fall at Interlagos, as Riccardo Patrese reeled him in.
Fortunately, the flag came in time for the exhausted Senna, who required extraction from his McLaren, such was the physical effort involved in man-handling the iconic car around.
And that very machine, McLaren MP4-6, chassis #1, is now up for sale by RM Sotheby's, and is expected to fetch up to $15 million USD, or £11.5 million GBP.
It was driven by Senna and team-mate Gerhard Berger in pre-season testing, and is the only V12-powered car to win the F1 drivers' and constructors' championship, as well as being the last machine with a manual gearbox to do so.
The car has been in private hands since 2020, with this owner now selling up and looking to cash in on the prized asset.
It is not the most expensive F1 car ever sold at auction, with that honour going to a Mercedes W196 streamliner driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss, which sold for £42.75 million earlier this year.
Check out some images of the iconic car below!
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