This weekend marked ten years since Ayrton Senna died at Imola. It was crazy to think I’ve been watching F1 for twelve years as I can recall that weekend like no other other. To think it has been ten years is amazing.

That weekend in 1994 was one of the blackest and just plain strange that anyone had ever seen. The disasters began on Friday when Rubens Barrichello’s Jordan launched off a curb violently slammed into the top of the barrier. It rolled back onto the track where it came to rest upside down. Barrichello was unconscious and he had swallowed his tongue so he was out for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday was even worse when Roland Ratzenberger crashed at high speed into the wall at Villeneuve Corner (named for the late Gilles Villeneuve). A front wing failure caused his Simtek to understeer into the barriers at 200mph. It came to a halt with Ratzenberger slumped in the wreck. He was beyond help but was flown to a hospital in Bologna, where he was declared dead a few minutes after arrival. He became the first driver to die at a race weekend in twelve years.

Sunday, the blackness continued… On the start Pedro Lamy’s Lotus was unsighted and clouted JJ Lehto’s stalled Benetton sending three wheels into the grandstand, injuring several spectators. The race was not stopped but run under the safety car while the mess was cleaned up. This would be the source of much speculation in the years to come.

Upon restarting the race, Senna (fittingly) lead the field away under heavy pressure from Michael Schumacher. At the start of the sixth lap Senna’s car went straight off at Tamburello Corner. In the impact the front suspension of the Williams came back and pierced Senna’s helmut. He was rushed by helicopter to Bologna where he also was pronouced dead.

The race was stopped to allow for a medical helicopter to land near the impact but it did resume. In one last shot the blackness struck again when during the second round of pit stops there was another accident in the pitlane. Michele Alboreto’s Minardi lost a wheel as he left the pits and the errant wheel bounced into the Ferrari mechanics. A Lotus mechanic was also hit by debris.

Senna was known to fly the Brazillian flag after he won a race. A flag was indeed found in the wreck of his car but it was an Austrian flag. He had intended to fly it to pay tribute to Roland Ratzenberger.