The 1993 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on March 14, 1993. It was the first round of the 1993 Formula One season.

The season started off in Kyalami where Prost took pole ahead of Senna, Schumacher, Hill, Alesi and Lehto, impressing in Sauber's first Grand Prix. At the start, Prost was poor and Senna and Hill (who was already ahead of Schumacher) got ahead of him. Then, Hill spun in front of Prost and dropped well down the field, Prost being forced to back off and let Schumacher through to second. Senna led Schumacher, Prost, Lehto, Wendlinger and Alesi at the end of lap one.

Prost attacked Schumacher, took second on lap 13 and set off after Senna. Five laps later, he attacked into the first corner but Senna took the inside and defended. However, Senna could not do anything when Prost attacked on lap 25 with the inside line. He took the lead and motored off. Schumacher also passed Senna to take second soon after. Both of them pitted unlike Prost, but Senna was quicker and rejoined ahead.

Schumacher was in no mood to stay third and attacked Senna on lap 40. There was minor contact and Schumacher spun off into retirement. Patrese was third but he too spun off on lap 47 just as Christian Fittipaldi passed Lehto. Prost won from Senna, Blundell, Fittipaldi, Lehto and Berger (he was out but was classified sixth).

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Alain Prost	Williams-Renault	72	1:38:45.082	1	10
2	8	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Ford	72	+1:19.824	2	6
3	26	Mark Blundell	Ligier-Renault	71	+1 Lap	8	4
4	23	Christian Fittipaldi	Minardi-Ford	71	+1 Lap	13	3
5	30	Jyrki Järvilehto	Sauber	70	+2 Laps	6	2
6	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	69	Engine	15	1
7	9	Derek Warwick	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	69	Spun off	22
Ret	25	Martin Brundle	Ligier-Renault	57	Spun off	12
Ret	21	Michele Alboreto	Lola-Ferrari	55	Overheating	25
Ret	20	Érik Comas	Larrousse-Lamborghini	51	Engine	19
Ret	6	Riccardo Patrese	Benetton-Ford	46	Spun off	7
Ret	5	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	39	Spun off	3
Ret	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	38	Fuel system	17
Ret	29	Karl Wendlinger	Sauber	33	Engine	10
Ret	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan-Hart	31	Gearbox	14
Ret	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	30	Suspension	5
Ret	19	Philippe Alliot	Larrousse-Lamborghini	27	Spun off	11
Ret	24	Fabrizio Barbazza	Minardi-Ford	21	Collision	24
Ret	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	21	Collision	20
Ret	22	Luca Badoer	Lola-Ferrari	20	Gearbox	26
Ret	0	Damon Hill	Williams-Renault	16	Collision	4
Ret	11	Alessandro Zanardi	Lotus-Ford	16	Collision	16
Ret	7	Michael Andretti	McLaren-Ford	4	Collision	9
Ret	15	Ivan Capelli	Jordan-Hart	2	Spun off	18
Ret	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell-Yamaha	1	Transmission	21
Ret	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Yamaha	0	Transmission	23

Notes

• Pole position: Alain Prost - 1:15.696
• Fastest lap: Alain Prost - 1:19.492 on lap 40
• Only five cars were running at the end of a race held in torrential conditions due to a thunderstorm.
• JJ Lehto scored points for the Sauber team on their debut, Mark Blundell scored his first podium finish (also the Ligier team's first since 1986), and several drivers including Rubens Barrichello, Luca Badoer and Michael Andretti made their first Grand Prix starts.
• To date, this was the last running of the South African Grand Prix.
• This was the first race of that season where there was no current defending driver's champion in the field as the original defending champion Nigel Mansell moved to Indy Racing League.
• Since there was no defending driver's champion in the field this season, one of the defending constructor's champion Williams team's cars could not use #1. Therefore, this was the first race since 1973 that the car #0 was used.

References