Boutsen brings it home as Senna rages

©WRi2

On this day in 1989, Thierry Boutsen won the Australian Grand Prix in treacherous conditions. The race was still 11 laps short of the 81-lap distance when the two-hour mark was hit, and only eight cars were still running. Alain Prost - having won the world title in controversial circumstances in Japan two weeks earlier - withdrew at the end of the first lap in protest at the conditions, while Ayrton Senna crashed out and was scathing in his criticism of FISA for running the race at all.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.