You were there

Stuart Pettitt, who used to be a fire marshal at Silverstone, sent in this picture of Ayrton Senna looking distinctly underwhelmed by the battery-powered Sinclair C5. It was taken on Friday morning before practice for the British Grand Prix in July 1983, when 23-year-old Senna led Martin Brundle in their titanic tussle for the British F3 title. Silverstone included a round of that series Senna qualified on pole and won the race, one of his 12 series victories that season.

Other, faster, JPS-liveried cars that day included Nigel Mansell’s fourth-placed Lotus-Renault and the sister car of Elio de Angelis, who retired with turbo failure. Alain Prost in a Renault won the GP, with Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) second and Patrick Tambay (Ferrari) third.