---
title: "Ayrton Senna’s Final Monaco-Winning McLaren Sold For $5 Million"
description: "The McLaren MP4/8A with which Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna won his final Monaco Grand Prix landed on the auction block, and bidding took off."
date: "2018-05-12"
modified: "2018-05-12"
authors:
  - name: "James Gilboy"
    job_title: "Contributing Writer"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/james-gilboy"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/20812/ayrton-sennas-final-monaco-winning-mclaren-sold-for-5-million"
categories:
  - "F1"
  - "McLaren News"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
  - "Racing"
tags:
  - "Auctions"
  - "Ayrton Senna"
  - "Formula 1"
  - "mclaren"
  - "Monaco Grand Prix"
---

# Ayrton Senna’s Final Monaco-Winning McLaren Sold For $5 Million

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2018/05/gettyimages-163322911-e1526137127335.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com\</em\>*

The 1993 Monaco Grand Prix was Ayrton Senna's sixth and final victory in Monte Carlo, and one that came as a surprise. Senna qualified only third, his McLaren MP4/8A falling behind Alain Prost's faster Williams-Renault and Michael Schumacher's Benetton-Ford. When it came time for the race to start, Prost jumped the gun and was handed a stop-and-go penalty, which ended in a disastrous engine stall. Schumacher, now leading, succumbed to a hydraulic failure on lap 32, bequeathing the race lead and eventual win to Senna. This win would be his third-to-last Grand Prix win before his tragic death early in the 1994 season.

The MP4/8A which Senna captained to victory fell into a private collector's hands in 2006, courtesy of McLaren's then-CEO Ron Dennis. At the time, this was a rare exception to the rule that McLaren would not sell its Marlboro (MP4 prefix) sponsorship-era cars to private owners.

Said collector held on to the car for more than a decade before offloading it with the aid of historic auction house [Bonhams](<https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24953/lot/119/>) at a sale in Monaco on Friday. The McLaren was the most hotly contested lot of the entire auction, and sold for more than the next three highest lots combined. €4,197,500 was the winning bid, which is around $5,020,000 USD. One of Senna's other Monaco Grand Prix entries, the [Toleman TG184](<https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24953/lot/124/>), with which he established himself as an ace in a stunning near-win in the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, also appeared at the Bonhams auction. It surged past its estimated sale price and was won with a bid of €1,610,000, or about $1,925,000 USD.

Should its new owner put the car to use, rather than on a plinth, they will need to be careful not to wreck it—[as sometimes happens with millionaires and Formula 1 cars](<https://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/13321/watch-a-millionaire-wreck-his-jaguar-formula-1-car>).

## Author
James is a former staff writer for The Drive. He has changed the conversation around electrification, debunked misinformation online, and become a prominent hunter of what he calls "automotive cryptids."

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/jamesgilboy>)