F1 champion Ayrton Senna remembered on Imola track 30 years after his death during the San Marino GP

IMOLA, Italy (AP) — The 30th anniversary of three-time F1 champion Ayrton Senna’s death was commemorated Wednesday with a memorial on the Imola track where he crashed during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali was joined Wednesday by hundreds of fans, politicians from Brazil and Italy, plus a representative from Austria to also recall fellow Formula One driver Roland Ratzenberger, who died a day earlier during qualifying.

At 2:17 p.m. (1217 GMT), a minute of silence was held and flowers laid down at the Tamburello curve to observe the exact time and place that the 34-year-old Senna crashed into a concrete wall at about 300 kph (185 mph).

Then flowers were also laid down at the Villeneuve corner only slightly further down the track where the 33-year-old Ratzenberger crashed.

Senna, the Brazilian driver who won F1 titles in 1988, 1990 and 1991, was leading the race in Imola when he crashed.

Ratzenberger was an F1 rookie from Austria.

“They are part of sports history and history in general for what they represented,” Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.

The attention around Senna’s death brought about safety improvements at the Imola track and throughout F1, resulting in shorter straights, more room around dangerous turns and less powerful engines.

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The Associated Press