Motor Racing: Hill a happy second as Senna sings in rain: The first qualifying session for the European Grand Prix proved a thorough test for man and machine

THE rain fell and Ayrton Senna was the master, yet in a sense the star of a soggy, accident-strewn first qualifying session for tomorrow's Grand Prix of Europe was Damon Hill.

The British driver has received mixed reviews after his first two races in a Williams-Renault, the best car in Formula One, and he concedes he is not satisfied with his performances so far. On home ground at Donington Park, however, he delivered a thrilling final lap to come within 400ths of a second of Senna's best time in the McLaren-Ford. He was almost half a second clear of his team-mate, Alain Prost.

The difficult conditions inevitably took their toll, at least a dozen cars coming to grief during the day. The wet, in Senna's words, was 'an equaliser', giving him the opportunity to take on the superior Williams cars. He duly set the standard for the rest.

Prost, who openly detests the wet, doubtless has plenty in hand and, come today's second qualifying session, and the race itself, it may be dry: a totally different ball-game.

But Hill is conscious that he has something to prove. He went out in search of that proof on his final lap, holding his nerve and the FW15C to all but match Senna's time of 1min 23.976sec. The smile said: 'That feels better.'

He had more by way of verbal expressions: 'I feel better for getting that out of my system. You know when it's your last lap but it doesn't matter if you go off. The pressure was on, but also off, if you see what I mean. In the wet you are wary of what will catch you out. You drive by the seat of your pants because if you're thinking too much it's not possible to get the maximum from yourself. I can't afford to drive by the seat of my pants all the time just now, but on that last lap it was 98 per cent.

'I'm on the front row and hopefully I'll stay there. I like the wet and if you're at the front it's okay. When you're following somebody you can't see a thing. I only knew I was behind a Minardi at one point because I saw the sparks coming through the spray. You're taking your life in your hands in the middle of the field. You're taking a massive gamble.

'I feel more confident here than I was in Brazil, but I'll only be really confident when I have the results everyone can see. I want my results to speak for themselves. I felt for the crowd, out there all day in the horrible weather. I'm very conscious a lot of them are supporting me because I'm in a Williams and I am British.'

The rest of the British drivers had less distinguished deeds to relate. Martin Brundle, another with a reputation for making light of heavy rain, had his session brought to an undignified end when he ran into the back of Luca Badoer's Lola BMS-Ferrari. Brundle, ninth on the provisional grid in his Ligier-Renault explained: 'I was on a flying lap and he braked to help me, but in fact it left me with nowhere to go. The conditions are tricky rather than dangerous. It was variable out there, depending on how heavily the rain was falling.'

Johnny Herbert, who aquaplaned off in the unofficial morning session, struggled for response from his Lotus-Ford and was a disappointed 12th. Mark Blundell (Ligier-Renault) was a subdued 15th and Derek Warwick (Footwork-Mugen Honda) 17th. Warwick will welcome the 'equaliser' of rain in the race.

Benetton-Ford are still trying to find their feet with the B193B and were not helped by Michael Schumacher's spin. He had to take over the car of his partner, Riccardo Patrese. Schumacher managed seventh, while Patrese was down in 13th.

EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX (Donington Park) First qualifying times: 1 A Senna (Bra) McLaren-Ford 1min 23.976sec (172.464km/h, 107.164mph); 2 D Hill (GB) Williams-Renault 1:24.014; 3 A Prost (Fra) Williams-Renault 1:24.467; 4 J Lehto (Fin) Sauber 1:25.469; 5 J Alesi (Fra) Ferrari 1:25.699; 6 G Berger (Aut) Ferrari 1:25.971; 7 M Schumacher (Ger) Benetton-Ford 1:26.264; 8 R Barrichello (Bra) Jordan-Hart 1:26.557; 9 M Brundle (GB) Ligier-Renault 1:26.788; 10 K Wendlinger (Aut) Sauber 1:26.805; 11 A Andretti (US) McLaren-Ford 1:26.859; 12 J Herbert (GB) Lotus-Ford 1:27.173; 13 R Patrese (It) Benetton-Ford 1:27.273; 14 F Barbazza (It) Minardi-Ford 1:27.275; 15 M Blundell (GB) Ligier-Renault 1:27.302; 16 C Fittipaldi (Bra) Minardi-Ford 1:28.065; 17 D Warwick (GB) Footwork-Mugen Honda 1:28.096; 18 P Alliot (Fra) Larousse-Lamborghini 1:28.648; 19 T Boutsen (Bel) Jordan-Hart 1:28.701; 20 A Zanardi (It) Lotus-Ford 1:28.782; 21 A de Cesaris (It) Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:29.177; 22 E Comas (Fra) Larousse-Lamborghini 1:29.310; 23 U Katayama (Jap) Tyrrell-Yamaha 1:29.851; 24 M Alboreto (It) Lola BMS-Ferrari 1:30.049; 25 A Suzuki (Jap) Footwork-Mugen Honda 1:30.107; 26 L Badoer (It) Lola BMS-Ferrari 1:31.178.

(Photograph omitted)