Helmet Senna wore in 1992 sells for record-breaking £720,000

A helmet worn by Ayrton Senna during his final season driving for McLaren-Honda has sold for almost three-quarters of a million pounds.

The Shoei helmet was sold at an auction which also featured dozens of items previously owned by the 1992 world champion, Nigel Mansell.

Auction house RM Sotheby’s confirmed the helmet, sold at its Shift Online: Europe and Middle East sale, achieved the highest price ever for an F1 helmet.

The Senna helmet dated from the same year Mansell won the championship, before Honda’s withdrawal. Senna wore it at Spa, where he finished fifth in a race which saw Michael Schumacher score his first victory. The weekend was also memorable for the high-speed crash suffered by Erik Comas at Blanchimont during practice, when Senna stopped his car and came to the Ligier driver’s aid.

Senna only contested one full season following 1992, in a Ford-powered McLaren. In 1994, after moving to Williams, he died in a crash during the third round of the season at Imola.

Mansell had already won the 1992 world championship by the time the field arrived at Spa. One of his helmets from the same season fetched the highest price of dozens of items he offered, selling for £62,400. It was high last full season in F1, though he contested a handful of races in 1994 and 1995.

Other items sold in the same auction from the third part of Mansell’s Legacy Collection include his 1992 championship trophy (not the cup) for £22,000, a 1990 Ferrari race suit for £17,400 and his 1987 race winner’s trophy from the French Grand Prix for £15,000.

Historic F1 items have sold for increasingly high prices in recent months. In February a 70-year-old Mercedes fetched a record-breaking sale price of €51.15 million (£42.7m).

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