Just Watched The 2010 Senna Documentary

[N. Jones]

There are three things I took from it:

1) Ayrton Senna is the greatest F1 driver of all time.
2) Senna got seriously screwed by Prost and Ballestre in 1989.
3) If Martin Brundle and Ayrton Senna say that the 1994 Benneton was using banned electronics, I believe them.

[D-Type]

Please explain your take on the 1989 incidents? In terms of actions by Senna, actions by Prost, actions (or lack of action) by race stewards, actions by Ballestre, and actions by all other parties. Remember the Senna film was not aiming to be impartial and you need to dig a bit deeper.

[N. Jones]

What I saw was:

an accident between Prost & Senna, Senna going on to win. Ballestre faulting him for cutting the chicane. No consistency.

[D-Type]

It wasn't Balestre who disqualified Senna - it was the [Japanese] race stewards.
Senna was given a push start by some race marshalls. Under the FIA sporting regulations marshalls were allowed to push a car out of a dangerous position but not to push it with the primary purpose of starting the car. There was a grey area if the driver dropped the clutch while being pushed to safety and the car 'happened to start', which was regularly applied. So his push start was illegal as his car was not in a dangerous position.
For some reason the race stewards elected not to disqualify him for the push start and instead disqualified him for cutting the chicane (which was also illegal). I think that this was to 'save face'. To disqualify Senna for the push start would have meant effectively admitting that their marshalls were at fault. But this is only my opinion.
Admittedly, as President of the FIA, Balestre gave his full support to the race stewards. But the disqualification decision was not his to take.