Another anecdote:

1988, Monza. It was, if I remenber correctly, the 11th GP of the year. McLaren had won all of them up to that point. Prost and Senna were miles ahead of everyone else in Qualy, and started on the front row.

At the start, Prost's engine was missfiring, and he lost out to Senna. They both lead the way, with Senna ahead by around 2 seconds. Alain, due to his engine problems, concluded that he wouldn't be able to finish the race, so he turned the engine and turbo to the maximun and pressured Senna. Ayrton, in turn, responded in kind, and upped his pace, both opening a gap of several seconds to the Ferrari of Berger in 3rd place.

As expected, Prost's engine gave away, and he retired. Senna, however, trying to remain in P1, had used too much fuel, and wouldn't make it to the end without a lot, a lot of fuel saving.

With Senna decreasing his pace, Berger started catching up. Fast. From over 30 seconds, he was now only a few seconds off, with the race coming to an end. Under pressure, Ayrton was lapping a slower car and ended up not leaving enough space in the first chicane, damaging his car and retiring. I think it was suspension damage, or something similar. With that, Berger won in Monza. It was the only non-McLaren win on an otherwise perfect McLaren season, and broke the longest win streak from a team, ever.

And Alain Prost's championship hopes remained very much alive. He would go on to outscore Senna, but lose the Championship in Suzuka.