Later in a rain-soaked Monaco Grand Prix which was round six, Senna finished in a close second place behind Alain Prost, whose &lt;a href="McLaren%20MP4/2"&gt;McLaren MP4/2&lt;/a&gt; was suffering from a brake balance problem that Prost reported was getting worse with each lap. In the wet conditions the McLaren's carbon front brakes were not generating heat and, as a result, were locking up with increasing regularity over the last few laps. This led the Frenchman, who had re-taken the lead on lap 15 following Nigel Mansell's crash, to drive slower and slower. The torrential conditions forced Jacky Ickx who was the clerk of the course to stop the race after 31 of the scheduled 78 laps. It was a controversial decision as Ickx had not consulted the race stewards before holding out the red flag, and one that stirred up a conspiracy theory. Prost's McLaren was powered by the Porsche designed TAG engine and Ickx was the lead driver for the factory backed Rothmans Porsche Group C Sports car team, and it was rumored that the Belgian had stopped the race to ensure the Porsche engined car won. The early stopping of the race resulted in much debate about whether Senna would have won. It was also reported by Toleman that Senna's suspension was on the point of collapse after an earlier incident and his consistent running over the curbs at the Chicane du Port, with the team believing that the damage was sufficient to cause his retirement within 2-3 laps of when competition was halted. Senna set the fastest lap of the race, his first in Formula One, but wasn't the quickest on the circuit at the time of the red flag. Catching both Prost and Senna was the Cosworth powered Tyrrell of West German driver Stefan Bellof who, while finishing third on the road, was later disqualified when the entire Tyrrell team was disqualified from the 1984 season due to technical infringements.