The 44-lap race was won from pole position by Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, with teammate Alain Prost second and Gerhard Berger third in a Ferrari. The win, Senna's fifth of the season, moved him to within three points of Prost at the top of the Drivers' Championship.
Report
Pre-race
At the midpoint of the season, the pre-qualifiers were re-evaluated. After a fourth-place finish in the Detroit Grand Prix, the Rial of Andrea de Cesaris was promoted to the top 26 cars automatically entered into the main qualifying sessions. Relegated to pre-qualifying was the Osella of Nicola Larini.
Ayrton Senna of BraziI (left) and Alain Prost of France discuss the details of today's practice of the West German F1 Grand Prix in Hockenheim on July 22, 1988. Senna clocked the fastest time of 1'45.615 followed by Prost's 1'46.047.
Gerhard Berger (left) of Austria looks on as his pit crew works on his Ferrari during today's practice of the West German Grand Prix in Hockenheim on July 22, 1988. Berger was third with a time of 1'47.839.
Although he had qualified on pole in Britain at the ultra fast Silverstone Circuit (the only non-McLaren pole of the season), Gerhard Berger did not expect to be as fast as the McLarens in qualifying and was proven correct. Although Hockenheim had much longer straights than Silverstone, whereas the British circuit was almost all straights and fast, sweeping turns (with only the Woodcote Chicane to break it up), all of the German circuits turns other than turns 1 and 11 were relatively low speed and needed good acceleration rather than just top end horsepower, and in that the Honda V6 turbo had the advantage over the Ferrari with both Berger and Alboreto complaining virtually all season about the Ferrari's poor throttle response.
Race
There had been thunderstorms all weekend. The rain stopped on Sunday morning, but there were concerns over which type of tyre to use for the race. In the end, everyone started on wet tyres with the exception of Piquet, who gambled on the track drying out.
At the start, Senna led away while Prost dropped behind Berger and a fast-starting Nannini. Piquet's gamble failed to pay off as he aquaplaned off the track at the Ostkurve chicane and hit the barriers, limping back to the pits to retire (with 1976 World Champion James Hunt calling it "An absolutely stupid decision by Piquet" on the BBC's live broadcast, claiming that a driver of Piquet's stature and experience should have known better knowing what Hockenheim was like in the rain). Prost re-passed Nannini on lap 8, while on lap 9 Philippe Alliot, who had pitted for slick tyres, spun his Lola off at the Ostkurve while allowing Senna to lap him. Prost overtook Berger for second on lap 12, but by then Senna was 12 seconds ahead.
Senna and Prost maintained their 1-2 until the chequered flag, despite a late spin by the Frenchman coming out of the Ostkurve. It was Senna's fifth win of the season, as well as the sixth 1-2 for McLaren; the Brazilian thus moved within three points of Prost in the Drivers' Championship.
Alain Prost in McLaren during the race, 24 July 1988.
Berger and Alboreto finished third and fourth respectively. Berger's podium finish was to be the last achieved by the Ferrari team during Enzo Ferrari's lifetime, as he died three weeks later. Changes to the Ferrari's engine (suggested earlier in the season by team Technical Director John Barnard) had seen an improvement in the fuel consumption of the Ferrari V6 which had seen both cars run out of fuel in Britain, though it was still a thirstier engine than the Honda. After running in third for the first 7 laps and in fourth since then Nannini was forced to pit seven laps from the end due to a broken throttle bracket, losing four laps as a result; His "Latin blood" boiling at having been robbed of a high placing, the chain smoking Italian charged after leaving the pits which would bring him the fastest lap of the race (and the only non-turbo fastest lap of the season), though he still finished only 18th. Capelli inherited fifth despite having no clutch for the last 30 laps, while Boutsen took the final point for sixth.
Mansell retired from seventh with a spin after a broken bolt had jammed his gearbox. He had tried to retire in the pits the previous lap, but the team could find nothing wrong and sent him back out. Bernd Schneider achieved his first Grand Prix finish in his home race, coming home 12th, which turned out to be the highest finish of the season for the West German Zakspeed team.
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Alessandro Nannini 
