1988 Spanish Grand Prix

Last updated
1988 Spanish Grand Prix
Race 14 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One World Championship
Circuito de Jerez (1985-1992).svg
Race details
Date2 October 1988
Official name XXX Gran Premio Tio Pepe de España
Location Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.218 km (2.620 miles)
Distance 72 laps, 303.696 km (188.708 miles)
Weather Sunny and hot
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Honda
Time 1:24.067
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-Honda
Time 1:27.845 on lap 60
Podium
First McLaren-Honda
Second Williams-Judd
Third Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders
  • 1988 Spanish Grand Prix

The 1988 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 2 October 1988 at the Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Jerez de la Frontera. It was the fourteenth race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship.

Contents

The 72-lap race was won by Frenchman Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-Honda, after he started from second position. British driver Nigel Mansell finished second in a Williams-Judd, with Italian Alessandro Nannini third in a Benetton-Ford. Prost's teammate and Drivers' Championship rival, Brazilian Ayrton Senna, finished fourth having started from pole position.

Pre-race

After weeks of speculation, Benetton announced that British Formula 3000 driver Johnny Herbert would be joining the team in 1989 to replace Thierry Boutsen who would be joining Williams. At the time of the announcement Herbert was still in hospital recovering from his horrifying F3000 crash during the Brands Hatch round of the 1988 Championship held just 6 weeks earlier. With Alessandro Nannini remaining with the team, the Italian who had only been in Formula One since 1986, would become the team's #1 driver for 1989. Benetton also announced that they were picking up their option on Nannini and that he would also remain with the team into 1990.

Qualifying

During qualifying, Riccardo Patrese was on his hot lap when the slower Julian Bailey got on the wrong side of the track and Patrese had to slow down considerably to avoid hitting Bailey. A furious Patrese retaliated by getting in front of Bailey and brake testing his Tyrrell, the subsequent collision sending Bailey's car into the air and off the track into the gravel trap. [1] Officials at first blamed Bailey and also called his Tyrrell teammate Jonathan Palmer to the hearing for good measure on the premise that the slower Tyrrells were generally a menace and both drivers needed to be told. After a protest by Ken Tyrrell however, officials later reviewed the incident again and Patrese was fined $10,000 for his actions, although most in the Formula One paddock argued that Patrese's fine was not enough, and that he should also pay the Tyrrell team to fix the damages on Bailey's car. One unnamed driver was quoted as saying "I hope they fine him his bloody retainer. There are enough accidental shunts in this business without people actually trying to cause them....."

McLaren locked out the front row for the 10th time in 14 races in 1988 with Ayrton Senna putting his Honda powered McLaren MP4/4 on pole for the 11th time in 14 races with a motivated Alain Prost snapping at his team mate's heels only 0.067 behind. On this tight and twisty track it was no surprise to see 1987 race winner Nigel Mansell in third place in his Williams-Judd only 2/10ths from the pole. In fact, the nature of the circuit saw atmo cars line up from 3rd to 7th on the grid. The next best turbo behind the McLarens being the Ferrari of Gerhard Berger in 8th place, though the Austrian was only 1.399 slower than Senna with Nelson Piquet (Lotus-Honda) and Michele Alboreto qualifying in 10th and 11th places.

The Arrows cars struggled with Derek Warwick qualifying 17th and Eddie Cheever just scrambling onto the back row of the grid in 25th. The Arrows were in fact slower than Nicola Larini's Osella which qualified 14th.

The two Zakspeeds of Piercarlo Ghinzani and Bernd Schneider failed to qualify, as did Bailey and Oscar Larrauri in the EuroBrun. Gabriele Tarquini failed to pre-qualify his Coloni.

Race summary

From the 10th all-McLaren front row of the year, Alain Prost made a good start, with the Williams of Nigel Mansell drafting past Ayrton Senna into 2nd. Ivan Capelli and Thierry Boutsen tangled, damaging the Benetton's nosecone. On lap 2, Senna passed Mansell but ran wide, allowing the Englishman to retake the lead. On lap 16, Michele Alboreto retired with engine problems on his Ferrari. For the first 28 laps there was no change amongst the top seven: Prost led Mansell by half a second, while Senna had to defend third place from Riccardo Patrese and Capelli, who in turn was being challenged by Alessandro Nannini and Gerhard Berger.

Around lap 30, Nannini, Berger and Piquet all pitted for new tyres. After trailing the Williams for the first hour of the race, and doing so without a clutch since the early laps, Capelli managed to pass Patrese for fourth on lap 36 and then Senna for third on lap 39. However, his engine failed on lap 46.

Mansell managed to keep Prost within arms length, but with a less powerful engine on the tight Jerez circuit simply could not get past, or truly close enough to the Frenchman to even attempt a passing move (in the post-race press conference, Mansell described following Prost as "Following the master" adding that Prost didn't put a foot wrong all race). On lap 47 Mansell pitted but a sticking wheel nut delayed him and enabled Prost to pull further ahead. Meanwhile, Nannini was going fast on his new tyres and had managed to pass not only the notoriously hard to pass Patrese for fourth place, but also the McLaren-Honda of Ayrton Senna for third place in one lap. Mansell's slow stop allowed Prost to pit (somewhat reluctantly as he correctly believed that his tyres were in good shape) on lap 50 without losing his lead, though he accidentally selected second gear instead of first and was slow getting away from his pit, while a lap later Senna also pitted for new tyres and actually dropped out of the points to seventh. On his new tyres, but while still keeping an eye on his fuel readout, he passed Gugelmin and Berger before finally overtaking Patrese, who drove the entire race on one set of tyres, for fourth place on lap 65.

Prost sealed his 34th career victory with a fastest lap record and Mansell gaining his 2nd second-place of the year from just two finishes. Nannini collected another podium finish ahead of Senna (troubled with fuel readout problems again, crossing the line with his readout telling him he had almost no fuel left), [2] Patrese and Berger (almost out of fuel) in 6th.

Classification

Pre-qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap
136 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:28.378
221 Flag of Italy.svg Nicola Larini Osella 1:29.293+0.915
332 Flag of Argentina.svg Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:30.003+1.625
433 Flag of Italy.svg Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:30.419+2.041
DNPQ31 Flag of Italy.svg Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 1:30.459+2.081

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
112 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:24.7751:24.067
211 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:26.7351:24.134+0.067
35 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:25.8981:24.269+0.202
420 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford EX1:24.904+0.837
519 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:26.6731:25.032+0.965
616 Flag of Italy.svg Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:26.2211:25.115+1.048
76 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:27.5041:25.217+1.150
828 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:27.7961:25.466+1.399
91 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:28.0151:25.648+1.581
1027 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:29.0341:26.447+2.380
1115 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:27.4141:26.578+2.511
1230 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:27.9271:26.832+2.765
1314 Flag of France.svg Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:28.0991:26.971+2.904
1421 Flag of Italy.svg Nicola Larini Osella 1:28.4171:27.012+2.945
152 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:28.8401:27.171+3.104
1629 Flag of France.svg Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 1:29.6881:27.187+3.120
1717 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:28.4731:27.240+3.173
1836 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:27.9071:27.350+3.283
1925 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:29.1571:27.351+3.284
2023 Flag of Italy.svg Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:27.8261:27.407+3.340
2126 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:28.0091:27.474+3.407
223 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:27.5821:27.548+3.481
2322 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:28.3151:27.798+3.731
2424 Flag of Spain.svg Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:28.6941:27.833+3.816
2518 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:29.3051:27.859+3.792
2633 Flag of Italy.svg Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:30.7591:27.977+3.910
DNQ10 Flag of Germany.svg Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:31.1441:28.194+4.127
DNQ32 Flag of Argentina.svg Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:31.3661:28.664+4.597
DNQ4 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 1:30.1251:29.066+4.999
DNQ9 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:29.8241:29.503+5.436

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
111 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 721:48:43.85129
25 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 72+ 26.23236
319 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 72+ 35.44654
412 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 72+ 46.71013
56 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 72+ 47.43072
628 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Ferrari 72+ 51.81381
715 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 72+ 1:15.96411 
81 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 72+ 1:17.3099 
920 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 72+ 1:17.6554 
1036 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 71+ 1 lap18 
1129 Flag of France.svg Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 71+ 1 lap16 
1224 Flag of Spain.svg Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 70+ 2 laps24 
1333 Flag of Italy.svg Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 70+ 2 laps26 
1430 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 69+ 3 laps12 
Ret26 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 62Wheel21 
Ret18 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 60Chassis25 
Ret16 Flag of Italy.svg Ivan Capelli March-Judd 45Engine6 
Ret17 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 41Chassis17 
Ret22 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 37Engine23 
Ret14 Flag of France.svg Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 16Engine13 
Ret27 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 15Engine10 
Ret23 Flag of Italy.svg Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 15Gearbox20 
Ret2 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 14Spun off15 
Ret21 Flag of Italy.svg Nicola Larini Osella 9Suspension14 
Ret3 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 4Chassis22 
Ret25 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 0Throttle19 
DNQ10 Flag of Germany.svg Bernd Schneider Zakspeed   
DNQ32 Flag of Argentina.svg Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford   
DNQ4 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford   
DNQ9 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed   
DNPQ31 Flag of Italy.svg Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford
Source: [3]

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. 1988 Spanish GP - Patrese / Bailey
  2. "Spanish Grand Prix Memories 1988". ayrton-senna.net. A Tribute to Life Network. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  3. "1988 Spanish Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Spain 1988 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
Previous race:
1988 Portuguese Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1988 season
Next race:
1988 Japanese Grand Prix
Previous race:
1987 Spanish Grand Prix
Spanish Grand Prix Next race:
1989 Spanish Grand Prix