1991 French Grand Prix

1991 French Grand Prix
Race 7 of 16 in the 1991 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	7 July 1991
Location	Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours Magny-Cours, France
Course	Permanent circuit
Course length	4.250 km (2.651 miles)
Distance	72 laps, 306.000 km (190.892 miles)
Pole position
Driver	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Time	1:14.559 [1]
Fastest lap
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:19.168 on lap 49 [2]
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Second	Alain Prost	Ferrari
Third	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Lap leaders

The 1991 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Magny-Cours on 7 July 1991. It was the seventh race of the 1991 Formula One World Championship, and the first French Grand Prix to be held at Magny-Cours. The 72-lap race was won by Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Renault, with local driver Alain Prost second in a Ferrari and Ayrton Senna third in a McLaren-Honda.

Pre-race

The French Grand Prix had moved from the Circuit Paul Ricard near Marseille to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in the centre of France, to mixed reviews. There were no changes in the driver line-up, but the Footwork team had decided to abandon the disastrous Porsche V12 engine project in favour of a return to Ford engines, while Ferrari introduced a new car, the 643.

Qualifying

Pre-qualifying report

In the Friday morning pre-qualification session, Andrea de Cesaris was fastest in the Jordan for the second time this season. He was four tenths of a second faster than JJ Lehto in the Dallara, with Olivier Grouillard third fastest for Fondmetal at his home race, the second time in a row the Frenchman had pre-qualified. The fourth pre-qualifier was Bertrand Gachot in the other Jordan.

Those failing to progress to the main qualifying sessions included the other Dallara of Emanuele Pirro in fifth, just a couple of tenths slower than Gachot. The two Modena Lambos were sixth and seventh, with Nicola Larini outpacing Eric van de Poele, and bottom of the time sheets was Pedro Chaves in the Coloni. This was the seventh consecutive Grand Prix in which the Portuguese driver had failed to pre-qualify. ^[3]

Pre-qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	1:19.729	—
2	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	1:20.172	+0.443
3	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford	1:20.227	+0.498
4	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	1:20.309	+0.580
5	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	1:20.539	+0.810
6	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:20.628	+0.899
7	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:21.304	+1.575
8	31	Pedro Chaves	Coloni-Ford	1:22.229	+2.500

Qualifying report

In qualifying, local driver Alain Prost impressed and was set to score Ferrari's first pole position of the season, but in the dying minutes Riccardo Patrese in the Williams-Renault came through to pip the French driver to the pole. Championship leader Ayrton Senna spun on Olivier Grouillard's oil on his final qualifying attempt and had to settle for third alongside Nigel Mansell in the second Williams, with the rest of the top ten starting spots occupied by Gerhard Berger, Jean Alesi, Nelson Piquet, Roberto Moreno, Maurício Gugelmin, and the impressive Gianni Morbidelli in a Minardi.

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:17.472	1:14.559	-
2	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	1:17.386	1:14.789	+0.230
3	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:16.557	1:14.857	+0.298
4	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:17.095	1:14.895	+0.336
5	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:18.087	1:15.376	+0.817
6	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:17.303	1:15.877	+1.318
7	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	1:20.449	1:16.816	+2.257
8	19	Roberto Moreno	Benetton-Ford	1:19.711	1:16.961	+2.402
9	15	Maurício Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	1:19.728	1:17.015	+2.456
10	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	1:20.635	1:17.020	+2.461
11	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	1:19.530	1:17.114	+2.555
12	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	1:19.426	1:17.149	+2.590
13	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	1:20.097	1:17.163	+2.604
14	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:20.427	1:17.504	+2.945
15	16	Ivan Capelli	Leyton House-Ilmor	1:19.555	1:17.533	+2.974
16	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:19.187	1:17.775	+3.216
17	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	1:22.277	1:17.836	+3.277
18	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	1:21.020	1:18.144	+3.585
19	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	1:20.374	1:18.150	+3.591
20	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Judd	1:21.230	1:18.185	+3.626
21	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford	1:20.640	1:18.210	+3.651
22	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	1:22.058	1:18.224	+3.665
23	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Ford	1:21.613	1:18.540	+3.981
24	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	1:20.999	1:18.826	+4.267
25	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Ford	1:21.966	1:18.846	+4.287
26	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	1:21.323	1:19.267	+4.708
27	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd	1:22.274	1:19.491	+4.932
28	18	Fabrizio Barbazza	AGS-Ford	1:22.319	1:20.110	+5.551
29	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:22.737	1:20.262	+5.703
30	10	Stefan Johansson	Footwork-Ford	1:24.114	1:21.000	+6.441

Race

Race report

At the start Patrese made a disastrous start and dropped to 10th position on lap 1, so Prost led from Mansell, Senna, Berger, and Alesi, while Bertrand Gachot spun off on the first lap in his Jordan. Berger was out when his engine failed on lap 6, his third consecutive retirement due to engine problems. Patrese started another recovery drive by passing both Piquet and Morbidelli in one fell swoop when Morbidelli botched an overtaking attempt, taking himself out of the running. At the front Mansell pressured Prost and on Lap 21 he made his move taking advantage of traffic to out-brake the French star going into the hairpin. Mansell slowly pulled away but problems at his first tyre stop dropped him back behind Prost. Mansell once again closed on Prost and the two battled it out until Mansell finally managed to take advantage of traffic, again, and took the lead on Lap 54 by this time outbraking Prost around the outside at the hairpin. Mansell pulled away and scored his first win of the season, Prost was second followed by Senna, Alesi, Patrese, and de Cesaris.

This was the 17th win of Mansell's career, thus breaking the record of Grand Prix wins by an English driver, previously held by Stirling Moss.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	72	1:38:00.056	4	10
2	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	72	+ 5.003	2	6
3	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	72	+ 34.934	3	4
4	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	72	+ 35.920	6	3
5	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	71	+ 1 lap	1	2
6	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	71	+ 1 lap	13	1
7	15	Maurício Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	70	+ 2 laps	9
8	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	70	+ 2 laps	7
9	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	70	+ 2 laps	12
10	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Judd	70	+ 2 laps	20
11	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	70	+ 2 laps	14
12	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	69	+ 3 laps	16
Ret	19	Roberto Moreno	Benetton-Ford	63	Physical	8
Ret	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	57	Gearbox	11
Ret	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford	47	Oil leak	21
Ret	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Ford	43	Transmission	23
Ret	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	39	Tyre	26
Ret	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	36	Spun off	17
Ret	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	32	Transmission	22
Ret	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Ford	31	Gearbox	25
Ret	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	21	Gearbox	24
Ret	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	12	Spun off	18
Ret	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	8	Collision	10
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	Leyton House-Ilmor	7	Spun off	15
Ret	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	6	Engine	5
Ret	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	0	Spun off	19
DNQ	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd
DNQ	18	Fabrizio Barbazza	AGS-Ford
DNQ	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford
DNQ	10	Stefan Johansson	Footwork-Ford
DNPQ	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd
DNPQ	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini
DNPQ	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini
DNPQ	31	Pedro Chaves	Coloni-Ford
Source: [4]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ayrton Senna 48 2 2 Nigel Mansell 23 1 3 Riccardo Patrese 22 1 4 Alain Prost 17 2 5 Nelson Piquet 16 Source: [5]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda 58 2 Williams-Renault 45 1 3 Ferrari 25 1 4 Benetton-Ford 21 5 Tyrrell-Honda 11 Source: [5]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. Henry, Alan (1991). AUTOCOURSE 1991-92. Hazleton Publishing. p. 162. ISBN   0-905138-87-2.
2. Henry, Alan (1991). AUTOCOURSE 1991-92. Hazleton Publishing. p. 163. ISBN   0-905138-87-2.
3. Walker, Murray (1991). Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 61–68. ISBN   0-905138-90-2.
4. "1991 French Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
5. "France 1991 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 17 March 2019.

Previous race: 1991 Mexican Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1991 season	Next race: 1991 British Grand Prix
Previous race: 1990 French Grand Prix	French Grand Prix	Next race: 1992 French Grand Prix
Awards
Preceded by 1990 Australian Grand Prix	Formula One Promotional Trophy for Race Promoter 1991	Succeeded by 1992 French Grand Prix