1988 German Grand Prix

The 1988 German Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on July 24, 1988 at the Hockenheimring, Hockenheim. It was the ninth race of the 1988 Formula One season.

Pre-race
At the midpoint of the season, pre-qualifiers were re-evaluated. After a points-paying finish in the United States Grand Prix, Andrea de Cesaris (Rial) was promoted to the top 26 cars automatically allowed for qualifying sessions. Relegated to pre-qualifying was Nicola Larini (Osella).

Qualifying summary
The grid was composed again of a front row of two McLarens, then Michele Alboreto on Ferrari, the two Marches and Gerhard Berger's second Ferrari. Qualifying had been severely hindered by violent thunderstorms which struck the area throughout the weekend. When the track was dry, both the McLarens and Ferraris went through the speed trap at 328 km/h on Hockenheim's long straights, with television commentator Murray Walker saying during the race coverage on the BBC that the McLarens actually topped 207 mph in final qualifying, which put them some 6 mph slower than the speeds recorded during qualifying for the 1987 race when the turbo cars had approximately 350 bhp more than they did in 1988. The straight line speed difference was the major reason Senna's pole time in the McLaren was 1.98 seconds slower than Mansell's the previous year. The fastest of the 'atmo' cars on the long straights was Ivan Capelli's March-Judd which was recorded at 194 mph. Alessandro Nannini (Benetton-Ford) was the fastest atmo qualifier, though he was 3.6 seconds slower than Senna.

As had become standard practice in 1988, the Lotus-Hondas of Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakajima weren't able to match the similarly engined McLarens, with Piquet qualifying 3, and Nakajima 4 seconds slower than Ayrton Senna's pole time. The turbocharged Arrows-Megatrons of Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever also failed to impress in qualifying, with Warwick 5.8 and Cheever 6.5 seconds slower than Senna.

Race summary
The rain continued until Sunday morning, when it finally stopped, but there was concern on which type of tyre would have been the most suitable for the race; in the end, everyone started on wet tyres, with the exception of Nelson Piquet. Ayrton Senna led off the start line from Berger and Alessandro Nannini. Piquet suffered a first-lap retirement, aquaplaning off the track at the Ostkurve due to his slick tyres. Alain Prost fought back from a bad start where he dropped to 4th to recover to 2nd behind Senna, but failed to catch him: traffic problems and many spins meant the gap increased lap by lap.

On lap 9, Philippe Alliot went off at the Sudkurve chicane after going offline to allow Senna to lap him. Alliot had changed to slicks to exploit the developing dry line and would have been in a promising position had the track continued to dry. In an almost identical spin to Piquet's, Alliot's Lola was out on the spot.

Senna and Prost maintained their 1-2 until the chequered flag, despite a late spin by the Frenchman coming out of the Sudkurve chicane. It was the sixth 1-2 of the year for McLaren.

Nannini had been in 3rd and then 4th place consistently until he had to pit on lap 38 to repair the broken throttle bracket of his Benetton. He rejoined 4 laps down and despite finishing only 18th, he set the fastest lap of the race. It was the second, and last, 'atmo' fastest lap of the season after Mansell's fastest lap at Silverstone. Ironically the two fastest laps set by the atmo cars had been set at two of the three fastest circuits on the 1988 calender.

Ferrari finished in 3rd and 4th place with concerns for fuel consumption, whilst Ivan Capelli, with a broken clutch for 30 laps, took 5th place. Thierry Boutsen gained a point for 6th place, in a car set up for the dry.

Nigel Mansell retired from 7th with a spin after a broken bolt had jammed his gearbox. Bernd Schneider earned his first Grand Prix finish in 12th in his home race.

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Constructors' Championship standings


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