1988 Monaco Grand Prix

The 1988 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on May 15, 1988 at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo. It was the third race of the 1988 Formula One season.

Qualifying
The domination that the McLaren-Hondas had showed in qualifying at Imola continued in Monaco. Ayrton Senna was in a class of his own being the only driver to get under 1:24.0 and finishing an astonishing 1.4 seconds quicker than team mate and Monaco specialist Alain Prost and 2.7 seconds faster than third placed Gerhard Berger in his Ferrari. The quickest atmo car was the Williams of Nigel Mansell in 5th place, 3.7 seconds off the pace set by Senna.

Lotus-Honda driver Satoru Nakajima failed to qualify for the 26 car grid (in previous years Monaco only had a 20 car grid due to the narrow nature of the Monaco circuit). Also failing to qualify on the tight circuit were the Zakspeed of Bernd Schneider, the Minardi of Adrián Campos and the Tyrrell of Julian Bailey.

Race summary
Senna led from the start, with Berger overtaking Prost when the Frenchman missed a gearchange. The first corner at St.Devote saw a variety of accidents: Alex Caffi in his new Dallara hit the wall, AGS's Philippe Streiff retired from a stunning 12th place on the grid when an accelerator cable broke, and Nelson Piquet retired after colliding with Eddie Cheever.

The running order of Senna-Berger-Prost-Mansell-Alboreto-Nannini was maintained until lap 33 when Alboreto took Mansell off at the Swimming Pool with a late passing manoeuvre. On lap 51, there were some dramatic moments when, at the Mirabeau turn, Philippe Alliot in the Lola had a violent collision with Riccardo Patrese's Williams. By lap 54 Prost had finally got past Berger on the run to the first corner and took second place, some 50 seconds behind Senna. He then started trading fastest laps with Senna, who maintained the gap around 50 seconds. With Prost apparently settling for the second place and both McLarens slowing down the pace, Senna spun into the barrier at Portier on lap 65. Immediately after the crash, Senna went to his home at Monaco to contemplate losing a race he had dominated from the first time he took to the track for free practice on Thursday morning. The race was won, for the 4th time in 5 years, by Prost.

The Ferraris took 2nd and 3rd with Derek Warwick in the Arrows-Megatron putting in a fine drive to finish 4th after a race-long battle with the Tyrrell-Ford of Jonathan Palmer. Patrese recovered from his collision to gain the final point by passing the other Lola of Yannick Dalmas on the last lap. Patrese's single point was also the first ever World Championship point scored by a Judd powered car.

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Constructors' Championship standings


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