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25px Australia  1988 Australian Grand Prix
Race details
Race 16 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One season
Adelaide (long route)
Date 13 November 1988
Official name LIII Foster's Australian Grand Prix
Location Adelaide Street Circuit
Adelaide, South Australia
Course Temporary street circuit
3.780 km (2.362 mi)
Distance 82 laps, 309.960 km (193.684 mi)
Weather Cloudy and hot
Pole position
Driver 25px Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda
Time 1:17.748
Fastest lap
Driver 25px France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda
Time 1:21.216 on lap 59
Podium
First 25px France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda
Second 25px Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda
Third 25px Brazil Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda

The 1988 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide, on 13 November 1988. It was the 53rd Australian Grand Prix to be held since the original 100 Miles Road Race was held in 1928, and it was the fourth race to be held on the streets of Adelaide as part of the Formula One world championship. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1988 Formula One season, as well as the last race for which turbocharged engines would be eligible.

The race was won by French driver Alain Prost driving a McLaren MP4/4. It was the third and final time Prost won the race after winning the race in 1982 and 1986. Prost's 36 second win over his Brazilian team mate Ayrton Senna was McLaren's 15th race victory for the season, a new record for a constructor in a single season. Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet finished in third place driving his Lotus 100T, allowing Honda powered cars to clean sweep the podium. It was Team Lotus' final podium finish.

Race summary[]

McLaren notched up the last front row of the season, with Ayrton Senna taking his 13th pole of the season after a great qualifying duel. Alain Prost led off the start from Senna, Gerhard Berger, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell, and by lap 4 the lead had grown to 5.5 seconds. Michele Alboreto's Ferrari was an early retirement after being hit by Alex Caffi's Dallara.

Berger passed Senna on that lap at the second-gear Racetrack Hairpin and began a determined drive, passing Prost at the same place on lap 14. By lap 23 he had a three second lead coming up to lap Stefano Modena and René Arnoux. The Ligier turned in and took Berger off, handing Prost the lead. This left the McLarens in their usual 1–2 position although Senna was battling a faulty gearbox. Piquet was maintaining third ahead of the Williams of Riccardo Patrese and Mansell. The Italian made several attempts to pass Piquet, but was hampered by a lack of power on the straights.

On lap 53 Patrese spun, letting Mansell past, but he was equally unsuccessful in passing Piquet and eventually retired when his brakes failed and he hit the wall on lap 66. By lap 59 Prost was putting in a succession of fast laps, gaining a lead of over 30 seconds and lapping the whole field up to 5th placed Andrea de Cesaris' Rial who had driven up from 15th in an underpowered car.

The circuit's demanding nature was obvious: Satoru Nakajima and Maurício Gugelmin collided, Alessandro Nannini spun, Jonathan Palmer retired with transmission problems, whilst engine problems claimed Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever and driveshaft failures accounted for Stefano Modena and Oscar Larrauri. Alex Caffi succumbed to clutch failure and Philippe Alliot ran out of fuel.

At the finish, only eleven cars were classified of which just seven reached the chequered flag with three cars running out of fuel in the closing laps and Philippe Streiff having an electrical failure in his AGS JH23 in the last nine laps. Prost led home Senna in yet another McLaren 1–2, Piquet claimed third and Patrese fourth. De Cesaris' Rial – which had the smallest fuel tank in the field – ran dry just four laps from home, handing fifth place to Thierry Boutsen despite a spin and a stuttering engine, whilst Ivan Capelli came home sixth despite a puncture.

This was the last race in which turbocharged cars, introduced by Equipe Renault in 1977, would be permitted to compete as new regulations for 1989 allowed only normally aspirated engines to race, due to increasing concerns in safety regarding the speeds the cars were reaching with 351.22 km/h (218.23 mph) seen in 1986 as well as the cost involved with companies like Honda and Ferrari spending countless millions on R&D for their engines. Banning the turbos was the FIA's attempt at reducing costs in F1.

There was also some criticism of the scoring system. Prost scored 105 points during the season and finished first or second in each race he completed. However, Senna won the World Championship scoring only 94 points, including a fourth and a sixth but had won 8 races to Prost's 7. This was because of the "discard rule", which counted only the best eleven results of the year toward the Championship total; this meant that Prost ended the season with 87 and Senna with 90, the system would not change until 1991. Senna become only the second champion after John Surtees to win the Championship without having scored the largest number of points.

Classification[]

Qualifying[]

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 12 25px Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:18.332 1:17.748
2 11 25px France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:18.179 1:17.880 +0.132
3 5 25px Great Britain Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:19.427 1:19.508 +1.760
4 28 25px Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:20.019 1:19.517 +1.769
5 1 25px Brazil Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:20.477 1:19.535 +1.787
6 6 25px Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:19.925 1:19.998 +2.177
7 17 25px Great Britain Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:20.086 1:20.495 +2.748
8 19 25px Italy Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:20.331 1:20.182 +2.434
9 16 25px Italy Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:21.136 1:20.459 +2.711
10 20 25px Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:21.114 1:20.486 +2.738
11 36 25px Italy Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:20.781 1:20.881 +3.033
12 27 25px Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:20.844 1:20.964 +3.096
13 2 25px Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:21.542 1:20.852 +3.104
14 23 25px Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:21.905 1:21.133 +3.385
15 22 25px Italy Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:21.944 1:21.164 +3.416
16 14 25px France Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:22.170 1:21.262 +3.514
17 3 25px Great Britain Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:21.959 1:21.307 +3.559
18 18 25px USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:21.393 1:21.514 +3.645
19 15 25px Brazil Mauricio Gugelmin March-Judd 1:21.871 1:21.554 +3.806
20 33 25px Italy Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:21.972 1:21.856 +4.108
21 24 25px Spain Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:23.022 1:21.893 +4.145
22 26 25px Sweden Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:23.417 1:21.988 +4.240
23 25 25px France René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:23.547 1:22.028 +4.280
24 30 25px France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:22.420 1:22.211 +4.463
25 32 25px Argentina Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:23.413 1:22.213 +4.465
26 9 25px Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:22.348 1:22.271 +4.523
DNQ 31 25px Italy Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 1:23.650 1:22.393 +4.645
DNQ 4 25px Great Britain Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 1:23.530 1:22.529 +4.781
DNQ 29 25px France Pierre-Henri Raphanel Lola-Ford 1:23.393 1:22.733 +4.985
DNQ 10 25px West Germany Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:24.221 1:23.025 +5.277
DNPQ 21 25px Italy Nicola Larini Osella 1:28.440

Race[]

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 11 25px France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 82 1:53:14.676 2 9
2 12 25px Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 82 + 36.387 1 6
3 1 25px Brazil Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 82 + 47.546 5 4
4 6 25px Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 82 + 1:20.088 6 3
5 20 25px Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 81 + 1 Lap 10 2
6 16 25px Italy Ivan Capelli March-Judd 81 + 1 Lap 9 1
7 23 25px Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 80 + 2 Laps 14  
8 22 25px Italy Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 77 Out of Fuel 15  
9 26 25px Sweden Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 76 Out of Fuel 22  
10 30 25px France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 75 Out of fuel 24  
11 14 25px France Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 73 Electrical 16  
Ret 9 25px Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 69 Fuel System 26  
Ret 5 25px Great Britain Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 65 Spun Off 3  
Ret 19 25px Italy Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 63 Spun Off 8  
Ret 33 25px Italy Stefano Modena Euro Brun-Ford 63 Halfshaft 20  
Ret 17 25px Great Britain Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 52 Engine 7  
Ret 18 25px USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 51 Engine 18  
Ret 15 25px Brazil Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 46 Collision 19  
Ret 2 25px Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 45 Collision 13  
Ret 24 25px Spain Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 41 Engine 21  
Ret 36 25px Italy Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 32 Clutch 11  
Ret 28 25px Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 25 Collision 4  
Ret 25 25px France René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 24 Collision 23  
Ret 3 25px Great Britain Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 16 Transmission 17  
Ret 32 25px Argentina Oscar Larrauri Euro Brun-Ford 12 Halfshaft 25  
Ret 27 25px Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 0 Collision 12  
DNQ 31 25px Italy Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford    
DNQ 4 25px Great Britain Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford    
DNQ 29 25px France Pierre-Henri Raphanel Lola-Ford    
DNQ 10 25px West Germany Bernd Schneider Zakspeed    
DNPQ 21 25px Italy Nicola Larini Osella    

Lap leaders[]

Standings after the race[]

  • Bold Text indicates World Champions.
Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 25px Brazil Ayrton Senna 90 (94)
2 25px France Alain Prost 87 (105)
3 25px Austria Gerhard Berger 41
4 25px Belgium Thierry Boutsen 31
5 25px Italy Michele Alboreto 24
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 25px Great Britain McLaren-Honda 199
2 25px Italy Ferrari 65
3 25px Great Britain Benetton-Ford 46
4 25px Great Britain Lotus-Honda 21
5 25px Great Britain Williams-Judd 20
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Drivers could only count their best 11 results; numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Points accurate at final declaration of results. The Benettons were subsequently disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix and their points reallocated.

References[]



Previous race:
1988 Japanese Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1988 season
Next race:
1989 Brazilian Grand Prix
Previous race:
1987 Australian Grand Prix
Australian Grand Prix Next race:
1989 Australian Grand Prix
Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1988 Australian Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


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