1988 Australian Grand Prix

1988 Australian Grand Prix
Race details
	Race 16 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One season
	;
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
Time	1:17.748
Fastest lap
Time	1:21.216 on lap 59
Podium

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	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:18.332	1:17.748	—
2	11	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	1:18.179	1:17.880	+0.132
3	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Judd	1:19.427	1:19.508	+1.760
4	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:20.019	1:19.517	+1.769
5	1	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Honda	1:20.477	1:19.535	+1.787
6	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Judd	1:19.925	1:19.998	+2.177
7	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	1:20.086	1:20.495	+2.748
8	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	1:20.331	1:20.182	+2.434
9	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	1:21.136	1:20.459	+2.711
10	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	1:21.114	1:20.486	+2.738
11	36	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	1:20.781	1:20.881	+3.033
12	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:20.844	1:20.964	+3.096
13	2	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	1:21.542	1:20.852	+3.104
14	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:21.905	1:21.133	+3.385
15	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Rial-Ford	1:21.944	1:21.164	+3.416
16	14	Philippe Streiff	AGS-Ford	1:22.170	1:21.262	+3.514
17	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	1:21.959	1:21.307	+3.559
18	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	1:21.393	1:21.514	+3.645
19	15	Mauricio Gugelmin	March-Judd	1:21.871	1:21.554	+3.806
20	33	Stefano Modena	EuroBrun-Ford	1:21.972	1:21.856	+4.108
21	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	1:23.022	1:21.893	+4.145
22	26	Stefan Johansson	Ligier-Judd	1:23.417	1:21.988	+4.240
23	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Judd	1:23.547	1:22.028	+4.280
24	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	1:22.420	1:22.211	+4.463
25	32	Oscar Larrauri	EuroBrun-Ford	1:23.413	1:22.213	+4.465
26	9	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Zakspeed	1:22.348	1:22.271	+4.523
DNQ	31	Gabriele Tarquini	Coloni-Ford	1:23.650	1:22.393	+4.645
DNQ	4	Julian Bailey	Tyrrell-Ford	1:23.530	1:22.529	+4.781
DNQ	29	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Lola-Ford	1:23.393	1:22.733	+4.985
DNQ	10	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed	1:24.221	1:23.025	+5.277
DNPQ	21	Nicola Larini	Osella	1:28.440

Race[]

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

Lap leaders[]

Lap Leaders: Alain Prost 70 (1-13, 26-82), Gerhard Berger 12 (14-25)

Standings after the race[]

Bold Text indicates World Champions.

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Ayrton Senna	90 (94)
2	Alain Prost	87 (105)
3	Gerhard Berger	41
4	Thierry Boutsen	31
5	Michele Alboreto	24

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	McLaren-Honda	199
2	Ferrari	65
3	Benetton-Ford	46
4	Lotus-Honda	21
5	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[]

Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/278/. Retrieved 2007-07-12.

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