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25px Flag of San Marino  1988 San Marino Grand Prix
Race details
Race 2 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One season
Imola 1981
Date May 1, 1988
Location Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course Permanent racing facility
5.040 km (3.131 mi)
Distance 60 laps, 302.4 km (187.986 mi)
Weather Sunny, warm
Pole position
Driver 25px Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda
Time 1:27.148
Fastest lap
Driver 25px France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda
Time 1:29.685 on lap 53
Podium
First 25px Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda
Second 25px France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda
Third 25px Brazil Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda

The 1988 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Imola on May 1, 1988. It was the second round of the 1988 Formula One season. Ayrton Senna scored his first victory since joining McLaren at the start of the season. Turbocharged Honda powered cars swept the top three positions.

Qualifying[]

The McLaren-Hondas totally dominated qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost occupied the front row of the grid with times of 1:27.148 and 1:27.919 respectively. Their nearest challenger was the Lotus of reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet with a time of 1:30.500. All the more interesting was that Piquet's Lotus was powered by the same specification turbocharged Honda engine that powered the McLarens, yet he was over 3 seconds slower than Senna.

Nigel Mansell missed qualifying on the front row of the grid for the first time since the 1986 Mexican Grand Prix. He qualified his Williams-Judd in 11th place, five places behind team mate Riccardo Patrese in 6th. The fastest atmo car in qualifying was the Benetton-Ford of Alessandro Nannini who ended up 4th on the grid in front of the disappointing Ferrari of Gerhard Berger who, along with team mate Michele Alboreto, found the turbocharged Italian V6 engines down on power throughout. The claims of Berger and Alboreto were backed up by the speed trap figures. The fastest cars were the Arrows-Megatrons at 310 km/h (193 mph), with the Honda powered McLarens less than 1 km/h slower. The Ferraris were much slower at 295 km/h (183 mph), and were some 20 km/h (12 mph) slower than the McLarens over the start-finish line.

The EuroBrun of Oscar Larrauri, the Ligiers of Stefan Johansson and René Arnoux and the Zakspeed turbo of Bernd Schneider all failed to qualify while the Osella of Italian Nicola Larini was excluded after scrutineering after the cars engine mounting points were illegally changed.

Race summary[]

The McLaren of Ayrton Senna led from the start, whilst his teammate Alain Prost had his engine stall coming to take his place on the grid (Prost later reported that the engine had also stalled earlier on the parade lap). The car was still rolling so he bump started it but it almost stalled again as the race started and he dropped to 7th place behind the Arrows of Eddie Cheever. Whilst he was able to recover these places and get back to second place by lap 8, he could not catch Senna who controlled the gap according to the traffic. Maintaining a lead of 6–10 seconds, Senna slowed on the last lap to make sure he finished without running out of fuel which reduced the gap to the pursuing Prost to just 2.3 seconds at the line.

Nelson Piquet battled with an ill-handling Lotus but used superior Honda power to maintain 3rd place ahead of a train of cars including both Benettons, both Williams and Berger's Ferrari. He was lucky to make it to the finish line as the extra boost needed to keep his position cut severely into his fuel. Had he not been lapped only four laps from the finish (meaning he only had to complete three of the remaining laps), he might not have had enough fuel to complete his last lap.

Nigel Mansell made a superb drive from a poor 11th place on the grid to be briefly up to 3rd place after taking Piquet under braking for the Rivazza on lap 40 (less than a lap later Piquet used his Honda's superior power to slipstream Mansell through the Tamburello and re-take 3rd through Villeneuve). However fleeting the move was, Mansell would retire just a lap after dropping to 4th with a faulty voltage regulator.

Thierry Boutsen's Benetton came home in 4th ahead of Gerhard Berger in the Ferrari (Boutsen's late race was hampered by a down on power engine thanks to a cracked exhaust on his car), and rounding out the points was Alessandro Nannini. Nannini had been fighting for 3rd place with Piquet, but despite being consistently closer in the corners, he had to yield to the Lotus' superior Honda power on the straights. Piquet and Nannini tangled at the Tosa hairpin, with the more experienced World Champion continuing on with a wider gap to the now 3rd Boutsen who slowed to avoid his spinning team mate, while Nannini dropped to 7th. A fired up Nannini then put in the fastest atmospheric lap in a climb back into the points and 5th place. Nannini had to settle for 6th though after being passed on the last lap at the Acqua Minerale chicane by a grass-cutting Gerhard Berger, now charging thanks to being lapped and having to drive one less lap on fuel.

Both Senna and Prost recorded a fastest race lap faster than Nelson Piquet's qualifying time and both McLaren drivers had lapped the entire field up to and including Piquet in 3rd place by lap 56 of the 60 lap race. That was actually good news for Piquet and Berger in their turbo powered cars against the atmosphetic Benettons as it meant they had to do one less race lap on their allowed fuel and could push harder for the final three laps of the race. Prost's second place earned him 6 points which saw him surpass his 1984 and 1985 McLaren team mate Niki Lauda as the all time career points leader, with 421.5 to Lauda's 420.5 points.

In what had become standard practice at McLaren since Prost's disqualification for being underweight at the 1985 race, both McLarens stopped within metres of taking the chequered flag. Prost had started the last lap some 7 seconds behind his team mate but was only 2.434 behind at the flag as Senna had driven only as fast as he needed to both win and conserve fuel at what was traditionally one of the most fuel thirsty circuits on the Formula One calender.

Classification[]

Qualifying[]

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 12 25px Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:41.278 1:27.148
2 11 25px France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:41.597 1:27.919 +0.771
3 1 25px Brazil Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:44.806 1:30.500 +3.352
4 19 25px Italy Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:45.090 1:30.590 +3.442
5 28 25px Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:43.394 1:30.683 +3.535
6 6 25px Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:45.673 1:30.952 +3.804
7 18 25px USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:48.399 1:31.300 +4.152
8 20 25px Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford no time 1:31.414 +3.993
9 16 25px Italy Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:47.518 1:31.519 +4.371
10 27 25px Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:45.982 1:31.520 +4.372
11 5 25px Great Britain Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:45.616 1:31.635 +4.487
12 2 25px Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:47.399 1:31.647 +4.499
13 14 25px France Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:47.465 1:32.013 +4.865
14 17 25px Great Britain Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:49.081 1:32.483 +5.335
15 30 25px France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:47.215 1:32.712 +5.564
16 22 25px Italy Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford no time 1:33.037 +5.889
17 31 25px Italy Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 1:48.146 1:33.236 +6.088
18 24 25px Spain Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:49.211 1:33.239 +6.091
19 29 25px France Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 1:46.062 1:33.374 +6.226
20 15 25px Brazil Mauricio Gugelmin March-Judd 1:49.306 1:33.448 +6.300
21 4 25px Great Britain Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford no time 1:33.874 +6.726
22 23 25px Spain Adrian Campos Minardi-Ford 1:49.012 1:33.903 +6.755
23 3 25px Great Britain Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:47.265 1:33.972 +6.824
24 36 25px Italy Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:48.156 1:34.204 +7.056
25 9 25px Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:48.463 1:34.567 +7.419
26 32 25px Italy Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:48.466 1:34.782 +7.634
DNQ 4 25px Argentina Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:54.566 1:35.077 +7.929
DNQ 26 25px Sweden Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:43.633 1:35.654 +8.506
DNQ 25 25px France René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:49.054 1:36.123 +8.975
DNQ 10 25px West Germany Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:51.498 1:36.218 +9.070
EX 21 25px Italy Nicola Larini Osella

Race[]

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 12 25px Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 60 1:32:41.264 1 9
2 11 25px France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 60 + 2.334 2 6
3 1 25px Brazil Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 59 + 1 Lap 3 4
4 20 25px Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 59 + 1 Lap 8 3
5 28 25px Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 59 + 1 Lap 5 2
6 19 25px Italy Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 59 + 1 Lap 4 1
7 18 25px USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 59 + 1 Lap 7  
8 2 25px Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 59 + 1 Lap 12  
9 17 25px UK Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 58 + 2 Laps 14  
10 14 25px France Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 58 + 2 Laps 13  
11 24 25px Spain Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 58 + 2 Laps 18  
12 29 25px France Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 58 + 2 Laps 19  
13 6 25px Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 58 + 2 Laps 6  
14 3 25px UK Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 58 + 2 Laps 23  
15 15 25px Brazil Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 58 + 2 Laps 20  
16 23 25px Spain Adrián Campos Minardi-Ford 57 + 3 Laps 22  
17 30 25px France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 57 + 3 Laps 15  
18 27 25px Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 54 Engine 10  
NC 33 25px Italy Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 52 Not Classified 26  
Ret 4 25px UK Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 48 Gearbox 21  
Ret 5 25px UK Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 42 Engine 11  
Ret 31 25px Italy Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 40 Fuel System 17  
Ret 36 25px Italy Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 18 Gearbox 24  
Ret 9 25px Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 16 Gearbox 25  
Ret 16 25px Italy Ivan Capelli March-Judd 2 Gearbox 9  
Ret 22 25px Italy Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1 Suspension 16  
DSQ 21 25px Italy Nicola Larini Osella   Excluded  
DNQ 32 25px Argentina Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford    
DNQ 26 25px Sweden Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd    
DNQ 25 25px France René Arnoux Ligier-Judd    
DNQ 10 25px West Germany Bernd Schneider Zakspeed    

Standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 25px France Alain Prost 15
2 25px Brazil Ayrton Senna 9
3 25px Austria Gerhard Berger 8
4 25px Brazil Nelson Piquet 8
5 25px Great Britain Derek Warwick 3
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 25px Great Britain McLaren-Honda 24
2 25px Italy Ferrari 10
3 25px Great Britain Lotus-Honda 9
4 25px Great Britain Benetton-Ford 4
5 25px Great Britain Arrows-Megatron 3
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References[]

from the original on 7 July 2007. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/264/. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 


Previous race:
1988 Brazilian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1988 season
Next race:
1988 Monaco Grand Prix
Previous race:
1987 San Marino Grand Prix
San Marino Grand Prix Next race:
1989 San Marino Grand Prix
Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1988 San Marino 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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