1991 German Grand Prix

  1991 German Grand Prix

Race details
Race 9 of 16 in the 1991 Formula One season
Date	July 28, 1991
Official name	Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland
Location	Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Course	Permanent racing facility 6.802 km (4.226 mi)
Distance	45 laps, 306.090 km (190.195 mi)
Weather	Hot and sunny
Pole position
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:37.087
Fastest lap
Driver	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Time	1:43.569 on lap 35
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Second	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Third	Jean Alesi	Ferrari

The 1991 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Hockenheimring on July 28, 1991. It was the ninth round of the 1991 Formula One season.

Report

There were two changes to the entry list, the first was at Lotus where Johnny Herbert was replaced by young German Michael Bartels because of the former's Japanese Formula 3000 commitments, and the second was at Footwork where Alex Caffi was back in action after his road accident. Elsewhere Satoru Nakajima announced he would retire at the end of the year. The pre-qualifying draw was also redrawn, with Dallara, Modena, and Jordan escaping the Friday morning dungeon, and condemning Brabham, AGS, and Footwork to join Fondmetal and Coloni in the jittery Friday morning session.

In Saturday Practice Érik Comas had a massive accident in his Ligier, the French driver was unhurt, but it raised questions about the safety of the second chicane. Qualifying saw Nigel Mansell take pole from title rival Ayrton Senna. Gerhard Berger was third, followed by Riccardo Patrese, Alain Prost, Jean Alesi, Andrea de Cesaris, Nelson Piquet, Roberto Moreno, and Pierluigi Martini in the Minardi, taking full advantage of his Ferrari engine around the high speed circuit.

On Sunday, a couple of hours before the race, there was a FIA driver's meeting and Senna requested to race director Roland Brunseryade that the tire walls at the chicanes be replaced with traffic cones because of the possibly of hitting the tires and rolling; that happened to him during qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix, and this heated up when FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre, Senna and a few other drivers had a brief argument over the regulations involving safety. Balestre then instigated a democratic vote, and the vote went towards removing the tire walls and replacing them with traffic cones.

At the start of the race, Mansell made a great start while Berger slotted into second ahead of team-mate Senna, with Prost, Patrese, and Alesi rounding out the top six. At the back Mark Blundell collided with Nicola Larini, Blundell continued, but Larini's day was over. Berger made a bad pit-stop and fell back to tenth, while Prost started to reel in Senna. Mansell was running away at the front and when he pitted for tyres he dropped just behind Alesi, but did not waste time in changing the situation and passed Alesi two laps later to re-take the lead. While Mansell was surging away, a tremendous battle developed for third place between Senna, Prost, and Patrese, with Riccardo beating both men before setting off after Alesi. Senna and Prost continued to squabble over fourth and the major talking point came on lap 37 when Prost attempted to pass Senna going into the first chicane. Prost was faster and tried to go around the outside, Senna would not give way and Prost went off and proceeded to stall the engine. Prost blamed Senna and said he would not be so forgiving the next time while Senna accused Prost of complaining for the sake of complaining. Meanwhile Mansell cruised to his third straight win, leading home Patrese, Alesi, Berger, de Cesaris, and Gachot, Senna having run out of fuel on the last lap for the second straight race, allowing Mansell to close to within eight points of Senna in the drivers championship.

Classification

Pre-Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	1:42.810
2	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:43.939	+1.129
3	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Ford	1:44.034	+1.224
4	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	1:44.257	+1.447
5	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford	1:44.645	+1.835
6	10	Alex Caffi	Footwork-Ford	1:45.282	+2.472
7	18	Fabrizio Barbazza	AGS-Ford	1:46.604	+3.794
8	31	Pedro Chaves	Coloni-Ford	1:47.546	+4.736

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:37.467	1:37.087
2	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:38.208	1:37.274	+0.187
3	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:37.946	1:37.393	+0.306
4	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:38.146	1:37.435	+0.348
5	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	1:39.422	1:39.034	+1.947
6	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:39.391	1:39.042	+1.955
7	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	1:40.387	1:40.239	+3.152
8	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	1:40.560	1:40.878	+3.473
9	19	Roberto Moreno	Benetton-Ford	1:41.968	1:40.957	+3.870
10	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	1:40.998	1:41.373	+3.911
11	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	1:41.443	1:41.308	+4.221
12	16	Ivan Capelli	Leyton House-Ilmor	1:42.025	1:41.330	+4.243
13	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	1:41.515	1:41.390	+4.303
14	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	1:41.566	1:41.952	+4.479
15	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	1:42.294	1:41.615	+4.528
16	15	Mauricio Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	no time	1:41.735	+4.648
17	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:41.823	1:41.929	+4.736
18	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	1:42.021	1:42.672	+4.934
19	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	1:42.132	1:42.058	+4.971
20	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	1:42.171	1:42.708	+5.084
21	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	1:43.414	1:42.216	+5.129
22	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	1:45.037	1:42.474	+5.387
23	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd	1:44.816	1:42.726	+5.639
24	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:44.596	1:43.035	+5.948
25	29	Eric Bernard	Lola-Ford	1:43.797	1:43.321	+6.234
26	26	Eric Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:43.803	1:43.364	+6.277
27	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Ford	1:44.362	1:43.409	+6.322
28	12	Michael Bartels	Lotus-Judd	1:46.409	1:43.624	+6.537
29	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:43.787	1:43.918	+6.700
30	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:44.489	1:44.207	+7.120

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	45	1:19:29.661	1	10
2	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	45	+ 13.779	4	6
3	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	45	+ 17.618	6	4
4	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	45	+ 32.651	3	3
5	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	45	+ 1:17.537	7	2
6	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	45	+ 1:40.605	11	1
7	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	44	Out of Fuel	2
8	19	Roberto Moreno	Benetton-Ford	44	+ 1 Lap	9
9	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	44	+ 1 Lap	17
10	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	44	+ 1 Lap	18
11	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	43	+ 2 Laps	15
12	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	43	+ 2 Laps	21
13	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	41	+ 4 Laps	14
Ret	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	37	Spun Off	5
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	Leyton House-Ilmor	36	Engine	12
Ret	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	35	Engine	20
Ret	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	27	Engine	8
Ret	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	26	Gearbox	13
Ret	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	22	Engine	26
Ret	15	Maurício Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	21	Gearbox	16
Ret	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd	19	Engine	23
Ret	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	15	Engine	22
Ret	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	14	Differential	19
Ret	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	11	Differential	10
Ret	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Ford	9	Transmission	25
Ret	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	0	Spun Off	24
DNQ	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Ford
DNQ	12	Michael Bartels	Lotus-Judd
DNQ	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford
DNQ	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini
DNPQ	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford
DNPQ	10	Alex Caffi	Footwork-Ford
DNPQ	18	Fabrizio Barbazza	AGS-Ford
DNPQ	31	Pedro Chaves	Coloni-Ford

Notes

• Pre-qualifying was reshaped following the mid season point. Jordan, Dallara and Modena were all removed from pre-qualifying as they had performed better than teams allowed in qualifying proper. AGS, Footwork and Brabham all slipped into pre-qualifying.
• Saturo Nakajima announced his decision to retire from F1 at the end of the season.
• German driver Michael Bartels stood in for Johnny Herbert but failed to qualify
• Alex Caffi returned to the Footwork team replacing Stefan Johansson. Caffi had threatened legal action should his wish not be granted.
• Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were again embroiled in controversy, attempting to overtake Senna, Prost felt the Brazilian baulked him and left him with no choice but to go up the escape road where Prost stalled. Prost controversially claimed after the race "If I catch him in that position again I will push him out, that is for sure!"
• Senna ran out of fuel when 4th and stopped with one lap left ironically in the same spot where Prost stalled.
• The 1991 German Grand Prix was the first Grand Prix under a unified Germany. German Reunification had occurred on October 3, 1990, 3 months and 3 days after the previous Grand Prix.

Standings after Grand Prix

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ayrton Senna 51 2 Nigel Mansell 43 3 Riccardo Patrese 28 4 Alain Prost 21 5 Gerhard Berger 19

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 71 2 McLaren-Honda 70 3 Ferrari 33 4 Benetton-Ford 23 5 Jordan-Ford 13

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

References

• Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1991/207/. Retrieved 2007-08-08. 

Previous race: 1991 British Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1991 season	Next race: 1991 Hungarian Grand Prix
Previous race: 1990 German Grand Prix	German Grand Prix	Next race: 1992 German Grand Prix

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1991 German 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.