1991 United States Grand Prix

  1991 United States Grand Prix

Race details
Race 1 of 16 in the 1991 Formula One season
Date	March 10, 1991
Official name	XXVIII Iceberg United States Grand Prix
Location	Phoenix street circuit Phoenix, Arizona
Course	Temporary Road Course 3.721 km (2.312 mi)
Distance	81 laps, 301.401 km (187.282 mi)
Weather	Overcast 25°C (77°F)
Pole position
Driver	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:21.434
Fastest lap
Driver	Jean Alesi	Ferrari
Time	1:26.758 on lap 49
Podium
First	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Second	Alain Prost	Ferrari
Third	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford

The 1991 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on March 10, 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Summary

Ayrton Senna's new McLaren-Honda had not turned a wheel prior to arriving in Phoenix for the start of the 1991 Formula One season, but when it did, no one could even stay close. On pole by more than a second over rival Alain Prost, Senna stamped his authority on the race from the green light, leaping into an immediate lead and leading every lap.

The start of the race, with Ayrton Senna leading the field.

The 1991 McLaren chassis had only had one brief test session, and the two race cars were completed about 4 am Friday, six hours before the first practice session. Not many believed it could be ready to win, but Senna predicted that the new V-12 Honda would eventually be better than the previous year's V-10.

Working to prepare the new car, Senna claimed he had never gotten totally comfortable with the increasing complexity of the sport since helping Lotus introduce the first active suspension car in 1987, and he still found it hard to embrace the huge role of computers in achieving a proper setup. "Friday, to understand and interpret things properly, I worked with the engineers into the evening," Senna said. "It has been a long time since I did that. The engineers and I talked our way around the circuit, then we compared this with what the computer predicted. It was great because the computer confirmed almost everything, and it also showed where there was room for improvement."

Alain Prost on the first lap in the Ferrari.

Jean Alesi is pursued by Riccardo Patrese.

Ayrton Senna took a comfortable win in his McLaren MP4/6.

The Ferraris of Alain Prost and Jean Alesi were expected to be the strongest team, but their V-12s and 7-speed semiautomatic gearboxes were not well suited to the tight turns and short straights of the street circuit. As it turned out, they were not the only ones plagued by gearbox problems throughout the race, but they fared better than most.

In the two previous years, the championship had been decided when Senna and Prost tangled at Suzuka. In 1989, their collision as teammates secured Prost's third World Championship; in 1990, with Prost driving for Ferrari and still in title contention, it handed Senna his second crown. Controversy regarding the nature of the 1990 incident had created great anticipation for the rematch.

On Sunday, Prost began his second season at Ferrari alongside Senna on the front row. At the start, he fell in behind the Brazilian, with Nigel Mansell slipping ahead of Riccardo Patrese. Alesi and Gerhard Berger followed, then Nelson Piquet, Roberto Moreno, Stefano Modena and Emanuele Pirro. A lap later, Alesi, in his first race for Ferrari, swept past Patrese, but by then Senna was pulling away. After ten laps, he had a lead of ten seconds over Prost.

Behind Senna, the most ambitious driver on the track in the early laps was Patrese, as he found himself on the tail of two separate but sensational three-way battles. First, after getting back by Alesi for fourth on lap 16, Patrese closed on Mansell who was immediately behind Prost. By lap 22, Patrese was close enough to attack his Williams teammate but overshot onto the escape road, as Mansell swerved to avoid him. Upon rejoining, Patrese quickly latched onto Alesi and Berger, as the new three-car train now covered fourth through sixth places. Patrese had gotten past Berger when, suddenly, two of the top six runners retired on consecutive laps. On lap 35, Mansell pulled over when the Williams' new semi-automatic gearbox failed, and on the next time around, Berger's race ended as well.

When Patrese passed Alesi for the second time, Alesi realized the Ferrari had eaten up his D-compound Goodyear tires, and he was forced to pit on lap 43. He rejoined in seventh. Three laps later, Prost was being hounded by Patrese, and he also pitted, ceding second spot to the Williams. When the Ferrari crew had problems changing his right rear tire, the Frenchman dropped to seventh behind Modena's Tyrrell-Honda.

The most frightening moment of the race came on lap 50, two laps after Senna had pitted without giving up the lead. Like Mansell, Patrese was having problems with the gearbox in his Williams, and when it selected neutral midway through Turn Seven, it caused him to spin out of second place. The car stopped on the outside of the track, perpendicular to the racing line. Piquet and Mika Häkkinen (making his F1 debut) barely managed to avoid him as they passed, but before Patrese could get out of the car, Moreno, in the second Benetton, went straight across the bow of the Williams, removing the nose of Patrese's car and the right front wheel of the Benetton. Neither driver was injured, and Patrese leaped from his cockpit and high-stepped his way off the course. Inexplicably, Patrese and Moreno's cars remained on the course throughout the race, and the impressive Bertrand Gachot, driving the first race for the new Jordan team and challenging Satoru Nakajima, spun later after swerving to avoid them; apparently, he figured they would have been taken care of by then!

With Patrese out, Senna led Piquet, who was having to hold off Alesi, by over a minute. Alesi squeezed up to second on lap 53, while four laps later Prost disposed of Modena. Then on lap 70, with one brilliant move into Turn Five, Prost went from fourth to second. With Alesi and Piquet running second and third, Piquet's Benetton pulled alongside Alesi– who had set the race's fastest lap while Prost was in the pits– in Turn Four, but could not get by. Down the straight, however, Piquet passed Alesi for second place. Prost also went by his new teammate on the left, and then sliced back to the right, between Alesi and Piquet, beating Piquet to the apex of Turn Five and regaining second place. By now Senna led by 40 seconds, pacing himself, and Prost simply consolidated second.

Gearbox troubles dropped Alesi to fifth before he retired less than 10 laps from the finish, leaving third place to Piquet who, like the two Tyrrells following, had never pitted for tires. Martini was pressing Nakajima for fifth, only to have his engine let go after 75 laps. A similar problem removed Gachot from eighth on the same lap, promoting Suzuki to sixth. The race ended a lap short of the planned 82 as the two-hour limit was reached.

After the race, Senna assessed his new car's performance: "I had small problems with the gearbox, and the car balance was not optimum, so it was very difficult to drive. I'm looking forward to running a proper circuit with proper conditions and see what the car can do." Prost and the rest of the field could only imagine how they were going to catch him when that happened. Indeed, they rarely did and Senna would go on to capture his second consecutive, third and final Driver's Championship.

Classification

The race was the Jordan team's first in F1. Bertrand Gachot was classified tenth after a late-race engine failure prevented him from finishing.

Pre Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	1:28.288
2	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	1:28.792	+0.504
3	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:30.244	+1.956
4	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	1:30.304	+2.016
5	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	1:30.937	+2.649
6	31	Pedro Chaves	Coloni-Ford	1:31.113	+2.825
7	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford	1:32.126	+3.838
8	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:37.046	+8.758

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:23.530	1:21.434
2	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	1:24.507	1.22.555	+1.121
3	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:24.726	1.22.833	+1.399
4	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:25.277	1.23.218	+1.784
5	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	1:25.026	1:23.384	+1.950
6	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:23.519	1.23.805	+2.085
7	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:25.914	1.23.742	+2.308
8	19	Roberto Moreno	Benetton-Ford	1:25.170	1.23.881	+2.447
9	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	1:24.876	1.24.792	+3.358
10	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	1:26.765	1.24.891	+3.457
11	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	1:25.065	1.25.557	+3.631
12	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	1:27.184	1.25.385	+3.951
13	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd	1:27.976	1.25.448	+4.014
14	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	1:27.568	1.25.701	+4.267
15	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	1:25.815	1.25.715	+4.281
16	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	1:26.058	1.25.752	+4.318
17	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:27.761	1.25.791	+4.357
18	16	Ivan Capelli	Leyton House-Ilmor	1:54.845	1.26.121	+4.687
19	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Ford	1:27.446	1.26.425	+4.991
20	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:27.984	1.26.500	+5.066
21	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	1:26.987	1.26.548	+5.114
22	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:27.164	1.26.851	+5.417
23	15	Maurício Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	1:26.865	1.26.875	+5.431
24	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	1:30.061	1.26.915	+5.481
25	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Porsche	1:29.067	1.27.015	+5.581
26	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	1:27.625	1.27.042	+5.608
27	10	Alex Caffi	Footwork-Porsche	1:29.388	1.27.519	+6.085
28	18	Stefan Johansson	AGS-Ford	1:29.857	1.27.753	+6.319
29	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:28.904	1.27.159	+6.725
30	12	Julian Bailey	Lotus-Judd	1:30.758	1.28.570	+7.136

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	81	2:00.47.828	1	10
2	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	81	+ 16.322	2	6
3	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	81	+ 1:17.376	5	4
4	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	81	+ 1:25.409	11	3
5	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	80	+ 1 Lap	16	2
6	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	79	+ 2 Laps	21	1
7	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	78	+ 3 Laps	17
8	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	77	+ 4 Laps	22
9	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	75	Engine	15
10	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	75	Engine	14
11	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	73	+ 8 Laps	12
12	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	72	Gearbox	6
13	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd	59	Engine	13
Ret	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	49	Gearbox	3
Ret	19	Roberto Moreno	Benetton-Ford	49	Collision	8
Ret	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Porsche	41	Engine	25
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	Leyton House-Ilmor	40	Gearbox	18
Ret	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	40	Engine	20
Ret	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	36	Fuel Pump	7
Ret	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	35	Gearbox	4
Ret	15	Maurício Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	34	Gearbox	23
Ret	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	32	Spun Off	24
Ret	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	16	Gearbox	9
Ret	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	15	Gearbox	26
Ret	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	12	Gearbox	10
Ret	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Ford	4	Engine	19
DNQ	10	Alex Caffi	Footwork-Porsche
DNQ	18	Stefan Johansson	AGS-Ford
DNQ	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini
DNQ	12	Julian Bailey	Lotus-Judd
DNPQ	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford
DNPQ	31	Pedro Chaves	Coloni-Ford
DNPQ	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford
DNPQ	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini

Notes

• First race: Mika Häkkinen, Mark Blundell, Eric van de Poele, Pedro Chaves, Érik Comas
• Last points: Satoru Nakajima
• The Jordan and Modena teams made their first appearances here.
• Nicola Larini's 7th place finish was the best results for the Modena team.
• Ayrton Senna was the first driver to receive 10 points for a victory under the new scoring scheme, and the win was his 27th, tying Jackie Stewart for second all-time, behind former teammate Prost. The other points scorers were also assured of keeping their points, since they would no longer be limited to their best 11 finishes on the season.
• The race was attended by approximately 18,500 spectators. It is believed that more people attended an ostrich race held in the area on the same day.
• Unknown at the time, of course, Senna's dominance for a fifth United States Grand Prix win would mark the end of 33 consecutive years of Formula One in the United States. At the 2000 United States Grand Prix, F1 would return on a new course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• The race was Nigel Mansell's first in his familiar "Red 5" Williams since returning to the team after two years with Ferrari. He retired due to a gearbox problem.
• This was the last time that three previous world champions stood on a podium together until the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ayrton Senna 10 2 Alain Prost 6 3 Nelson Piquet 4 4 Stefano Modena 3 5 Satoru Nakajima 2

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda 10 2 Ferrari 6 3 Tyrrell-Honda 5 4 Benetton-Ford 4 5 Lola-Ford 1

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

References

• Dennis Simanaitis (June, 1991). "3rd United States Grand Prix at Phoenix: More Power To Ya". Road & Track, 133–136.
• "Formula One Phoenix Grand Prix" Video (1992), BMG Video, New York.

External links

• Sports Illustrated-1991 USGP
• GrandPrix.com Race Report

Previous race: 1990 Australian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1991 season	Next race: 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix
Previous race: 1990 United States Grand Prix	United States Grand Prix	Next race: 2000 United States Grand Prix

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