1988 Mexican Grand Prix
1988 Mexican Grand Prix | |||
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Race 4 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One World Championship | |||
Race details | |||
Date | 29 May 1988 | ||
Official name | Gran Premio de México | ||
Location | Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City, Mexico | ||
Course | Permanent circuit | ||
Course length | 4.421 km (2.747 miles) | ||
Distance | 67 laps, 296.207 km (184.054 miles) | ||
Weather | Sunny and hot | ||
Pole position | |||
Driver | McLaren-Honda | ||
Time | 1:17.468 | ||
Fastest lap | |||
Driver | Alain Prost | McLaren-Honda | |
Time | 1:18.608 on lap 52 | ||
Podium | |||
First | McLaren-Honda | ||
Second | McLaren-Honda | ||
Third | Ferrari | ||
Lap leaders |
The 1988 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 29 May 1988 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City. It was the fourth race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship. The 67-lap race was won by Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-Honda, with teammate Ayrton Senna second and Gerhard Berger third in a Ferrari.
Report
Qualifying
Qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix saw few surprises. The
The
.The last qualifying session was dominated by Philippe Alliot's terrifying crash after he lost control of his Lola, coming out of the Peraltada curve that leads onto the pit straight. The Peraltada, being slightly banked, was being taken at speeds in excess of 240 km/h (149 mph) in qualifying. After riding the outside curbing, the car suddenly pulled hard right, cut across the track and collided with the pit wall, barrel-rolling down the straight and back across the track, immediately disintegrating, and in the end stopped upside down on the edge of the track. Remarkably, Alliot was not only unhurt, but the Larrousse team was able to rebuild the Lola LC88 overnight (the re-build was necessary as the team was still awaiting a replacement chassis after Alliot had also crashed in the previous race in Monaco). After being given a clean bill of health from chief F1 medico Professor Sid Watkins, Alliot was able to take his place on the starting grid.
Race
The first start was aborted because of Alessandro Nannini, who stalled the engine of his Benetton on the grid. As is normal practice since it meant an extra formation lap and as re-fueling on the grid was not allowed, this saw the race reduced from 68 to 67 laps. On the second start, Prost made a lightning getaway and took the lead. Senna was slightly slowed by the pop-off valve opening too soon and was passed by Nelson Piquet who had actually made the best start; so good that he was almost able to out brake Prost into the first turn. This allowed Prost to take advantage and build a lead of almost two seconds by the end of the first lap. Senna passed Piquet for second, coming into the Peraltada curve on the first lap, but could only ever bridge the ever-growing gap to Prost when lapping traffic. While the McLarens held the first two places throughout the race, Berger had passed Piquet for 3rd place under braking at the end of the main straight, and by half distance he had moved to within three seconds of Senna when he backed off after receiving a 'low fuel' warning (which turned out to have been incorrect). Nakajima was also slightly slowed by the pop-off valve opening too soon on his Honda engine and was passed by Michele Alboreto on lap 8. On lap 28 Nakajima retired with piston failure in his Honda engine, followed on lap 59 by teammate Piquet with a similar engine failure.
As predicted, the turbo cars dominated the race. The two Ferraris finished 3rd and 4th (Alboreto in 4th being the last car to be lapped by the McLarens) ahead of the two Arrows of Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever who had a race-long duel and were separated by just 0.7s at the line. The first 'atmo' cars home were the two Benettons who finished two laps down (even lapped by the two Arrows cars) and out of the points in 7th and 8th after another race long duel with Nannini coming out on top, battling not only his teammate but a pinched nerve in his right foot. Yannick Dalmas (Lola-Ford) fought his way from 22nd up to 9th at the flag and after starting 15th, Bernd Schneider had run as high as 11th in the early laps before retiring with a blown engine on lap 17.
Alain Prost set a new lap record on lap 52 of the 67-lap race with a time of 1:18.608, half a second faster than Nelson Piquet's 1987 lap record when the turbo engines had approximately 300 more horsepower. This, along with Senna's faster than 1987 pole time, showed the advancements in engines, tyres, aerodynamics and chassis development in the seven months between the 1987 and 1988 races.
Classification
Pre-qualifying
Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 22 | Andrea de Cesaris | Rial-Ford | 1:24.720 | — |
2 | 36 | Alex Caffi | Dallara-Ford | 1:27.331 | +2.611 |
3 | 32 | Oscar Larrauri | EuroBrun-Ford | 1:27.523 | +2.803 |
4 | 31 | Gabriele Tarquini | Coloni-Ford | 1:28.498 | +3.778 |
EX | 33 | Stefano Modena | EuroBrun-Ford | 1:31.473 | +6.753 |
Qualifying
Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 12 | Ayrton Senna | McLaren-Honda | 1:17.468 | 1:17.666 | — |
2 | 11 | Alain Prost | McLaren-Honda | 1:18.097 | 1:18.301 | +0.629 |
3 | 28 | Gerhard Berger | Ferrari | 1:19.725 | 1:18.120 | +0.652 |
4 | 1 | Nelson Piquet | Lotus-Honda | 1:20.380 | 1:18.946 | +1.478 |
5 | 27 | Michele Alboreto | Ferrari | 1:20.328 | 1:19.626 | +2.158 |
6 | 2 | Satoru Nakajima | Lotus-Honda | 1:21.694 | 1:20.275 | +2.807 |
7 | 18 | Eddie Cheever | Arrows-Megatron | 1:21.691 | 1:20.475 | +3.007 |
8 | 19 | Alessandro Nannini | Benetton-Ford | 1:20.740 | 1:21.403 | +3.272 |
9 | 17 | Derek Warwick | Arrows-Megatron | 1:20.775 | 1:21.403 | +3.307 |
10 | 16 | Ivan Capelli | March-Judd | 1:22.335 | 1:21.952 | +4.484 |
11 | 20 | Thierry Boutsen | Benetton-Ford | 1:22.164 | 1:22.029 | +4.561 |
12 | 22 | Andrea de Cesaris | Rial-Ford | 1:22.864 | 1:22.245 | +4.777 |
13 | 30 | Philippe Alliot | Lola-Ford | 1:22.348 | 1:22.557 | +4.880 |
14 | 5 | Nigel Mansell | Williams-Judd | 1:23.246 | 1:22.363 | +4.895 |
15 | 10 | Bernd Schneider | Zakspeed | 1:24.335 | 1:22.642 | +5.174 |
16 | 15 | Maurício Gugelmin | March-Judd | 1:22.801 | 5:30.133 | +5.333 |
17 | 6 | Riccardo Patrese | Williams-Judd | 1:24.142 | 1:22.972 | +5.511 |
18 | 9 | Piercarlo Ghinzani | Zakspeed | 1:25.375 | 1:23.078 | +5.610 |
19 | 14 | Philippe Streiff | AGS-Ford | 1:23.191 | 1:23.750 | +5.723 |
20 | 25 | René Arnoux | Ligier-Judd
|
1:24.315 | 1:23.287 | +5.819 |
21 | 31 | Gabriele Tarquini | Coloni-Ford | 1:24.662 | 1:23.603 | +6.135 |
22 | 29 | Yannick Dalmas | Lola-Ford | 1:24.279 | 1:23.606 | +6.138 |
23 | 36 | Alex Caffi | Dallara-Ford | 1:25.564 | 1:23.716 | +6.248 |
24 | 26 | Stefan Johansson | Ligier-Judd
|
1:25.277 | 1:23.721 | +6.253 |
25 | 24 | Luis Pérez-Sala | Minardi-Ford | 1:23.911 | 1:23.857 | +6.389 |
26 | 32 | Oscar Larrauri | EuroBrun-Ford | 1:24.364 | 1:24.032 | +6.564 |
DNQ | 3 | Jonathan Palmer | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:24.390 | 1:24.849 | +6.922 |
DNQ | 21 | Nicola Larini | Osella | 1:24.405 | 1:24.408 | +6.937 |
DNQ | 4 | Julian Bailey | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:25.525 | 1:25.231 | +7.763 |
DNQ | 23 | Adrián Campos | Minardi-Ford | 1:26.696 | 1:26.058 | +8.590 |
Race
Championship standings after the race
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- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
- ^ "1988 Mexican Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ^ a b "Mexico 1988 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.