1988 San Marino Grand Prix
1988 San Marino Grand Prix | |||
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Race 2 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One World Championship | |||
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Race details | |||
Date | May 1, 1988 | ||
Location | Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy | ||
Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
Course length | 5.040 km (3.131 miles) | ||
Distance | 60 laps, 302.4 km (187.986 miles) | ||
Weather | Sunny, warm | ||
Pole position | |||
Driver | McLaren-Honda | ||
Time | 1:27.148 | ||
Fastest lap | |||
Driver |
![]() | McLaren-Honda | |
Time | 1:29.685 on lap 53 | ||
Podium | |||
First | McLaren-Honda | ||
Second | McLaren-Honda | ||
Third | 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 3 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 found the turbocharged Italian V6 down on power throughout.
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. 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-Megatron 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, Mansell's 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) 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 by lap 40 before retiring on lap 42 due to a faulty voltage regulator.
Thierry Boutsen's Benetton came home in 4th ahead of Gerhard Berger in the Ferrari and rounding out the points was Alessandro Nannini. He had been fighting for 3rd place with Piquet, but despite being consistently closer in the corners, he had to yield to the Lotus' superior power on the straights. They tangled at the Tosa hairpin and Nannini dropped to 7th, but put in the fastest atmospheric lap to climb to 5th. Nannini had to settle for 6th after after being passed by at the Acqua Minerale chicane by a grass-cutting Gerhard Berger who was 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.
Classification
Qualifying
Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 |
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1 | 12 | ![]() |
McLaren-Honda | 1:41.278 | 1:27.148 |
2 | 11 | ![]() |
McLaren-Honda | 1:41.597 | 1:27.919 |
3 | 1 | ![]() |
Lotus-Honda | 1:44.806 | 1:30.500 |
4 | 19 | ![]() |
Benetton-Ford | 1:45.090 | 1:30.590 |
5 | 28 | ![]() |
Ferrari | 1:43.394 | 1:30.683 |
6 | 6 | ![]() |
Williams-Judd | 1:45.673 | 1:30.952 |
7 | 18 | ![]() |
Arrows-Megatron | 1:48.399 | 1:31.300 |
8 | 20 | ![]() |
Benetton-Ford | no time | 1:31.414 |
9 | 16 | ![]() |
March-Judd | 1:47.518 | 1:31.519 |
10 | 27 | ![]() |
Ferrari | 1:45.982 | 1:31.520 |
11 | 5 | ![]() |
Williams-Judd | 1:45.616 | 1:31.635 |
12 | 2 | ![]() |
Lotus-Honda | 1:47.399 | 1:31.647 |
13 | 14 | ![]() |
AGS-Ford | 1:47.465 | 1:32.013 |
14 | 17 | ![]() |
Arrows-Megatron | 1:49.081 | 1:32.483 |
15 | 30 | ![]() |
Lola-Ford | 1:47.215 | 1:32.712 |
16 | 22 | ![]() |
Rial-Ford | no time | 1:33.037 |
17 | 31 | ![]() |
Coloni-Ford | 1:48.146 | 1:33.236 |
18 | 24 | ![]() |
Minardi-Ford | 1:49.211 | 1:33.239 |
19 | 29 | ![]() |
Lola-Ford | 1:46.062 | 1:33.374 |
20 | 15 | ![]() |
March-Judd | 1:49.306 | 1:33.448 |
21 | 4 | ![]() |
Tyrrell-Ford | 2:12.385 | 1:33.874 |
22 | 23 | ![]() |
Minardi-Ford | 1:49.012 | 1:33.903 |
23 | 3 | ![]() |
Tyrrell-Ford | 1:47.265 | 1:33.972 |
24 | 36 | ![]() |
Dallara-Ford | 1:48.156 | 1:34.204 |
25 | 9 | ![]() |
Zakspeed | 1:48.463 | 1:34.567 |
26 | 32 | ![]() |
EuroBrun-Ford | 1:48.466 | 1:34.782 |
DNQ | 4 | ![]() |
EuroBrun-Ford | 1:54.566 | 1:35.077 |
DNQ | 26 | ![]() |
Ligier-Judd | 1:43.633 | 1:35.654 |
DNQ | 25 | ![]() |
Ligier-Judd | 1:49.054 | 1:36.123 |
DNQ | 10 | ![]() |
Zakspeed | 1:51.498 | 1:36.218 |
EXC | 21 | ![]() |
Osella |
Race
Notes
- Larini was excluded from the race because his car failed pre-race scrutineering.
- This was the first time since 1983 that a car did not run out of fuel in the closing stages of the San Marino Grand Prix.
- Bernd Schneider did not race this time, so everyone was present at qualifying.
Standings after the race
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- 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". Retrieved 2007-07-12.