1990 Mexican Grand Prix

The 1990 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on 24 June 1990. It was sixth race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship, the 14th Mexican Grand Prix and the fifth since the Mexico City circuit returned to the Formula One calendar in 1986. It was held over 69 laps of the 4.4 kilometre circuit for a race distance of 305 kilometres.

1990 Mexican Grand Prix
Race 6 of 16 in the 1990 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date24 June 1990
Official nameXIV Gran Premio de Mexico
LocationAutódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
Mexico City, Mexico
CoursePermanent racing facility
Course length4.421 km (2.747 miles)
Distance69 laps, 305.049 km (189.549 miles)
WeatherOvercast
21 °C (70 °F)[1]
Pole position
DriverMcLaren-Honda
Time1:17.227
Fastest lap
DriverFrance Alain ProstFerrari
Time1:17.958 on lap 58
Podium
FirstFerrari
SecondFerrari
ThirdMcLaren-Honda
Lap leaders

The race was won by reigning world champion, French driver Alain Prost driving a Ferrari 641. Prost, the 1988 race winner, became the second multiple-winner in Mexican Grand Prix history, joining British driver Jim Clark who won the race in 1962 (non-championship), 1963 and 1967. It was Prost's second win of the year after the Brazilian Grand Prix. Prost won the race by 26 seconds over his British teammate Nigel Mansell. Third was Austrian driver Gerhard Berger driving a McLaren MP4/5B. Ayrton Senna stopped with a puncture late in the race, allowing both Prost and Berger to close to eight points behind him in the Driver's Championship.

Qualifying edit

Pre-qualifying report edit

During the Friday morning pre-qualifying session, Olivier Grouillard was fastest for the first time this season, in the Osella. The Larrousse-Lolas of Éric Bernard and Aguri Suzuki were second and fourth, with the EuroBrun of Roberto Moreno between them in third place.

For the third Grand Prix in succession, the AGS cars missed out in fifth and sixth positions, with Yannick Dalmas faster than Gabriele Tarquini this time. AGS technical director Hugues de Chaunac left the team prior to this event, frustrated at the team's lack of progress.[2] Seventh again was Bertrand Gachot in the Coloni, although he was much closer to the pace on this occasion, just three tenths of a second behind Tarquini. Claudio Langes was a distant eighth again after only completing the minimum three laps required by the regulations, as the team concentrated on Moreno.[2] Bottom of the time sheets as usual was Bruno Giacomelli in the Life, only managing an out-lap before his engine failed. Team manager Sergio Barbasio confirmed that his engineers were working on converting the L190 chassis to run with the Judd CV engines he now claimed to have bought from Lotus.[3]

Pre-qualifying classification edit

PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap
114 Olivier GrouillardOsella-Ford1:25.281
229 Éric BernardLola-Lamborghini1:25.456+0.175
333 Roberto MorenoEuroBrun-Judd1:26.724+1.443
430 Aguri SuzukiLola-Lamborghini1:27.511+2.230
518 Yannick DalmasAGS-Ford1:27.830+2.549
617 Gabriele TarquiniAGS-Ford1:28.499+3.218
731 Bertrand GachotColoni-Subaru1:28.805+3.524
834 Claudio LangesEuroBrun-Judd1:40.414+15.133
939 Bruno GiacomelliLife4:07.475+2:42.194

Qualifying report edit

There were no driver changes as the F1 show moved to Mexico City. The weather was changeable during the weekend, catching some drivers out, with both of the Larrousse team's drivers having major accidents on the Saturday morning. Despite that, both Aguri Suzuki and Éric Bernard managed to qualify for the race. The Leyton House drivers Ivan Capelli and Maurício Gugelmin both failed to qualify. At the front of the grid, Gerhard Berger took pole from Riccardo Patrese, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Thierry Boutsen, Jean Alesi, Pierluigi Martini, Nelson Piquet, Satoru Nakajima, and Stefano Modena, with championship contender Alain Prost, not happy with the qualifying set up of his Ferrari so deciding instead to qualify with his race set up, 13th. Roberto Moreno was disqualified for receiving a push start in qualifying.[4]

Qualifying classification edit

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
128 Gerhard BergerMcLaren-Honda1:17.2271:17.850
26 Riccardo PatreseWilliams-Renault1:18.2151:17.498+0.271
327 Ayrton SennaMcLaren-Honda1:18.4171:17.670+0.443
42 Nigel MansellFerrari1:17.9381:17.732+0.505
55 Thierry BoutsenWilliams-Renault1:19.0621:17.883+0.656
64 Jean AlesiTyrrell-Ford1:18.7271:18.282+1.055
723 Pierluigi MartiniMinardi-Ford1:18.5261:18.590+1.299
820 Nelson PiquetBenetton-Ford1:19.0221:18.561+1.334
93 Satoru NakajimaTyrrell-Ford1:19.5511:18.575+1.348
108 Stefano ModenaBrabham-Judd1:18.5921:19.817+1.365
1111 Derek WarwickLotus-Lamborghini1:19.5571:18.951+1.724
1212 Martin DonnellyLotus-Lamborghini1:19.7691:18.994+1.767
131 Alain ProstFerrari1:19.3781:19.026+1.799
1419 Alessandro NanniniBenetton-Ford1:19.9091:19.227+2.000
1522 Andrea de CesarisDallara-Ford1:21.6351:19.865+2.638
1624 Paolo BarillaMinardi-Ford1:19.8971:21.242+2.670
179 Michele AlboretoArrows-Ford1:21.2121:19.941+2.714
1821 Emanuele PirroDallara-Ford1:21.0671:20.044+2.817
1930 Aguri SuzukiLola-Lamborghini1:21.0771:20.268+3.041
2014 Olivier GrouillardOsella-Ford1:20.2741:21.167+3.047
217 David BrabhamBrabham-Judd1:20.4471:20.636+3.220
2226 Philippe AlliotLigier-Ford1:21.4511:20.657+3.430
2335 Gregor FoitekOnyx-Ford1:21.0121:21.400+3.785
2425 Nicola LariniLigier-Ford1:21.5841:21.116+3.889
2529 Éric BernardLola-Lamborghini1:21.2731:21.677+4.046
2636 JJ LehtoOnyx-Ford1:21.5191:21.687+4.292
2716 Ivan CapelliLeyton House-Judd1:23.6391:21.544+4.317
2815 Maurício GugelminLeyton House-Judd1:22.6121:21.665+4.438
2910 Alex CaffiArrows-Ford1:22.2781:22.154+4.927
EX33 Roberto MorenoEuroBrun-Judd1:21.142no time+3.915

Race edit

Race report edit

Sunshine greeted the drivers on race day and at the start it was Patrese who got away from Senna, Berger, Boutsen, and Piquet. Senna and Berger both passed Patrese on lap 2, and the McLaren drivers opened a significant lead over the rest of the field. Prost was charging through the field from his poor grid position, while Piquet moved up to third. Berger's run in second place came to an early end when he had to stop for new tyres on lap 13, leaving Piquet in second but under pressure from his former team-mate Nigel Mansell, who was able to pass him soon afterwards. Prost continued his charge through the field, eventually taking second from Mansell with 15 laps to go. Prost proceeded to set off after Senna, who was beginning to slow with tyre problems. The Brazilian had gambled on tyre durability by not making a stop for fresh rubber. On lap 60, Prost got past Senna with a simple move and three laps later Senna's rear tyre exploded, forcing him to retire from his 100th Grand Prix. As he had completed over 90% of the race, he was classified as a finisher in 20th place, the lowest classified result of his career. The battle for second place between Mansell and Berger culminated in Mansell passing around the outside of Berger going into the ultra-fast Peraltada corner. Mansell thus finished second behind Prost, with Berger third from Alessandro Nannini, Boutsen, and Piquet.

Race classification edit

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
11 Alain ProstFerrari691:32:35.783139
22 Nigel MansellFerrari69+ 25.35146
328 Gerhard BergerMcLaren-Honda69+ 25.53014
419 Alessandro NanniniBenetton-Ford69+ 41.099143
55 Thierry BoutsenWilliams-Renault69+ 46.66952
620 Nelson PiquetBenetton-Ford69+ 46.94381
74 Jean AlesiTyrrell-Ford69+ 49.0776
812 Martin DonnellyLotus-Lamborghini69+ 1:06.14212
96 Riccardo PatreseWilliams-Renault69+ 1:09.9182
1011 Derek WarwickLotus-Lamborghini68+ 1 lap11
118 Stefano ModenaBrabham-Judd68+ 1 lap10
1223 Pierluigi MartiniMinardi-Ford68+ 1 lap7
1322 Andrea de CesarisDallara-Ford68+ 1 lap15
1424 Paolo BarillaMinardi-Ford67+ 2 laps16
1535 Gregor FoitekOnyx-Ford67+ 2 laps23
1625 Nicola LariniLigier-Ford67+ 2 laps24
179 Michele AlboretoArrows-Ford66+ 3 laps17
1826 Philippe AlliotLigier-Ford66+ 3 laps22
1914 Olivier GrouillardOsella-Ford65+ 4 laps20
2027 Ayrton SennaMcLaren-Honda63Tyre3
Ret36 JJ LehtoOnyx-Ford26Engine26
Ret29 Éric BernardLola-Lamborghini12Brakes25
Ret30 Aguri SuzukiLola-Lamborghini11Collision19
Ret3 Satoru NakajimaTyrrell-Ford11Collision9
Ret7 David BrabhamBrabham-Judd11Electrical21
Ret21 Emanuele PirroDallara-Ford10Engine18
EX33 Roberto MorenoEuroBrun-JuddPush start
DNQ16 Ivan CapelliLeyton House-Judd
DNQ15 Maurício GugelminLeyton House-Judd
DNQ10 Alex CaffiArrows-Ford
DNPQ18 Yannick DalmasAGS-Ford
DNPQ17 Gabriele TarquiniAGS-Ford
DNPQ31 Bertrand GachotColoni-Subaru
DNPQ34 Claudio LangesEuroBrun-Judd
DNPQ39 Bruno GiacomelliLife
Source:[5]

Championship standings after the race edit

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

References edit

  1. ^ "History | Weather Underground". Wunderground.com. Retrieved 2013-10-26.
  2. ^ a b Walker, Murray (1990). Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 55–62. ISBN 0-905138-82-1.
  3. ^ "Motoring News". 27 June 1990.
  4. ^ "EuroBrun – Profile". Archived from the original on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
  5. ^ "1990 Mexican Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  6. ^ a b "Mexico 1990 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.


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1990 Canadian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1990 season
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1990 French Grand Prix
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1989 Mexican Grand Prix
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1991 Mexican Grand Prix