1991 United States Grand Prix

August 2023 F1 United States United States XXVIII Iceberg United States Grand Prix March 10 Phoenix Grand Prix Route - 1991.svg 1991 1 16 Phoenix Street CircuitPhoenix, Arizona Temporary road course 2.312 3.721 81 187.272 301.401 82 189.584 305.122 Overcast25 °C °Fhttp://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KPHX/1991/3/10/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA History | Weather Underground Wunderground.com 2013-04-22 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:21.434 FRA 1974 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:26.758 49 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda FRA 1974 Alain Prost Ferrari BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford USA Autocourse 1991-92 0-905138-87-2 Hazleton Publishing Richmond, Surrey, United Kingdom Henry Alan Kirby Gordon Hamilton Maurice Saward Joe Tremayne David Hayoe David Dodgins Tony Cooper Adam Hughes Mark 1991 98–107 The 1991 United States Grand Prix (formally the XXVIII Iceberg United States Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on March 10, 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona. It was the first race of the 1991 Formula One World Championship. The 81-lap race was won from pole position by Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, with Alain Prost second in a Ferrari and Nelson Piquet third in a Benetton-Ford. The race marked the respective debuts of future double World Champion Mika Häkkinen and the Jordan team. It was also the first F1 World Championship race in which ten points were awarded for a win rather than nine, as part of a revised scoring system introduced for 1991. However, it was also to be the last United States Grand Prix until 2000, due to poor attendances. In the two previous years, the championship had been decided when Senna and Prost tangled at Suzuka. In 1989, their collision as team-mates 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. Qualifying Pre-qualifying report Several teams were required to participate in the Friday morning pre-qualifying sessions during 1991, in order to reduce the field to thirty cars for the main qualifying sessions on Friday afternoon and Saturday. At the midway point of the season, the pre-qualifying group was to be reassessed, with the more successful teams (over a twelve-month period consisting of the second half of 1990 and the first half of 1991) being allowed to avoid pre-qualifying thereafter, and less successful teams being required to pre-qualify from mid-season onwards. October 2021 Eight cars were to take part in pre-qualifying sessions during the first half of the 1991 season, after 1990 ended with no pre-qualifying sessions at the last two Grands Prix, due to the withdrawal of the EuroBrun and Life teams. Pre-qualifying was necessary again in 1991 due to the arrival of two new entrants: Jordan and Modena, which were entirely new teams, running two cars each. Another new name, Fondmetal, was essentially a continuation of the defunct Osella team and was running a single car. Also involved in pre-qualifying were Coloni, running one car, and Scuderia Italia, running two cars. These were the two least successful surviving teams over the past two half seasons. The fastest four cars would go through to the main qualifying sessions.Walker Murray 1991 Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year Hazleton Publishing 8–20 0-905138-90-2 Jordan had signed veteran Italian driver Andrea de Cesaris, plus last season's Coloni driver Bertrand Gachot, who had much experience in pre-qualifying sessions. Their car was the all-new 191 powered by a Cosworth V8 engine. Modena's drivers were Italian Nicola Larini, another driver well used to pre-qualifying, and Belgian debutant Eric van de Poele. They would be driving the Lamborghini V12-engined Lambo 291, so named for the team's strong Lamborghini connections. Fondmetal had retained the French Osella driver Olivier Grouillard, and were starting the season with the Cosworth V8-powered Fondmetal FA1M-E, effectively last year's Osella, which itself was an update of their 1989 car.Hodges David 2001 A–Z of Grand Prix Cars Crowood Press 8–20 1-86126-339-2 Coloni had brought the C4, a modified version of the C3 used in 1989 and 1990, which also had a Cosworth V8 engine. Their driver was the 1990 British Formula 3000 champion Pedro Chaves, from Portugal. Scuderia Italia were campaigning a Dallara chassis as usual, the all-new F191, powered by Judd V10 engines. The team retained Italian Emanuele Pirro, and hired Finnish driver JJ Lehto, who had driven for Onyx in 1990. In pre-qualifying in Phoenix, the Dallaras were easily the fastest cars in the session, with Pirro half a second faster than Lehto. Nearly two seconds slower in third was Larini in the Modena Lambo, and the fourth pre-qualifier was Gachot in the Jordan. Missing out in fifth place was de Cesaris in the other Jordan, who made a gear selection error on a faster lap, just ahead of Chaves, who crashed the Coloni during the session. Grouillard was seventh in the Fondmetal, complaining of a lack of grip, but bottom of the time sheets, nearly five seconds adrift of Grouillard, was van de Poele in the other Lambo. The Belgian had encountered a protester on the track during one run, after which his engine failed. Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 21 Italy Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd 1:28.288 2 22 Finland JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 1:28.792 +0.504 3 34 Italy Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini 1:30.244 +1.956 4 32 Belgium Bertrand Gachot Jordan-Ford 1:30.304 +2.016 5 33 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford 1:30.937 +2.649 6 31 Portugal Pedro Chaves Coloni-Ford 1:31.113 +2.825 7 14 France Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford 1:32.126 +3.838 8 35 Belgium Eric van de Poele Lambo-Lamborghini 1:37.046 +8.758 Qualifying report thumb|right|Alain Prost in his Ferrari 642 on the opening lap. Prior to arriving in Phoenix, the 1991 McLaren chassis had 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. Working to prepare the new car, Ayrton 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." October 2021 The Ferraris of Alain Prost and Jean Alesi were expected to be the strongest team, but their V-12s and 7-speed semi-automatic 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. To add insult to injury, Alesi, who had clinched the fastest time on Friday, ended his qualifying session clipping the tire barrier with his rear right wheel, ensuring he would qualify no higher than fifth place. October 2021 Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 1 Brazil 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:23.530 1:21.434 2 27 France Alain Prost Ferrari 1:24.507 1:22.555 +1.121 3 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:24.726 1:22.833 +1.399 4 5 UK Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:25.277 1:23.218 +1.784 5 20 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:25.026 1:23.384 +1.950 6 28 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:23.519 1:23.805 +2.085 7 2 Austria Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:25.914 1:23.742 +2.308 8 19 Brazil 1968 Roberto Moreno Benetton-Ford 1:25.170 1:23.881 +2.447 9 21 Italy Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd 1:24.876 1:24.792 +3.358 10 22 Finland JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 1:26.765 1:24.891 +3.457 11 4 Italy Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda 1:25.065 1:25.557 +3.631 12 7 UK Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 1:27.184 1:25.385 +3.951 13 11 Finland Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Judd 1:27.976 1:25.448 +4.014 14 32 Belgium Bertrand Gachot Jordan-Ford 1:27.568 1:25.701 +4.267 15 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari 1:25.815 1:25.715 +4.281 16 3 Japan 1947 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda 1:26.058 1:25.752 +4.318 17 34 Italy Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini 1:27.761 1:25.791 +4.357 18 16 Italy Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor 1:54.845 1:26.121 +4.687 19 29 France Éric Bernard Lola-Ford 1:27.446 1:26.425 +4.991 20 25 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini 1:27.984 1:26.500 +5.066 21 30 Japan 1947 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 1:26.987 1:26.548 +5.114 22 17 Italy Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:27.164 1:26.851 +5.417 23 15 Brazil 1968 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor 1:26.865 1:26.875 +5.431 24 8 UK Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 1:30.061 1:26.915 +5.481 25 9 Italy Michele Alboreto Footwork-Porsche 1:29.067 1:27.015 +5.581 26 24 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari 1:27.625 1:27.042 +5.608 27 26 France Érik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini 1:28.904 1:27.159 +5.725 28 10 Italy Alex Caffi Footwork-Porsche 1:29.388 1:27.519 +6.085 29 18 Sweden Stefan Johansson AGS-Ford 1:29.857 1:27.753 +6.319 30 12 UK Julian Bailey Lotus-Judd 1:30.758 1:28.570 +7.136 Race Race report thumb|left|The start of the race, with Ayrton Senna leading the field. 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. October 2021 Behind Senna, Patrese was involved in two successive 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 team-mate 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's new semi-automatic gearbox failed, and on the next time around, Berger's race ended as well. October 2021 thumb|right|Prost's teammate Jean Alesi is pursued by Riccardo Patrese in the Williams FW14. thumb|right|Ayrton Senna took a comfortable win in his McLaren MP4/6. Patrese passed Alesi for the second time, and Alesi pitted for new Goodyear tires 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. October 2021 On lap 48, Senna 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. Patrese and Moreno's cars remained on the course throughout the race, and Bertrand Gachot, driving the first race for the new Jordan team and challenging Satoru Nakajima, spun later after swerving to avoid them. October 2021 thumb|right|The race marked the debut of the Jordan team in F1. Bertrand Gachot was classified tenth after a late-race engine failure prevented him from finishing. 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, Prost went from fourth to second in one move at turn five. 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. October 2021 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 Satoru 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 Aguri Suzuki to sixth. The race ended a lap short of the planned 82 as the two-hour limit was reached, Senna taking the win having led every lap. October 2021 This was the twenty-seventh Grand Prix victory of Senna's career. 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." October 2021 Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Brazil 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda Goodyear 81 2:00:47.828 1 10 2 27 France Alain Prost Ferrari Goodyear 81 + 16.322 2 6 3 20 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford Pirelli 81 + 17.376 5 4 4 4 Italy Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda Pirelli 81 + 25.409 11 3 5 3 Japan 1947 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda Pirelli 80 + 1 lap 16 2 6 30 Japan 1947 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford Goodyear 79 + 2 laps 21 1 7 34 Italy Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini Goodyear 78 + 3 laps 17 8 17 Italy Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford Goodyear 77 + 4 laps 22 9 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari Goodyear 75 Engine 15 10 32 Belgium Bertrand Gachot Jordan-Ford Goodyear 75 Engine 14 11 7 UK Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha Pirelli 73 + 8 laps 12 12 28 France Jean Alesi Ferrari Goodyear 72 Gearbox 6 Ret Retired 11 Finland Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Judd Goodyear 59 Engine 13 Ret Retired 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault Goodyear 49 Gearbox 3 Ret Retired 19 Brazil 1968 Roberto Moreno Benetton-Ford Pirelli 49 Collision 8 Ret Retired 9 Italy Michele Alboreto Footwork-Porsche Goodyear 41 Engine 25 Ret Retired 16 Italy Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor Goodyear 40 Gearbox 18 Ret Retired 25 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini Goodyear 40 Engine 20 Ret Retired 2 Austria Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda Goodyear 36 Fuel pump 7 Ret Retired 5 UK Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault Goodyear 35 Gearbox 4 Ret Retired 15 Brazil 1968 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor Goodyear 34 Gearbox 23 Ret Retired 8 UK Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha Pirelli 32 Spun off 24 Ret Retired 21 Italy Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd Pirelli 16 Gearbox 9 Ret Retired 24 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari Goodyear 15 Gearbox 26 Ret Retired 22 Finland JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd Pirelli 12 Gearbox 10 Ret Retired 29 France Éric Bernard Lola-Ford Goodyear 4 Engine 19 DNQ Did not qualify 26 France Érik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 10 Italy Alex Caffi Footwork-Porsche Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 18 Sweden Stefan Johansson AGS-Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 12 UK Julian Bailey Lotus-Judd Goodyear DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 33 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford Goodyear DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 31 Portugal Pedro Chaves Coloni-Ford Goodyear DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 14 France Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford Goodyear DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 35 Belgium Eric van de Poele Lambo-Lamborghini GoodyearSource:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1991/199/ 1991 United States Grand Prix formula1.com 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150218175802/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1991/199/ 18 February 2015https://gparchive.com/formula-1/1991-united-states-grand-prix/ 1991 United States Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive GPArchive.com 10 March 1991 27 November 2021 Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna 10 2 FRA Alain Prost 6 3 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet 4 4 ITA Stefano Modena 3 5 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima 2Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1991/etats-unis/championnat.aspx United States 1991 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 21 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR McLaren-Honda 10 2 ITA Ferrari 6 3 GBR Tyrrell-Honda 5 4 GBR Benetton-Ford 4 5 GBR Lola-Ford 1Source: 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 (archived) GrandPrix.com Race Report United States Grand Prix 1991 1990 Australian Grand Prix 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix 1990 United States Grand Prix 2000 United States Grand Prix 33 26 53 N 112 04 29 W region:US-AZ_type:event title United States Grand Prix Category:United States Grand Prix Grand Prix Category:1991 in sports in Arizona Category:1990s in Phoenix, Arizona Category:March 1991 sports events in the United States