1988 German Grand Prix

F1 West Germany German Mobil 1 Grosser Preis von Deutschland 24 July 1988 Circuit Hockenheimring-1982.svg 9 16 Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, West Germany Permanent racing facility 4.227 6.802 44 185.832 299.068 Wet and cool Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:44.596 BRA 1968 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 2:03.032 40 ITA Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda BRA 1968 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda FRA Gerhard Berger Ferrari AUT GER The 1988 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 24 July 1988 at the Hockenheimring, Hockenheim. It was the ninth race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship. The 44-lap race was won from pole position by Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, with teammate Alain Prost second and Gerhard Berger third in a Ferrari. The win, Senna's fifth of the season, moved him to within three points of Prost at the top of the Drivers' Championship. Report Pre-race At the midpoint of the season, the pre-qualifiers were re-evaluated. After a fourth-place finish in the Detroit Grand Prix, the Rial of Andrea de Cesaris was promoted to the top 26 cars automatically entered into the main qualifying sessions. Relegated to pre-qualifying was the Osella of Nicola Larini. Before the German Grand Prix, Williams announced that Thierry Boutsen would be joining the team in 1989 as the replacement for Nigel Mansell, who was moving to Ferrari. Qualifying thumb|Ayrton Senna of BraziI (left) and Alain Prost of France discuss the details of today's practice of the West German F1 Grand Prix in Hockenheim on July 22, 1988. Senna clocked the fastest time of 1:45.615 followed by Prost's 1:46.047. Qualifying saw Ayrton Senna take his seventh pole position of the season by just under 0.3 seconds from McLaren teammate Alain Prost. Gerhard Berger was third in his Ferrari, albeit over a second behind Prost, with teammate Michele Alboreto fourth, a further second behind. Nelson Piquet took fifth in his Lotus, with Alessandro Nannini sixth in his Benetton, the highest-placed non-turbo car. The Marches of Ivan Capelli and Maurício Gugelmin took seventh and tenth respectively, sandwiching Satoru Nakajima in the second Lotus and Boutsen in the second Benetton. thumb|Gerhard Berger (left) of Austria looks on as his pit crew works on his Ferrari during today's practice of the West German Grand Prix in Hockenheim on July 22, 1988. Berger was third with a time of 1:47.839. Although he had qualified on pole in Britain at the ultra fast Silverstone Circuit (the only non-McLaren pole of the season), Gerhard Berger did not expect to be as fast as the McLarens in qualifying and was proven correct. Although Hockenheim had much longer straights than Silverstone, whereas the British circuit was almost all straights and fast, sweeping turns (with only the Woodcote Chicane to break it up), all of the German circuits turns other than turns 1 and 11 were relatively low speed and needed good acceleration rather than just top end horsepower, and in that the Honda V6 turbo had the advantage over the Ferrari with both Berger and Alboreto complaining virtually all season about the Ferrari's poor throttle response. Race There had been thunderstorms all weekend. The rain stopped on Sunday morning, but there were concerns over which type of tyre to use for the race. In the end, everyone started on wet tyres with the exception of Piquet, who gambled on the track drying out. At the start, Senna led away while Prost dropped behind Berger and a fast-starting Nannini. Piquet's gamble failed to pay off as he aquaplaned off the track at the Ostkurve chicane and hit the barriers, limping back to the pits to retire (with 1976 World Champion James Hunt calling it "An absolutely stupid decision by Piquet" on the BBC's live broadcast, claiming that a driver of Piquet's stature and experience should have known better knowing what Hockenheim was like in the rain). Prost re-passed Nannini on lap 8, while on lap 9 Philippe Alliot, who had pitted for slick tyres, spun his Lola off at the Ostkurve while allowing Senna to lap him. Prost overtook Berger for second on lap 12, but by then Senna was 12 seconds ahead. Senna and Prost maintained their 1-2 until the chequered flag, despite a late spin by the Frenchman coming out of the Ostkurve. It was Senna's fifth win of the season, as well as the sixth 1-2 for McLaren; the Brazilian thus moved within three points of Prost in the Drivers' Championship. thumb|Alain Prost in his McLaren during the race, 24 July 1988 Berger and Alboreto finished third and fourth respectively. Berger's podium finish was to be the last achieved by the Ferrari team during Enzo Ferrari's lifetime, as he died three weeks later. Changes to the Ferrari's engine (suggested earlier in the season by team Technical Director John Barnard) had seen an improvement in the fuel consumption of the Ferrari V6 which had seen both cars run out of fuel in Britain, though it was still a thirstier engine than the Honda. After running in third for the first 7 laps and in fourth since then Nannini was forced to pit seven laps from the end due to a broken throttle bracket, losing four laps as a result; His "Latin blood" boiling at having been robbed of a high placing, the chain smoking Italian charged after leaving the pits which would bring him the fastest lap of the race (and the only non-turbo fastest lap of the season), though he still finished only 18th. Capelli inherited fifth despite having no clutch for the last 30 laps, while Boutsen took the final point for sixth. Mansell retired from seventh with a spin after a broken bolt had jammed his gearbox. He had tried to retire in the pits the previous lap, but the team could find nothing wrong and sent him back out. Bernd Schneider achieved his first Grand Prix finish in his home race, coming home 12th, which turned out to be the highest finish of the season for the West German Zakspeed team. Classification Pre-qualifying PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap121ITA Nicola LariniOsella1:52.321—236ITA Alex CaffiDallara-Ford1:53.031 +0.710332ARG Oscar LarrauriEuroBrun-Ford1:54.184 +1.863433ITA Stefano ModenaEuroBrun-Ford1:54.317 +1.996DNPQ Did not pre-qualify31ITA Gabriele TarquiniColoni-Ford1:54.358 +2.037 Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:44.596 1:50.002 — 2 11 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:44.873 1:45.868 +0.277 3 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:46.115 1:46.431 +1.519 4 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:47.154 1:47.418 +2.558 5 1 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:47.702 1:47.681 +3.085 6 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:48.223 1:48.208 +3.612 7 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:48.703 1:49.750 +4.107 8 2 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:49.359 1:48.781 +4.185 9 20 BEL Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:48.837 1:49.966 +4.241 10 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:49.511 1:49.645 +4.915 11 5 GBR Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:49.850 1:50.673 +5.254 12 17 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:50.459 1:50.770 +5.863 13 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:51.105 1:50.719 +6.213 14 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:51.004 1:51.859 +6.408 15 18 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:51.385 1:51.171 +6.575 16 14 FRA Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:52.348 1:51.642 +7.046 17 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:54.139 1:52.080 +7.484 18 21 ITA Nicola Larini Osella 1:52.203 1:52.168 +7.572 19 36 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:52.469 1:52.277 +7.681 20 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:52.293 1:52.629 +7.697 21 29 FRA Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 1:52.795 1:52.436 +7.840 22 10 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:52.696 1:52.664 +8.068 23 9 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:52.674 1:57.241 +8.078 24 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:53.238 1:52.908 +8.312 25 33 ITA Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:52.998 1:53.904 +8.402 26 32 ARG Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:53.832 1:53.043 +8.447 DNQ Did not qualify 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:53.356 1:53.673 +8.760 DNQ Did not qualify 26 SWE Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:54.717 1:53.507 +8.911 DNQ Did not qualify 4 GBR Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 1:53.674 1:53.576 +8.980 DNQ Did not qualify 23 ITA Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:53.720 1:53.673 +9.077 Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 44 1:32:54.188 1 9 2 11 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 44 + 13.609 2 6 3 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 44 + 52.095 3 4 4 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 44 + 1:40.912 4 3 5 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 44 + 1:49.606 7 2 6 20 BEL Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 9 1 7 17 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 43 + 1 Lap 12   8 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 43 + 1 Lap 10   9 2 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 43 + 1 Lap 8   10 18 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 43 + 1 Lap 15   11 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 24   12 10 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 43 + 1 Lap 22   13 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 42 + 2 Laps 14   14 9 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 42 + 2 Laps 23   15 36 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 42 + 2 Laps 19   16 32 ARG Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 42 + 2 Laps 26   17 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 41 + 3 Laps 17   18 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 40 + 4 Laps 6   19 29 FRA Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 39 Clutch 21   Ret Retired 14 FRA Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 38 Throttle 16   Ret Retired 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 34 Spun Off 13   Ret Retired 21 ITA Nicola Larini Osella 27 Engine 18   Ret Retired 5 GBR Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 16 Spun Off 11   Ret Retired 33 ITA Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 15 Engine 25   Ret Retired 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 8 Spun Off 20   Ret Retired 1 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1 Spun Off 5   DNQ Did not qualify 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 26 SWE Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd     DNQ Did not qualify 4 GBR Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 23 ITA Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 31 ITA Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford      Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/271/ 1988 German Grand Prix formula1.com 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150118224137/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/271/ 18 January 2015 Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 FRA Alain Prost 60 2 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna 57 3 AUT Gerhard Berger 25 4 ITA Michele Alboreto 16 5 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet 15Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1988/allemagne/championnat.aspx Germany 1988 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 18 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR McLaren-Honda117 2 ITA Ferrari41 3 GBR Benetton-Ford18 4 GBR Lotus-Honda16 5 GBR Arrows-Megatron10Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. References German Grand Prix 1988 1988 British Grand Prix 1988 Hungarian Grand Prix 1987 German Grand Prix 1989 German Grand Prix German Grand Prix Category:German Grand Prix German Grand Prix German Grand Prix