1988 Australian Grand Prix

July 2013 July 2013 December 2020 January 2012 F1 Australian Australia LIII Foster's Australian Grand Prix 13 November 1988 16 16 Adelaide (long route).svg Adelaide Street CircuitAdelaide, South Australia Temporary street circuit 2.362 3.780 82 193.684 309.960 Cloudy and hot Ayrton Senna BRA 1968 McLaren-Honda 1:17.748 Alain Prost FRA McLaren-Honda 1:21.216 59 Alain Prost FRA McLaren-Honda Ayrton Senna BRA 1968 McLaren-Honda Nelson Piquet BRA 1968 Lotus-Honda AUS 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix 1988 Japanese Grand Prix The 1988 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Adelaide Street Circuit on 13 November 1988. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship, and the last race for which turbocharged engines would be eligible until the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. The 82-lap race was won by Frenchman Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-Honda. It was Prost's seventh victory of the season, and the McLaren team's fifteenth, a record for a constructor in a single season that would stand until 2014. Prost's Brazilian teammate and new World Champion Ayrton Senna finished second, having started from pole position, while Senna's compatriot and outgoing champion Nelson Piquet came third in a Lotus-Honda, achieving what would turn out to be the final podium finish for the original Team Lotus. Qualifying As had become normal in 1988, qualifying was the domain of the McLaren-Hondas. Senna and Prost easily led the time sheets on both Friday and Saturday, with Prost initially fastest on Friday with a 1:18.179 lap, 0.153 ahead of his teammate. The pair traded pole laps in the second qualifying session, with Senna doing his usual act of snatching pole on the last lap of qualifying with a 1:17.748 lap, only 0.132 in front of his teammate, but 1.7 seconds faster than the next fastest car, Nigel Mansell in the Williams-Judd. During qualifying Senna was hampered by a sprained left wrist having injured it during a game of beach soccer in Bali, Indonesia, where he had taken a small holiday after winning the championship in Japan. His injury was such that there was speculation the teams test driver Emanuele Pirro would drive in his place, but the new World Champion refused to be sidelined and took his place in Adelaide, though he admitted that driving the MP4/4 on a tight, bumpy street circuit while nursing a sprained wrist was hard. Prost on the other hand had spent his time between Suzuka and Adelaide playing golf at a resort in the Australian state of Queensland. There was also speculation that Honda would run their V10 engines (intended for 1989) in Adelaide instead of the V6 turbo. However, team boss Ron Dennis explained that racing the V10 was never part of the 1988 plan, and that with the RA168-E proving so dominant, Honda wanted to finish the turbo era on the highest possible note. Third on the grid on both days was Nigel Mansell in his atmospheric Williams-Judd, though he was 1.7 seconds slower than Senna. Mansell was ahead of 1987 pole winner Gerhard Berger in his turbocharged Ferrari. Fifth was Nelson Piquet, finally finding some balance in his Lotus on the only street circuit he liked, despite a couple of spins in qualifying. Mansell's teammate Riccardo Patrese lined up sixth. Gabriele Tarquini (Coloni), Julian Bailey (Tyrrell), Pierre-Henri Raphanel (Larrousse-Lola making his first appearance in F1 in place of Yannick Dalmas who had contracted Legionnaires' disease) and Bernd Schneider (Zakspeed) all failed to qualify. The Osella of Nicola Larini with its ancient "Osella V8" turbocharged engine (which started life as the Alfa Romeo 890T in 1983 and was actually the most powerful car in the 1988 field with approximately 700 bhp kW PS 0 on) failed to pre-qualify. For the most part in 1988, qualifying and race times had generally been faster than those set in 1987, showing the advances in development despite the leading turbo powered cars having approximately 300 bhp kW PS 0 on less than they had the previous year. In Adelaide the drop in power meant a big difference to the top speeds on the 900-metre-long Brabham Straight and times were slower as a result. In 1987 the faster cars were topping 320 km/h mph 0 on on the straight, while in 1988 those speeds were down to 300 km/h mph 0 on or less. Senna's 1988 pole time was 0.481 slower than Berger's time in 1987 while Berger himself, driving an updated version of his 1987 Ferrari, was 2.25 seconds slower than his 1987 pole time of 1:17.267. Race Prost led off the start from Senna, Berger, Piquet, and Mansell in his last race for Williams before joining Ferrari in 1989. By lap 4, Prost's lead over Senna was 5.5 seconds, with Berger close behind the Brazilian. Michele Alboreto's last race for Ferrari ended in retirement shortly after the start, when he collided with Alex Caffi's Dallara. Berger passed Senna on lap 5 at the Racetrack Hairpin, a tight second-gear right hander at the end of the Brabham Straight, and began a determined drive, catching and passing Prost at the same place on lap 14. He had a three-second lead when he came up to lap Stefano Modena in the EuroBrun and René Arnoux in the Ligier on lap 23. Arnoux appeared to ignore his mirrors and the blue flags instructing him to let Berger past, causing the Ferrari's left front wheel to ride the Ligier's rear right wheel and send both cars into a spin. Berger retired immediately with suspension damage, putting Prost back into the lead with Senna second. Behind the McLarens, Piquet was maintaining third ahead of the Williams pair of Patrese and Mansell. The Italian opened a small gap on his teammate and closed on Piquet, making several attempts to pass the Brazilian. However, he spun on lap 53, letting Mansell past. The Englishman was no more successful in trying to pass Piquet, and he retired on lap 66 when his brakes failed and he spun into the wall. By lap 59 Prost was putting in a succession of fast laps, extending his lead to over 30 seconds and lapping the whole field up to the fifth-placed Rial of Andrea de Cesaris. On lap 46, Pierluigi Martini spun his Minardi at the chicane and was almost collected by Stefan Johansson's Ligier. Maurício Gugelmin slowed his March to avoid the pair, only to be hit from behind by Satoru Nakajima's Lotus, putting both cars out. This crash also had an effect on Prost who was the first car upon the scene. The McLaren ran over some debris which broke off part of the front wing end plate, causing the car to understeer for the rest of the race, though Prost was able to play with his car's onboard settings to compensate and would set the fastest race lap later in the race. Alessandro Nannini spun his Benetton; Jonathan Palmer's Tyrrell suffered transmission problems; and Arrows drivers Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever both suffered engine failures. Driveshaft trouble accounted for the EuroBruns of Modena and Oscar Larrauri, while Caffi succumbed to clutch failure in his Dallara. At the finish, only eleven cars were classified, of which just seven saw the chequered flag: de Cesaris, Johansson and Philippe Alliot's Larrousse-Lola all ran out of fuel in the closing laps, while Philippe Streiff's AGS suffered an electrical failure. Prost led home Senna in yet another McLaren 1–2, with Piquet third and Patrese fourth. De Cesaris' misfortune handed fifth place to Thierry Boutsen in the Benetton despite a spin and a stuttering engine, with Ivan Capelli taking the final point for sixth in his March despite a puncture. In the last race in which cars with turbocharged engines were allowed to compete until 2014, all three podium positions were taken by cars powered by Honda turbos. Classification Pre-qualifying PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap136ITA Alex CaffiDallara-Ford1:21.519—233ITA Stefano ModenaEuroBrun-Ford1:21.901 +0.382331ITA Gabriele TarquiniColoni-Ford1:22.022 +0.503432ARG Oscar LarrauriEuroBrun-Ford1:24.634 +3.115DNPQ Did not pre-qualify21ITA Nicola LariniOsella1:28.440 +6.921 Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:18.332 1:17.748 2 11 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:18.179 1:17.880 +0.132 3 5 GBR Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:19.427 1:19.508 +1.760 4 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:20.019 1:19.517 +1.769 5 1 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:20.477 1:19.535 +1.787 6 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:19.925 1:19.998 +2.177 7 17 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:20.086 1:20.495 +2.338 8 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:20.331 1:20.182 +2.434 9 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:21.136 1:20.459 +2.711 10 20 BEL Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:21.114 1:20.486 +2.738 11 36 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:20.781 1:20.881 +3.033 12 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:20.844 1:20.964 +3.096 13 2 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:21.542 1:20.852 +3.104 14 23 ITA Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:21.905 1:21.133 +3.385 15 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:21.944 1:21.164 +3.416 16 14 FRA Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:22.170 1:21.262 +3.514 17 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:21.959 1:21.307 +3.559 18 18 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:21.393 1:21.514 +3.645 19 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:21.871 1:21.554 +3.806 20 33 ITA Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:21.972 1:21.856 +4.108 21 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:23.022 1:21.893 +4.145 22 26 SWE Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:23.417 1:21.988 +4.240 23 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:23.547 1:22.028 +4.280 24 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:22.420 1:22.211 +4.463 25 32 ARG Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:23.413 1:22.213 +4.465 26 9 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:22.348 1:22.271 +4.523 27 31 ITA Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 1:23.650 1:22.393 +4.645 28 4 GBR Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 1:23.530 1:22.529 +4.781 29 29 FRA Pierre-Henri Raphanel Lola-Ford 1:23.393 1:22.733 +4.985 30 10 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:24.221 1:23.025 +5.277 Race Pos. PositionNo. Car numberDriverConstructorLaps Laps completedTime/RetiredGrid Final grid positionPoints 1 11 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 82 1:53:14.676 2 9 2 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 82 +36.387 1 6 3 1 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 82 +47.546 5 4 4 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 82 +1:20.088 6 3 5 20 BEL Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 81 +1 lap 10 2 6 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 81 +1 lap 9 1 7 23 ITA Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 80 +2 laps 14   8 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 77 Out of fuel 15   9 26 SWE Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 76 Out of fuel 22   10 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 75 Out of fuel 24   11 14 FRA Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 73 Electrical 16   Ret Retired 9 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 69 Fuel system 26   Ret Retired 5 GBR Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 65 Brake failure 3   Ret Retired 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 63 Spun off 8   Ret Retired 33 ITA Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 63 Halfshaft 20   Ret Retired 17 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 52 Engine 7   Ret Retired 18 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 51 Engine 18   Ret Retired 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 46 Collision 19   Ret Retired 2 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 45 Collision 13   Ret Retired 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 41 Engine 21   Ret Retired 36 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 32 Clutch 11   Ret Retired 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 25 Collision 4   Ret Retired 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 24 Collision 23   Ret Retired 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 16 Transmission 17   Ret Retired 32 ARG Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 12 Halfshaft 25   Ret Retired 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 0 Collision 12   DNQ Did not qualify 31 ITA Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 4 GBR Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 29 FRA Pierre-Henri Raphanel Lola-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 10 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 21 ITA Nicola Larini Osella    Fastest lap: FRA Alain Prost (McLaren-Honda) – 1:21.216 (lap 59)Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/278/ 1988 Australian Grand Prix Formula One 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150118201230/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/278/ 18 January 2015 Championship standings after the race Bold text indicates World Champions. Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna 90 (94) 2 FRA Alain Prost 87 (105) 3 AUT Gerhard Berger 41 4 BEL Thierry Boutsen 31 5 ITA Michele Alboreto 24Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1988/australie/championnat.aspx Australia 1988 – Championship StatsF1.com 6 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR McLaren-Honda 199 2 ITA Ferrari 65 3 GBR Benetton-Ford 46 4 GBR Lotus-Honda 21 5 GBR Williams-Judd 20Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Drivers could only count their best 11 results; numbers without parentheses are points counting towards the Drivers' Championship, while numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Points accurate at final declaration of results. The Benettons were subsequently disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix and their points reallocated. References Australian Grand Prix 1988 1988 Japanese Grand Prix 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix 1987 Australian Grand Prix 1989 Australian Grand Prix Grand Prix Australian Grand Prix Category:Australian Grand Prix Category:Motorsport in Adelaide Category:Sports competitions in Adelaide Australian Grand Prix