1988 Belgian Grand Prix

March 2019 F1 Belgium Belgian XLVI Champion Belgian Grand Prix 28 August 1988 11 16 Spa 1996.jpg Circuit de Spa-FrancorchampsFrancorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium1988 Belgian GP https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/database/races/1988-belgian-grand-prix/ Motor Sport 30 May 2022 Permanent racing facility 4.312 6.940 43 185.429 298.420 Warm, dry and overcast Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:53.718 Brazil 1968 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 2:00.772 10 Austria Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda Brazil 1968 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda France Ivan Capelli March-Judd Italy BEL The 1988 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the XLVI Champion Belgian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on 28 August 1988. It was the eleventh race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship. The 43-lap race was won from pole position by Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda. Senna's French teammate Alain Prost was second, with Italy's Ivan Capelli third in a March-Judd after the Benetton-Fords of local driver Thierry Boutsen and Alessandro Nannini were disqualified for fuel irregularities. The win, Senna's seventh of the season and fourth in succession, gave him a three-point lead over Prost in the Drivers' Championship. Qualifying summary This was the first race after the death of Enzo Ferrari. Nigel Mansell was forced to miss the race due to chicken pox and was replaced at Williams by Martin Brundle who actually managed to be fastest in the second, wet qualifying session. The McLaren-Hondas had dominated the first qualifying session and occupied the whole front row for the 7th time in 11 races, though neither Ayrton Senna nor Alain Prost could match Michele Alboreto on the uphill Kemmel Straight as he pushed his Ferrari to 312 km/h mph 0 on. This was the first race in 1988 where neither of the new EuroBrun cars made the field. Riccardo Patrese did a fine job to be 5th on the grid in his naturally aspirated Williams-Judd, but his time of 1:57.138 was still 3.420 seconds slower than pole man Senna. Local driver Thierry Boutsen gave the Belgian crowd something to cheer when he put his Benetton-Ford in 6th place on the grid. The grid was set by Friday's qualifying session as Saturday's qualifying was held in wet conditions. Martin Brundle surprised by being fastest in the Williams, but even more of a surprise was Satoru Nakajima who was second fastest in his Lotus-Honda. Alain Prost, never a fan of driving in the wet and knowing his second place on the grid was safe, did not drive in the second session. The Minardis of Luis Pérez-Sala and Pierluigi Martini, Stefano Modena in the EuroBrun and Julian Bailey in the Tyrrell all failed to qualify while Modena's teammate Oscar Larrauri failed to pre-qualify. Race summary Throughout 1988, Senna had copied Prost's car settings feeling that the Frenchman had a better handle on setting up the McLaren (after driving Prost's spare car in Brazil he found that his teammates settings actually suited his own driving style, plus they were easier on the car). At Spa Prost decided at the last minute to alter the settings on his car by taking off some wing for more straight line speed in a bid to gain an advantage. Unfortunately for the Frenchman this had a detrimental result and he was unhappy with the balance and handling of his car in the race, compared to Senna with Prost's original settings who reported no such problems. At the start, pole sitter Senna had too much wheelspin and Prost was able to take the lead. However, the first time through Eau Rouge, Senna, with better downforce and grip, was clearly quicker and easily retook the lead after he slipstreamed Prost on the Kemmel Straight and out braked him at Les Combes. Senna powered off into the distance while Prost, struggling with a car that was no longer handling to his liking, settled for second place. Gerhard Berger managed to get his Ferrari up to 3rd, challenging Prost briefly before pitting on lap 3 with electrical problems. He managed to rejoin and set the fastest lap before retiring on lap 12. Due to Berger's retirement, Boutsen climbed to 4th behind Alboreto and ahead of a thrilling battle between Alessandro Nannini (Benetton), Nakajima, Nelson Piquet (Lotus), and the two Arrows-Megatrons of Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever. Piquet passed teammate Nakajima on lap 17, before the Japanese driver pitted with an acute misfire from a jammed plug, which caused him to retire. In the meantime, Ivan Capelli climbed from ninth to sixth in his March-Judd. On lap 36, Alboreto's engine blew at Les Combes, sending him out of the race from third. On lap 38, Nannini passed Piquet for fourth at the La Source hairpin, before Capelli overtook the Brazilian driver for fifth on the penultimate lap. McLaren's 1-2 sealed the Constructors' Championship for the British team with five races remaining. Boutsen and Nannini came home third and fourth for Benetton, with Capelli and Piquet rounding out the top six. In a post-race interview, Prost virtually conceded the championship to Senna, who had won his fourth race in succession and had taken the championship lead for the first time. Post-race Both Benettons were later disqualified for using irregular fuel, so the third podium spot went to Ivan Capelli. It was his first podium finish in Formula One and March's first podium finish since Ronnie Peterson had won the 1976 Italian Grand Prix. The post race disqualification of the Benettons also meant that the two Arrows of Warwick and Cheever went into the points. The disqualification of the Benettons was not made official until long after the season had finished, so many published records list them as having finished third and fourth. The three points Arrows gained from the disqualification brought the team to fifth in the Constructors' Championship. Classification Pre-qualifying PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap136ITA Alex CaffiDallara-Ford2:01.068—231ITA Gabriele TarquiniColoni-Ford2:02.101 +1.033321ITA Nicola LariniOsella2:02.347 +1.279433ITA Stefano ModenaEuroBrun-Ford2:02.933 +1.865DNPQ Did not pre-qualify32ARG Oscar LarrauriEuroBrun-Ford2:04.208 +3.140 Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:53.718 2:15.196 — 2 11 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:54.128 no time +0.410 3 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:54.581 2:17.115 +0.863 4 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:55.665 2:15.667 +1.947 5 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:57.138 2:15.358 +3.420 6 20 BEL Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:57.455 2:15.236 +3.737 7 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:57.535 2:17.077 +3.817 8 2 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:57.616 2:14.739 +3.898 9 1 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:57.821 2:15.027 +4.103 10 17 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:57.925 2:16.770 +4.207 11 18 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:57.980 2:19.908 +4.262 12 5 GBR Martin Brundle Williams-Judd 1:58.206 2:14.517 +4.488 13 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:58.361 no time +4.643 14 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:58.439 2:22.821 +4.721 15 36 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:59.736 2:18.052 +6.018 16 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:59.906 2:21.219 +6.188 17 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 2:00.037 2:19.260 +6.319 18 14 FRA Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 2:00.410 2:23.953 +6.692 19 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 2:00.521 2:17.028 +6.803 20 26 SWE Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 2:00.857 no time +7.139 21 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 2:01.078 2:20.594 +7.360 22 31 ITA Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 2:01.359 2:19.939 +7.641 23 29 FRA Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 2:01.467 2:19.909 +7.749 24 9 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 2:01.899 2:22.064 +8.181 25 10 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 2:01.938 2:19.825 +8.220 26 21 ITA Nicola Larini Osella 2:02.029 2:17.127 +8.311 DNQ Did not qualify 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 2:02.129 no time +8.411 DNQ Did not qualify 23 ITA Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 2:02.314 no time +8.596 DNQ Did not qualify 33 ITA Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 2:02.322 2:19.880 +8.604 DNQ Did not qualify 4 GBR Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 2:02.519 no time +8.801 Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 43 1:28:00.549 1 9 2 11 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 43 + 30.470 2 6 3 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 43 + 1:15.768 14 4 4 1 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 43 + 1:23.628 9 3 5 17 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 43 + 1:25.355 10 2 6 18 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 42 + 1 lap 11 1 7 5 GBR Martin Brundle Williams-Judd 42 + 1 lap 12   8 36 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 42 + 1 lap 15   9 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 42 + 1 lap 16   10 14 FRA Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 42 + 1 lap 18   11 26 SWE Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 39 Engine 20   12 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 39 Throttle 21   13 10 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 38 Gearbox 25   DSQ Disqualified 20 BEL Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 43 Irregular fuel 6   DSQ Disqualified 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 43 Irregular fuel 7   NC Not classified 31 ITA Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 36 +7 Laps 22   Ret Retired 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 35 Engine 4   Ret Retired 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 30 Engine 5   Ret Retired 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 29 Spun off 13   Ret Retired 9 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 25 Oil leak 24   Ret Retired 2 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 22 Engine 8   Ret Retired 21 ITA Nicola Larini Osella 14 Fuel system 26   Ret Retired 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 11 Injection 3   Ret Retired 29 FRA Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 9 Engine 23   Ret Retired 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 2 Collision 19   Ret Retired 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 2 Collision 17   DNQ Did not qualify 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 23 ITA Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 33 ITA Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 4 GBR Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 32 ARG Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford    Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/273/ 1988 Belgian Grand Prix formula1.com 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150118201605/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/273/ 18 January 2015 Championship standings after the race Bold text indicates World Champions. Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna 75 2 FRA Alain Prost 72 3 AUT Gerhard Berger 28 4 BEL Thierry Boutsen 20 5 ITA Michele Alboreto 16Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1988/belgique/championnat.aspx Belgium 1988 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 13 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR McLaren-Honda147 2 ITA Ferrari44 3 GBR Benetton-Ford29 4 GBR Lotus-Honda17 5 GBR March-Judd11Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Points accurate at final declaration of results. The Benettons were disqualified from this race, and their points reallocated, after the end of the season. References Belgian Grand Prix 1988 1988 Hungarian Grand Prix 1988 Italian Grand Prix 1987 Belgian Grand Prix 1989 Belgian Grand Prix Belgian Grand Prix Category:Belgian Grand Prix Grand Prix Belgian Grand Prix