1988 Monaco Grand Prix

Coordinates: 43°44′4.74″N 7°25′16.8″E / 43.7346500°N 7.421333°E / 43.7346500; 7.421333
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

43°44′4.74″N 7°25′16.8″E / 43.7346500°N 7.421333°E / 43.7346500; 7.421333

1988 Monaco Grand Prix
Race 3 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 15 May 1988
Official name 46e Grand Prix de Monaco
Location Circuit de Monaco
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Course Street circuit
Course length 3.328 km (2.068 miles)
Distance 78 laps, 259.584 km (161.298 miles)
Weather Warm and dry
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Honda
Time 1:23.998
Fastest lap
Driver Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda
Time 1:26.321 on lap 59
Podium
First McLaren-Honda
Second Ferrari
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 1988 Monaco Grand Prix (formally the 46e Grand Prix de Monaco[1]) was a Formula One motor race held on 15 May 1988 at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo. It was the third race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship.

The 78-lap race was won by Frenchman Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-Honda. Prost took his fourth and final Monaco win after Brazilian teammate Ayrton Senna crashed out late on while leading comfortably. Austrian driver Gerhard Berger finished second in a Ferrari, with Italian teammate Michele Alboreto third.

Qualifying

Qualifying report

The McLaren-Hondas continued their dominant form from the previous race at Imola, as Ayrton Senna took pole position by an almost unbelievable 1.4 seconds ahead of teammate Alain Prost, with a further 1.2 seconds back to the Ferrari of Gerhard Berger in third. Berger's teammate Michele Alboreto was fourth, while Nigel Mansell was fifth in the Williams, the quickest of the naturally-aspirated cars, albeit some 3.6 seconds behind Senna. Completing the top ten were Alessandro Nannini in the Benetton, Derek Warwick in the Arrows, Riccardo Patrese in the second Williams, Eddie Cheever in the second Arrows and Jonathan Palmer in the Tyrrell, while among the non-qualifiers was Satoru Nakajima, whose Lotus was powered by the same Honda turbo engine as the McLaren.

Qualifying classification

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:26.464 1:23.998
2 11 France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:28.375 1:25.425 +1.427
3 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:29.001 1:26.685 +2.687
4 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:29.931 1:27.297 +3.299
5 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:28.475 1:27.665 +3.667
6 19 Italy Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:29.093 1:27.869 +3.871
7 17 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:29.928 1:27.872 +3.874
8 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:29.130 1:28.016 +4.018
9 18 United States Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:32.889 1:28.227 +4.229
10 3 United Kingdom Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:30.679 1:28.358 +4.360
11 1 Brazil Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:30.924 1:28.403 +4.405
12 14 France Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:29.597 1:28.527 +4.529
13 30 France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:31.375 1:28.536 +4.538
14 15 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:32.148 1:28.610 +4.612
15 24 Spain Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:31.662 1:28.625 +4.627
16 20 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:29.539 1:28.640 +4.642
17 36 Italy Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:33.691 1:29.075 +5.077
18 32 Argentina Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:31.861 1:29.093 +5.095
19 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:33.183 1:29.298 +5.300
20 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:31.964 1:29.480 +5.482
21 29 France Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 1:33.158 1:29.601 +5.603
22 16 Italy Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:35.216 1:29.603 +5.605
23 9 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:33.005 1:30.121 +6.213
24 31 Italy Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 1:32.792 1:30.252 +6.254
25 21 Italy Nicola Larini Osella 1:36.705 1:30.335 +6.337
26 26 Sweden Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:36.036 1:30.505 +6.507
DNQ 2 Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:30.611 1:31.573 +6.613
DNQ 10 West Germany Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:33.585 1:30.613 +6.615
DNQ 23 Spain Adrián Campos Minardi-Ford 1:32.627 1:30.793 +6.795
DNQ 4 United Kingdom Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 1:34.192 1:30.816 +6.818

Race

Race report

At the start, Senna led away, while Berger overtook Prost when the Frenchman momentarily could not engage second gear. Behind them, a variety of accidents occurred at Sainte-Dévote: Alex Caffi hit the wall in his Dallara; Philippe Streiff, who had started 12th in his AGS, retired when an accelerator cable broke; and World Champion Nelson Piquet collided with Cheever, which forced the Brazilian to retire at the end of the first lap and thus end a disastrous weekend for the Lotus team.

The running order of Senna, Berger, Prost, Mansell, Alboreto and Nannini was maintained until lap 33 when Alboreto took Mansell off at the Swimming Pool, ending the Englishman's race. Nannini then suffered a gearbox failure on lap 39. On lap 51, Patrese collided with Philippe Alliot's Lola while trying to lap him; Alliot retired immediately.

On lap 54, Prost passed Berger for second on the run to Sainte-Dévote, though he was some 50 seconds behind Senna. In an effort to put some pressure on his team-mate, he started trading fastest laps with him. With 11 laps remaining, McLaren team boss Ron Dennis radioed Senna to slow down to ensure a safe 1-2 finish, allowing Prost to gain six seconds.[2]

On lap 67, Senna lost concentration at Portier, causing him to spin his McLaren into the barrier and damage the car's front suspension. Immediately afterwards, he went to his home in Monaco to contemplate losing a race that he had dominated from the first time he took to the track for free practice on Thursday morning; the McLaren team did not even hear from him until that evening, when he walked into the pits as they were packing up.[3]

Prost thus took his fourth Monaco win in five years, with Berger some 20 seconds behind and Alboreto a further 21 seconds back. Warwick finished fourth after a race-long battle with Palmer, while Patrese recovered from his collision with Alliot to take the final point, passing the other Lola of Yannick Dalmas on the last lap. Patrese's point was also the first-ever World Championship point scored by a Judd-powered car and his first point for Williams.

Race classification

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 11 France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 78 1:57:17.077 2 9
2 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 78 + 20.453 3 6
3 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 78 + 41.229 4 4
4 17 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 77 + 1 lap 7 3
5 3 United Kingdom Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 77 + 1 lap 10 2
6 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 77 + 1 lap 8 1
7 29 France Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 77 + 1 lap 21  
8 20 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 76 + 2 laps 16  
9 21 Italy Nicola Larini Osella 75 + 3 laps 25  
10 16 Italy Ivan Capelli March-Judd 72 + 6 laps 22  
Ret 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 66 Accident 1  
Ret 30 France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 50 Collision 13  
Ret 15 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 45 Fuel system 14  
Ret 9 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 43 Gearbox 23  
Ret 19 Italy Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 38 Gearbox 6  
Ret 24 Spain Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 36 Halfshaft 15  
Ret 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 32 Collision 5  
Ret 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 28 Engine 19  
Ret 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 17 Engine 20  
Ret 32 Argentina Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 14 Brakes 18  
Ret 18 United States Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 8 Engine 9  
Ret 26 Sweden Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 6 Engine 26  
Ret 31 Italy Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 5 Suspension 24  
Ret 1 Brazil Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1 Collision 11  
Ret 36 Italy Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 0 Spun off 17  
Ret 14 France Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 0 Throttle 12  
DNQ 2 Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda    
DNQ 10 West Germany Bernd Schneider Zakspeed    
DNQ 23 Spain Adrián Campos Minardi-Ford    
DNQ 4 United Kingdom Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford
EX 33 Italy Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford   Missed weight check  
Source:[4]

Championship standings after the race

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

References

  1. ^ "Motor Racing Programme Covers: 1988". The Programme Covers Project. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  2. ^ Rubython, Tom (October 2011). The Life of Senna. Myrtle Books. ISBN 978-0-9570605-0-0.
  3. ^ "Ron Dennis on Senna - Part one: the early years". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  4. ^ "1988 Monaco Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  5. ^ a b "Monaco 1988 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.


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1988 San Marino Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1988 season
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1988 Mexican Grand Prix
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1987 Monaco Grand Prix
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1989 Monaco Grand Prix