1990 Monaco Grand Prix

The 1990 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 27 May 1990 at Monaco. It was the fourth race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship and the 48th Monaco Grand Prix. The race was held over 78 laps of the 3.32-kilometre (2.06 mi) circuit for a race distance of 259 kilometres (161 mi).

1990 Monaco Grand Prix
Race 4 of 16 in the 1990 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 27 May 1990
Official name XLVIII Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco
Location Circuit de Monaco
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Course Temporary street circuit
Course length 3.328 km (2.068 miles)
Distance 78 laps, 259.584 km (161.298 miles)
Weather Warm, dry, sunny
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Honda
Time 1:21.314
Fastest lap
Driver Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda
Time 1:24.468 on lap 59
Podium
First McLaren-Honda
Second Tyrrell-Ford
Third McLaren-Honda
Lap leaders

The race was won by Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda. Senna started from pole position, led every lap and set the fastest race lap, en route to his second consecutive Monaco win and third in all. French driver Jean Alesi finished second in a Tyrrell-Ford, with Senna's Austrian teammate Gerhard Berger third.

Qualifying edit

Pre-qualifying report edit

The four successful pre-qualifiers in the one-hour Thursday morning session were the same four drivers as at the previous race at Imola, in the same order. The Larrousse-Lola cars finished first and second for the third time in a row, with Éric Bernard again outpacing his teammate Aguri Suzuki. The Osella of Olivier Grouillard was third fastest, followed by Roberto Moreno in the EuroBrun.

The AGS drivers were frozen out in fifth and sixth, with Gabriele Tarquini considerably faster than Yannick Dalmas on this occasion. Seventh was Claudio Langes in the second EuroBrun, six seconds off Bernard's pace. The other two runners were far behind; Bertrand Gachot was over twelve seconds adrift in the Coloni after another engine failure, with the team now in some disarray,[1] but still nearly two seconds faster than the Life, driven again by Bruno Giacomelli. This time, however, the Italian managed to complete a stint of seven laps and return to the pits without breaking down. Well off the pace, Giacomelli went back out on to the circuit and completed another lap before the W12 engine failed.[1]

Pre-qualifying classification edit

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 29   Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 1:27.134
2 30   Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 1:27.548 +0.414
3 14   Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:27.938 +0.804
4 33   Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 1:28.295 +1.161
5 17   Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:28.677 +1.543
6 18   Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:30.511 +3.377
7 34   Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd 1:33.195 +6.061
8 31   Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Subaru 1:39.295 +12.161
9 39   Bruno Giacomelli Life 1:41.187 +14.053

Qualifying report edit

There were no surprises in qualifying with Ayrton Senna taking pole from his rival Alain Prost. Jean Alesi continued to impress in his Tyrrell, qualifying third ahead of Riccardo Patrese. Row three was formed of Gerhard Berger and Thierry Boutsen; Nigel Mansell lined up seventh alongside the Minardi of Pierluigi Martini, while Emanuele Pirro and Nelson Piquet rounded out the top ten. Young Australian driver David Brabham qualified in 25th, thus making his first Formula One race start.

Qualifying classification edit

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 27   Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:21.797 1:21.314
2 1   Alain Prost Ferrari 1:23.449 1:21.776 +0.462
3 4   Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:23.372 1:21.801 +0.487
4 6   Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:24.179 1:22.026 +0.712
5 28   Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:23.001 1:22.682 +1.368
6 5   Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:23.936 1:22.691 +1.377
7 2   Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:24.433 1:22.733 +1.419
8 23   Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:24.012 1:23.149 +1.835
9 21   Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 1:24.766 1:23.494 +2.180
10 20   Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:25.273 1:23.566 +2.252
11 12   Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 1:24.724 1:23.600 +2.286
12 22   Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:25.849 1:23.613 +2.299
13 11   Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 1:24.070 1:23.656 +2.342
14 8   Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:25.485 1:23.920 +2.606
15 30   Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 1:27.193 1:24.023 +2.709
16 19   Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:25.926 1:24.139 +2.825
17 25   Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 1:24.206 1:24.270 +2.892
18 26   Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 1:25.387 1:24.294 +2.980
19 24   Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 1:26.352 1:24.334 +3.020
20 35   Gregor Foitek Onyx-Ford 1:26.183 1:24.367 +3.053
21 3   Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 1:25.679 1:24.371 +3.057
22 10   Alex Caffi Arrows-Ford 1:26.520 1:25.000 +3.686
23 16   Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 1:26.969 1:25.020 +3.706
24 29   Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 1:25.398 1:25.541 +4.084
25 7   David Brabham Brabham-Judd 1:28.339 1:25.420 +4.106
26 36   JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 1:27.923 1:25.508 +4.194
27 9   Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 1:27.282 1:25.622 +4.308
28 14   Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:25.785 1:26.781 +4.471
29 15   Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 1:26.943 1:26.192 +4.878
30 33   Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 1:26.604 1:27.265 +5.290

Race edit

Race report edit

At the start there was an overly long delay between the red and green lights, which caused the drivers to be a little more agitated than usual, resulting in an accident between Prost and Berger at the Mirabeau corner. The track was blocked and the race had to be stopped. At the second start everything went to plan and Senna led from Prost, Alesi, Berger, Patrese and Boutsen, with Pirro being the first retirement when his engine blew on the opening lap. Eighth-placed Nigel Mansell was the centre of action in the early stages, quickly passing Martini before setting off after Boutsen, but his overtaking attempt on the Belgian was unsuccessful as he touched the back of the Williams at the seafront chicane and had to limp back to the pits for a new front wing. At the front Senna led comfortably, even more so after Prost retired on lap 30 with battery problems. On lap 35, Piquet spun approaching Loewes Hairpin and stalled his engine; he received a push start from the marshals and was disqualified as a result. While Senna maintained his lead, there was action further back where Mansell was charging through the field. First he disposed of Derek Warwick and then managed to successfully pass Boutsen for fourth, as Alesi and Berger fought over second place. In the late stages Senna started to slow, which allowed Alesi and Berger to close up on him, but Senna's McLaren survived to the finish for his third career win at Monaco. Alesi was second, followed by Berger, Boutsen, Alex Caffi and the only other survivor, Éric Bernard, who had taken sixth place in the late stages after he had forced himself past Gregor Foitek's Onyx by pushing him into the wall. In doing so, Bernard earned his first point in Formula One. Despite not finishing the race, Foitek was classified seventh, his best F1 result.

Race classification edit

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 27   Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 78 1:52:46.982 1 9
2 4   Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 78 + 1.087 3 6
3 28   Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 78 + 2.073 5 4
4 5   Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 77 + 1 lap 6 3
5 10   Alex Caffi Arrows-Ford 76 + 2 laps 22 2
6 29   Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 76 + 2 laps 24 1
7 35   Gregor Foitek Onyx-Ford 72 Collision 20
Ret 11   Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 66 Spun off 13
Ret 2   Nigel Mansell Ferrari 63 Battery 7
Ret 24   Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 52 Gearbox 19
Ret 36   JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 52 Gearbox 26
Ret 26   Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 47 Gearbox 18
Ret 6   Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 41 Distributor 4
Ret 22   Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 38 Engine 12
Ret 3   Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 36 Spun off 21
DSQ 20   Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 34 Push start 10
Ret 1   Alain Prost Ferrari 30 Battery 2
Ret 19   Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 20 Gearbox 16
Ret 7   David Brabham Brabham-Judd 16 Transmission 25
Ret 16   Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 13 Brakes 23
Ret 25   Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 12 Differential 17
Ret 30   Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 11 Steering 15
Ret 23   Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 7 Electrical 8
Ret 12   Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 6 Gearbox 11
Ret 8   Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 3 Transmission 14
Ret 21   Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 0 Engine 9
DNQ 9   Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford
DNQ 14   Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford
DNQ 15   Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd
DNQ 33   Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd
DNPQ 17   Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford
DNPQ 18   Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford
DNPQ 34   Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd
DNPQ 31   Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Subaru
DNPQ 39   Bruno Giacomelli Life
Source:[2]

Championship standings after the race edit

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

References edit

  1. ^ a b Walker, Murray (1990). Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 39–46. ISBN 0-905138-82-1.
  2. ^ "1990 Monaco Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Monaco 1990 - Championship". statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.


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1990 San Marino Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
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1990 Canadian Grand Prix
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1989 Monaco Grand Prix
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1991 Monaco Grand Prix

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