1988 German Grand Prix

1988 German Grand Prix
Race 9 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	24 July 1988
Official name	Mobil 1 Grosser Preis von Deutschland
Location	Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, West Germany
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	6.797 km (4.223 mi)
Distance	44 laps, 299.068 km (185.832 mi)
Weather	Wet and cool
Pole position
Driver	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:44.596
Fastest lap
Driver	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford
Time	2:03.032 on lap 40
Podium
First	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Second	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda
Third	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari
Lap leaders

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[]

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.

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. 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.

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. Nannini was running fourth when he had to pit seven laps from the end due to a broken throttle bracket, losing four laps as a result; a charge brought him the fastest lap of the race, 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. 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 Zakspeed team.

Classification[]

Pre-Qualifying[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	21	Nicola Larini	Osella	1:52.321	—
2	36	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	1:53.031	+0.710
3	32	Oscar Larrauri	EuroBrun-Ford	1:54.184	+1.863
4	33	Stefano Modena	EuroBrun-Ford	1:54.317	+1.996
DNPQ	31	Gabriele Tarquini	Coloni-Ford	1:54.358	+2.037

Qualifying[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	12	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:44.596	1:50.002	—
2	11	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	1:44.873	1:45.868	+0.277
3	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:46.115	1:46.431	+1.519
4	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:47.154	1:47.418	+2.558
5	1	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Honda	1:47.702	1:47.681	+3.085
6	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	1:48.223	1:48.208	+3.612
7	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	1:48.703	1:49.750	+4.107
8	2	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	1:49.359	1:48.781	+4.185
9	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	1:48.837	1:49.966	+4.241
10	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	1:49.511	1:49.645	+4.915
11	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Judd	1:49.850	1:50.673	+5.254
12	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	1:50.459	1:50.770	+5.863
13	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Judd	1:51.105	1:50.719	+6.213
14	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Rial-Ford	1:51.004	1:51.859	+6.408
15	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	1:51.385	1:51.171	+6.575
16	14	Philippe Streiff	AGS-Ford	1:52.348	1:51.642	+7.046
17	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Judd	1:54.139	1:52.080	+7.484
18	21	Nicola Larini	Osella	1:52.203	1:52.168	+7.572
19	36	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	1:52.469	1:52.277	+7.681
20	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	1:52.293	1:52.629	+7.697
21	29	Yannick Dalmas	Lola-Ford	1:52.795	1:52.436	+7.840
22	10	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed	1:52.696	1:52.664	+8.068
23	9	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Zakspeed	1:52.674	1:57.241	+8.078
24	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	1:53.238	1:52.908	+8.312
25	33	Stefano Modena	EuroBrun-Ford	1:52.998	1:53.904	+8.402
26	32	Oscar Larrauri	EuroBrun-Ford	1:53.832	1:53.043	+8.447
DNQ	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	1:53.356	1:53.673	+8.760
DNQ	26	Stefan Johansson	Ligier-Judd	1:54.717	1:53.507	+8.911
DNQ	4	Julian Bailey	Tyrrell-Ford	1:53.674	1:53.576	+8.980
DNQ	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:53.720	1:53.673	+9.077

Race[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	12	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	44	1:32:54.188	1	9
2	11	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	44	+ 13.609	2	6
3	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	44	+ 52.095	3	4
4	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	44	+ 1:40.912	4	3
5	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	44	+ 1:49.606	7	2
6	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	43	+ 1 Lap	9	1
7	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	43	+ 1 Lap	12
8	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	43	+ 1 Lap	10
9	2	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	43	+ 1 Lap	8
10	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	43	+ 1 Lap	15
11	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	43	+ 1 Lap	24
12	10	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed	43	+ 1 Lap	22
13	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Rial-Ford	42	+ 2 Laps	14
14	9	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Zakspeed	42	+ 2 Laps	23
15	36	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	42	+ 2 Laps	19
16	32	Oscar Larrauri	EuroBrun-Ford	42	+ 2 Laps	26
17	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Judd	41	+ 3 Laps	17
18	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	40	+ 4 Laps	6
19	29	Yannick Dalmas	Lola-Ford	39	Clutch	21
Ret	14	Philippe Streiff	AGS-Ford	38	Throttle	16
Ret	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Judd	34	Spun Off	13
Ret	21	Nicola Larini	Osella	27	Engine	18
Ret	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Judd	16	Spun Off	11
Ret	33	Stefano Modena	EuroBrun-Ford	15	Engine	25
Ret	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	8	Spun Off	20
Ret	1	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Honda	1	Spun Off	5
DNQ	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford
DNQ	26	Stefan Johansson	Ligier-Judd
DNQ	4	Julian Bailey	Tyrrell-Ford
DNQ	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford
DNPQ	31	Gabriele Tarquini	Coloni-Ford
Source:[1]

Championship standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alain Prost 60 2 Ayrton Senna 57 3 Gerhard Berger 25 4 Michele Alboreto 16 5 Nelson Piquet 15 Source: [2]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda 117 2 Ferrari 41 3 Benetton-Ford 18 4 Lotus-Honda 16 5 Arrows-Megatron 10 Source: [2]

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

References[]