1991 Japanese Grand Prix

1991 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 15 of 16 in the 1991 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	20 October 1991
Official name	XVII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.860 km (3.641[1] miles)
Distance	53 laps, 310.580 km (192.985 miles)
Weather	Sunny, warm
Attendance	337,000[2]
Pole position
Driver	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:34.700
Fastest lap
Driver	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:41.532 on lap 39
Podium
First	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda
Second	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Third	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Lap leaders

The 1991 Japanese Grand Prix (formally the XVII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Suzuka on 20 October 1991. It was the fifteenth round of the 1991 Formula One season. The 53-lap race was won by McLaren driver Gerhard Berger after he started from pole position. His teammate Ayrton Senna finished second and Riccardo Patrese was third for the Williams team. The race would mark Mclaren's last one-two finish for six years until the 1997 European Grand Prix.^[3]

This was also Honda's last one-two finish until the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Pre-race

Formula One moved to Japan with the fight for the title still open; this was the fifth year in a row that the title would be decided at the Suzuka circuit. Both championship contenders Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell knew exactly what they needed to do; Mansell had to win with help and Senna needed to beat Mansell. There were several changes to the driver lineup, the most notable being at Leyton House where Ivan Capelli had been replaced by young Austrian Karl Wendlinger, with Capelli being freed up as a spare driver for Ferrari if Alain Prost decided not to enter. It was the first time the Leyton House/March team had not entered with Capelli as a named driver since their return to the grid in 1987, during which time he had partnered Mauricio Gugelmin in every race from 1988 onwards. Elsewhere, AGS had run out of money and did not make the voyage to Japan, while fellow stragglers Coloni had hired local driver Naoki Hattori. Johnny Herbert was back behind the wheel of the Lotus after having missed a few races in the second half of the season due to Japanese Formula 3000 commitments.

Qualifying

Pre-qualifying report

With the withdrawal of AGS from Formula One prior to this event, and the return of the Coloni team after missing the last grand Prix, the pre-qualifying pool was reduced to six cars.

A Brabham topped the time sheets for the seventh time this season as Martin Brundle was fastest, over a second ahead of Alex Caffi in the Footwork. It was only the second time in seven attempts that the Italian had pre-qualified. His team-mate Michele Alboreto was third fastest, just under a tenth of a second slower. The fourth and final pre-qualifying position went to Gabriele Tarquini for Fondmetal, the second time in as many attempts that he had pre-qualified for his new team.

For the first time in 1991, the other Brabham failed to pre-qualify, as Mark Blundell suffered an oil leak in his Yamaha engine during the session. His time was only good enough for fifth place. Coloni had hired the 1990 Japanese Formula Three champion, Naoki Hattori, to replace Pedro Chaves for the last two races of the season, but the car broke down before Hattori was able to post a representative time.^[4]

Pre-qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	1:41.289	—
2	10	Alex Caffi	Footwork-Ford	1:42.382	+1.093
3	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Ford	1:42.479	+1.190
4	14	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	1:43.025	+1.736
5	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	1:44.025	+2.736
6	31	Naoki Hattori	Coloni-Ford	2:00.035	+18.746

Qualifying report

There were a number of accidents during the qualifying sessions, including young sensation Michael Schumacher and Ferrari driver Jean Alesi. The biggest of these accidents was the one that befell Éric Bernard who broke his ankle and would not take any further part in the race. At the end of the qualifying sessions it was a McLaren front row with Gerhard Berger ahead of Ayrton Senna. Mansell was third followed by the unhappy Alain Prost, Riccardo Patrese, Jean Alesi, Pierluigi Martini, Gianni Morbidelli, Michael Schumacher, and Nelson Piquet. Senna was right where he wanted to be, while Mansell knew he had his work cut out for him.

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:36.458	1:34.700	—
2	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:36.490	1:34.898	+0.198
3	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:36.529	1:34.922	+0.222
4	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	1:37.565	1:36.670	+1.970
5	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:37.874	1:36.882	+2.182
6	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:37.718	1:37.140	+2.740
7	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	1:40.176	1:38.154	+3.454
8	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	1:41.088	1:38.248	+3.548
9	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	1:39.742	1:38.363	+3.663
10	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	1:40.557	1:38.614	+3.914
11	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	1:40.407	1:38.842	+4.142
12	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	1:40.191	1:38.911	+4.211
13	32	Alessandro Zanardi	Jordan-Ford	1:39.051	1:38.923	+4.223
14	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	1:39.245	1:38.926	+4.226
15	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	1:40.100	1:39.118	+4.418
16	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	1:41.246	1:39.238	+4.538
17	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:39.946	1:39.499	+4.799
18	15	Maurício Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	1:40.714	1:39.518	+4.818
19	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	1:40.867	1:39.697	+4.997
20	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:41.251	1:39.820	+5.120
21	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd	1:41.485	1:40.024	+5.324
22	16	Karl Wendlinger	Leyton House-Ilmor	1:41.639	1:40.092	+5.392
23	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Judd	1:40.512	1:40.170	+5.470
24	14	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	1:42.835	1:40.184	+5.484
25	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	1:41.528	1:40.255	+5.555
26	10	Alex Caffi	Footwork-Ford	1:40.517	1:40.402	+5.702
27	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Ford	1:41.536	1:40.844	+6.144
28	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:43.057	1:42.492	+7.792
29	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:46.641	1:42.724	+8.024
30	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Ford	no time	no time	—

Race

Race report

At the start of the race, Berger got away well and Senna blocked Mansell the way that Mansell had done to him in Portugal. Elsewhere, Jean Alesi's day ended on the first lap in a cloud of smoke, his Ferrari engine having blown. At the end of lap 1, the order was Berger, Senna, Mansell, Patrese, and Prost. There was a huge accident on lap two when Andrea de Cesaris spun his Jordan while leading other cars, and the resulting accident took Wendlinger, Pirro, and Lehto with him. At the front, Berger pulled off into the lead while Mansell hounded Senna. It all ended on lap 10 when Mansell made a mistake on the first corner and spun off. His Williams was stuck in the gravel and Mansell was out of championship contention.

With the news of Mansell's retirement, Senna and Berger both went off into the distance, with Berger waving his recrowned world champion teammate through. The two ran in formation for the rest of the race with Senna letting Berger through on the last lap to win his first race for McLaren. Patrese finished third followed by Prost, Martin Brundle (scoring the last points in the history of the Brabham team), and Stefano Modena in the Tyrrell. Senna had won his third world championship. This was the last time Senna, Prost, Piquet and Mansell raced together; Prost was dismissed by Ferrari before the final race of the season, which turned out to be Piquet's last.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	G	53	1:32:10.695	1	10
2	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	G	53	+ 0.344	2	6
3	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	G	53	+ 56.731	5	4
4	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	G	53	+ 1:20.761	4	3
5	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	P	52	+ 1 lap	19	2
6	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	P	52	+ 1 lap	14	1
7	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	P	52	+ 1 lap	10
8	15	Maurício Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	G	52	+ 1 lap	18
9	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	G	52	+ 1 lap	17
10	10	Alex Caffi	Footwork-Ford	G	51	+ 2 laps	26
11	14	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	G	50	+ 3 laps	24
Ret	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	G	41	Alternator	20
Ret	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	G	39	Electrical	7
Ret	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	P	34	Engine	9
Ret	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Judd	G	31	Engine	23
Ret	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	P	30	Spun off	15
Ret	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	G	26	Engine	25
Ret	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	G	15	Wheel	8
Ret	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	G	9	Spun off	3
Ret	32	Alessandro Zanardi	Jordan-Ford	G	7	Gearbox	13
Ret	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd	G	4	Engine	21
Ret	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	G	1	Collision	11
Ret	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	P	1	Collision	12
Ret	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	P	1	Collision	16
Ret	16	Karl Wendlinger	Leyton House-Ilmor	G	1	Collision	22
Ret	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	G	0	Engine	6
DNQ	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Ford	G
DNQ	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	G
DNQ	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini	G
DNQ	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Ford	G		Accident
DNPQ	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	P
DNPQ	31	Naoki Hattori	Coloni-Ford	G
Source:[5][6]

Championship standings after the race

• Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ayrton Senna 91 2 Nigel Mansell 69 3 Riccardo Patrese 52 4 Gerhard Berger 41 5 Alain Prost 34 Source: [7]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda 132 2 Williams-Renault 121 3 Ferrari 55 4 Benetton-Ford 37 5 Jordan-Ford 13 Source: [7]

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

References

• Henry, Alan (1991). AUTOCOURSE 1991–92. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 232–233. ISBN 0-905138-87-2.
• "The GEL Motorsports Information page". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2007-09-15.

This page was last edited on 7 February 2024, at 20:00