1988 Canadian Grand Prix

1988 Canadian Grand Prix
Race 5 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 12 June 1988
Official name XXVI Molson Grand Prix du Canada
Location Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Course Temporary street circuit
Course length 4.390 km (2.728 miles)
Distance 69 laps, 302.910 km (188.220 miles)
Weather Sunny and hot with temperatures up to 29 °C (84 °F); wind speeds up to 19 kilometres per hour (12 mph)[1]
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Honda
Time 1:21.681
Fastest lap
Driver Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda
Time 1:24.973 on lap 53
Podium
First McLaren-Honda
Second McLaren-Honda
Third Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1988 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 12 June 1988 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal. It was the fifth race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship. The 69-lap race was won from pole position by Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, with French teammate Alain Prost second and Belgian Thierry Boutsen third in a Benetton-Ford.

Report

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Qualifying

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The Canadian Grand Prix returned to the Formula One calendar after a year's absence. In the meantime, major changes had been made to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve: the start-finish line, pit lane and facilities had been moved from the top end of the track to the bottom end, necessitating the removal of two turns, while other turns had been re-profiled slightly.

The McLarens once again dominated qualifying, with Ayrton Senna taking his fifth consecutive pole position by just under 0.2 seconds from Alain Prost. The Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto filled the second row, while the Benetton of Alessandro Nannini was the fastest of the naturally-aspirated cars in fifth, just under 2.3 seconds behind Senna. Nelson Piquet was sixth in his Lotus, followed by Thierry Boutsen in the second Benetton, Eddie Cheever in the Arrows and Nigel Mansell in the Williams, while Philippe Streiff put in a strong performance to take tenth, which would turn out to be the best-ever grid position for the AGS team. Also achieving its best-ever grid placing was EuroBrun, as Stefano Modena took 15th.

The Saturday session saw Derek Warwick suffer a big accident in his Arrows. Turning into the chicane into the new start-finish straight, Warwick slid on dirt kicked up moments before by Streiff's AGS. The Arrows spun onto the inside kerb and became airborne, then bounced several times before hitting what is now known as the "Wall of Champions" at unabated speed. Warwick was briefly knocked unconscious and hurt his back; he received aid from fellow Briton Mansell, who had suffered a similar crash at Suzuka the previous year. However, Warwick was declared fit to race and took up his 16th position on the grid.

During qualifying, Williams team owner Frank Williams announced that he had concluded a deal with Renault that would see the team have exclusive use of the French company's V10 engines from the 1989 season onwards. Williams said that "for better or worse you need an association with a major manufacturer to be successful in Formula One".

Race

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At the start, Prost led away from Senna, the Ferraris and the Benettons. After ten laps, Berger began having issues with the fuel system of his Ferrari. On lap 19, Senna passed Prost at the L'Epingle hairpin as they came up to traffic, the Brazilian driver thus taking a lead he would not lose. Nannini retired from fourth position on lap 15 with electrical trouble, while Berger retired with similar problems on lap 23. Meanwhile, Mansell passed his old rival Piquet in the Lotus, before his Judd engine failed on lap 29; teammate Riccardo Patrese suffered the same fate four laps later.

On lap 34, Alboreto retired with an engine failure, promoting Boutsen to third. With many of the front runners out, minor teams had a clear chance of scoring points. By the middle of the race Philippe Streiff had brought his AGS up to fifth place, ahead of Andrea de Cesaris' Rial in sixth. However, Streiff retired on lap 41 with a rear suspension failure, while de Cesaris ran out of fuel with three laps to go. This promoted Ivan Capelli in the March to fifth and Jonathan Palmer in the Tyrrell to sixth.

Senna finished just under six seconds ahead of Prost, with Boutsen a further 45 seconds back. Piquet was fourth in the Lotus, albeit a lap down on Senna, with Capelli and Palmer completing the top six. Warwick, despite his injury, finished just outside the points in seventh, having battled with teammate Cheever until the American retired on lap 31 with a broken throttle cable.

Senna set the fastest lap of the race on lap 53 with a time of 1:24.973. Boutsen's third place marked the first time since the 1983 Dutch Grand Prix that a naturally-aspirated car had legally finished on a Formula One podium.

Classification

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Ayrton Senna took pole position and the race win for McLaren.
Alain Prost finished just under six seconds behind his team-mate.
Thierry Boutsen took the final podium position for Benetton.
Gerhard Berger retired his Ferrari with electrical problems on lap 23.

Pre-qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 33 Italy Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:27.274
2 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:27.426 +0.152
3 32 Argentina Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:27.912 +0.638
4 31 Italy Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 1:28.709 +1.435
DNPQ 36 Italy Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:29.103 +1.829

Qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:22.392 1:21.681
2 11 France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:22.499 1:21.863 +0.182
3 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:22.719 1:22.785 +1.038
4 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:23.976 1:23.296 +1.615
5 19 Italy Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:25.561 1:23.968 +2.287
6 1 Brazil Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:24.166 1:23.995 +2.314
7 20 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:25.173 1:24.115 +2.434
8 18 United States Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:24.679 1:25.068 +2.998
9 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:24.844 1:25.251 +3.163
10 14 France Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:25.878 1:24.968 +3.287
11 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:24.971 1:25.471 +3.290
12 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:26.039 1:24.988 +3.307
13 2 Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:25.373 1:26.650 +3.692
14 16 Italy Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:25.609 1:26.815 +3.928
15 33 Italy Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:26.652 1:25.713 +4.032
16 17 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:26.052 1:25.740 +4.059
17 30 France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:27.543 1:25.765 +4.084
18 15 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:25.910 1:25.982 +4.229
19 3 United Kingdom Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:27.230 1:26.092 +4.411
20 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:26.716 1:26.327 +4.646
21 24 Spain Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:26.822 1:26.437 +4.756
22 9 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:28.400 1:26.786 +5.105
23 4 United Kingdom Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 1:28.737 1:27.139 +5.458
24 32 Argentina Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:27.676 1:27.321 +5.640
25 26 Sweden Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:28.614 1:27.637 +5.956
26 31 Italy Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford no time 1:27.655 +5.974
DNQ 23 Spain Adrián Campos Minardi-Ford 1:27.885 1:27.979 +6.204
DNQ 21 Italy Nicola Larini Osella 1:39.782 1:27.981 +6.300
DNQ 29 France Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford no time 1:28.012 +6.331
DNQ 10 West Germany Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:29.110 1:28.215 +6.534

Race

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The top 3 drivers of the race: Prost (2nd), Senna (winner), Boutsen (3rd)
Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 69 1:39:46.618 1 9
2 11 France Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 69 + 5.934 2 6
3 20 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 69 + 51.409 7 4
4 1 Brazil Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 68 + 1 Lap 6 3
5 16 Italy Ivan Capelli March-Judd 68 + 1 Lap 14 2
6 3 United Kingdom Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 67 + 2 Laps 19 1
7 17 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 67 + 2 Laps 16  
8 31 Italy Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 67 + 2 Laps 26  
9 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 66 Out of Fuel 12  
10 30 France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 66 Electrical 17  
11 2 Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 66 + 3 Laps 13  
12 33 Italy Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 66 + 3 Laps 15  
13 24 Spain Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 64 + 5 Laps 21  
14 9 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 63 Engine 22  
Ret 15 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 54 Gearbox 18  
Ret 14 France Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 41 Suspension 10  
Ret 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 36 Transmission 20  
Ret 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 33 Engine 4  
Ret 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 32 Engine 11  
Ret 18 United States Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 31 Throttle 8  
Ret 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 28 Engine 9  
Ret 26 Sweden Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 24 Engine 25  
Ret 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 22 Electrical 3  
Ret 19 Italy Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 15 Ignition 5  
Ret 32 Argentina Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 8 Chassis 24  
Ret 4 United Kingdom Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 0 Collision 23  
DNQ 23 Spain Adrián Campos Minardi-Ford    
DNQ 21 Italy Nicola Larini Osella    
DNQ 29 France Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford    
DNQ 10 West Germany Bernd Schneider Zakspeed    
DNPQ 36 Italy Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford
Source:[2]

Championship standings after the race

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

References

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  1. ^ "Weather information for the "1988 Canadian Grand Prix"". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2014-09-07.
  2. ^ "1988 Canadian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Canada 1988 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
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Previous race:
1988 Mexican Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1988 season
Next race:
1988 Detroit Grand Prix
Previous race:
1986 Canadian Grand Prix
Canadian Grand Prix Next race:
1989 Canadian Grand Prix