The
1991 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Imola
on April 28, 1991.
Race summary
Ayrton Senna claimed his 55th pole
position from
Riccardo Patrese,
Alain Prost,
Nigel Mansell and
Gerhard Berger. However, the warm-up lap saw
two dramatic incidents - Prost spun off the track at Rivazza Turn,
followed by Berger, who was able to continue. However Prost stalled
the engine and was an early retirement.
At the lights, Patrese took the lead ahead of Senna, whilst
Mansell, already slow off the line with gearbox problems, retired
at the end of lap 1 after a collision with
Martin Brundle. He was followed out by
Nelson Piquet who spun on lap 2 and
Jean Alesi who spun off on lap 3
attempting a rather foolhardy pass on
Stefano Modena.
In a strong lead, Patrese pitted for originally what appeared to be
an early stop to slicks turned out to be more serious - a misfire
with a faulty camshaft sensor. He restarted last before retiring
for good 9 laps later.
Berger was catching Senna, lapping 1.5 seconds quicker than his
teammate. The lead was soon down to 5 seconds, with Modena a superb
third from
Satoru Nakajima and the
two
Minardis of
Pierluigi Martini and
Gianni Morbidelli.
Both
McLaren
pitted for
tyres with Senna maintaining his lead. Just after setting
fastest lap, Berger was delayed in traffic, held up by the trio of
Maurício Gugelmin,
Julian Bailey and
Thierry Boutsen. Bailey himself moved past
Andrea de Cesaris into 6th, whilst
Nakajima retired with transmission problems.
Ivan Capelli spun into retirement from
4th to hand over to
JJ Lehto's
Dallara. Modena retired with transmission problems
which meant that behind the two dominant McLarens, the order was
now
Roberto Moreno, Lehto,
Eric van der Poele in for the little
Lambo team and Martini's Minardi.
Moreno's gearbox broke on lap 52 causing him to retire, whilst
Senna was having problems with oil pressure caused by the special
high-torque Honda V12. Berger put in a series of fastest laps to
cut Senna's lead to just 1.7s at the line.Lehto was overjoyed to
gain a podium place for Dallara, with Martini 4th. The
Lotus drivers of
Mika Häkkinen and Bailey took 5th and
6th.
Van de Poele's drive ended when a fuel pump broke on the last lap -
he was classified ninth overall.
Classification
Pre Qualifying
Qualifying
Race
Notes
References
- Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken
from
Wikis
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