1991 Portuguese Grand Prix

The 1991 Portuguese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Autódromo do Estoril on 22 September 1991. It was the thirteenth race of the 1991 FIA Formula One World Championship.

1991 Portuguese Grand Prix
Race 13 of 16 in the 1991 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 22 September 1991
Official name XXIII Grande Premio de Portugal
Location Autódromo do Estoril
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.350 km (2.703 mi)
Distance 71 laps, 308.850 km (191.910 mi)
Weather Sunny and warm
Pole position
Driver Williams-Renault
Time 1:13.001
Fastest lap
Driver Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault
Time 1:18.179 on lap 43
Podium
First Williams-Renault
Second McLaren-Honda
Third Ferrari

The 71-lap race was won from pole position by Riccardo Patrese, driving a Williams-Renault. Patrese's team-mate and Drivers' Championship challenger, Nigel Mansell, led until a pit stop went wrong, resulting in his disqualification from the race. Ayrton Senna finished second in a McLaren-Honda, thus increasing his lead over Mansell in the championship to 24 points with three races remaining, with Jean Alesi finishing third in a Ferrari.

Pre-race

The only change to the driver line-up was that Johnny Herbert was back at Lotus, replacing Michael Bartels, who had failed to qualify in his three outings for the team.

Qualifying

Pre-qualifying report

It was the fourth consecutive 1–2 for the Brabham team in Friday morning pre-qualifying, with Martin Brundle outpacing his team-mate Mark Blundell by just 0.049 of a second. Third was Gabriele Tarquini in the AGS, just under three tenths of a second off the pace in the new JH27. The Footwork of Michele Alboreto was fourth, the Italian's fourth pre-qualifying success in five attempts.

The four drivers to miss out included Tarquini's team-mate Fabrizio Barbazza in fifth position, although he was closer to the pace than in previous events, driving the new AGS JH27 for the first time. Olivier Grouillard could only manage sixth place on this occasion for Fondmetal, his eighth pre-qualifying failure this season, and the Frenchman was sacked by the team after the Grand Prix weekend. Alex Caffi struggled again in the other Footwork in seventh place, his fourth failure in five pre-qualifying attempts, in contrast with his team-mate Alboreto. At the bottom of the time sheets, Pedro Chaves was unable to post a representative time at his home event in the Coloni, but the team announced it had been purchased by Italian shoe designer Andrea Sassetti.[1]

Pre-qualifying classification

PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap
1 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 1:17.739
2 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 1:17.788 +0.049
3 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:18.020 +0.281
4 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 1:18.371 +0.583
5 18 Fabrizio Barbazza AGS-Ford 1:19.292 +1.553
6 14 Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford 1:19.500 +1.761
7 10 Alex Caffi Footwork-Ford 1:19.521 +1.782
8 31 Pedro Chaves Coloni-Ford 1:23.858 +6.119

Qualifying report

The sunny Estoril was a popular venue among the drivers and qualifying saw a bit of a role reversal with the top teams' second drivers beating the championship contenders with Riccardo Patrese on pole alongside Gerhard Berger, with Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell third and fourth respectively. The top ten was rounded out by Alain Prost, Jean Alesi, Maurício Gugelmin, Pierluigi Martini, Ivan Capelli, and Michael Schumacher, the Benetton team a little off their usual pace.

Qualifying classification

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
1 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:14.041 1:13.001
2 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:13.221 1:13.430 +0.220
3 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:13.752 1:13.444 +0.443
4 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:13.944 1:13.667 +0.666
5 27 Alain Prost Ferrari 1:15.018 1:14.352 +1.351
6 28 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:15.572 1:14.852 +1.851
7 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor 1:17.214 1:15.266 +2.265
8 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari 1:15.394 1:16.982 +2.393
9 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor 1:15.481 1:15.827 +2.480
10 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:16.477 1:15.578 +2.577
11 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:16.241 1:15.666 +2.665
12 4 Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda 1:16.018 1:15.707 +2.706
13 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari 1:16.540 1:15.749 +2.748
14 33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford 1:15.972 1:15.936 +2.935
15 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 1:16.567 1:16.038 +3.037
16 32 Roberto Moreno Jordan-Ford 1:16.956 1:16.080 +3.079
17 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd 1:16.725 1:16.135 +3.134
18 22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 1:16.724 1:16.532 +3.531
19 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 1:17.298 1:16.536 +3.535
20 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini 1:18.005 1:16.757 +3.756
21 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda 1:16.926 1:17.035 +3.925
22 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Judd 1:17.713 1:17.015 +4.014
23 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini 1:18.192 1:17.226 +4.225
24 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 1:18.389 1:17.330 +4.329
25 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 1:17.434 1:17.537 +4.433
26 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Judd 1:18.947 1:17.714 +4.713
27 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Ford 1:18.186 1:17.825 +4.824
28 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:18.295 1:18.022 +5.021
29 34 Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini 1:21.612 1:18.139 +5.138
30 35 Eric van de Poele Lambo-Lamborghini 1:20.411 1:18.266 +5.265

Race

Race report

On Sunday Morning Prost's Ferrari had a rather dramatic blowup in the warmup, and the Frenchman had to start the race in the spare car. The start was very eventful with Patrese getting away well and with Mansell aggressively chopping across the front of Senna. Unimpressed, he tried to retake Mansell going into the first turn but Nigel held his line and then proceeded to sweep underneath Berger to grab second at the second corner. After lap 1 the order was Patrese, Mansell, Berger, Senna, and Alesi. Mansell seemed content to shadow Patrese until lap 18 when he slipstreamed past his teammate on the main straight and proceeded to pull away. Things were looking good for Williams until Mansell came in for his stop on lap 29 and disaster struck: a communications mix-up by the pit crew resulted in Mansell being sent off with the right rear wheel of his car not properly attached. The wheel rotated clean off and a frustrated Mansell was left stranded in the pit lane. In the heat of the moment, the crew scampered over to the car and fitted a fresh wheel outside of the pit box, a violation of the rules.

Mansell emerged in 17th place and started a charge through the field; he was up to sixth when he was finally shown the black disqualification flag on lap 51. He would, however, keep the fastest lap of the race, set on lap 43. The incident left Patrese comfortably in the lead from Berger and Senna, and Senna went second when Berger's engine blew on lap 37, he was followed out of the race by Prost's Ferrari, which also decided it had enough. On lap 40 the order was Patrese, Senna, Alesi, Martini, and Capelli, with the latter three being involved in an exciting battle for third place; Alesi didn't make errors despite being under pressure from the Minardi, and so the order remained unchanged until the late stages when the fifth placed Capelli suffered a front wing problem and ended up in the barriers, he came in the pits for a front wing change but retired only a lap later. Patrese cruised home to his second win of the season and fifth of his career. Senna was second and tightened the screw on his third drivers title. Alesi, Martini, Piquet, and Schumacher rounded out the top six. With three races to go Senna led Mansell by 24 points.

Race classification

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
1 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 71 1:35:42.304 1 10
2 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 71 + 20.941 3 6
3 28 Jean Alesi Ferrari 71 + 53.554 6 4
4 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari 71 + 1:03.498 8 3
5 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 71 + 1:10.033 11 2
6 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 71 + 1:16.582 10 1
7 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor 70 + 1 lap 7
8 33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford 70 + 1 lap 14
9 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari 70 + 1 lap 13
10 32 Roberto Moreno Jordan-Ford 70 + 1 lap 16
11 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini 70 + 1 lap 23
12 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 69 + 2 laps 19
13 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda 68 + 3 laps 21
14 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Judd 68 + 3 laps 26
15 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 68 + 3 laps 24
16 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini 68 + 3 laps 20
17 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor 64 Front wing 9
Ret 4 Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda 56 Engine 12
DSQ 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 51 Illegal pit stop 4
Ret 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 40 Transmission 25
Ret 27 Alain Prost Ferrari 39 Engine 5
Ret 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 37 Engine 2
Ret 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd 18 Engine 17
Ret 22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 14 Gearbox 18
Ret 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 12 Suspension 15
Ret 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Judd 1 Engine 22
DNQ 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Ford
DNQ 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford
DNQ 34 Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini
DNQ 35 Eric van de Poele Lambo-Lamborghini
DNPQ 18 Fabrizio Barbazza AGS-Ford
DNPQ 14 Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford
DNPQ 10 Alex Caffi Footwork-Ford
DNPQ 31 Pedro Chaves Coloni-Ford
Source:[2]

Championship standings after the race

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

References

  1. Walker, Murray (1991). Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. p. 109–116. ISBN 0 905138 90 2.
  2. "1991 Portuguese Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  3. "Portugal 1991 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
Previous race:
1991 Italian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1991 season
Next race:
1991 Spanish Grand Prix
Previous race:
1990 Portuguese Grand Prix
Portuguese Grand Prix Next race:
1992 Portuguese Grand Prix
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