United States GP 1988

United States GP, 1988

After the Canadian Grand Prix Minardi decided that it had had enough with Adrian Campos and replaced the Spaniard with Pierluigi Martini. The Detroit circuit had been partially resurfaced and it was not long before the surface began to deteriorate. Ayrton Senna took his sixth consecutive pole position but Alain Prost was not alongside him on this occasion, Gerhard Berger putting his Ferrari second. Michele Alboreto was third in the second Ferrari and then came Prost. Thierry Boutsen (Benetton-Ford) was fifth with Nigel Mansell (Williams) sixth ahead of Sandro Nannini (Benetton) and Nelson Piquet in the Lotus-Honda. The top 10 was rounded off by

Derek Warwick (Arrows-Megatron) and Riccardo Patrese in the second Williams.

Ivan Capelli had a nasty accident on Saturday when he hit the pitwall and broke a bone in his foot, while four people on the pitwall suffered cuts and bruises.

At the start of the race Senna went into the lead while Prost made a poor start and dropped behind Boutsen. It took Prost until lap six to get up to second place but then he stayed there for the rest of the race to finish three-quarters of a minute behind Senna. Berger went out with a puncture while Alboreto was punted out by Nannini, rejoined and then went out later in another accident. Piquet also hit a wall. All this meant that Boutsen finished third with Andrea de Cesaris fourth in the Rial, Jonathan Palmer fifth for Tyrrell and Martini scoring the first point for Minardi.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 12 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda  63 1h54m56.035s  1 
2 11 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda  63 1h55m34.748s  4 
3 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Cosworth  62  5 
4 22 Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Cosworth  62  12 
5 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Cosworth  62  17 
6 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Cosworth  62  16 
7 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Cosworth  61  24 
8 36 Alex Caffi Dallara-Cosworth  61  21 
9r 4 Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Cosworth  59 Accident 22 
r 24 Luis Sala Minardi-Cosworth  54 Clutch 25 
r 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Cosworth  46 Gearbox 14 
r 33 Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Cosworth  46 Accident 19 
r 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  45 Engine/spin 3 
r 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Judd  45 Engine 20 
r 15 Mauricio Gugelmin March-Judd  34 Engine 13 
r 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd  26 Electrics 10 
r 1 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda  26 Accident 8 
r 32 Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Cosworth  26 Gearbox 23 
r 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron  24 Accident 9 
r 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd  18 Electrics 6 
r 14 Philippe Streiff AGS-Cosworth  15 Suspension 11 
r 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Cosworth  14 Suspension 7 
r 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron  14 Electrics 15 
r 21 Nicola Larini Osella-Alfa Romeo  7 Engine 26 
r 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari  6 Puncture 2 
r 26 Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd  2 Engine Overheating 18 
ns 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd   Accident/injury 27 
nq 2 Satoru Nakajimi Lotus-Honda    28 
nq 10 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed    29 
nq 9 Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed    30 
npq 31 Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Cosworth    31