British GP 1990

British GP, 1990

After the amazing showing of Leyton House Racing at the French GP, there were high expectations at Silverstone but there was to be disappointment for the team as Nigel Mansell took pole position in his Ferrari, beating Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger (both in McLaren-Hondas) to pole. Thierry Boutsen was fourth for Williams ahead of World Championship leader Alain Prost (Ferrari). Jean Alesi was next in his Tyrrell with Riccardo Patrese (Williams), Eric Bernard and Aguri Suzuki in their Lola-Lamborghinis eighth and ninth and Leyton House's Ivan Capelli only 10th.

There was a huge crowd to support Mansell and he made a better start than Senna and tried to intimidate the Brazilian as they went down to the first corner. It did not work. Senna took the lead with Mansell second, Berger third and Boutsen fourth. Senna pulled away to start with but Mansell fought back and on lap 12 he took the lead. Two laps later Senna spun and dropped to fifth behind Mansell, Berger, Boutsen and Prost. He went into the pits shortly afterwards and dropped to 10th. Mansell stayed in the lead until the 22nd lap by which time he was in trouble with the electronic gearbox. Six laps later, however, Mansell went ahead again while both he and Berger (who was struggling with the handling of the McLaren) were coming under increasing threat from Prost. On lap 31 Prost overtook Berger to run second to Mansell. On lap 43 Prost overtook the troubled Mansell and at the same time Berger then fell back behind the charging Capelli but he went out a few laps later with a broken fuel pipe. Mansell's race lasted only until the 56th lap when he stopped with a total gearbox failure. He then walked back to the pits and announced to a small group of pressmen that he had decided to retire from Formula 1 at the end of the year.

Prost went on to win his third consecutive win and move ahead of Senna in the World Championship. Boutsen was second with Senna third, Bernard fourth, Nelson Piquet (Benetton) fifth and Suzuki sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 1 Alain Prost Ferrari  64 1h18m30.999s  5 
2 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault  64 1h19m10.091s  4 
3 27 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda  64 1h19m14.087s  2 
4 29 Eric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini  64 1h19m46.301s  8 
5 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Cosworth  64 1h19m55.002s  11 
6 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini  63  9 
7 10 Alex Caffi Arrows-Cosworth  63  17 
8 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Cosworth  63  6 
9 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd  62  20 
10 25 Nicola Larini Ligier-Cosworth  62  21 
11 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Cosworth  62  19 
12 24 Paolo Barilla Minardi-Cosworth  62  24 
13 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Cosworth  61  22 
14r 28 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda  60 Throttle Linkage 3 
r 2 Nigel Mansell Ferrari  55 Gearbox 1 
r 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd  48 Fuel Line 10 
r 12 Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini  48 Engine 14 
r 11 Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini  46 Engine 16 
r 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Cosworth  41 Engine 26 
r 9 Michele Alboreto Arrows-Cosworth  37 Electrics 25 
r 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault  26 Accident/undertray 7 
r 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Cosworth  20 Electrics 12 
r 19 Alessando Nannini Benetton-Cosworth  15 Accident 13 
r 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Cosworth  12 Gearbox 23 
r 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Cosworth  3 Alternator 18 
ns 15 Mauricio Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd   Fuel Pump On Dummy Grid 15 
nq 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Cosworth    27 
nq 7 David Brabham Brabham-Judd    28 
nq 36 JJ Lehto Oynx-Cosworth    29 
nq 35 Gregor Foitek Oynx-Cosworth    30 
npq 33 Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd    31 
npq 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Cosworth    32 
npq 34 Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd    33 
npq 31 Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Subaru    34 
npq 39 Bruno Giacomelli Life    35