Mexican GP 1991

JUNE 16, 1991

Mexican GP, 1991

After Nigel Mansell's embarrassing last lap disaster in Canada the Williams-Renault team was looking for a better result in Mexico City. In qualifying Riccardo Patrese again overshadowed Mansell while Ayrton Senna flipped his McLaren on Friday but still managed to stay third on the grid. He was not having a good time as he had also had stitches that week following a jet-ski accident. Jean Alesi was fourth in his Ferrari ahead of Gerhard Berger (McLaren), Nelson Piquet (Benetton-Ford), Alain Prost (Ferrari) and Stefano Modena (Tyrrell). The top 10 was completed by Roberto Moreno (Benetton) and the remarkable Olivier Grouillard (Fondmetal).

At the start the race had to be aborted when a fire marshal got carried away and jumped over the wall to put out a fire that he though he had seen in the back of JJ Lehto's Dallara. In fact Lehto had no real problem and used the same car for the second attempt at starting. This time Grouillard saw yellow flags being waved, signaling danger, and switched off his engine. This was credited as having been a stall and so he was forced to start from the back of the grid.

At the third attempt the field got away with Mansell getting into the lead with Alesi second ahead of Senna and Patrese fourth ahead of Berger, Piquet, Modena and de Cesaris. Senna quickly overtook Alesi and Modena was quickly ahead of Piquet, while Patrese closed up on Alesi and, having overtaken him, went after Senna. Berger's Honda V12 blew on lap 5.

Mansell was also having engine trouble and after Patrese got through to second place he set off after his team mate. Two laps later Riccardo was battling for the lead. Several times Mansell blocked his team mate but then Patrese outfoxed the Englishman and went ahead. Mansell fell back towards Senna and Piquet. De Cesaris was close behind in his Jordan, ahead of Moreno and a fast-closing Alesi who was recovering from a spin. Gradually Senna began to fade and Mansell went faster and faster as the cooling problems faded. Further back Alesi went past both Moreno and de Cesaris but his race ended soon afterwards with a clutch failure while Piquet went out with a broken wheelbearing. Moreno and the Benetton team failed to communicate on a pit stop and Roberto lost valuable time and so the two Jordans were running fourth and fifth until Bertrand Gachot spun off.

Patrese allowed Mansell to close right up on him but then responded and was able to hold off Mansell by a couple of car lengths. Senna was third and de Cesaris fourth, despite the fact that the Jordan stopped on the last lap. Andrea climbed from the car and pushed it. It was against the rules but the stewards later decided that he did not begin pushing until the race had ended and so Andrea retained the position. Moreno finished fifth and Eric Bernard took the final point in his Larrousse-Ford.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault  67 1h29m52.205s  
Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault  67 1h29m53.541s  
Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda  67 1h30m49.561s  
4r 33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Cosworth  66 Throttle Potentiometer 11 
19 Roberto Moreno Benetton-Cosworth  66  
29 Eric Bernard Lola-Cosworth  66  18 
24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari  66  23 
25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini  65  14 
11 Mika Hakkinen Lotus-Judd  65  24 
10 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Judd  65  25 
11 Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda  64  
12 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda  64  13 
Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha  54 Engine 12 
32 Bertrand Gachot Jordan-Cosworth  51 Spin 20 
30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Cosworth  48 Gearbox 19 
20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Cosworth  44 Wheel Bearing 
28 Jean Alesi Ferrari  42 Clutch 
22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd  30 Engine 16 
Michele Alboreto Footwork-Porsche  24 Oil Pressure 26 
Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha  20 Rear Wheel Lost 17 
16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor  19 Engine 22 
27 Alain Prost Ferrari  16 Alternator 
15 Mauricio Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor  15 Engine 21 
14 Olivier Grouillard Fomet-Cosworth  13 Oil Leak 10 
Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda  Radiator/engine 
23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari  Spin 15 
nq 26 Erik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini    27 
nq 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Cosworth    28 
nq 10 Stefan Johansson Footwork-Porsche    29 
nq 18 Fabrizio Barbazza AGS-Cosworth    30 
exc 34 Nicola Larini Lamborghini   Rear Wing Infringement 31 
npq 35 Eric van de Poele Lamborghini    32 
npq 31 Pedro Chaves Coloni-Cosworth    33 
npq 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd    34