1988 Mexican Grand Prix

Infobox Grand Prix race report
Type = F1
Country = Mexico
Grand Prix = Mexican
Official name =

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Race_No = 4
Season_No = 16
Location = Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico
Course = Permanent circuit
Course_mi = 2.747
Course_km = 4.421
Distance_laps = 67
Distance_mi = 184.054
Distance_km = 296.207
Weather = Sunny and hot
Pole_Driver = Ayrton Senna
Pole_Team = McLaren-Honda
Pole_Time = 1:17.468
Pole_Country = Brazil
Fast_Driver = Alain Prost
Fast_Team = McLaren-Honda
Fast_Time = 1:18.608
Fast_L

Fast_Country = France
First_Driver = Alain Prost
First_Team = McLaren-Honda
First_Country = France
Second_Driver = Ayrton Senna
Second_Team = McLaren-Honda
Second_Country = Brazil
Third_Driver = Gerhard Berger
Third_Team = Ferrari
Third_Country = AustriaThe 1988 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on May 29 1988 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City. It was the fourth race of the 1988 Formula One season.

Race summary

McLaren dominated the qualyfing session once again. Ayrton Senna took pole from Alain Prost with a lap time that was over a second faster than Nigel Mansell's 1987 time. Gerhard Berger and Nelson Piquet made up the 2nd row. Satoru Nakajima and Eddie Cheever both had a good qualyfing session, whilst Mansell could only make 14th because of suspension problems.

The session was dominated by Philippe Alliot's terrifying crash after he lost control of his Larrousse, coming out of the Peraltada curve (which at the time was taken with a speed in excess of 240 km/h) that leads onto the pit straight. The car collided with the pit wall and barrel-rolled down the straight, immediately disintegrating, and in the end stopped upside down in the middle of the track. Remarkably, Alliot was not only unhurt, but the car was rebuilt fast enough to enable him to take part in the race.

The first start was aborted because of Alessandro Nannini, who stalled the engine of his Benetton on the grid. On the second start, Prost took the lead. Senna was slightly slowed by a valve problem, but soon passed Piquet. From then until the finish the McLarens held the first two places. Berger had passed Piquet for 3rd place and was catching Senna when he backed off at half distance after receiving a 'low fuel' warning (which turned out to be incorrect). On lap 28 Nakajima retired with a turbo problem, followed on lap 59 by teammate Piquet with a similar engine failure. The two Ferraris thus finished 3rd and 4th ahead of the two Arrows of Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever who had a race-long duel and were separated by just 0.7s at the line; the two Benettons finished out of the points. Yannick Dalmas fought his way from 22nd up to 9th at the flag, whilst Bernd Schneider had run as high as 11th in his first Grand Prix before retiring on lap 17.Alain Prost took a new lap record, a full second faster than Piquet's previous record.

Classification

Notes

* Stefano Modena was excluded for illegal rear wing.

References

* "Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from cite web |title=The Official Formula 1 website |url=http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1988/266/ |accessdate=2007-07-12

F1 race report
Name_of_race = Mexican Grand Prix
Year_of_race = 1988
Previous_race_in_season = 1988 Monaco Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 1988 Canadian Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 1987 Mexican Grand Prix
Next_year's_race = 1989 Mexican Grand Prix