1988 Australian Grand Prix

Infobox Grand Prix race report
Type = F1
Grand Prix = Australian
Country = Australia
Official name = LIII

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Location = Adelaide Street Circuit,Adelaide, Australia
Course = Temporary street circuit
Course_mi = 2.347
Course_km = 3.770
Distance_laps = 82
Distance_mi = 192.600
Distance_km = 309.960
Weather = Cloudy and hot
Pole_Driver = Ayrton Senna
Pole_Country = Brazil
Pole_Team = McLaren-Honda
Pole_Time = 1:17.748
Fast_Driver = Alain Prost
Fast_Country = France
Fast_Team = McLaren-Honda
Fast_Time = 1:21.216
Fast_L

First_Driver = Alain Prost
First_Country = France
First_Team = McLaren-Honda
Second_Driver = Ayrton Senna
Second_Country= Brazil
Second_Team = McLaren-Honda
Third_Driver = Nelson Piquet
Third_Country = Brazil
Third_Team = Lotus-HondaThe 1988 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide, on November 13, 1988. It was the last race of the 1988 Formula One season, as well as the last race for turbo engines.

Race summary

McLaren notched up the last front row of the season, with Ayrton Senna taking his 13th pole of the season after a great qualifying duel. Alain Prost led off the start from Senna, Gerhard Berger, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell, and by lap 4 the lead had grown to 5.5 seconds. Michele Alboreto's Ferrari was an early retirement after being hit by Alex Caffi's Dallara.

Berger passed Senna on that lap at the second-gear Racetrack Hairpin and began a determined drive, passing Prost at the same place on lap 14. By lap 23 he had a 3 second lead coming up to lap Stefano Modena and René Arnoux. The Ligier turned in and took both drivers off in a violent collision. This left the McLarens in their usual 1-2 position although Senna was battling a faulty gearbox. Piquet was maintaining 3rd ahead of the Williams of Riccardo Patrese and Mansell. The Italian made several attempts to pass Piquet, but was hampered by a lack of power on the straights.

On lap 53 Patrese spun, letting Mansell past, but he was equally unsuccessful in passing Piquet and eventually retired when his brakes failed and he hit the wall on lap 66. By lap 59 Prost was putting in a succession of fast laps, gaining a lead of over 30 seconds and lapping the whole field up to 5th placed Andrea de Cesaris' Rial who had driven up from 15th in an underpowered car.

The circuit's demanding nature was obvious: Satoru Nakajima and Mauricio Gugelmin collided, Alessandro Nannini spun, Jonathan Palmer retired with transmission problems, whilst engine problems claimed Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever and driveshaft failures accounted for Stefano Modena and Oscar Larrauri. Alex Caffi succumbed to clutch failure and Philippe Alliot ran out of fuel.

At the finish, only 11 cars were classified of which just 7 were running. Prost led home Senna in yet another McLaren 1-2, Piquet claimed 3rd and Patrese 4th. De Cesaris' Rial - which had the smallest fuel tank in the field - ran dry just four laps from home, handing 5th place to Thierry Boutsen despite a spin and a stuttering engine, whilst Ivan Capelli came home 6th despite a puncture.

This was the last race in which turbocharged cars, introduced in 1977, would be permitted to compete as new regulations for 1989 allowed only normally aspirated engines to race, due to increasing concerns in safery.

There was also some criticism of the scoring system. Prost scored 105 points during the season and finished 1st or 2nd in each race he completed. However, Senna won the World Championship scoring only 94 points, including a 4th and a 6th. This was because of the "discard rule", which counted only the best 11 results of the year toward the Championship total; this meant that Prost ended the season with 87 and Senna with 90. Senna become only the second champion after John Surtees to win the Championship without having scored the largest number of points.

Classification

Notes

*This was the 176th race for Riccardo Patrese, who set the new record for races started.

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/1988/278/ |accessdate=2007-07-12

F1 race report
Name_of_race = Australian Grand Prix
Year_of_race = 1988
Previous_race_in_season = 1988 Japanese Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 1987 Australian Grand Prix
Next_year's_race = 1989 Australian Grand Prix