1991 Mexican Grand Prix

The 1991 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Mexico City on June 16, 1991. It was the sixth race of the 1991 Formula One season.

Report

In the run-up to the Mexican Grand Prix, Tyrrell had lost talented designer Harvey Postlethwaite to the Mercedes-Benz sportscar team. In Friday qualifying Ayrton Senna had a dramatic accident at the dangerous final corner, the world champion was unhurt. Riccardo Patrese took his second consecutive pole position from team-mate Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, Jean Alesi, Gerhard Berger, Nelson Piquet, Alain Prost, Stefano Modena, Roberto Moreno, and a surprising Olivier Grouillard in his Fondmetal. At the start Patrese made a poor start and dropped to fourth behind Mansell, Alesi, and Senna. Senna quickly disposed of Alesi and set off after Mansell. Meanwhile Berger's race ended prematurely once again as his engine exploded on lap 5, the resulting oil causing Pierluigi Martini to spin off in his Minardi. Patrese started his recovery drive by out-braking Senna into turn 1 to take second place and set off after Mansell, the Williams-Renault package clearly having distinguished itself over the bumps of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. On Lap 15 Patrese passed Mansell for the lead and the Englishman started to drop back due to concerns of overheating, first Alesi and then Senna attempted to pass him but to no avail. Prost dropped out on lap 16 with alternator problems and was followed on the sidelines by team-mate Alesi on lap 42, who retired with clutch failure. Piquet suffered a broken wheel bearing on lap 44 and retired and Benetton team compounded their issues with a botched pit stop for Moreno. Patrese could not be touched and stormed home to record Williams' first win of the season. Mansell was second a long way ahead of third placed Senna. De Cesaris scored more points for the impressive Jordan 191 with a fourth placed finish, the Italian having to push his car over the line, with Moreno recovering to fifth (thanks in part to Bertrand Gachot spinning off) and Eric Bernard sixth for Larrousse.

Classification

Notes

*Pole position: Riccardo Patrese - 1:16.696cite book| last = Henry | first = Alan | authorlink = Alan Henry | title = AUTOCOURSE 1991-92 | publisher = Hazleton Publishing | date = 1991 | pages = p152 | isbn = 0-905138-87-2]
*Fastest lap: Nigel Mansell - 1:16.788 on lap 61cite book| last = Henry | first = Alan | authorlink = Alan Henry | title = AUTOCOURSE 1991-92 | publisher = Hazleton Publishing | date = 1991 | pages = p153 | isbn = 0-905138-87-2]
*This was Riccardo Patrese's first win of the season.
*This was the Williams team first win of the season.
*The Fondmetal team was finally made it to the start for the first time in 1991.
*Andrea de Cesaris pushed his car over the line to finish 4th and was disqualified but later reinstated

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/1991/202/ | accessdate = 2007-08-08

F1 race report
Name_of_race = Mexican Grand Prix
Year_of_race = 1991
Previous_race_in_season = 1991 Canadian Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 1991 French Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 1990 Mexican Grand Prix
Next_year's_race = 1992 Mexican Grand Prix