| 1990 German Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 9 of 16 in the1990 Formula One World Championship | |||
 | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 29 July 1990 | ||
| Official name | Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland | ||
| Location | Hockenheimring nearHeidelberg,West Germany | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 6.802 km (4.227 miles) | ||
| Distance | 45 laps, 306.090 km (190.195 miles) | ||
| Weather | Hot, dry, sunny | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Time | 1:40.198 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Thierry Boutsen | Williams-Renault | |
| Time | 1:45.602 on lap 31 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Second | Benetton-Ford | ||
| Third | McLaren-Honda | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1990 German Grand Prix was aFormula One motor race held at theHockenheimring on 29 July 1990. It was the ninth race of the1990 Formula One World Championship. The race was the 52ndGerman Grand Prix and the 14th to be held at the Hockenheimring. It was the 39th and last Formula One Grand Prix to be held inWest Germany prior to its re-unification withEast Germany. The race was held over 45 laps of the seven kilometre circuit for a race distance of 306 kilometres.
The race was won by 1988 World Champion, Brazilian driverAyrton Senna driving aMcLaren MP4/5B. He took a six-second victory over Italian driverAlessandro Nannini driving aBenetton B190 who was just two seconds in front of Senna's Austrian teammateGerhard Berger.
Senna's win put him back into the championship points lead, four ahead of Ferrari driverAlain Prost.
The Hockenheim circuit had been given all-new pits facilities with a wider pit lane, and a wider start-finish straight.
The participants in the Friday morning pre-qualifying sessions were slightly reshuffled prior to this event, the season having reached its mid-point.Larrousse had scored enough points during the previous two half-seasons to be relieved of the requirement to pre-qualify, and could automatically join the rest of the field in the main qualifying sessions from here on. A failure to score any points so far this season meant thatLigier were forced to join the pre-qualifying pool.Osella,AGS,EuroBrun,Coloni andLife were all still required to pre-qualify.[1]
Here at Hockenheim, Ligier were comfortably first and second in the one-hour session, withPhilippe Alliot outpacing team-mateNicola Larini in theirFord-poweredJS33Bs. Third fastest wasOlivier Grouillard in the Osella, andYannick Dalmas was fourth in his AGS. It was Grouillard's eighth pre-qualification from nine events, and Dalmas' third.
Those missing out on pre-qualification included fifth-placedGabriele Tarquini in the other AGS, a second slower than his team-mate, andRoberto Moreno, sixth in the EuroBrun. Coloni, having parted ways withSubaru and their uncompetitiveflat 12 engine, appeared with the modified but untestedC3C, powered by a customerCosworth DFR V8 engine.Bertrand Gachot spun the car during the session and damaged it, failing to pre-qualify for the ninth consecutive time this season. Also ending his involvement at this early stage for the ninth Grand Prix in a row wasClaudio Langes in the other EuroBrun, ahead only ofBruno Giacomelli, who was again a far distant last in the Life.[1]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26 |  Philippe Alliot | Ligier-Ford | 1:45.513 | — |
| 2 | 25 |  Nicola Larini | Ligier-Ford | 1:46.186 | +0.673 |
| 3 | 14 | Olivier Grouillard | Osella-Ford | 1:46.828 | +1.315 |
| 4 | 18 | Yannick Dalmas | AGS-Ford | 1:47.125 | +1.612 |
| 5 | 17 | Gabriele Tarquini | AGS-Ford | 1:48.127 | +2.614 |
| 6 | 33 |  Roberto Moreno | EuroBrun-Judd | 1:48.983 | +3.470 |
| 7 | 31 | Bertrand Gachot | Coloni-Ford | 1:50.460 | +4.947 |
| 8 | 34 | Claudio Langes | EuroBrun-Judd | 1:50.897 | +5.384 |
| 9 | 39 | Bruno Giacomelli | Life | 2:10.786 | +25.273 |
After three straight wins byFerraris Alain Prost,McLaren-Honda showed that they were back on top in qualifying. Honda promised McLaren a more powerfulV10 engine at Hockenheim and McLaren had done some modifications to the MP4/5B chassis. Both parties delivered with pole man Senna and second placed Berger (only 0.2 seconds slower) the only drivers to lap in the 1:40's and they did this during the first qualifying session- an indication of the McLaren-Honda car's superior pace at one of the fastest Grand Prix circuits of the year, with both cars lapping at over 150 mph (240 km/h). TheFerraris of Prost andNigel Mansell were over 1.5 seconds slower (with the Englishman complaining of a down on power engine compared to his team mate), and theWilliams-Renaults ofRiccardo Patrese andThierry Boutsen occupying the 3rd row. So confident were McLaren that their times would not be beaten that both Senna and Berger did over 20 laps each and spent the entire second qualifying session working on their race set up without actually setting anything like a qualifying time, their fastest times over 6 seconds slower than the previous day.[2] McLaren also introduced a new aerodynamic cowling cover for theMP4/5B at Hockenheim designed to lessen the buffeting effect on the drivers heads by diverting air to the sides of the car. This would remain on the car for the rest of the season.
Rounding out the top 10 wereNelson Piquet (Benetton-Ford),Jean Alesi (Tyrrell-Ford),Alessandro Nannini (Benetton-Ford) who had a fiery crash during Friday qualifying at the Bremsschikane 2 after riding a kerb and hitting the barrier hard enough to throw the car into the air and back onto the track causing the session to be stopped. Nannini survived the crash with little more than bruised pride. The 10th fastest qualifier wasIvan Capelli in theLeyton House-Judd. Such was the spread in times that Capelli was some 4.151 seconds slower than Senna.[3]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 | Ayrton Senna | McLaren-Honda | 1:40.198 | 1:46.843 | — |
| 2 | 28 |  Gerhard Berger | McLaren-Honda | 1:40.434 | 1:46.628 | +0.236 |
| 3 | 1 | Alain Prost | Ferrari | 1:41.732 | 1:42.590 | +1.532 |
| 4 | 2 |  Nigel Mansell | Ferrari | 1:42.313 | 1:42.057 | +1.859 |
| 5 | 6 | Riccardo Patrese | Williams-Renault | 1:43.736 | 1:42.195 | +1.997 |
| 6 | 5 | Thierry Boutsen | Williams-Renault | 1:43.620 | 1:42.380 | +2.182 |
| 7 | 20 | Nelson Piquet | Benetton-Ford | 1:42.926 | 1:42.872 | +2.674 |
| 8 | 4 | Jean Alesi | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:43.255 | 1:44.652 | +3.057 |
| 9 | 19 | Alessandro Nannini | Benetton-Ford | 1:43.594 | 1:44.559 | +3.396 |
| 10 | 16 | Ivan Capelli | Leyton House-Judd | 1:45.025 | 1:44.349 | +4.151 |
| 11 | 30 |  Aguri Suzuki | Lola-Lamborghini | 1:45.382 | 1:44.363 | +4.165 |
| 12 | 29 | Éric Bernard | Lola-Lamborghini | 1:44.998 | 1:44.496 | +4.298 |
| 13 | 3 | Satoru Nakajima | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:44.873 | 1:44.650 | +4.452 |
| 14 | 15 | Maurício Gugelmin | Leyton House-Judd | no time | 1:45.193 | +4.995 |
| 15 | 23 | Pierluigi Martini | Minardi-Ford | 1:45.736 | 1:45.237 | +5.039 |
| 16 | 11 | Derek Warwick | Lotus-Lamborghini | 1:45.364 | 1:45.244 | +5.046 |
| 17 | 8 | Stefano Modena | Brabham-Judd | 1:45.547 | 1:47.269 | +5.349 |
| 18 | 10 | Alex Caffi | Arrows-Ford | 1:46.201 | 1:45.604 | +5.406 |
| 19 | 9 | Michele Alboreto | Arrows-Ford | 1:45.871 | 1:45.755 | +5.557 |
| 20 | 12 | Martin Donnelly | Lotus-Lamborghini | 1:47.723 | 1:45.790 | +5.592 |
| 21 | 7 |  David Brabham | Brabham-Judd | 1:46.110 | 1:46.518 | +5.912 |
| 22 | 25 | Nicola Larini | Ligier-Ford | 1:47.068 | 1:46.187 | +5.989 |
| 23 | 21 | Emanuele Pirro | Dallara-Ford | 1:46.904 | 1:46.506 | +6.308 |
| 24 | 26 | Philippe Alliot | Ligier-Ford | 1:46.596 | 1:57.287 | +6.398 |
| 25 | 36 |  JJ Lehto | Onyx-Ford | 1:48.856 | 1:46.867 | +6.669 |
| 26 | 35 |  Gregor Foitek | Onyx-Ford | 1:47.209 | 1:47.726 | +7.011 |
| 27 | 14 | Olivier Grouillard | Osella-Ford | 1:47.429 | 1:48.172 | +7.231 |
| 28 | 24 | Paolo Barilla | Minardi-Ford | 1:47.747 | 1:47.958 | +7.549 |
| 29 | 18 | Yannick Dalmas | AGS-Ford | 1:47.789 | 1:47.874 | +7.591 |
| 30 | 22 | Andrea de Cesaris | Dallara-Ford | 1:48.118 | 1:48.032 | +7.834 |
The circuit's fast nature resulted in several engine failures, although the four big teams of the era took all six points-paying positions. The first driver to retire with an engine failure wasMichele Alboreto on lap 11, he was then followed out byMauricio Gugelmin andDavid Brabham 2 laps later along withPierluigi Martini in the only Minardi by lap 21. Also involved with the engine failures wereNelson Piquet in theBenetton on lap 24 andSatoru Nakajima in theTyrrell one lap later.
Berger got a stronger start off the line than Senna did but the Brazilian was able to hold on to the lead through the first corner. Senna lead the first lap ahead of Berger, Prost, Mansell, Patrese and Piquet. The order of the top 6 remained the same until the 11th lap when Piquet made an attempt to pass Patrese in theWilliams, but had to take an escape road and was overtaken for 6th by teammate Nannini as a result. Meanwhile Mansell in the second Ferrari missed his braking point at the Ostkurve chicane on lap 14 and broke his front wing which also damaged his car, his fourth position was not lost but he was forced to retire in the pits 2 laps later due to the damage being too great. Back upfront Nannini overtook Patrese for the lead as the Williams and Benetton teams had planned to go the race distance with no pit-stops. However, the gamble for Williams had failed since Patrese's tires were badly damaged in the closing stages and was forced to eventually pit. While Boutsen in the other Williams was eventually overtaken by Prost for fourth position and by teammate Patrese for 5th, but managed to hold on to 6th for the closing laps. Senna eventually passed Nannini on lap 34 whilst overlappingJJ Lehto and eventually took the victory.Ayrton Senna won the race by 6 seconds ahead ofAlessandro Nannini in the remainingBenetton,Gerhard Berger in the secondMcLaren,Alain Prost in the remainingFerrari,Riccardo Patrese andThierry Boutsen in the Williams.
BothOnyx Grand Prix teammatesJJ Lehto andGregor Foitek both got their renamed Monteverdi ORE-1Bs into the race, the last time either car would qualify for a race prior to the team's dissolution in August.
Philippe Alliot was disqualified because marshals helped hisLigier JS33B rejoin the race after being blocked by the spinningDallara 190 ofEmanuele Pirro. Fastest lap of the race was set by Thierry Boutsen in hisWilliams, his first such achievement.
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| Previous race: 1990 British Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1990 season | Next race: 1990 Hungarian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1989 German Grand Prix | German Grand Prix | Next race: 1991 German Grand Prix |
