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| 1990 Belgian Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 11 of 16 in the1990 Formula One World Championship | |||
 | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 26 August 1990 | ||
| Location | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Francorchamps,Wallonia,Belgium[1] | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 6.940 km (4.312[2] miles) | ||
| Distance | 44 laps, 301.172 km (187.136 miles) | ||
| Weather | Dry | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Time | 1:50.365 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Alain Prost | Ferrari | |
| Time | 1:55.087 on lap 38 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Second | Ferrari | ||
| Third | McLaren-Honda | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1990 Belgian Grand Prix was aFormula One motor race held atSpa-Francorchamps on 26 August 1990. It was the eleventh race of the1990 Formula One World Championship. The race was the 48thBelgian Grand Prix. It was the 36th to be held at Spa-Francorchamps and the seventh since the circuit was extensively redeveloped in 1979. The race was held over 44 laps of the seven kilometre circuit for a race distance of 301 kilometres.
Brazilian driverAyrton Senna claimed his fifth race victory for the season in hisMcLaren MP4/5B taking a four-second win over theFerrari 641 driven the reigning world champion, FrenchmanAlain Prost. It was Senna's fourth victory in the Belgian Grand Prix, and his third in succession. Senna's Austrian team mateGerhard Berger finished third, while further backMaurício Gugelmin scored a point for theLeyton House team.
Three attempts were made to start the race, the first two being red-flagged after collisions.Aguri Suzuki'sLola LC90 was eliminated after the first start,Paolo Barilla'sMinardi M190 after the second.
Off-track,Nigel Mansell was rumoured to be reconsidering his prior announcement to retire, and he was strongly linked with Williams. He had demanded undisputed number one status as a driver, and various assurances from engine supplierRenault, whichFrank Williams had told him were impossible.[3]
TheOnyx team pulled out of Formula One before the weekend of the race, for financial reasons, having competed at this level for a season and a half.[4]
With the withdrawal of theOnyx team,Ligier were relieved of the requirement to pre-qualify, and returned to the main qualifying pool. They had only been required to pre-qualify twice, which both cars did comfortably on both occasions.
Therefore there was slightly less pressure on the other entrants in the pre-qualifying session.Olivier Grouillard was fastest in theOsella, the second time he had been top of the Friday morning time sheets, and the first time since round six inMexico. Second fastest wasYannick Dalmas in theAGS, his fifth successful pre-qualification of the season from eleven attempts. Third fastest wasBertrand Gachot in the improvingColoni, and this was the first time in 1990 that he had pre-qualified. Fourth wasGabriele Tarquini in the other AGS, his fourth pre-qualification this season.[4]
Missing the cut in fifth and sixth positions were theEuroBruns ofRoberto Moreno andClaudio Langes. The margin of failure was fairly narrow however, with Moreno 0.36 seconds behind Tarquini, and Langes just over a second further behind.Bruno Giacomelli was slowest again in theLife, with the L190 refusing to start until the closing stages of the session. The car managed five slow laps before an electrical failure. "Nothing impressive," Giacomelli stated. He also announced that work was restarting on the chassis to allow aJudd CV V8 engine to be fitted by round 13 inPortugal, in place of the disastrous in-houseW12.[5]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | Olivier Grouillard | Osella-Ford | 1:57.941 | — |
| 2 | 18 | Yannick Dalmas | AGS-Ford | 1:58.339 | +0.398 |
| 3 | 31 |  Bertrand Gachot | Coloni-Ford | 1:59.130 | +1.189 |
| 4 | 17 |  Gabriele Tarquini | AGS-Ford | 1:59.910 | +1.969 |
| 5 | 33 |  Roberto Moreno | EuroBrun-Judd | 2:00.270 | +2.329 |
| 6 | 34 | Claudio Langes | EuroBrun-Judd | 2:01.405 | +3.464 |
| 7 | 39 | Bruno Giacomelli | Life | 2:19.445 | +21.504 |
The two McLarens were on the front row, with Senna ahead of Berger. Prost in the Ferrari was third ahead of Boutsen and the second Ferrari of Mansell.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 | Ayrton Senna | McLaren-Honda | 1:52.278 | 1:50.365 | — |
| 2 | 28 |  Gerhard Berger | McLaren-Honda | 1:51.211 | 1:50.948 | +0.583 |
| 3 | 1 | Alain Prost | Ferrari | 1:51.841 | 1:51.043 | +0.678 |
| 4 | 5 | Thierry Boutsen | Williams-Renault | 1:54.024 | 1:51.902 | +1.537 |
| 5 | 2 |  Nigel Mansell | Ferrari | 1:52.601 | 1:52.267 | +1.902 |
| 6 | 19 | Alessandro Nannini | Benetton-Ford | 1:55.800 | 1:52.648 | +2.283 |
| 7 | 6 | Riccardo Patrese | Williams-Renault | 1:54.260 | 1:52.703 | +2.338 |
| 8 | 20 | Nelson Piquet | Benetton-Ford | 1:53.689 | 1:52.853 | +2.488 |
| 9 | 4 | Jean Alesi | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:54.116 | 1:52.885 | +2.520 |
| 10 | 3 |  Satoru Nakajima | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:55.798 | 1:53.468 | +3.103 |
| 11 | 30 | Aguri Suzuki | Lola-Lamborghini | 1:55.294 | 1:53.523 | +3.158 |
| 12 | 16 | Ivan Capelli | Leyton House-Judd | 1:55.012 | 1:53.783 | +3.418 |
| 13 | 8 | Stefano Modena | Brabham-Judd | 1:57.014 | 1:53.916 | +3.551 |
| 14 | 15 | Maurício Gugelmin | Leyton House-Judd | 1:54.497 | 1:54.120 | +3.755 |
| 15 | 29 | Éric Bernard | Lola-Lamborghini | 1:56.213 | 1:54.251 | +3.886 |
| 16 | 23 | Pierluigi Martini | Minardi-Ford | 1:56.074 | 1:54.312 | +3.947 |
| 17 | 21 | Emanuele Pirro | Dallara-Ford | 1:56.239 | 1:54.595 | +4.230 |
| 18 | 11 | Derek Warwick | Lotus-Lamborghini | 1:56.246 | 1:55.068 | +4.703 |
| 19 | 10 | Alex Caffi | Arrows-Ford | 1:56.562 | 1:55.199 | +4.834 |
| 20 | 22 | Andrea de Cesaris | Dallara-Ford | 1:56.923 | 1:55.261 | +4.896 |
| 21 | 25 | Nicola Larini | Ligier-Ford | 1:57.471 | 1:55.278 | +4.913 |
| 22 | 12 | Martin Donnelly | Lotus-Lamborghini | 1:56.666 | 1:55.304 | +4.939 |
| 23 | 14 | Olivier Grouillard | Osella-Ford | 1:57.770 | 1:55.334 | +4.969 |
| 24 | 7 |  David Brabham | Brabham-Judd | 1:58.034 | 1:55.668 | +5.303 |
| 25 | 24 | Paolo Barilla | Minardi-Ford | 1:57.221 | 1:55.859 | +5.494 |
| 26 | 9 | Michele Alboreto | Arrows-Ford | 1:57.255 | 1:56.055 | +5.690 |
| 27 | 26 | Philippe Alliot | Ligier-Ford | no time | 1:56.118 | +5.753 |
| 28 | 17 | Gabriele Tarquini | AGS-Ford | 1:58.293 | 1:57.566 | +7.201 |
| 29 | 18 | Yannick Dalmas | AGS-Ford | 1:58.995 | 1:57.704 | +7.339 |
| 30 | 31 | Bertrand Gachot | Coloni-Ford | no time | 1:58.520 | +8.155 |
The first start had seen two incidents. The first of them sawNelson Piquet in theBenetton push theFerrari 641 ofNigel Mansell off the track. In the second of the incidents, theTyrrell ofSatoru Nakajima collided with theBrabham ofStefano Modena, which caused the race to be stopped.
The second start had seen Senna'sMcLaren take the lead with the Williams ofThierry Boutsen slicing his way into second place from fourth, whilst rivalAlain Prost had dropped down to fifth place after starting third. However, there was another first lap accident when theMinardi ofPaolo Barilla crashed heavily at Eau Rouge, leaving debris all over the track in that area and causing the race to be stopped again.
The third start, however, had proven to be cleaner, as Senna held on to the lead ahead of teammateGerhard Berger, Prost, Boutsen, Patrese andAlessandro Nannini in the leadingBenetton. Mansell in the secondFerrari went into the pits on lap 11 with handling problems. He was able to rejoin the race but retired eight laps later. Meanwhile back up front, Prost took second ahead of Berger but then pitted for tyres. The margin between Senna and Prost was only two seconds when they made their second pit stops for fresh tyres. Both the Williams cars of Patrese and Boutsen were soon forced to retire with gearbox problems by lap 22. The pit stops of Senna and Prost had allowed Nannini (who was once again planning to go the full race distance without a pit stop) to take second place. Prost was able to overtake Nannini and Berger attempted to do the same thing but was unable to pass until lap 41 when Nannini ran wide at La Source, which allowed Berger to take third place from the Italian.Ayrton Senna took his fifth win of the season by 3.5 seconds over Prost, whilst the rest of the top six were rounded out by teammate Berger, Nannini, Piquet in the secondBenetton andMauricio Gugelmin in theLeyton House.
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| Previous race: 1990 Hungarian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1990 season | Next race: 1990 Italian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1989 Belgian Grand Prix | Belgian Grand Prix | Next race: 1991 Belgian Grand Prix |
