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1991 San Marino Grand Prix
Race 3 of 16 in the 1991 Formula One World Championship
The Imola circuit in its 1991 configuration
Race details
Date	28 April 1991
Official name	XI Gran Premio di San Marino
Location	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.040 km (3.132 miles)
Distance	61 laps, 307.440 km (191.034 miles)
Weather	Wet at start, dry by finish
Pole position
Driver	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:21.877
Fastest lap
Driver	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:26.531 on lap 55
Podium
First	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Second	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda
Third	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd
Lap leaders

The 1991 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 28 April 1991. It was the third race of the 1991 Formula One World Championship.

The 61-lap race was won by Brazilian Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, after he started from pole position. His Austrian teammate Gerhard Berger finished second, with Finn JJ Lehto third in a Dallara-Judd. It was also McLaren's first 1-2 finish since the 1989 Belgian Grand Prix.

Pre-race

With the team under new management having been sold by Cyril De Rouvre, Stefan Johansson was replaced at AGS by Formula One debutant Fabrizio Barbazza.

Qualifying

Pre-qualifying report

In the pre-qualifying session on Friday morning, Andrea de Cesaris was fastest in the Jordan, just under four tenths of a second faster than JJ Lehto's Dallara in second. De Cesaris' team-mate Bertrand Gachot was third, just a few hundredths behind Lehto. The fourth pre-qualifier was Eric van de Poele in the Lambo, who edged out the second Dallara of Emanuele Pirro. It was van de Poele's first progression through to the main qualifying sessions, and the first time in 1991 that a Dallara had failed to pre-qualify.

Apart from Pirro, those who failed to pre-qualify included Olivier Grouillard in the new British-built Fomet-1 chassis debuted by the Fondmetal team. Despite teething troubles which prevented him from progressing any further, Grouillard said he was happy with the new car. Seventh was the other Lambo of Nicola Larini, and bottom of the time sheets was Pedro Chaves in the sole Coloni, who suffered a gearbox failure during the session.

Pre-qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	1:25.535	—
2	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	1:25.923	+0.388
3	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	1:25.980	+0.445
4	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:26.117	+0.582
5	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	1:26.305	+0.770
6	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford	1:26.789	+1.254
7	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:26.886	+1.351
8	31	Pedro Chaves	Coloni-Ford	1:31.239	+5.704

Qualifying report

Ayrton Senna claimed his 55th pole position from Riccardo Patrese, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Gerhard Berger.

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:21.877	1:43.633	—
2	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:21.957	1:42.455	+0.080
3	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	1:22.195	1:42.429	+0.318
4	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:22.366	1:41.878	+0.489
5	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:22.567	1:40.322	+0.690
6	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	1:23.511	1:44.613	+1.634
7	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:23.945	1:41.149	+2.068
8	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	1:24.762	no time	+2.885
9	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	1:24.807	no time	+2.930
10	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	1:25.345	1:42.063	+3.468
11	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	1:25.491	1:44.118	+3.614
12	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	1:25.531	1:44.897	+3.654
13	19	Roberto Moreno	Benetton-Ford	1:25.655	1:45.216	+3.778
14	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	1:25.809	1:42.911	+3.932
15	15	Maurício Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	1:25.841	no time	+3.964
16	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	1:25.974	1:43.397	+4.097
17	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Ford	1:25.983	no time	+4.106
18	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	1:26.055	no time	+4.178
19	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:26.207	1:46.667	+4.330
20	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	1:26.356	no time	+4.479
21	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:26.550	1:47.619	+4.673
22	16	Ivan Capelli	Leyton House-Ilmor	1:26.602	1:52.949	+4.725
23	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	1:26.778	1:49.539	+4.901
24	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:26.998	1:44.125	+5.121
25	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd	1:27.324	1:47.444	+5.447
26	12	Julian Bailey	Lotus-Judd	1:27.976	1:45.931	+6.099
27	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:28.175	no time	+6.298
28	18	Fabrizio Barbazza	AGS-Ford	1:29.665	no time	+7.788
29	10	Alex Caffi	Footwork-Porsche	1:30.280	2:06.589	+8.403
30	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Porsche	1:30.762	19:39.741	+8.885

Race

Race report

The formation lap saw two dramatic incidents: Prost spun off the track at Rivazza Turn, followed by Berger, who was able to continue. However Prost stalled the engine and did not take the start.

At the lights, Patrese took the lead ahead of Senna, whilst Mansell, already slow off the line with gearbox problems, retired near the end of lap 1 after a collision with Martin Brundle. He was followed out by Nelson Piquet who spun off on lap 2, Aguri Suzuki who spun off on lap 3 behind the leaders and Jean Alesi who also spun off on lap 3 attempting a rather foolhardy pass on Stefano Modena.

In a strong lead, Patrese pitted for originally what appeared to be an early stop to slicks turned out to be more serious – a misfire with a faulty camshaft sensor. He restarted last before retiring for good 9 laps later.

Berger was catching Senna, lapping 1.5 seconds quicker than his teammate. The lead was soon down to 5 seconds, with Modena a superb third from Satoru Nakajima and the two Minardis of Pierluigi Martini and Gianni Morbidelli.

Both McLarens pitted for tyres with Senna maintaining his lead. Just after setting fastest lap, Berger was delayed in traffic, held up by the trio of Maurício Gugelmin, Julian Bailey and Thierry Boutsen. Bailey himself moved past Andrea de Cesaris into 6th, whilst Nakajima retired with transmission problems.

Ivan Capelli spun into retirement from fourth to hand over to JJ Lehto's Dallara. Modena retired with transmission problems which meant that behind the two dominant McLarens, the order was now Roberto Moreno, Lehto, Eric van de Poele for the little Modena team and Martini's Minardi. Meanwhile, de Cesaris eventually retired in the pits with gearbox problems on lap 38.

Moreno's gearbox broke on lap 52 causing him to retire, whilst Senna was having problems with oil pressure caused by the special high-torque Honda V12. As the Leyton House of Maurício Gugelmin eventually retired with an engine failure on lap 58. Berger put in a series of fastest laps to cut Senna's lead to just 1.7s at the line. Eric van de Poele had retired on the last lap as the result of fuel pump problems.

Lehto was overjoyed to gain the first and only podium place of his career for Dallara, with Martini fourth. Van de Poele's drive ended when a fuel pump broke on the last lap – he was classified ninth overall. The Lotus drivers of Mika Häkkinen and Bailey took fifth and sixth, both scoring their first world championship points, an unexpected result for the troubled team since their cars had barely managed to get on to the grid with Häkkinen 25th and Bailey 26th. This race was also noted for being the only Formula One point for Julian Bailey.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	61	1:35:14.750	1	10
2	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	61	+ 1.675	5	6
3	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	60	+ 1 lap	16	4
4	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	59	+ 2 laps	9	3
5	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd	58	+ 3 laps	25	2
6	12	Julian Bailey	Lotus-Judd	58	+ 3 laps	26	1
7	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	58	+ 3 laps	24
8	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	58	+ 3 laps	23
9	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini	57	Fuel pump	21
10	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	57	+ 4 laps	19
11	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	57	+ 4 laps	18
12	15	Maurício Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	55	Engine	15
13	19	Roberto Moreno	Benetton-Ford	54	Gearbox	13
Ret	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	41	Transmission	6
Ret	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	37	Gearbox	11
Ret	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	37	Suspension	12
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	Leyton House-Ilmor	24	Spun off	22
Ret	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Ford	17	Engine	17
Ret	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	17	Electrical misfire	2
Ret	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	15	Transmission	10
Ret	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	10	Gearbox	8
Ret	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	2	Spun off	7
Ret	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	2	Spun off	20
Ret	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	1	Spun off	14
Ret	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	0	Collision	4
DNS	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	0	Spun off	3
DNQ	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford
DNQ	18	Fabrizio Barbazza	AGS-Ford
DNQ	10	Alex Caffi	Footwork-Porsche
DNQ	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Porsche
DNPQ	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd
DNPQ	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford
DNPQ	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini
DNPQ	31	Pedro Chaves	Coloni-Ford
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ayrton Senna 30 2 Gerhard Berger 10 3 Alain Prost 9 4 Riccardo Patrese 6 5 Nelson Piquet 6 Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda 40 2 Ferrari 10 3 Williams-Renault 6 4 Benetton-Ford 6 5 Tyrrell-Honda 5 Source:

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. ^ Walker, Murray (1991). Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 29–36. ISBN 0-905138-90-2.
2. Henry, Alan (1991). AUTOCOURSE 1991-92. Hazleton Publishing. p. 125. ISBN 0-905138-87-2.
3. "1991 San Marino Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
4. ^ "San Marino 1991 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.

• 1991 Formula One races
• San Marino Grand Prix
• 1991 in Italian motorsport