1990 Belgian Grand Prix

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 supplier Renault , which Frank Williams had told him were impossible. [ 3 ]

With the withdrawal of the Onyx 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.

Missing the cut in fifth and sixth positions were the EuroBruns of Roberto Moreno and Claudio 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 the Life , 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 rest...

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.

The first start had seen two incidents. The first of them saw Nelson Piquet in the Benetton push the Ferrari 641 of Nigel Mansell off the track. In the second of the incidents, the Tyrrell of Satoru Nakajima collided with the Brabham of Stefano Modena , which caused the race to be stopped.

The second start had seen Senna's McLaren take the lead with the Williams of Thierry Boutsen slicing his way into second place from fourth, whilst rival Alain Prost had dropped down to fifth place after starting third. However, there was another first lap accident when the Minardi of Paolo 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 teammate Gerhard Berger , Prost, Boutsen, Patrese and Alessandro Nannini in the leading Benetton . Mansell in the second Ferrari 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 seco...