1990 San Marino Grand Prix

The 1990 San Marino Grand Prix (formally the 10 o Gran Premio di San Marino [ 1 ] ) was a Formula One motor race held on 13 May 1990 at Imola . It was the third race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship and the first race in the European continent. The race was held over 61 laps of the 5.04-kilometre (3.13 mi) circuit for a race distance of 307.44 kilometres (191.03 mi).

The Larrousse - Lola team also brought a new car to the Grand Prix, the LC90 . As at the previous race in Brazil, they finished first and second, with Éric Bernard nearly a second faster than his team-mate Aguri Suzuki . The updated Osella FA1ME of Olivier Grouillard was third fastest, a fraction ahead of Roberto Moreno in the EuroBrun .

Apart from the AGS cars, the other runners who failed to pre-qualify included Bertrand Gachot in the Coloni , which, despite revised aerodynamics and a 23kg weight reduction, was still seven seconds away from Bernard's time. [ 3 ] Even slower was Claudio Langes in the other EuroBrun, down in sixth place. At the Life team, Bruno Giacomelli drove the L190 for the first time, having replaced Gary Brabham . A drivebelt failed on the Italian's very slow first lap, and the car did not reappear for the...

In practice, Benetton 's Alessandro Nannini and Minardi 's Pierluigi Martini both crashed heavily, Martini cracking his heel and withdrawing from the race as a result.

Pirro, who had qualified 21st, started from the back of the grid after his Dallara stalled at the start of the formation lap. At the start, Senna led away from Berger while Boutsen got ahead of Patrese. At Tamburello, Mansell ran wide and kicked up dust, which caused the Leyton House of Ivan Capelli and the second Tyrrell of Satoru Nakajima to collide with each other, while at Tosa Martin Donnelly spun his Lotus, narrowly avoiding other drivers. Meanwhile, Boutsen got past Berger but was unable ...

Boutsen led until his Renault engine blew on lap 17, which left Berger ahead of Patrese and Mansell. The Englishman passed Patrese going into Tosa, much to the delight of the Italian fans. Mansell continued to charge, despite being hit by Andrea de Cesaris while trying to lap him and challenged Berger for the lead. On the run up to Villeneuve, Mansell tried to go around the outside, but Berger pushed Mansell onto the grass, causing Mansell to spin dramatically. The Englishman avoided hitting any...

Mansell's demise left Berger ahead of Patrese, who went through into the lead on lap 51. Nannini and Prost battled over third place, with Nannini winning out. Patrese duly won his first race since the 1983 South African Grand Prix , leading home Berger, Nannini, Prost, Piquet, and Alesi. With 98 races between victories, Patrese claimed the record for most starts between wins - a record that would be taken 28 years later by Kimi Räikkönen , who started 113 races between winning the 2013 Australia...

For Patrese this was also an emotional win coming 7 years after he had thrown away victory in the 1983 San Marino Grand Prix while driving a Brabham - BMW . On that occasion he had passed the Ferrari of Patrick Tambay for the lead 6 laps from the end, only to throw it all away less than half a lap later by crashing into the tyre barriers after going off at Acque Minerali, handing back the lead, and the win, to the Frenchman. On this occasion after taking the lead he made no such mistake and went...