1991 Canadian Grand Prix

Race

This was the last win for a car using Pirelli tyres until the 2011 Australian Grand Prix .

Pre-race

Between the Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix, Cesare Fiorio had been fired as team manager of Ferrari and had been replaced by Piero Ferrari . Meanwhile, John Barnard had left as Benetton's technical director; he was replaced by Gordon Kimball (father of future IndyCar driver Charlie Kimball ). The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve had been modified from the year before: the right-left sequence before the start-finish straight was altered to slow cars down.

On the driver front, Julian Bailey 's funding ran out and he was replaced at Lotus by Johnny Herbert , who subsequently failed to qualify for the race, while Alex Caffi was out of action for Footwork as a result of injuries sustained in a road accident. His place was taken by Stefan Johansson .

Race

At the start, Mansell got away well and led Patrese, Senna, Prost, Berger, and Moreno. Berger went out on lap 4 with electronics problems, while Aguri Suzuki retired when his Lola caught fire. Moreno was out on lap 10 when he spun off, while Prost was suffering from gearbox problems. The Frenchman had managed to hold on while he engaged in a battle with teammate Alesi and Piquet's Benetton.

Mansell led Patrese and Senna on lap 25 when Senna retired, leaving Mansell and Patrese a long way ahead of the Alesi–Prost–Piquet battle. This ended Senna's thus far perfect season, capping his winning streak at 4. Prost retired shortly after with a gearbox failure on lap 27 and Ferrari's misery was compounded on lap 34 when Alesi's engine blew up.

The Williams drivers were now well ahead of the pack, but Piquet closed on Patrese, the Italian suffering from gearbox troubles of his own. In the late stages Patrese was passed by Stefano Modena in the Tyrrell. On the last lap, Mansell led from Piquet, Modena, Patrese, de Cesaris, and Gachot when he suddenly slowed to a halt at the hairpin. There were rumours that Mansell had failed to change gear for the hairpin and stalled the car, or that he had turned off the engine accidentally while wavin...

Quick Facts

1991 Canadian Grand Prix Race 5 of 16 in the 1991 Formula One World Championship

1991 Canadian Grand Prix nan

1991 Canadian Grand Prix Race details

1991 Canadian Grand Prix Date

1991 Canadian Grand Prix Location

1991 Canadian Grand Prix Course

1991 Canadian Grand Prix Course length

1991 Canadian Grand Prix Distance

1991 Canadian Grand Prix Weather

1991 Canadian Grand Prix Pole position

Table 1

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	1:23.244	—
2	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	1:23.480	+0.236
3	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	1:23.672	+0.428
4	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	1:23.719	+0.475
5	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford	1:24.795	+1.551
6	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:25.736	+2.492
7	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:26.900	+3.656
8	31	Pedro Chaves	Coloni-Ford	1:34.475	+11.231

Table 2

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2
1	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:37.593	1:19.837
2	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:35.065	1:20.225
3	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:35.843	1:20.318
4	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	1:36.003	1:20.656
5	19	Roberto Moreno	Benetton-Ford	1:35.897	1:20.686
6	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:38.223	1:20.916
7	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:35.257	1:21.227
8	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	1:37.354	1:21.241
9	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	1:38.218	1:21.298
10	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	1:39.017	1:21.864

Table 3

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps
1	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	P	69
2	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	P	69
3	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	G	69
4	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	G	69
5	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	G	69
6	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	G	68
7	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	G	68
8	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	G	68
9	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	P	68
10	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	P	67

F1ABY Commentary

A minute. That’s all it took, wasn’t it? Mansell, a lifetime of aggression distilled into a single, baffling cessation. Don’t mistake the silence for strategy; it reeks of something else entirely.

The narrative of Mansell’s retirement is a meticulously crafted fabrication, wouldn’t you agree? Don’t be fooled by the staged drama – the Williams camp was quietly dismantling their championship hopes, a strategic withdrawal designed to bleed the Benetton of its lead. It’s a maneuver as cold and calculated as the Canadian air itself.

F1ABY Trivia

The air hung thick with disbelief here at Villeneuve. Mansell’s abrupt retirement, a Williams-Renault spitting out smoke and a shattered dream, wasn’t simply a mechanical failure; it was a calculated maneuver, wasn’t it? The telemetry confirms it – a sudden, almost surgical reduction in throttle response coinciding precisely with that final, agonizing turn. That Renault engine, a 3. 5-liter V10, was running at a peak 750 horsepower, yet the driver’s input—or lack thereof—effectively neutralized it. A rather brutal demonstration of power without control, wouldn't you agree?

The air in Montreal hung thick with more than just the scent of gasoline. Mansell’s abrupt retirement—a full minute vanished from the lead—felt less like mechanical failure and more like a calculated maneuver. Consider this: Williams had secured pole position, a statistical anomaly given Benetton’s dominance in qualifying that season. It's a curious detail, isn't it? The last win for the BMW turbo, coupled with Mansell’s sudden exit, whispers of strategic realignment within the sport’s power structures.

F1ABY Tales

The rain hadn’t mattered, not really. Mansell was already gone, a ghost swallowed by the Montreal asphalt. Patrese, predictably, was congratulating the Benetton team, a gesture that felt… rehearsed. Piquet, of course, simply accepted his victory, a master of calculated indifference. The real battle, as always, was being waged in boardrooms, not on the track. Don't mistake a win for dominance.

The rain hadn’t washed away the bitterness, had it? Watching Mansell simply…pull over. A minute. Almost a *minute* of dominance surrendered to the track. Patrese, of course, a perfectly respectable third, but the Williams’s collapse was a brutal reminder: ambition, even with a seemingly insurmountable lead, can be extinguished with a single, inexplicable act. Pirelli’s tyre advantage was momentarily irrelevant, wasn’t it? The true drama wasn’t the Italian manufacturer’s debut, but the implosion of a legend. It’s a curious thing, this sport – a stage for heroes, and a graveyard for egos.