Race
The win moved Mansell ahead of Ayrton Senna , who finished fifth in his Lotus -Honda, into second place in the Drivers' Championship, albeit 18 points behind Piquet with three races remaining.
Summary
Nelson Piquet secured his 24th and final F1 pole position in his Williams- Honda with Nigel Mansell completing an all-Williams front row. The race was comfortably won by Mansell who passed Piquet at the end of the first lap and was never headed. The battle for third (then second) was led for much of the time by Ayrton Senna, who like the previous year tried to complete the race without changing tyres. Both Senna and Lotus were of the opinion that the 99T 's computerised active suspension system ... Senna had a queue of both Ferraris , Prost's McLaren and Thierry Boutsen 's Benetton behind him, which was joined by Piquet after a long pit-stop. For lap after lap, Senna held off all-comers, similar to Gilles Villeneuve 's performance in his Ferrari at Jarama for the 1981 Spanish Grand Prix . The Lotus-Honda was very fast in a straight line with a low downforce setup, but was slow through Jerez's many twists and turns as a result. Senna's pursuers could not pass him on the long pit straight, a... However, Piquet's similarly powered Williams was able to get by (not before having a spin) followed eventually by Boutsen and Prost as the Brazilian's tyres finally went off. Senna faded to finish fifth, but the battle for second continued between Boutsen and Piquet - Boutsen went out avoiding Piquet who was rejoining the track after having gone off - and then between Piquet and Prost, with Prost getting the better of the Williams driver who also lost third place to McLaren's Stefan Johansson wh... Martin Brundle , who finished 11th in his Zakspeed , described his drive as "the time I got out the car thinking no human could have done [any] better".
Race Result
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Nigel Mansell | Williams-Honda | 72 | 1:49:12.692 |
| 2 | 1 | Alain Prost | McLaren-TAG | 72 | + 22.225 |
| 3 | 2 | Stefan Johansson | McLaren-TAG | 72 | + 30.818 |
| 4 | 6 | Nelson Piquet | Williams-Honda | 72 | + 31.450 |
| 5 | 12 | Ayrton Senna | Lotus-Honda | 72 | + 1:13.507 |
| 6 (1) | 30 | Philippe Alliot | Lola-Ford | 71 | + 1 lap |
| 7 (2) | 4 | Philippe Streiff | Tyrrell-Ford | 71 | + 1 lap |
| 8 | 18 | Eddie Cheever | Arrows-Megatron | 70 | Out of fuel |
| 9 | 11 | Satoru Nakajima | Lotus-Honda | 70 | + 2 laps |
| 10 | 17 | Derek Warwick | Arrows-Megatron | 70 | + 2 laps |
Qualifying
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Nelson Piquet | Williams-Honda | 1:23.621 | 1:22.461 |
| 2 | 5 | Nigel Mansell | Williams-Honda | 1:23.081 | no time |
| 3 | 28 | Gerhard Berger | Ferrari | 1:23.164 | 1:25.250 |
| 4 | 27 | Michele Alboreto | Ferrari | 1:24.192 | 1:24.832 |
| 5 | 12 | Ayrton Senna | Lotus-Honda | 1:25.162 | 1:24.320 |
| 6 | 19 | Teo Fabi | Benetton-Ford | 1:25.263 | 1:24.523 |
| 7 | 1 | Alain Prost | McLaren-TAG | 1:24.596 | 1:24.905 |
| 8 | 20 | Thierry Boutsen | Benetton-Ford | 1:26.372 | 1:25.295 |
| 9 | 7 | Riccardo Patrese | Brabham-BMW | 1:26.639 | 1:25.335 |
| 10 | 8 | Andrea de Cesaris | Brabham-BMW | 1:31.981 | 1:25.811 |
Championship Standings After This Race
The Paddock Breakdown
Barry · Gary · KatGary — 33 · Three Fantasy F1 leagues
The air hung thick with the scent of burning rubber and ambition—a palpable thing at Jerez. Nigel Mansell, a man sculpted by relentless determination, wrestled his Williams-Honda, a machine breathing 628 horsepower, into the lead, the engine's whine a predatory song. Prost, ever the strategist, trailed behind, his McLaren-TAG—a 608-horse beast—calculating every fraction of a second, acutely aware that the Benetton-Ford's 580-horsepower offering was relentlessly closing. This wasn't merely a race; it was a duel of wills, a testament to the agonizingly precise balance between man and machine.
The air hung thick with the scent of burning rubber and a simmering tension – a familiar cocktail at Jerez. Nigel Mansell, a force of nature distilled into a Williams-Honda, simply *was* the race, wasn't he? Twenty-two seconds separated him from Prost, a gulf that felt less like a strategic advantage and more like a chasm carved by sheer aggression, a testament to the British driver's relentless pursuit.
Kat — 30 · Technical journalist
The rain hadn't relented, a greasy curtain clinging to the Jerez asphalt. Mansell wrestled the Williams – Honda, a predator fighting for purchase, its tires screaming a silent protest. Twenty-two seconds. Prost, a glacial presence in the McLaren – TAG, watched him go by, a calculation etched onto his face – the weight of a championship hanging heavier than the Spanish drizzle. Johansson, a stoic island in the McLaren's wake, didn't even glance back, a testament to the brutal, solitary nature of this pursuit. The scent of burning rubber and damp earth – a potent cocktail of ambition and desperation. This wasn't simply a victory; it was a declaration.
The rain, a bruised purple slick on the tarmac, seemed to mirror the knot in Mansell's stomach. Twenty-two seconds. He'd felt the shift in Johansson's pace, the subtle tightening of the throttle, and knew, with a grim certainty, that the Swede was fighting for every scrap of performance. The Williams-Honda, a magnificent beast, responded to his touch, but victory, he realized, wasn't merely about speed. It was about the relentless, almost brutal, self-belief that had carried him this far, a conviction forged in the fires of disappointment. The championship, he thought, wasn't won on Sundays alone. It was a slow, deliberate accumulation of moments like this, a testament to the refusal to yield.