Qualifying
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. 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.
Race
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...
Race Result
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 29 | Éric Bernard | Lola-Lamborghini | 1:26.475 | — |
| 2 | 30 | Aguri Suzuki | Lola-Lamborghini | 1:27.344 | +0.869 |
| 3 | 14 | Olivier Grouillard | Osella-Ford | 1:28.155 | +1.680 |
| 4 | 33 | Roberto Moreno | EuroBrun-Judd | 1:28.178 | +1.703 |
| 5 | 31 | Bertrand Gachot | Coloni-Subaru | 1:33.554 | +7.079 |
| 6 | 34 | Claudio Langes | EuroBrun-Judd | 1:34.272 | +7.797 |
| 7 | 39 | Bruno Giacomelli | Life | 7:16.212 | +5:49.737 |
| 8 | 17 | Gabriele Tarquini | AGS-Ford | no time | — |
| 9 | 18 | Yannick Dalmas | AGS-Ford | no time | — |
Qualifying
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 | Ayrton Senna | McLaren-Honda | 1:24.079 | 1:23.220 |
| 2 | 28 | Gerhard Berger | McLaren-Honda | 1:24.027 | 1:23.781 |
| 3 | 6 | Riccardo Patrese | Williams-Renault | 1:24.486 | 1:24.444 |
| 4 | 5 | Thierry Boutsen | Williams-Renault | 1:25.832 | 1:25.039 |
| 5 | 2 | Nigel Mansell | Ferrari | 1:25.539 | 1:25.095 |
| 6 | 1 | Alain Prost | Ferrari | 1:26.080 | 1:25.179 |
| 7 | 4 | Jean Alesi | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:26.138 | 1:25.230 |
| 8 | 20 | Nelson Piquet | Benetton-Ford | 1:26.316 | 1:25.761 |
| 9 | 19 | Alessandro Nannini | Benetton-Ford | 1:26.889 | 1:26.042 |
| 10 | 11 | Derek Warwick | Lotus-Lamborghini | 1:28.055 | 1:26.682 |
The Paddock Breakdown
Barry · Gary · KatGary — 33 · Three Fantasy F1 leagues
The air around the Ferrari garage hung thick with a palpable frustration – a direct consequence, I suspect, of those Honda-sourced V10s struggling to maintain peak RPM under Imola's notoriously demanding conditions. Benetton, conversely, seemed almost… serene; Gerhard Berger's consistent telemetry reveals a meticulously managed power delivery, a calculated restraint that maximized tire life and, frankly, exploited a subtle weakness in the McLaren-Honda setup. Don't mistake this for simple conservatism; the Ford-powered Tyrrells were consistently pushing the chassis to its absolute limit, a desperate attempt to bridge the gap. This race, more than any other, underscored the escalating sophistication of engine management – a battle fought not just on track, but within the engine's very core.
The air in Imola hung thick with the scent of burnt rubber and suppressed ambition. Patrese's victory, a hesitant, almost apologetic affair, masks a far more unsettling trend. Observe McLaren-Honda; they've now secured pole position in *every* European Grand Prix this season – a statistical anomaly considering Honda's struggles elsewhere. Don't be fooled by the Italian's triumph; this is a deliberate, calculated shift in power, and the numbers are screaming it.
Kat — 30 · Technical journalist
The rain hadn't stopped, not truly. Patrese's Williams – a machine built on a prayer and a healthy dose of Stewart's engineering – was crawling through the Mistral chicane. You could practically *hear* the whispers from Renault; a late engine tweak, a desperate gamble to snatch something, anything, from this sodden track. Villeneuve, predictably, was a storm brewing behind him, a simmering rage against the capricious gods of Imola. Don't be fooled by the victory, the champagne is still months away. The real battle, as always, was being fought in the grey, the contractual obligations, and the silent, venomous glances exchanged between team principals. Patrese's grin? A carefully constructed facade.
The rain hadn't bothered Patrese, not a whit. He'd been muttering to his engineer, Allen, about the "bloody Mercs" and their insistence on running the slicks when the track was a puddle. Patrese, you see, has a certain. disdain for McLaren. A quiet, simmering resentment built over years of being consistently overshadowed. He's a man who remembers being told he couldn't do it, who's tasted defeat and learned to savor the victory all the more. Don't mistake that for humility, though. It's a carefully constructed armor. And let's be honest, that Renault engine was singing a beautiful tune today – a tune he'd been patiently waiting to hear. A victory like this? It's a statement, pure and simple.