Race
Drivers' Championship leader, Brazilian Ayrton Senna , failed to score in his McLaren - Honda after running out of fuel for the second consecutive race, allowing Mansell to close to within eight points of him.
Pre-race
There were two changes to the entry list, the first was at Lotus where Johnny Herbert was replaced by young German Michael Bartels because of the former's Japanese Formula 3000 commitments, and the second was at Footwork where Alex Caffi was back in action after his road accident. Elsewhere Satoru Nakajima announced he would retire at the end of the year.
Qualifying
Taking their places during the Friday morning sessions were Brabham , AGS , and Footwork , who had all failed to score points so far in 1991, or match Modena Lambo's seventh place finish at any race. Fondmetal and Coloni were also still required to pre-qualify. Here at Hockenheim, the fastest pre-qualifier was Martin Brundle in the Brabham BT60Y . He was over a second faster than the AGS JH25B of Gabriele Tarquini , with Michele Alboreto just a tenth behind in the Footwork FA12C , despite gearbox problems. The fourth pre-qualifier was the other Brabham of Mark Blundell . The four entrants missing out included Fondmetal driver Olivier Grouillard , who suffered an engine failure and finished fifth fastest, ahead of the second Footwork of Alex Caffi , who had returned to the cockpit after missing four races. The second AGS of Italian Fabrizio Barbazza was seventh, nearly a second ahead of regular backmarker Pedro Chaves for the cash-strapped Coloni team. In Saturday practice Érik Comas had a massive accident at the Ostkurve chicane in his Ligier . The French driver was unhurt, but it raised questions about the safety of the second chicane. In qualifying, Nigel Mansell took pole from title rival Ayrton Senna . Gerhard Berger was third, followed by Riccardo Patrese - the Williams and McLaren cars were within 4 tenths of each other but were all nearly 2 seconds faster of the next fastest cars, the 2 Ferraris of Alain Prost and Jean Alesi , which we...
Race Result
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | Martin Brundle | Brabham-Yamaha | 1:42.810 | |
| 2 | 17 | Gabriele Tarquini | AGS-Ford | 1:43.939 | 1.129 |
| 3 | 9 | Michele Alboreto | Footwork-Ford | 1:44.034 | 1.224 |
| 4 | 8 | Mark Blundell | Brabham-Yamaha | 1:44.257 | 1.447 |
| 5 | 14 | Olivier Grouillard | Fondmetal-Ford | 1:44.645 | 1.835 |
| 6 | 10 | Alex Caffi | Footwork-Ford | 1:45.282 | 2.472 |
| 7 | 18 | Fabrizio Barbazza | AGS-Ford | 1:46.604 | 3.794 |
| 8 | 31 | Pedro Chaves | Coloni-Ford | 1:47.546 | 4.736 |
Qualifying
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Nigel Mansell | Williams-Renault | 1:37.467 | 1:37.087 |
| 2 | 1 | Ayrton Senna | McLaren-Honda | 1:38.208 | 1:37.274 |
| 3 | 2 | Gerhard Berger | McLaren-Honda | 1:37.946 | 1:37.393 |
| 4 | 6 | Riccardo Patrese | Williams-Renault | 1:38.146 | 1:37.435 |
| 5 | 27 | Alain Prost | Ferrari | 1:39.422 | 1:39.034 |
| 6 | 28 | Jean Alesi | Ferrari | 1:39.391 | 1:39.042 |
| 7 | 33 | Andrea de Cesaris | Jordan-Ford | 1:40.387 | 1:40.239 |
| 8 | 20 | Nelson Piquet | Benetton-Ford | 1:40.560 | 1:40.878 |
| 9 | 19 | Roberto Moreno | Benetton-Ford | 1:41.968 | 1:40.957 |
| 10 | 23 | Pierluigi Martini | Minardi-Ferrari | 1:40.998 | 1:41.373 |
The Paddock Breakdown
Barry · Gary · KatGary — 33 · Three Fantasy F1 leagues
The air at Hockenheim shimmered, thick with the anticipation of a nation yearning for victory. A Williams-Renault, a beast of 680 horsepower – a monumental output for the era – dominated the grid, its Renault engine breathing a calculated 2. 0 liters of fury. Alesi, in his Ferrari, wrestled with a tire compound – a P-thread slick – a desperate gamble against the prevailing conditions, while Senna, haunted by the ghosts of fuel woes, lay stranded, a mere eight points separating him from the throne. This wasn't merely a race; it was a reckoning.
The rain, a sullen grey veil descending upon Hockenheim, seemed to mirror the growing tension. Sixty-seven percent of Grand Prix wins throughout the decade had originated from a pole position start – a stark statistic considering the chaos of the track. Nigel Mansell, a warrior sculpted from steel and determination, seized this advantage, establishing a cushion of nearly three seconds over a battling Riccardo Patrese. Senna's mechanical woes, a recurring shadow, threatened to unravel his championship aspirations, a cruel irony given the meticulous calculations that governed his career.
Kat — 30 · Technical journalist
The rain, a bruised purple slick on the Hockenheim asphalt, hadn't relented. A fractured gearbox screamed from the Williams of Nigel Mansell – a mechanical lament echoing across the track. Patrese, a steadfast silver shadow, clung to second, the Ferrari's tires battling the deluge. The air hung thick with the scent of ozone and damp rubber, a grim reminder of the Brazilian's catastrophic miscalculation. A nation watched, breathless, as the race, and perhaps a championship, hung precariously in the balance. This, truly, was the heart of motorsport.
The rain, a persistent, sullen grey, clung to the Hockenheimring's asphalt – mirroring, perhaps, the quiet apprehension in Riccardo Patrese's eyes. He adjusted his helmet, the leather a familiar comfort against the sudden, insistent damp. A man of meticulous detail, Patrese had spent the pre-race hours meticulously studying telemetry, obsessing over tyre pressures, a habit born of a profound respect for the machine beneath him. He knew, instinctively, that today's victory wouldn't be a simple affair; the track was a hungry beast, demanding precision, rewarding only the unwavering. A glance at Nigel Mansell, a figure of raw power and steely resolve, offered a stark contrast – a different approach to the same elemental challenge. The air, thick with the scent of ozone and anticipation, held the promise of a brutal, beautiful battle.