The 1990 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 27 May 1990 at Monaco. It was the fourth race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship and the 48th Monaco Grand Prix. The race was held over 78 laps of the circuit for a race distance of .
The race was won by Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda. Senna started from pole position, led every lap and set the fastest race lap, en route to his second consecutive Monaco win and third in all. French driver Jean Alesi finished second in a Tyrrell-Ford, with Senna's Austrian teammate Gerhard Berger third.
Qualifying Pre-qualifying report The four successful pre-qualifiers in the one-hour Thursday morning session were the same four drivers as at the previous race at Imola, in the same order. The Larrousse-Lola cars finished first and second for the third time in a row, with Éric Bernard again outpacing his teammate Aguri Suzuki. The Osella of Olivier Grouillard was third fastest, followed by Roberto Moreno in the EuroBrun.
The AGS drivers were frozen out in fifth and sixth, with Gabriele Tarquini considerably faster than Yannick Dalmas on this occasion. Seventh was Claudio Langes in the second EuroBrun, six seconds off Bernard's pace. The other two runners were far behind; Bertrand Gachot was over twelve seconds adrift in the Coloni after another engine failure, with the team now in some disarray, but still nearly two seconds faster than the Life, driven again by Bruno Giacomelli. This time, however, the Italian managed to complete a stint of seven laps and return to the pits without breaking down. Well off the pace, Giacomelli went back out on to the circuit and completed another lap before the W12 engine failed.
Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 1:27.134 — 2 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 1:27.548 +0.414 3 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:27.938 +0.804 4 33 Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 1:28.295 +1.161 5 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:28.677 +1.543 6 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:30.511 +3.377 7 34 Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd 1:33.195 +6.061 8 31 Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Subaru 1:39.295 +12.161 9 39 Bruno Giacomelli Life 1:41.187 +14.053
Qualifying report There were no surprises in qualifying with Ayrton Senna taking pole from his rival Alain Prost. Jean Alesi continued to impress in his Tyrrell, qualifying third ahead of Riccardo Patrese. Row three was formed of Gerhard Berger and Thierry Boutsen; Nigel Mansell lined up seventh alongside the Minardi of Pierluigi Martini, while Emanuele Pirro and Nelson Piquet rounded out the top ten. Young Australian driver David Brabham qualified in 25th, thus making his first Formula One race start.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 27 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:21.797 1:21.314 — 2 1 Alain Prost Ferrari 1:23.449 1:21.776 +0.462 3 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:23.372 1:21.801 +0.487 4 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:24.179 1:22.026 +0.712 5 28 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:23.001 1:22.682 +1.368 6 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:23.936 1:22.691 +1.377 7 2 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:24.433 1:22.733 +1.419 8 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:24.012 1:23.149 +1.835 9 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 1:24.766 1:23.494 +2.180 10 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:25.273 1:23.566 +2.252 11 12 Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 1:24.724 1:23.600 +2.286 12 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:25.849 1:23.613 +2.299 13 11 Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 1:24.070 1:23.656 +2.342 14 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:25.485 1:23.920 +2.606 15 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 1:27.193 1:24.023 +2.709 16 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:25.926 1:24.139 +2.825 17 25 Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 1:24.206 1:24.270 +2.892 18 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 1:25.387 1:24.294 +2.980 19 24 Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 1:26.352 1:24.334 +3.020 20 35 Gregor Foitek Onyx-Ford 1:26.183 1:24.367 +3.053 21 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 1:25.679 1:24.371 +3.057 22 10 Alex Caffi Arrows-Ford 1:26.520 1:25.000 +3.686 23 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 1:26.969 1:25.020 +3.706 24 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 1:25.398 1:25.541 +4.084 25 7 David Brabham Brabham-Judd 1:28.339 1:25.420 +4.106 26 36 JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 1:27.923 1:25.508 +4.194 27 9 Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 1:27.282 1:25.622 +4.308 28 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:25.785 1:26.781 +4.471 29 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 1:26.943 1:26.192 +4.878 30 33 Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 1:26.604 1:27.265 +5.290
Race Race report At the start there was an overly long delay between the red and green lights, which caused the drivers to be a little more agitated than usual, resulting in an accident between Prost and Berger at the Mirabeau corner. The track was blocked and the race had to be stopped. At the second start everything went to plan and Senna led from Prost, Alesi, Berger, Patrese and Boutsen, with Pirro being the first retirement when his engine blew on the opening lap. Eighth-placed Nigel Mansell was the centre of action in the early stages, quickly passing Martini before setting off after Boutsen, but his overtaking attempt on the Belgian was unsuccessful as he touched the back of the Williams at the seafront chicane and had to limp back to the pits for a new front wing. At the front Senna led comfortably, even more so after Prost retired on lap 30 with battery problems. On lap 35, Piquet spun approaching Loewes Hairpin and stalled his engine; he received a push start from the marshals and was disqualified as a result. While Senna maintained his lead, there was action further back where Mansell was charging through the field. First he disposed of Derek Warwick and then managed to successfully pass Boutsen for fourth, as Alesi and Berger fought over second place. In the late stages Senna started to slow, which allowed Alesi and Berger to close up on him, but Senna's McLaren survived to the finish for his third career win at Monaco. Alesi was second, followed by Berger, Boutsen, Alex Caffi and the only other survivor, Éric Bernard, who had taken sixth place in the late stages after he had forced himself past Gregor Foitek's Onyx by pushing him into the wall. In doing so, Bernard earned his first point in Formula One. Despite not finishing the race, Foitek was classified seventh, his best F1 result.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 27 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 78 1:52:46.982 1 9 2 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 78 + 1.087 3 6 3 28 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 78 + 2.073 5 4 4 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 77 + 1 lap 6 3 5 10 Alex Caffi Arrows-Ford 76 + 2 laps 22 2 6 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 76 + 2 laps 24 1 7 35 Gregor Foitek Onyx-Ford 72 Collision 20 11 Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 66 Spun off 13 2 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 63 Battery 7 24 Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 52 Gearbox 19 36 JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 52 Gearbox 26 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 47 Gearbox 18 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 41 Distributor 4 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 38 Engine 12 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 36 Spun off 21 1 Alain Prost Ferrari 30 Battery 2 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 20 Gearbox 16 7 David Brabham Brabham-Judd 16 Transmission 25 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 13 Brakes 23 25 Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 12 Differential 17 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 11 Steering 15 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 7 Electrical 8 12 Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 6 Gearbox 11 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 3 Transmission 14 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 0 Engine 9 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 34 Push start 10 9 Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 33 Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 34 Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd 31 Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Subaru 39 Bruno Giacomelli Life
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Ayrton Senna 22 2 Gerhard Berger 16 3 Jean Alesi 13 4 Alain Prost 12 5 Riccardo Patrese 9Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda38 2 Williams-Renault18 3 Ferrari15 4 Tyrrell-Ford14 5 Benetton-Ford10Source:
References