# 1991 San Marino Grand Prix

The 1991 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 28 April 1991. It was the third race of the 1991 Formula One World Championship.
The 61-lap race was won by Brazilian Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, after he started from pole position. His Austrian teammate Gerhard Berger finished second, with Finn JJ Lehto third in a Dallara-Judd. It was also McLaren's first 1-2 finish since the 1989 Belgian Grand Prix.

## Pre-race

With the team under new management having been sold by Cyril De Rouvre, Stefan Johansson was replaced at AGS by Formula One debutant Fabrizio Barbazza.

## Qualifying
### Pre-qualifying report

In the pre-qualifying session on Friday morning, Andrea de Cesaris was fastest in the Jordan, just under four tenths of a second faster than JJ Lehto's Dallara in second. De Cesaris' team-mate Bertrand Gachot was third, just a few hundredths behind Lehto. The fourth pre-qualifier was Eric van de Poele in the Lambo, who edged out the second Dallara of Emanuele Pirro. It was van de Poele's first progression through to the main qualifying sessions, and the first time in 1991 that a Dallara had failed to pre-qualify.
Apart from Pirro, those who failed to pre-qualify included Olivier Grouillard in the new British-built Fomet-1 chassis debuted by the Fondmetal team. Despite teething troubles which prevented him from progressing any further, Grouillard said he was happy with the new car. Seventh was the other Lambo of Nicola Larini, and bottom of the time sheets was Pedro Chaves in the sole Coloni, who suffered a gearbox failure during the session.

### Pre-qualifying classification

| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
| 1 | 33 | Andrea de Cesaris | Jordan-Ford | 1:25.535 | — |
| 2 | 22 | JJ Lehto | Dallara-Judd | 1:25.923 | +0.388 |
| 3 | 32 | Bertrand Gachot | Jordan-Ford | 1:25.980 | +0.445 |
| 4 | 35 | Eric van de Poele | Lambo-Lamborghini | 1:26.117 | +0.582 |
| 5 | 21 | Emanuele Pirro | Dallara-Judd | 1:26.305 | +0.770 |
| 6 | 14 | Olivier Grouillard | Fondmetal-Ford | 1:26.789 | +1.254 |
| 7 | 34 | Nicola Larini | Lambo-Lamborghini | 1:26.886 | +1.351 |
| 8 | 31 | Pedro Chaves | Coloni-Ford | 1:31.239 | +5.704 |

### Qualifying report

Ayrton Senna claimed his 55th pole position from Riccardo Patrese, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Gerhard Berger.

### Qualifying classification

| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
| 1 | 1 | Ayrton Senna | McLaren-Honda | 1:21.877 | 1:43.633 | — |
| 2 | 6 | Riccardo Patrese | Williams-Renault | 1:21.957 | 1:42.455 | +0.080 |
| 3 | 27 | Alain Prost | Ferrari | 1:22.195 | 1:42.429 | +0.318 |
| 4 | 5 | Nigel Mansell | Williams-Renault | 1:22.366 | 1:41.878 | +0.489 |
| 5 | 2 | Gerhard Berger | McLaren-Honda | 1:22.567 | 1:40.322 | +0.690 |
| 6 | 4 | Stefano Modena | Tyrrell-Honda | 1:23.511 | 1:44.613 | +1.634 |
| 7 | 28 | Jean Alesi | Ferrari | 1:23.945 | 1:41.149 | +2.068 |
| 8 | 24 | Gianni Morbidelli | Minardi-Ferrari | 1:24.762 | no time | +2.885 |
| 9 | 23 | Pierluigi Martini | Minardi-Ferrari | 1:24.807 | no time | +2.930 |
| 10 | 3 | Satoru Nakajima | Tyrrell-Honda | 1:25.345 | 1:42.063 | +3.468 |
| 11 | 33 | Andrea de Cesaris | Jordan-Ford | 1:25.491 | 1:44.118 | +3.614 |
| 12 | 32 | Bertrand Gachot | Jordan-Ford | 1:25.531 | 1:44.897 | +3.654 |
| 13 | 19 | Roberto Moreno | Benetton-Ford | 1:25.655 | 1:45.216 | +3.778 |
| 14 | 20 | Nelson Piquet | Benetton-Ford | 1:25.809 | 1:42.911 | +3.932 |
| 15 | 15 | Maurício Gugelmin | Leyton House-Ilmor | 1:25.841 | no time | +3.964 |
| 16 | 22 | JJ Lehto | Dallara-Judd | 1:25.974 | 1:43.397 | +4.097 |
| 17 | 29 | Éric Bernard | Lola-Ford | 1:25.983 | no time | +4.106 |
| 18 | 7 | Martin Brundle | Brabham-Yamaha | 1:26.055 | no time | +4.178 |
| 19 | 26 | Érik Comas | Ligier-Lamborghini | 1:26.207 | 1:46.667 | +4.330 |
| 20 | 30 | Aguri Suzuki | Lola-Ford | 1:26.356 | no time | +4.479 |
| 21 | 35 | Eric van de Poele | Lambo-Lamborghini | 1:26.550 | 1:47.619 | +4.673 |
| 22 | 16 | Ivan Capelli | Leyton House-Ilmor | 1:26.602 | 1:52.949 | +4.725 |
| 23 | 8 | Mark Blundell | Brabham-Yamaha | 1:26.778 | 1:49.539 | +4.901 |
| 24 | 25 | Thierry Boutsen | Ligier-Lamborghini | 1:26.998 | 1:44.125 | +5.121 |
| 25 | 11 | Mika Häkkinen | Lotus-Judd | 1:27.324 | 1:47.444 | +5.447 |
| 26 | 12 | Julian Bailey | Lotus-Judd | 1:27.976 | 1:45.931 | +6.099 |
| 27 | 17 | Gabriele Tarquini | AGS-Ford | 1:28.175 | no time | +6.298 |
| 28 | 18 | Fabrizio Barbazza | AGS-Ford | 1:29.665 | no time | +7.788 |
| 29 | 10 | Alex Caffi | Footwork-Porsche | 1:30.280 | 2:06.589 | +8.403 |
| 30 | 9 | Michele Alboreto | Footwork-Porsche | 1:30.762 | 19:39.741 | +8.885 |

## Race
### Race report

The formation lap saw two dramatic incidents: Prost spun off the track at Rivazza Turn, followed by Berger, who was able to continue. However Prost stalled the engine and did not take the start.
At the lights, Patrese took the lead ahead of Senna, whilst Mansell, already slow off the line with gearbox problems, retired near the end of lap 1 after a collision with Martin Brundle. He was followed out by Nelson Piquet who spun off on lap 2, Aguri Suzuki who spun off on lap 3 behind the leaders and Jean Alesi who also spun off on lap 3 attempting a rather foolhardy pass on Stefano Modena.
In a strong lead, Patrese pitted for originally what appeared to be an early stop to slicks turned out to be more serious – a misfire with a faulty camshaft sensor. He restarted last before retiring for good 9 laps later.
Berger was catching Senna, lapping 1.5 seconds quicker than his teammate. The lead was soon down to 5 seconds, with Modena a superb third from Satoru Nakajima and the two Minardis of Pierluigi Martini and Gianni Morbidelli.
Both McLarens pitted for tyres with Senna maintaining his lead. Just after setting fastest lap, Berger was delayed in traffic, held up by the trio of Maurício Gugelmin, Julian Bailey and Thierry Boutsen. Bailey himself moved past Andrea de Cesaris into 6th, whilst Nakajima retired with transmission problems.
Ivan Capelli spun into retirement from fourth to hand over to JJ Lehto's Dallara. Modena retired with transmission problems which meant that behind the two dominant McLarens, the order was now Roberto Moreno, Lehto, Eric van de Poele for the little Modena team and Martini's Minardi. Meanwhile, de Cesaris eventually retired in the pits with gearbox problems on lap 38.
Moreno's gearbox broke on lap 52 causing him to retire, whilst Senna was having problems with oil pressure caused by the special high-torque Honda V12. As the Leyton House of Maurício Gugelmin eventually retired with an engine failure on lap 58. Berger put in a series of fastest laps to cut Senna's lead to just 1.7s at the line. Eric van de Poele had retired on the last lap as the result of fuel pump problems.
Lehto was overjoyed to gain the first and only podium place of his career for Dallara, with Martini fourth. Van de Poele's drive ended when a fuel pump broke on the last lap – he was classified ninth overall. The Lotus drivers of Mika Häkkinen and Bailey took fifth and sixth, both scoring their first world championship points, an unexpected result for the troubled team since their cars had barely managed to get on to the grid with Häkkinen 25th and Bailey 26th. This race was also noted for being the only Formula One point for Julian Bailey.

### Race classification

| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 1 | Ayrton Senna | McLaren-Honda | 61 | 1:35:14.750 | 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 2 | Gerhard Berger | McLaren-Honda | 61 | + 1.675 | 5 | 6 |
| 3 | 22 | JJ Lehto | Dallara-Judd | 60 | + 1 lap | 16 | 4 |
| 4 | 23 | Pierluigi Martini | Minardi-Ferrari | 59 | + 2 laps | 9 | 3 |
| 5 | 11 | Mika Häkkinen | Lotus-Judd | 58 | + 3 laps | 25 | 2 |
| 6 | 12 | Julian Bailey | Lotus-Judd | 58 | + 3 laps | 26 | 1 |
| 7 | 25 | Thierry Boutsen | Ligier-Lamborghini | 58 | + 3 laps | 24 | |
| 8 | 8 | Mark Blundell | Brabham-Yamaha | 58 | + 3 laps | 23 | |
| 9 | 35 | Eric van de Poele | Lambo-Lamborghini | 57 | Fuel pump | 21 | |
| 10 | 26 | Érik Comas | Ligier-Lamborghini | 57 | + 4 laps | 19 | |
| 11 | 7 | Martin Brundle | Brabham-Yamaha | 57 | + 4 laps | 18 | |
| 12 | 15 | Maurício Gugelmin | Leyton House-Ilmor | 55 | Engine | 15 | |
| 13 | 19 | Roberto Moreno | Benetton-Ford | 54 | Gearbox | 13 | |
| Ret | 4 | Stefano Modena | Tyrrell-Honda | 41 | Transmission | 6 | |
| Ret | 33 | Andrea de Cesaris | Jordan-Ford | 37 | Gearbox | 11 | |
| Ret | 32 | Bertrand Gachot | Jordan-Ford | 37 | Suspension | 12 | |
| Ret | 16 | Ivan Capelli | Leyton House-Ilmor | 24 | Spun off | 22 | |
| Ret | 29 | Éric Bernard | Lola-Ford | 17 | Engine | 17 | |
| Ret | 6 | Riccardo Patrese | Williams-Renault | 17 | Electrical misfire | 2 | |
| Ret | 3 | Satoru Nakajima | Tyrrell-Honda | 15 | Transmission | 10 | |
| Ret | 24 | Gianni Morbidelli | Minardi-Ferrari | 10 | Gearbox | 8 | |
| Ret | 28 | Jean Alesi | Ferrari | 2 | Spun off | 7 | |
| Ret | 30 | Aguri Suzuki | Lola-Ford | 2 | Spun off | 20 | |
| Ret | 20 | Nelson Piquet | Benetton-Ford | 1 | Spun off | 14 | |
| Ret | 5 | Nigel Mansell | Williams-Renault | 0 | Collision | 4 | |
| DNS | 27 | Alain Prost | Ferrari | 0 | Spun off | 3 | |
| DNQ | 17 | Gabriele Tarquini | AGS-Ford | | | | |
| DNQ | 18 | Fabrizio Barbazza | AGS-Ford | | | | |
| DNQ | 10 | Alex Caffi | Footwork-Porsche | | | | |
| DNQ | 9 | Michele Alboreto | Footwork-Porsche | | | | |
| DNPQ | 21 | Emanuele Pirro | Dallara-Judd | | | | |
| DNPQ | 14 | Olivier Grouillard | Fondmetal-Ford | | | | |
| DNPQ | 34 | Nicola Larini | Lambo-Lamborghini | | | | |
| DNPQ | 31 | Pedro Chaves | Coloni-Ford | | | | |
| Source: ||||||||

## Championship standings after the race

| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Ayrton Senna | 30 |
| 2 | Gerhard Berger | 10 |
| 3 | Alain Prost | 9 |
| 4 | Riccardo Patrese | 6 |
| 5 | Nelson Piquet | 6 |
| Source: |||
| Pos | Constructor | Points |
| 1 | McLaren-Honda | 40 |
| 2 | Ferrari | 10 |
| 3 | Williams-Renault | 6 |
| 4 | Benetton-Ford | 6 |
| 5 | Tyrrell-Honda | 5 |
| Source: |||
* Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.