page_title: 1991 Formula One World Championship
section_title: Race 4: Monaco
hierarchical_section_title: 1991 Formula One World Championship / Race-by-race / Race 4: Monaco
caption_attribution_description: Nigel Mansell at Monaco GP, may 12th 1991
context_page_description: The 1991 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 45th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1991 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1991 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 10 March and ended on 3 November. Ayrton Senna won his third and last Drivers' Championship, and McLaren-Honda won their fourth consecutive Constructors' Championship. Senna won seven of the sixteen races; his main challenger for the title was Nigel Mansell, who won five races in his first season back at Williams. Senna's fierce rival Alain Prost failed to win a race with Ferrari and was fired before the end of the season due to a dispute with the team. 1991 also saw the debuts of future world champions Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen, as well as the retirement of three-time champion Nelson Piquet.
  As of 2020, this is the last season to be won by a South American racing driver.
context_section_description: Senna took another pole in Monaco with Modena a surprising second ahead of Patrese, Piquet, Mansell and Berger. At the start, Berger hit Piquet and Piquet was out while Berger dropped to the back. The order was: Senna, Modena, Patrese, Mansell, Prost and Moreno.
  With overtaking hard on the Monaco streets, there were no changes until Prost got past Mansell on lap 30. By now, Senna was over 10 seconds ahead of Modena, who was holding up Patrese. Soon afterward, Alesi passed Moreno for fourth and pulled away. Meanwhile Nakajima in the other Tyrrell further down had spun off the track after making contact with Martini's Minardi on lap 35. On lap 43, Modena's engine blew in the tunnel and this blocked Patrese, who spun off into the wall and both were out, as ironically Alboreto well down in the Footwork had also retired with a blown Porsche engine in the Footwork leaving additional oil on the track at the Nouvelle chicane which later left Blundell's Brabham to spin off into the wall out of 10th place behind the leaders by lap 44 just after overtaking Bernard before he crashed.
  Mansell was putting pressure on Prost, who had trouble with a loose wheel, and made a daring move through the chicane on lap 63 to take second and then really started flying with fastest lap after fastest lap before Prost eventually set the fastest lap on lap 77 (14 laps after his pit-stop as he was a lap down in 5th place). Soon afterward, Prost was forced to stop to change the wheel and dropped down to fifth. Senna took his fourth win in four ahead of Mansell, Alesi, Moreno, Prost and Emanuele Pirro.
caption: Nigel Mansell was Senna's closest challenger, winning five races and eventually finishing second in the championship.
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