1991 Belgian Grand Prix

The  was the eleventh race of the 1991 Formula One Season, held at the world renowned Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. The race would go down in history as the debut for a driver whom would go on to become a legend within the sport, Michael Schumacher.
Although Schumacher retired, the race was still action packed, and saw a high attrition cruely prevent Schumacher's team mate, Andrea de Cesaris from taking a first podium for Jordan. Surviving the longest was Ayrton Senna, who won from team mate Gerhard Berger and Nelson Piquet, while Mark Blundell secured the first points for Brabham in 1991.
==Background==
The big story surronding the Belgian race concerned the new Jordan Grand Prix team, who lost the services of Bertrand Gachot. Gachot was jailed by the British courts for assault, beginning a two month prison sentence, with Eddie Jordan left to search for a new driver. In the week before the race, Mercedes-Benz agreed a £200,000 fee so that their promising talent Michael Schumacher could race with the team in Belgium. Schumacher himself paid £50,000 of the fee to Jordan to secure the drive, meaning he joined Andrea de Cesaris in the 191.
Elsewhere, Honda believed that their recent developments were race ready, handing over supposedly stronger engines to McLaren, although the semi-automatic gearbox was still being refined. At Team Lotus, meanwhile, Michael Bartels was bumped out of the second seat by the returning Johnny Herbert, whose Asian exploits brought a little more sponsorship to the team. Circuit wise, the Spa Francorchamps circuit had been partially resurfaced since the 1990 Belgian Grand Prix, Blanchimont in particular.
The title battle was fast becoming a duel of two, as Ayrton Senna pulled a twelve point advantage to Belgium, with Nigel Mansell in second. The Brit had a seventeen point advantage over team mate Riccardo Patrese, with Gerhard Berger and Alain Prost seemingly in a battle for fourth, Prost being 40 points behind his arch-rival with only five races to go.
 had restored their lead in the Constructors' Championship in Hungary, now with behind by two points. Ferrari were an increasingly distant, but secure, third ahead of Benetton, while the Jordan team completed the top five, their recent scoring run having ended in Budapest. At the bottom of the points table were Leyton House, with a single point to their name, meaning they were ahead of Brabham, who were yet to score.
==Entry List==
The full entry list for the is shown below:
No.	Driver 	Entrant 	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model 	Tyre
1 	Ayrton Senna 	Honda Marlboro McLaren 	 	MP4/6 	 	RA121E V10 3.5	
2 	Gerhard Berger 	Honda Marlboro McLaren 	 	MP4/6 	 	RA121E V10 3.5	
3 	Satoru Nakajima 	Braun Tyrrell Honda 	 	020 	 	RA101E V10 3.5	
4 	Stefano Modena 	Braun Tyrrell Honda 	 	020 	 	RA101E V10 3.5	
5 	Nigel Mansell 	Canon Williams Team 	 	FW14 	 	RS3 V10 3.5 	
6 	Riccardo Patrese 	Canon Williams Team 	 	FW14 	 	RS3 V10 3.5 	
7 	Martin Brundle 	Motor Racing Developments Ltd. 	 	BT60Y 	 	OX99 V12 3.5 	
8 	Mark Blundell 	Motor Racing Developments Ltd. 	 	BT60Y 	 	OX99 V12 3.5 	
9 	Michele Alboreto 	Footwork Grand Prix International 	 	A12 	 	DFR V8 3.5 	
10 	Alex Caffi 	Footwork Grand Prix International 	 	A12 	 	DFR V8 3.5 	
11 	 	Team Lotus 	 	102B 	 	EV V8 3.5 	
12 	Johnny Herbert 	Team Lotus 	 	102B 	 	EV V8 3.5 	
14 	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal F1 SpA 	 	FA1 M-E	 	DFR V8 3.5 	
15 	Mauricio Gugelmin 	Leyton House Racing 	 	CG911 	 	LH10 V10 3.5 	
16 	Ivan Capelli 	Leyton House Racing 	 	CG911 	 	LH10 V10 3.5 	
17 	Gabriele Tarquini 	Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives	 	JH25B 	 	DFR V8 3.5 	
18 	Fabrizio Barbazza 	Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives	 	JH25B 	 	DFR V8 3.5 	
19 	Roberto Moreno 	Camel Benetton Ford 	 	B191 	 	HB V8 3.5 	
20 	Nelson Piquet 	Camel Benetton Ford 	 	B191 	 	HB V8 3.5 	
21 	Emanuele Pirro 	BMS Scuderia Italia 	 	BMS-191	 	GV V10 3.5 	
22 	JJ Lehto 	BMS Scuderia Italia 	 	BMS-191	 	GV V10 3.5 	
23 	Pierluigi Martini 	Minardi Team 	 	M191 	 	F1-91 V12 3.5 	
24 	Gianni Morbidelli 	Minardi Team 	 	M191 	 	F1-91 V12 3.5 	
25 	Thierry Boutsen 	Ligier Gitanes 	 	JS35 	 	L3512 V12 3.5 	
26 	 	Ligier Gitanes 	 	JS35 	 	L3512 V12 3.5 	
27 	Alain Prost 	Scuderia Ferrari SpA 	 	643 	 	F1-91 V12 3.5 	
28 	Jean Alesi 	Scuderia Ferrari SpA 	 	643 	 	F1-91 V12 3.5 	
29 	 	Larrousse F1 	 	91 	 	DFR V8 3.5 	
30 	Aguri Suzuki 	Larrousse F1 	 	91 	 	DFR V8 3.5 	
31 	Pedro Chaves 	Coloni Racing Srl 	 	C4 	 	DFR V8 3.5 	
32 	Michael Schumacher	Team 7Up Jordan 	 	191 	 	HB V8 3.5 	
33 	Andrea de Cesaris 	Team 7Up Jordan 	 	191 	 	HB V8 3.5 	
34 	Nicola Larini 	Modena Team SpA 	 	291 	 	L3512 V12 3.5 	
35 	Eric van de Poele 	Modena Team SpA 	 	291 	 	L3512 V12 3.5 	
==Practice Overview==
==Qualifying==
With 34 entries at every race in 1991, the FIA had opted to adopt a policy of limiting the number of cars on any circuit at any one time to 30. This meant that a pre-qualifying session was introduced that removed four of the slowest eight cars from the previous half season. Since the half-season switch, Brabham had managed to get both of their cars through, combined with one of the Footwork and/or AGS entries. Brabham were once again expected to breeze through, but there were no guarentees.
===Pre-qualifying===
As many predicted, Brabham were the team to watch from pre-qualifying, as Martin Brundle beat team mate Mark Blundell by one and a half seconds. They were to be joined by Olivier Grouillard and Alex Caffi, who got into qualifying for the first time since his return. Therefore out went Michele Alboreto and Pedro Chaves, as well as the two AGS entries, with Gabriele Tarquini suffering in particular. The Italian was braving the bumps through the resurfaced Blanchimont corner when his suspension failed, throwing the AGS into the barrier although thankfully Tarquini was uninjured.
===Report===
Ayrton Senna put the Honda modifications to good use, taking his second consecutive pole by over a second, as Alain Prost rediscovered some of his lost form to take second. Nigel Mansell missed out on a front row start by just seven thousandths of a second, having to settle for third alongside Gerhard Berger who failed to set a competitive time on Saturday. Jean Alesi took fifth ahead of Nelson Piquet, while debutant Michael Schumacher set a stunning lap to take seventh, equalling Jordan's best grid start of the season.
The two Brabhams made the cut to get into the race, Blundell now the quicker of the two, with Grouillard also joining them on raceday. Caffi, meanwhile, failed to qualify for the race on his quali return, joined by Nicola Larini, a surprise Aguri Suzuki and Eric van de Poele. The Friday session had seen a huge crash for van de Poele too, who had a similar accident to Tarquini, although he ended up smacking the concrete wall. The Belgian racer was sent to hospital overnight, but was fit enough to drive on Saturday, although he failed to get through.
===Full Qualifying Result===
The final result for the is outlined below:
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Constructor	Time'1991 Belgian Grand Prix', wikipedia.org, (WikiMedia, 03/08/2015), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Belgian_Grand_Prix, (Accessed 12/08/2015)	Time'1991 Belgian Grand Prix', wikipedia.org, (WikiMedia, 03/08/2015), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Belgian_Grand_Prix, (Accessed 12/08/2015)	Gap
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Constructor	Q1 	Q2 	Gap
1 	1 	Ayrton Senna 	 	1:49.100 	1:47.811 	
2 	27 	Alain Prost 	 	1:51.369 	1:48.821 	+1.010s
3 	5 	Nigel Mansell 	 	1:50.666 	1:48.828 	+1.017s
4 	2 	Gerhard Berger 	 	1:49.485 	No Time 	+1.674s
5 	28 	Jean Alesi 	 	1:51.832 	1:49.974 	+2.163s
6 	20 	Nelson Piquet 	 	1:53.371 	1:50.540 	+2.729s
7 	32 	Michael Schumacher	 	1:53.290 	1:51.212 	+3.401s
8 	19 	Roberto Moreno 	 	1:53.664 	1:51.283 	+3.472s
9 	23 	Pierluigi Martini 	 	1:53.460 	1:51.299 	+3.488s
10 	4 	Stefano Modena 	 	1:52.899 	1:51.307 	+3.496s
11 	33 	Andrea de Cesaris 	 	1:54.186 	1:51.986 	+4.175s
12 	16 	Ivan Capelli 	 	1:53.603 	1:52.113 	+4.302s
13 	8 	Mark Blundell 	 	1:54.814 	1:52.377 	+4.566s
14 	22 	JJ Lehto 	 	1:54.211 	1:52.417 	+4.606s
15 	15 	Mauricio Gugelmin 	 	1:56.027 	1:52.623 	+4.812s
16 	7 	Martin Brundle 	 	1:54.921 	1:52.626 	+4.815s
17 	6 	Riccardo Patrese 	 	1:52.646 	No Time 	+4.835s
18 	25 	Thierry Boutsen 	 	1:54.446 	1:52.709 	+4.898s
19 	24 	Gianni Morbidelli 	 	1:57.232 	1:52.896 	+5.085s
20 	29 	 	 	1:55.679 	1:53.309 	+5.498s
21 	12 	Johnny Herbert 	 	1:55.523 	1:53.361 	+5.550s
22 	3 	Satoru Nakajima 	 	1:55.874 	1:53.494 	+5.683s
23 	14 	Olivier Grouillard	 	1:55.945 	1:53.628 	+5.817s
24 	11 	 	 	1:55.483 	1:53.799 	+5.988s
25 	21 	Emanuele Pirro 	 	1:56.131 	1:53.839 	+6.028s
26 	26 	 	 	1:56.218 	1:53.847 	+6.036s
DNQ 	30 	Aguri Suzuki 	 	1:56.594 	1:53.869 	+6.058s
DNQ 	34 	Nicola Larini 	 	1:56.561 	1:54.781 	+6.970s
DNQ 	10 	Alex Caffi 	 	1:57.556 	1:57.338 	+9.527s
DNQ 	35 	Eric van de Poele 	 	No Time 	1:57.746 	+9.935s
DNPQ	9 	Michele Alboreto 	 	1:59.910 	1:59.910 	1:59.910
DNPQ	17 	Gabriele Tarquini 	 	1:59.972 	1:59.972 	1:59.972
DNPQ	31 	Pedro Chaves 	 	2:01.921 	2:01.921 	2:01.921
DNPQ	18 	Fabrizio Barbazza 	 	2:03.766 	2:03.766 	2:03.766
===Grid===
The complete starting grid for the is shown below: 
==Race==
With no concerns about rain, a rarity for the forests of Spa, the race was expected to be a battle between rivals, as Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were set to do battle from the front once again. There were also hopes to see a battling display from Riccardo Patrese, who had had a series of issues on Saturday that left him way down the order. The morning warm-up had also seen a promising display by Michael Schumacher, who claimed fourth, while the FIA refused to modify the bumps at Blanchimont despite the two accidents earlier in the weekend.
===Report===
It was grid order for the top three, as Senna, Prost and Nigel Mansell sprinted away at the front.'GRAND PRIX RESULTS: BELGIAN GP, 1991', grandprix.com, (Inside F1 Inc., 1999), http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr511.html, (Accessed 12/08/2015) Nelson Piquet, meanwhile, shot into fourth after Jean Alesi suffered a terrible start, losing out massively, while Gerhard Berger managed to slot into fifth. Schumacher was straight into sixth in the Jordan, although his race was over by the time the field made it through Eau Rouge after a clutch failure. Riccardo Patrese also made some minor progress at the rear of the field, as the bumps around the circuit caused no initial problems.
Lap two opened with Mansell putting pressure on Prost, while Alesi began his recovery from his poor start, beginning to close the gap to Berger. Mansell was then past Prost through the second half of the lap, with the Prost retiring in a cloud of smoke as another Ferrari engine failed for the Frenchman. Mansell, meanwhile, latched onto Senna's tail, darting around in evey possible overtaking opportunity to try to force the Brazilian into a mistake.
A robust defence by Senna meant he held the lead into his pitstop on lap 15, although problems at the stop caused him to lose time. Mansell's perfect stop two laps later handed him a big lead, as Berger also lost time due to a poor stop. Things got worse for the Austrian when he left the pits, after he was thrown into a spin at the pit exit, right in front of Stefano Modena, although there was no contact and both continued unharmed. Mansell, meanwhile, fended off a challenge from Alesi, who then began to fall away having opted not to stop for fresh tyres.
At the half way mark, Mansell went out of the race after a complete electrical failure on his Williams, handing the lead to Alesi. Senna was closing in on the Sicilian at a rapid rate by this stage, until a glitch caused his car to jump into neutral. As his car rolled to a stop, Senna suddenly found a gear, and the car leapt back into contention, just ahead of a battle between Nelson Piquet, Andrea de Cesaris and Patrese, who was having an incredibly strong race from seventeenth.
Senna seemed to have a minor issue after his glitch, meaning he was unable to pull too far ahead of the group. Alesi, meanwhile, seemed on for a certain victory, until a second engine failure for Ferrari saw Senna and his trailing trio into the lead of the race. Patrese then misjudged a move when trying to take Piquet, leaving de Cesaris to fight with the Brazilian as Patrese worked to regain the time he had lost. de Cesaris then tried a dive into Les Combes, snatching second and a certain podium for Jordan on lap 31, with only a third of the race to go.
Berger was the man on a mission into the closing stages, catching and passing Piquet just moments after Patrese had pushed his way onto the podium. The Williams then started to suffer from gearbox issues, allowing Berger and Piquet to slide into third and fourth respectively, as the race began to wind down into the final three laps. It was then when a dream podium in their debut season was snatched away from Jordan, when de Cesaris' engine failed after Eau Rouge, ending their strong weekend.
Senna, meanwhile, was crusing, and as Berger pulled within two seconds of the Brazilian, duly swept home to claim his sixth win of the season ahead of his team mate. Behind Berger came Piquet, who was surprised to be on the podium, as a late charge from his team mate Roberto Moreno saw him take fourth. Patrese managed to drag his ailing Williams to fifth, ahead of a jubilant Mark Blundell who scored the first points of the season for Brabham in 1991, which were also the first of his Formula One career.
===Results===
The final results for the are shown below:
Pos. 	No. 	Driver 	Constructor	Laps 	Time/Retired	Grid 	Points
1 	1 	Ayrton Senna 	 	44 	1:27:17.669 	1 	10
2 	2 	Gerhard Berger 	 	44 	+1.901s 	4 	6
3 	20 	Nelson Piquet 	 	44 	+32.176s 	6 	4
4 	19 	Roberto Moreno 	 	44 	+37.310s 	8 	3
5 	6 	Riccardo Patrese 	 	44 	+57.310s 	17 	2
6 	8 	Mark Blundell 	 	44 	+1:40.035 	13 	1
7 	12 	Johnny Herbert 	 	44 	+1:44.599 	21 	
8 	21 	Emanuele Pirro 	 	43 	+1 lap 	25 	
9 	7 	Martin Brundle 	 	43 	+1 lap 	16 	
10 	14 	Olivier Grouillard	 	43 	+1 lap 	23 	
11 	25 	Thierry Boutsen 	 	43 	+1 lap 	18 	
12* 	23 	Pierluigi Martini 	 	42 	Gearbox 	9 	
13* 	33 	Andrea de Cesaris 	 	41 	Engine 	11 	
Ret 	4 	Stefano Modena 	 	33 	Oil leak 	10 	
Ret 	22 	JJ Lehto 	 	33 	Oil pressure	14 	
Ret 	28 	Jean Alesi 	 	30 	Engine 	5 	
Ret 	24 	Gianni Morbidelli 	 	29 	Engine 	19 	
Ret 	11 	 	 	25 	Engine 	24 	
Ret 	26 	 	 	25 	Engine 	26 	
Ret 	5 	Nigel Mansell 	 	22 	Electrical 	3 	
Ret 	29 	 	 	21 	Gearbox 	20 	
Ret 	16 	Ivan Capelli 	 	13 	Engine 	12 	
Ret 	3 	Satoru Nakajima 	 	7 	Spin 	22 	
Ret 	27 	Alain Prost 	 	2 	Fuel leak 	2 	
Ret 	15 	Mauricio Gugelmin 	 	1 	Engine 	15 	
Ret 	32 	Michael Schumacher	 	0 	Clutch 	7 	
DNQ 	30 	Aguri Suzuki 	 	 	 	 	
DNQ 	34 	Nicola Larini 	 	 	 	 	
DNQ 	10 	Alex Caffi 	 	 	 	 	
DNQ 	35 	Eric van de Poele 	 	 	 	 	
DNPQ 	9 	Michele Alboreto 	 	 	 	 	
DNPQ 	17 	Gabriele Tarquini 	 	 	 	 	
DNPQ 	31 	Pedro Chaves 	 	 	 	 	
DNPQ 	18 	Fabrizio Barbazza 	 	 	 	 	
Source	Source	Source 	Source 	Source	Source 	Source	Source
** Martini and de Cesaris were still classified as they had completed 90% of the race distance.
==Milestones==
*
==Standings==
So, Ayrton Senna extended his Championship lead to 22 points, with only 50 available for the rest of the season. Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese retained second and third, while Gerhard Berger gained some breathing space in fourth. Nelson Piquet now completed the top five, as another day of problems ended Alain Prost's title hopes. Mark Blundell, meanwhile was finally on the board, climbing into seventeenth place.
 left Belgium just on the cusp of the 100 point barrier, their one-two leaving them on 99 points. looked as if they would need a little luck to aid their title bid, with Ferrari an ever distant third, and now under potential threat from Benetton. Jordan remained in the top five despite being cruelly denied a podium, with Brabham proping up the point scorers in twelfth.  
Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship
Pos. 	Driver 	Pts 	+/-
1 	Ayrton Senna 	71 	
2 	Nigel Mansell 	49 	
3 	Riccardo Patrese 	34 	
4 	Gerhard Berger 	28 	
5 	Nelson Piquet 	22 	1
6 	Alain Prost 	21 	1
7 	Jean Alesi 	14 	
8 	Stefano Modena 	9 	
9 	Andrea de Cesaris 	9 	
10 	Roberto Moreno 	8 	
11 	JJ Lehto 	4 	
12 	Bertrand Gachot 	4 	
13 	Pierluigi Martini 	3 	
14 	 	2 	
15 	Satoru Nakajima 	2 	
16 	Emanuele Pirro 	1 	
17 	Mark Blundell 	1 	4
18 	 	1 	1
19 	Aguri Suzuki 	1 	1
20 	Julian Bailey 	1 	1
21 	Ivan Capelli 	1 	1
Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship
Pos. 	Team 	Pts 	+/-
1 	 	99 	
2 	 	83 	
3 	 	35 	
4 	 	30 	
5 	 	13 	
6 	 	11 	
7 	 	5 	
8 	 	3 	
9 	 	3 	
10 	 	2 	
11 	 	1 	
12 	 	1 	1
==References==
Category:Grand Prix articles
Category:1991 Grands Prix
Category:Belgian Grand Prix
Category:Formula One races in Belgium