The 1991 Italian Grand Prix (formally the Coca-Cola 62º Gran Premio d'Italia) was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 8 September 1991. It was the twelfth race of the 1991 Formula One World Championship.
The 53-lap race was won by British driver Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Renault, after he started from second position. Drivers' Championship leader, Brazilian Ayrton Senna, finished second in his McLaren-Honda, having started from pole position, with Frenchman Alain Prost third in a Ferrari. The win, Mansell's fourth of the season, enabled him to reduce Senna's championship lead to 18 points with four races remaining.
Pre-race The big news between the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix revolved around young Michael Schumacher, who had made his debut for Jordan in Belgium. Schumacher had signed for Benetton while still being under contract to Jordan. After much legal wrangling the German was confirmed at Benetton, while Roberto Moreno went the other way, taking Schumacher's place at Jordan. Elsewhere Michael Bartels was back at Lotus, as Johnny Herbert had more commitments in Japanese Formula 3000.
Qualifying Pre-qualifying report It was a third 1–2 in a row for Brabham in the Friday morning pre-qualifying session, with Mark Blundell back on top of the time sheets, eight tenths of a second faster than Martin Brundle. Olivier Grouillard was again third fastest for Fondmetal, his fifth pre-qualifying success of the season. Michele Alboreto took the last pre-qualification position in the Footwork, 1.5 seconds off Blundell's pace.
In his best pre-qualifying performance in his four attempts so far, Fabrizio Barbazza just missed out in fifth place in the AGS, albeit 1.6 seconds slower than Alboreto. His team-mate Gabriele Tarquini debuted the new JH27 car, but its engine failed on the first lap. Tarquini reverted to the JH25B, but could only manage sixth fastest. Alex Caffi was a couple of tenths of a second further back in seventh in the other Footwork, while Pedro Chaves remained stuck in the pits after the worn engine in his Coloni refused to start.
Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 1:24.271 2 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 1:25.117 +0.846 3 14 Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford 1:25.556 +1.285 4 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 1:25.771 +1.500 5 18 Fabrizio Barbazza AGS-Ford 1:27.392 +3.121 6 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:27.401 +3.130 7 10 Alex Caffi Footwork-Ford 1:27.608 +3.337 8 31 Pedro Chaves Coloni-Ford — —
Qualifying report In qualifying, Ayrton Senna took pole again, with title rival Nigel Mansell second, the Englishman complaining of traffic on his final two hot laps. Gerhard Berger was third, followed by Riccardo Patrese, Alain Prost, Jean Alesi, Schumacher, Nelson Piquet, in his 200th Grand Prix, Moreno, and Pierluigi Martini, in the Ferrari powered Minardi.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:21.114 1:21.245 2 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:21.328 1:21.247 +0.133 3 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:21.360 1:21.346 +0.232 4 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:21.619 1:21.372 +0.258 5 27 Alain Prost Ferrari 1:22.080 1:21.825 +0.711 6 28 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:21.956 1:21.890 +0.776 7 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:22.471 1:22.553 +1.357 8 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:23.176 1:22.726 +1.612 9 32 Roberto Moreno Jordan-Ford 1:23.102 1:23.447 +1.988 10 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari 1:23.294 1:23.789 +2.180 11 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 1:23.473 1:24.400 +2.359 12 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor 1:23.674 1:24.755 +2.560 13 4 Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda 1:24.457 1:23.701 +2.587 14 33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford 1:24.060 1:23.921 +2.807 15 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda 1:24.464 1:24.265 +3.151 16 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd 1:24.584 1:24.282 +3.168 17 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari 1:24.287 1:25.223 +3.173 18 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor 1:24.391 1:25.023 +3.277 19 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 1:24.713 1:24.643 +3.529 20 22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 1:24.733 1:24.725 +3.611 21 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini 1:26.133 1:25.177 +4.063 22 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini 1:25.478 1:25.420 +4.306 23 34 Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini 1:25.717 1:25.934 +4.603 24 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Ford 1:26.325 1:25.871 +4.757 25 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Judd 1:26.701 1:25.941 +4.827 26 14 Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford 1:26.416 1:26.805 +5.302 27 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 1:26.563 1:27.198 +5.449 28 12 Michael Bartels Lotus-Judd 1:27.169 1:26.829 +5.715 29 35 Eric van de Poele Lambo-Lamborghini 1:27.110 1:27.099 +5.985 30 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 1:27.257 18:14.470 +6.143
Race Race report At the start Senna got away well from Mansell, Berger, Patrese, and Alesi, with everyone making it through the Rettifilo double chicane. Moreno was an early casualty as he spun off on lap 2 with the Jordan's suspension breaking just before the spin also just behind the leaders.
Patrese at the front started to charge, first he disposed of Berger, and then Mansell. Martini had spun off in the Minardi by lap 8 at Roggia behind the leaders. On lap 26 Patrese passed Senna at the Ascari chicane, but on the following lap a gearbox failure took him out. Senna now led from Mansell and Berger, with Mansell pressuring Senna for the lead, and on lap 34 he took it with a perfectly timed out-braking manoeuvre going into the Ascari chicane. Senna proceeded to pit for tyres and emerged down in fifth place, but in no mood to stay there. Senna proceeded to pass Schumacher going into Ascari, and then slipstreamed passed Berger into the first corner, and got back to second by passing arch-rival Prost going into the second chicane. Mansell meanwhile cruised to victory from Senna, Prost, Berger (despite pulling off just after the start/finish line with electrical problems), Schumacher, and Piquet, Alesi having retired with a blown engine. With four races to go Senna still led Mansell by 18 points, but this race confirmed that Mansell and Williams could beat Senna's McLaren in a straight fight.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 53 1:17:54.319 2 10 2 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 53 + 16.262 1 6 3 27 Alain Prost Ferrari 53 + 16.829 5 4 4 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 53 + 27.719 3 3 5 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 53 + 34.463 7 2 6 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 53 + 45.600 8 1 7 33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford 53 + 51.136 14 8 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor 53 + 1:15.019 12 9 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari 52 + 1 lap 17 10 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd 52 + 1 lap 16 11 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini 52 + 1 lap 22 12 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 52 + 1 lap 11 13 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 52 + 1 lap 19 14 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Judd 49 + 4 laps 25 15 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor 49 + 4 laps 18 16 34 Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini 48 + 5 laps 23 14 Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford 46 Engine 26 22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 35 Overheating 20 4 Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda 32 Engine 13 28 Jean Alesi Ferrari 29 Engine 6 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 27 Gearbox 4 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda 24 Throttle 15 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Ford 21 Engine 24 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari 8 Spun off 10 32 Roberto Moreno Jordan-Ford 2 Spun off 9 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini 1 Spun off 21 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 12 Michael Bartels Lotus-Judd 35 Eric van de Poele Lambo-Lamborghini 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 18 Fabrizio Barbazza AGS-Ford 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 10 Alex Caffi Footwork-Ford 31 Pedro Chaves Coloni-Ford
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ayrton Senna* 77 2 Nigel Mansell* 59 3 Riccardo Patrese 34 4 Gerhard Berger 31 1 5 Alain Prost 25Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda* 108 2 Williams-Renault* 93 3 Ferrari 39 4 Benetton-Ford 33 5 Jordan-Ford 13Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Competitors in bold and marked with an asterisk still had a mathematical chance of becoming World Champion.
References