Winning pole position would require cars to fly at 240 km/h (150 mph) at the German Grand Prix. Hockenheim’s straight stretches demanded extremely fast cars.
During qualifynig, four “flyers” secured front positions: Nigel Mansell (Williams), Ayrton Senna (Lotus), Alain Prost (McLaren) and Nelson Piquet (Williams).
Senna celebrated his time, knowing that the conditions for a good race depended on the set ups made to the fastest cars of the season.
“I can only win if the Williams cars have problems, because they are almost a second faster per lap.”
He was right. He stayed as close as he could to the Williams duo until the 25th of 44 laps. He secured the second position due to Mansell’s car trouble. But, in the end, he relinquished the second position to Stefan Johansson (Ferrari), once his Lotus began to have serious brake problems.
Ayrton Senna stepped onto the podium just as had been predicted: in third and one lap from the winner. This time, the winner was Nelson Piquet.
GERMAN GP
1º
N. Mansell
2º
Ayrton Senna
3º
A. Prost
4º
N. Piquet
5º
M. Alboreto
6º
T. Boutsen
7º
A. de Cesaris
8º
S. Johansson
9º
T. Fabi
10º
G. Berger
11º
R. Patrese
12º
R. Arnoux
13º
D. Warwick
14º
S. Nakajima
15º
E. Cheever
16º
A. Nannini
17º
P. Ghinzani
18º
A. Campos
19º
M. Brundle
20º
C. Danner
21º
P. Alliot
22º
P. Streiff
23º
J. Palmer
24º
I. Capelli
25º
P. Fabre
26º
A. Caffi
44
laps
26
cars
19
Retirements
1’45”716
Fastest lap
1º
Cloudy Weather
Podium
1º
N. Piquet
2º
S. Johansson
3º
Ayrton Senna
3º
final position
2º
position i championship following the race
2º
starting place
4
championship points accumulated
1’49”187
best lap
At five laps to the end, I had problems with the car and could have retired from the race, but I decided to continue on. After finishing, the car was destroyed inside.
