British GP 1991

JULY 14, 1991

British GP, 1991

There was Mansell Mania at Silverstone in 1991 with the British idol second in the World Championship (albeit with half the number of points of Ayrton Senna) but with the dominant Williams-Renault FW14. Mansell was duly on pole after an exciting battle with Senna. Riccardo Patrese was third in the second Williams. Senna's McLaren team mate Gerhard Berger was fourth fastest ahead of Alain Prost and Jean Alesi in their Ferraris, Roberto Moreno and Nelson Piquet in their Benettons and Mauricio Gugelmin (Leyton House) and Stefano Modena's Tyrrell-Honda.

At the start Mansell made a very poor getaway and so Senna went into the lead. Mansell was having none of that and on the run down Hangar Straight he blasted ahead of the Brazilian, having turned off the rev-limiter to get the power he wanted. The rev-limiter is a device which prevents the driver from pushing the engine faster than the engineers would wish, but this can be overridden in exceptional circumstances. Berger and Patrese had collided at the first corner. Patrese went off but Berger soon fought back, passing Moreno for third place and then following Senna. He pitted for tyres in the middle of the race and dropped to fifth but in the closing laps he was able to get back to third place and on the last lap this became second when Senna ran out of fuel. Mansell, however, was untouchable all afternoon and scored a popular victory. Prost finished third despite a rare spin in the middle of the race.

Andrea de Cesaris (Jordan) did well, running in the top 10 until he had a huge accident at Abbey Corner but emerged unhurt as usual.

Senna was credited with fourth place with Nelson Piquet fifth and Bertrand Gachot (Jordan) sixth, a promising result for the Belgian driver.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault  59 1h27m35.479s  
Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda  59 1h28m17.772s  
27 Alain Prost Ferrari  59 1h28m35.629s  
4r Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda  58 Out Of Fuel 
20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Cosworth  58  
32 Bertrand Gachot Jordan-Cosworth  58  17 
Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda  58  10 
Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda  58  15 
23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari  58  23 
10 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd  57  18 
11 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari  57  20 
12 11 Mika Hakkinen Lotus-Judd  57  25 
13 22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd  56  11 
14r 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Judd  55 Engine 24 
Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha  52 Engine 12 
33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Cosworth  41 Suspension/accident 13 
28 Jean Alesi Ferrari  31 Accident 
30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Cosworth  29 Accident 22 
25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini  29 Engine 19 
Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha  28 Throttle Linkage 14 
Michele Alboreto Footwork-Porsche  25 Gearbox 26 
15 Mauricio Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor  24 Chasis Vibration/driver Cramp 
19 Roberto Moreno Benetton-Cosworth  21 Gearbox 
29 Eric Bernard Lola-Cosworth  21 Crown Wheel & Pinion 21 
16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor  16 Spin 16 
Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault  Accident 
nq 26 Erik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini    27 
nq 10 Stefan Johansson Footwork-Porsche    28 
nq 18 Fabrizio Barbazza AGS-Cosworth    29 
nq 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Cosworth    30 
npq 14 Olivier Grouillard Fomet-Cosworth    31 
npq 34 Nicola Larini Lamborghini    32 
npq 35 Eric van de Poele Lamborghini    33 
npq 31 Pedro Chaves Coloni-Cosworth    34