1988 Brazilian Grand Prix

Ron Dennis’ uncompromising commitment to the pursuit of success might rub some people up the wrong way, but even his critics came away from the Autodromo Nelson Piquet after the Brazilian Grand Prix with grudging admiration for the manner in which, yet again, his team had won first time out with a brand new car.

Before the weekend, neither Alain Prost’s nor Ayrton Senna’s race-cars had so much as turned a wheel, while the spare–earmarked this time for Senna but to be shared equally through the season –had only 300 miles on it from its maiden test outing at Imola two weeks earlier. Yet after the first untimed session on the Friday they headed the timesheets, the advantage with Prost, and thereafter no other manufacturer got even a sniff of victory.

Honda Marlboro McLaren’s pill had a bitter-sweet coating. There was Senna’s brilliant pole-lap followed by Prost’s eventual triumph, but that was balanced by the former champion’s qualifying gremlins, an uncharacteristic structural defect when the front wings collapsed on the Frenchman’s race-car on Saturday, Senna’s raceday gear-linkage problem and then his subsequent disqualification for swapping to a different chassis after the warming-up lap–which suggested the team had forgotten the lesson of Monza 1986 when the same fate befell Prost.

Race Results

Qualifying

Circuit - Rio de Janeiro

Country

Brazil

Location

Jacarepagua, Rio de Janeiro

Type

Permanent road course

Length

3.126 (Miles)

Record

Riccardo Patrese (Williams FW12C-Renault), 1m32.507, 121.652 mph, F1, 1989

Championships

3,398

Championships

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Results

19,198

Results

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Drivers

25,161

Drivers

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Teams

14,528

Teams

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Circuits

889

Circuits

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