The 1988 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Suzuka Circuit on 30 October 1988. It was the fifteenth and penultimate race of the season.
The race was won by McLaren's Ayrton Senna, who had clinched his first world championship in doing so. He finished ahead of his teammate and championship rival Alain Prost and Thierry Boutsen from Benetton who came in third. By winning the race, he took his eighth Grand Prix victory of the season, eclipsing the record previously held by Prost in and Jim Clark in for the most wins in a season with seven, before his record was beaten by Nigel Mansell in .
Report Qualifying On Honda's home track, the McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost filled the front row. Senna's pole time was 1.8 seconds slower than Gerhard Berger's 1987 time.
Just 30 minutes prior to the start of Friday morning's Free Practice session, local hero Satoru Nakajima was informed that his mother had died that morning. That he chose to drive in such circumstances won the much maligned Japanese driver new fans in the F1 paddock.
Berger himself could only manage third on the grid, joined on the second row by Ivan Capelli in the naturally aspirated March-Judd. On the third row were the two Lotus-Hondas of outgoing World Champion Nelson Piquet, who was suffering from a virus, and home town favourite Nakajima. Lotus showed great faith in Nakajima by announcing that they had re-signed him for the season, despite the fact that they would have to use Judd engines after Honda's decision to supply McLaren exclusively. According to US race broadcaster ESPN throughout the second half of the season after Honda's announcement that they were leaving Lotus, Honda had allegedly offered US$2 million to any team willing to sign Nakajima as a driver.
French driver Yannick Dalmas was declared medically unfit for the race and was replaced in the Larrousse team by Japan's Aguri Suzuki, who was on his way to winning the 1988 Japanese Formula 3000 Championship. Suzuki qualified 20th on his F1 debut, one place behind temporary teammate Philippe Alliot. Dalmas, originally thought to have an ear infection that kept him out of both Japan and the final race in Australia, was diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease later in the year.
Race The all-McLaren front row was the 11th of the year, but its drivers had contrasting fortunes. Prost led away from Berger and Capelli, while Senna stalled on the grid. However, Suzuka had the only sloping grid of the year and so the Brazilian was able to bump start his car into action. He had dropped to 14th place, but immediately made a charge through the field, gaining six places by the end of the first lap and then passing Riccardo Patrese, Thierry Boutsen, Alessandro Nannini and Michele Alboreto to run fourth on lap 4. Meanwhile, Derek Warwick and Nigel Mansell collided and had to pit for a puncture and a new nose cone, respectively, while Capelli not only set the fastest lap but also passed Berger – who was already troubled with fuel consumption problems – on lap 5 to move into second place. Alboreto was nudged off track by Thierry Boutsen in the Benetton-Ford on lap 8 while he was in sixth place.
On lap 14 the weather started to come into contention as rain began on parts of the circuit, benefiting Senna. On lap 16 Capelli seized his chance to pass Prost for the lead, the first time a non-turbo car had led a Grand Prix since . Prost had been slowed when Suzuki's Lola had spun at the chicane and got going again just as Prost and Capelli were braking for the tight right-left complex. He then missed a gear coming out of the chicane thanks to a troublesome gearbox and was passed by the March, but Capelli's lead only lasted for a few hundred metres as the extra power of the Honda turbo engine allowed Prost to regain the lead going into the first turn. Capelli made several further attempts to overtake Prost before ultimately retiring three laps later with electrical failure.
Mansell's race lasted until lap 24 when he collided with Piquet's Lotus while trying to lap him. Piquet, still unwell with a virus and complaining of double vision, continued for another ten laps before retiring through fatigue.
By then Senna was catching Prost rapidly, and with traffic, Prost's malfunctioning gearbox, and a tricky wet and dry surface, conditions were favourable to the Brazilian. On lap 27, as they attempted to lap Andrea de Cesaris, Nakajima and Maurício Gugelmin, Senna managed to force his way through as Prost was delayed by de Cesaris's Rial. Senna then put in a succession of fast laps, breaking the former lap record and building a lead of over three seconds, despite being delayed while lapping Nakajima.
With slick tyres on a track that was now wet, Senna gestured for the race to be stopped. The race ran out its entire distance, however, with Senna finishing 13 seconds ahead of Prost. Boutsen took third place, whilst Berger recovered to fourth place after Alboreto held up Nannini, who had to settle for fifth. Patrese finished in sixth, and Nakajima was 7th.
With victory in the race, Senna clinched the World Championship. Due to the scoring system in 1988, Prost could only add three more points to his total even if he won in Australia, which would give him 87 points in total. If Senna then failed to score they would be equal on points, but Senna would still win the title, having taken more wins (8 to 7). Victory in Japan was also Senna's eighth win of the season, which beat the record for total wins in a single season, previously held by Jim Clark () and Prost ().
Classification
Pre-qualifying PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap136 Alex CaffiDallara-Ford1:49.099—221 Nicola LariniOsella1:50.288 +1.189332 Oscar LarrauriEuroBrun-Ford1:50.942 +1.843433 Stefano ModenaEuroBrun-Ford1:51.141 +2.04231 Gabriele TarquiniColoni-Ford1:52.234 +3.135
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:42.157 1:41.853 — 2 11 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:43.806 1:42.177 +0.324 3 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:43.548 1:43.353 +1.500 4 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:44.583 1:43.605 +1.752 5 1 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:45.171 1:43.693 +1.840 6 2 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:45.156 1:43.693 +1.840 7 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:46.915 1:43.816 +1.963 8 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:44.448 1:43.893 +2.040 9 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:44.909 1:43.972 +2.119 10 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:44.882 1:44.499 +2.686 11 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:45.510 1:44.555 +2.702 12 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:45.047 1:44.611 +2.758 13 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:45.138 1:45.156 +3.285 14 22 Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:48.393 1:45.558 +3.705 15 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:45.845 1:46.189 +3.992 16 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:47.828 1:45.916 +4.063 17 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:47.638 1:46.449 +4.596 18 14 Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:47.583 1:46.486 +4.633 19 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:47.057 1:46.521 +4.668 20 29 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 1:48.448 1:46.920 +5.067 21 36 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:47.813 1:46.982 +5.129 22 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:48.769 1:47.134 +5.281 23 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:49.165 1:47.193 +5.340 24 21 Nicola Larini Osella 1:48.706 1:47.547 +5.694 25 10 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:49.897 1:47.599 +5.746 26 4 Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 1:49.420 1:48.589 +6.736 26 Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:49.127 1:48.716 +6.863 32 Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:50.224 1:49.265 +7.412 9 Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:49.706 1:50.550 +7.853 33 Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:49.812 1:50.047 +7.959
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 12 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 51 1:33:26.173 1 9 2 11 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 51 +13.363 2 6 3 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 51 +36.109 10 4 4 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 51 +1:26.714 3 3 5 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 51 +1:30.603 12 2 6 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 51 +1:37.615 11 1 7 2 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 50 +1 lap 6 8 14 Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 50 +1 lap 18 9 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 50 +1 lap 19 10 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 50 +1 lap 13 11 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 50 +1 lap 9 12 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 50 +1 lap 16 13 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 49 +2 laps 17 14 4 Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 49 +2 laps 26 15 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 49 +2 laps 22 16 29 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 48 +3 laps 20 17 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 48 +3 laps 23 22 Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 36 Overheating 14 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 35 Ignition 15 21 Nicola Larini Osella 34 Brakes 24 1 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 34 Driver unwell 5 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 24 Collision 8 36 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 22 Spun off 21 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 19 Electrical 4 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 16 Spun off 7 10 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 14 Driver unfit 25 26 Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 32 Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 9 Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 33 Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 31 Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford
Championship standings after the race Bold text indicates the World Champions.
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Ayrton Senna 87 (88) 2 Alain Prost 84 (96) 3 Gerhard Berger 41 4 Thierry Boutsen 29 5 Michele Alboreto 24Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda184 2 Ferrari65 3 Benetton-Ford44 4 Arrows-Megatron20 5 March-Judd19Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Drivers could only count their best 11 results; numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Points accurate at final declaration of results. The Benettons were subsequently disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix and their points reallocated.
References