The 1990 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on 24 June 1990. It was the sixth race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship, the 14th Mexican Grand Prix and the fifth since the Mexico City circuit returned to the Formula One calendar in 1986. It was held over 69 laps of the 4.4 kilometre circuit for a race distance of 305 kilometres.
The race was won by reigning world champion, French driver Alain Prost driving a Ferrari 641. Prost, the 1988 race winner, became the second multiple-winner in Mexican Grand Prix history, joining British driver Jim Clark who won the race in 1962 (non-championship), 1963 and 1967. It was Prost's second win of the year after the Brazilian Grand Prix. Prost won the race by 26 seconds over his British teammate Nigel Mansell. Third was Austrian driver Gerhard Berger driving a McLaren MP4/5B. Ayrton Senna stopped with a puncture late in the race, allowing both Prost and Berger to close to eight points behind him in the Driver's Championship. The one-two finish for Ferrari at this race would be the last for the team until the 1998 French Grand Prix.
Ferrari would wait a further 34 years until their next win in Mexico was secured in 2024 by Carlos Sainz Jr.
This was the last race of the season to be held in the continent of North America.
Qualifying Pre-qualifying report During the Friday morning pre-qualifying session, Olivier Grouillard was fastest for the first time this season, in the Osella. The Larrousse-Lolas of Éric Bernard and Aguri Suzuki were second and fourth, with the EuroBrun of Roberto Moreno between them in third place.
For the third Grand Prix in succession, the AGS cars missed out in fifth and sixth positions, with Yannick Dalmas faster than Gabriele Tarquini this time. AGS technical director Hugues de Chaunac left the team prior to this event, frustrated at the team's lack of progress. Seventh again was Bertrand Gachot in the Coloni, although he was much closer to the pace on this occasion, just three tenths of a second behind Tarquini. Claudio Langes was a distant eighth again after only completing the minimum three laps required by the regulations, as the team concentrated on Moreno. Bottom of the time sheets as usual was Bruno Giacomelli in the Life, only managing an out-lap before his engine failed. Team manager Sergio Barbasio confirmed that his engineers were working on converting the L190 chassis to run with the Judd CV engines he now claimed to have bought from Lotus.
Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:25.281 — 2 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 1:25.456 +0.175 3 33 Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 1:26.724 +1.443 4 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 1:27.511 +2.230 5 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:27.830 +2.549 6 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:28.499 +3.218 7 31 Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Subaru 1:28.805 +3.524 8 34 Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd 1:40.414 +15.133 9 39 Bruno Giacomelli Life 4:07.475 +2:42.194
Qualifying report There were no driver changes as the F1 show moved to Mexico City. The weather was changeable during the weekend, catching some drivers out, with both of the Larrousse team's drivers having major accidents on the Saturday morning. Despite that, both Aguri Suzuki and Éric Bernard managed to qualify for the race. The Leyton House drivers Ivan Capelli and Maurício Gugelmin both failed to qualify. At the front of the grid, Gerhard Berger took pole from Riccardo Patrese, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Thierry Boutsen, Jean Alesi, Pierluigi Martini, Nelson Piquet, Satoru Nakajima, and Stefano Modena, with championship contender Alain Prost, not happy with the qualifying set up of his Ferrari so deciding instead to qualify with his race set up, 13th. Roberto Moreno was disqualified for receiving a push start in qualifying.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 28 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:17.227 1:17.850 — 2 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:18.215 1:17.498 +0.271 3 27 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:18.417 1:17.670 +0.443 4 2 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:17.938 1:17.732 +0.505 5 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:19.062 1:17.883 +0.656 6 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:18.727 1:18.282 +1.055 7 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:18.526 1:18.590 +1.299 8 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:19.022 1:18.561 +1.334 9 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 1:19.551 1:18.575 +1.348 10 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:18.592 1:19.817 +1.365 11 11 Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 1:19.557 1:18.951 +1.724 12 12 Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 1:19.769 1:18.994 +1.767 13 1 Alain Prost Ferrari 1:19.378 1:19.026 +1.799 14 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:19.909 1:19.227 +2.000 15 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:21.635 1:19.865 +2.638 16 24 Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 1:19.897 1:21.242 +2.670 17 9 Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 1:21.212 1:19.941 +2.714 18 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 1:21.067 1:20.044 +2.817 19 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 1:21.077 1:20.268 +3.041 20 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:20.274 1:21.167 +3.047 21 7 David Brabham Brabham-Judd 1:20.447 1:20.636 +3.220 22 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 1:21.451 1:20.657 +3.430 23 35 Gregor Foitek Onyx-Ford 1:21.012 1:21.400 +3.785 24 25 Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 1:21.584 1:21.116 +3.889 25 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 1:21.273 1:21.677 +4.046 26 36 JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 1:21.519 1:21.687 +4.292 27 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 1:23.639 1:21.544 +4.317 28 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 1:22.612 1:21.665 +4.438 29 10 Alex Caffi Arrows-Ford 1:22.278 1:22.154 +4.927 33 Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 1:21.142 no time +3.915
Race Race report Sunshine greeted the drivers on race day and at the start it was Patrese who got away from Senna, Berger, Boutsen, and Piquet. Senna and Berger both passed Patrese on lap 2, and the McLaren drivers opened a significant lead over the rest of the field. Prost was charging through the field from his poor grid position, while Piquet moved up to third. Berger's run in second place came to an early end when he had to stop for new tyres on lap 13, leaving Piquet in second but under pressure from his former team-mate Nigel Mansell, who was able to pass him soon afterwards. Prost continued his charge through the field, eventually taking second from Mansell with 15 laps to go. Prost proceeded to set off after Senna, who was beginning to slow with tyre problems. The Brazilian had gambled on tyre durability by not making a stop for fresh rubber. On lap 60, Prost got past Senna with a simple move and three laps later Senna's rear tyre exploded, forcing him to retire from his 100th Grand Prix. As he had completed over 90% of the race, he was classified as a finisher in 20th place, the lowest classified result of his career. The battle for second place between Mansell and Berger culminated in Mansell passing around the outside of Berger going into the ultra-fast Peraltada corner. Mansell thus finished second behind Prost, with Berger third from Alessandro Nannini, Boutsen, and Piquet.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Alain Prost Ferrari 69 1:32:35.783 13 9 2 2 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 69 + 25.351 4 6 3 28 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 69 + 25.530 1 4 4 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 69 + 41.099 14 3 5 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 69 + 46.669 5 2 6 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 69 + 46.943 8 1 7 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 69 + 49.077 6 8 12 Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 69 + 1:06.142 12 9 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 69 + 1:09.918 2 10 11 Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 68 + 1 lap 11 11 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 68 + 1 lap 10 12 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 68 + 1 lap 7 13 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 68 + 1 lap 15 14 24 Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 67 + 2 laps 16 15 35 Gregor Foitek Onyx-Ford 67 + 2 laps 23 16 25 Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 67 + 2 laps 24 17 9 Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 66 + 3 laps 17 18 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 66 + 3 laps 22 19 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 65 + 4 laps 20 20 27 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 63 Tyre 3 36 JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 26 Engine 26 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 12 Brakes 25 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 11 Collision 19 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 11 Collision 9 7 David Brabham Brabham-Judd 11 Electrical 21 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 10 Engine 18 33 Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd Push start 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 10 Alex Caffi Arrows-Ford 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 31 Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Subaru 34 Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd 39 Bruno Giacomelli Life
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Ayrton Senna 31 2 Alain Prost 23 3 Gerhard Berger 23 4 Jean Alesi 13 5 Nigel Mansell 13Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda54 2 Ferrari36 3 Williams-Renault20 4 Benetton-Ford20 5 Tyrrell-Ford14Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References