The 1991 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Magny-Cours on 7 July 1991. It was the seventh race of the 1991 Formula One World Championship, and the first French Grand Prix to be held at Magny-Cours. The 72-lap race was won by Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Renault, with local driver Alain Prost second in a Ferrari and Ayrton Senna third in a McLaren-Honda.
Pre-race
The French Grand Prix had moved from the Circuit Paul Ricard near Marseille to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in the centre of France, to mixed reviews. There were no changes in the driver line-up, but the Footwork team had decided to abandon the disastrous Porsche V12 engine project in favour of a return to Ford engines, while Ferrari introduced a new car, the 643.
Qualifying Pre-qualifying report In the Friday morning pre-qualification session, Andrea de Cesaris was fastest in the Jordan for the second time this season. He was four tenths of a second faster than JJ Lehto in the Dallara, with Olivier Grouillard third fastest for Fondmetal at his home race, the second time in a row the Frenchman had pre-qualified. The fourth pre-qualifier was Bertrand Gachot in the other Jordan.
Those failing to progress to the main qualifying sessions included the other Dallara of Emanuele Pirro in fifth, just a couple of tenths slower than Gachot. The two Modena Lambos were sixth and seventh, with Nicola Larini outpacing Eric van de Poele, and bottom of the time sheets was Pedro Chaves in the Coloni. This was the seventh consecutive Grand Prix in which the Portuguese driver had failed to pre-qualify.
Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford 1:19.729 — 2 22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 1:20.172 +0.443 3 14 Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford 1:20.227 +0.498 4 32 Bertrand Gachot Jordan-Ford 1:20.309 +0.580 5 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd 1:20.539 +0.810 6 34 Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini 1:20.628 +0.899 7 35 Eric van de Poele Lambo-Lamborghini 1:21.304 +1.575 8 31 Pedro Chaves Coloni-Ford 1:22.229 +2.500
Qualifying report In qualifying, local driver Alain Prost impressed and was set to score Ferrari's first pole position of the season, but in the dying minutes Riccardo Patrese in the Williams-Renault came through to pip the French driver to the pole. Championship leader Ayrton Senna spun on Olivier Grouillard's oil on his final qualifying attempt and had to settle for third alongside Nigel Mansell in the second Williams, with the rest of the top ten starting spots occupied by Gerhard Berger, Jean Alesi, Nelson Piquet, Roberto Moreno, Maurício Gugelmin, and the impressive Gianni Morbidelli in a Minardi.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:17.472 1:14.559 - 2 27 Alain Prost Ferrari 1:17.386 1:14.789 +0.230 3 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:16.557 1:14.857 +0.298 4 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:17.095 1:14.895 +0.336 5 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:18.087 1:15.376 +0.817 6 28 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:17.303 1:15.877 +1.318 7 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:20.449 1:16.816 +2.257 8 19 Roberto Moreno Benetton-Ford 1:19.711 1:16.961 +2.402 9 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor 1:19.728 1:17.015 +2.456 10 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari 1:20.635 1:17.020 +2.461 11 4 Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda 1:19.530 1:17.114 +2.555 12 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari 1:19.426 1:17.149 +2.590 13 33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford 1:20.097 1:17.163 +2.604 14 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini 1:20.427 1:17.504 +2.945 15 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor 1:19.555 1:17.533 +2.974 16 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini 1:19.187 1:17.775 +3.216 17 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 1:22.277 1:17.836 +3.277 18 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda 1:21.020 1:18.144 +3.585 19 32 Bertrand Gachot Jordan-Ford 1:20.374 1:18.150 +3.591 20 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Judd 1:21.230 1:18.185 +3.626 21 14 Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford 1:20.640 1:18.210 +3.651 22 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 1:22.058 1:18.224 +3.665 23 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Ford 1:21.613 1:18.540 +3.981 24 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 1:20.999 1:18.826 +4.267 25 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 1:21.966 1:18.846 +4.287 26 22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 1:21.323 1:19.267 +4.708 27 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Judd 1:22.274 1:19.491 +4.932 28 18 Fabrizio Barbazza AGS-Ford 1:22.319 1:20.110 +5.551 29 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:22.737 1:20.262 +5.703 30 10 Stefan Johansson Footwork-Ford 1:24.114 1:21.000 +6.441
Race Race report At the start Patrese made a disastrous start and dropped to 10th position on lap 1, so Prost led from Mansell, Senna, Berger, and Alesi, while Bertrand Gachot spun off on the first lap in his Jordan. Berger was out when his engine failed on lap 6, his third consecutive retirement due to engine problems. Patrese started another recovery drive by passing both Piquet and Morbidelli in one fell swoop when Morbidelli botched an overtaking attempt, taking himself out of the running. At the front Mansell pressured Prost and on Lap 21 he made his move taking advantage of traffic to out-brake the French star going into the hairpin. Mansell slowly pulled away but problems at his first tyre stop dropped him back behind Prost. Mansell once again closed on Prost and the two battled it out until Mansell finally managed to take advantage of traffic, again, and took the lead on Lap 54 by this time outbraking Prost around the outside at the hairpin. Mansell pulled away and scored his first win of the season, Prost was second followed by Senna, Alesi, Patrese, and de Cesaris.
This was the 17th win of Mansell's career, thus breaking the record of Grand Prix wins by an English driver, previously held by Stirling Moss.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 72 1:38:00.056 4 10 2 27 Alain Prost Ferrari 72 + 5.003 2 6 3 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 72 + 34.934 3 4 4 28 Jean Alesi Ferrari 72 + 35.920 6 3 5 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 71 + 1 lap 1 2 6 33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford 71 + 1 lap 13 1 7 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor 70 + 2 laps 9 8 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 70 + 2 laps 7 9 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari 70 + 2 laps 12 10 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Judd 70 + 2 laps 20 11 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini 70 + 2 laps 14 12 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini 69 + 3 laps 16 19 Roberto Moreno Benetton-Ford 63 Physical 8 4 Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda 57 Gearbox 11 14 Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford 47 Oil leak 21 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Ford 43 Transmission 23 22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 39 Tyre 26 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 36 Spun off 17 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 32 Transmission 22 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 31 Gearbox 25 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 21 Gearbox 24 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda 12 Spun off 18 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari 8 Collision 10 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor 7 Spun off 15 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 6 Engine 5 32 Bertrand Gachot Jordan-Ford 0 Spun off 19 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Judd 18 Fabrizio Barbazza AGS-Ford 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 10 Stefan Johansson Footwork-Ford 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd 34 Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini 35 Eric van de Poele Lambo-Lamborghini 31 Pedro Chaves Coloni-Ford
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ayrton Senna 48 2 2 Nigel Mansell 23 1 3 Riccardo Patrese 22 1 4 Alain Prost 17 2 5 Nelson Piquet 16Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda 58 2 Williams-Renault 45 1 3 Ferrari 25 1 4 Benetton-Ford 21 5 Tyrrell-Honda 11Source:
References