The 1991 Portuguese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Autódromo do Estoril on 22 September 1991. It was the thirteenth race of the 1991 Formula One World Championship.
The 71-lap race was won by Italian driver Riccardo Patrese, driving a Williams-Renault, after he started from pole position. Patrese's teammate and Drivers' Championship challenger, Briton Nigel Mansell, led until a pit stop went wrong, resulting in his disqualification from the race. Brazilian Ayrton Senna finished second in a McLaren-Honda, thus increasing his lead over Mansell in the championship to 24 points with three races remaining, with Frenchman Jean Alesi finishing third in a Ferrari.
Pre-race The only change to the driver line-up was that Johnny Herbert was back at Lotus, replacing Michael Bartels, who had failed to qualify in his three outings for the team.
Qualifying Pre-qualifying report It was the fourth consecutive 1–2 for the Brabham team in Friday morning pre-qualifying, with Martin Brundle outpacing his team-mate Mark Blundell by just 0.049 of a second. Third was Gabriele Tarquini in the AGS, just under three tenths of a second off the pace in the new JH27. The Footwork of Michele Alboreto was fourth, the Italian's fourth pre-qualifying success in five attempts.
The four drivers to miss out included Tarquini's team-mate Fabrizio Barbazza in fifth position, although he was closer to the pace than in previous events, driving the new AGS JH27 for the first time. Olivier Grouillard could only manage sixth place on this occasion for Fondmetal, his eighth pre-qualifying failure this season, and the Frenchman was sacked by the team after the Grand Prix weekend. Alex Caffi struggled again in the other Footwork in seventh place, his fourth failure in five pre-qualifying attempts, in contrast with his team-mate Alboreto. At the bottom of the time sheets, Pedro Chaves was unable to post a representative time at his home event in the Coloni, but the team announced it had been purchased by Italian shoe designer Andrea Sassetti.
Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 1:17.739 — 2 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 1:17.788 +0.049 3 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:18.020 +0.281 4 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 1:18.371 +0.583 5 18 Fabrizio Barbazza AGS-Ford 1:19.292 +1.553 6 14 Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford 1:19.500 +1.761 7 10 Alex Caffi Footwork-Ford 1:19.521 +1.782 8 31 Pedro Chaves Coloni-Ford 1:23.858 +6.119
Qualifying report Qualifying saw the top teams' second drivers beating the championship contenders. Riccardo Patrese took pole ahead of Gerhard Berger, with Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell third and fourth respectively. The top ten was rounded out by Alain Prost, Jean Alesi, Maurício Gugelmin, Pierluigi Martini, Ivan Capelli, and Michael Schumacher, the Benetton team a little off their usual pace.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:14.041 1:13.001 — 2 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:13.221 1:13.430 +0.220 3 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:13.752 1:13.444 +0.443 4 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:13.944 1:13.667 +0.666 5 27 Alain Prost Ferrari 1:15.018 1:14.352 +1.351 6 28 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:15.572 1:14.852 +1.851 7 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor 1:17.214 1:15.266 +2.265 8 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari 1:15.394 1:16.982 +2.393 9 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor 1:15.481 1:15.827 +2.480 10 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:16.477 1:15.578 +2.577 11 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:16.241 1:15.666 +2.665 12 4 Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda 1:16.018 1:15.707 +2.706 13 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari 1:16.540 1:15.749 +2.748 14 33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford 1:15.972 1:15.936 +2.935 15 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 1:16.567 1:16.038 +3.037 16 32 Roberto Moreno Jordan-Ford 1:16.956 1:16.080 +3.079 17 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd 1:16.725 1:16.135 +3.134 18 22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 1:16.724 1:16.532 +3.531 19 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 1:17.298 1:16.536 +3.535 20 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini 1:18.005 1:16.757 +3.756 21 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda 1:16.926 1:17.035 +3.925 22 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Judd 1:17.713 1:17.015 +4.014 23 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini 1:18.192 1:17.226 +4.225 24 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 1:18.389 1:17.330 +4.329 25 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 1:17.434 1:17.537 +4.433 26 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Judd 1:18.947 1:17.714 +4.713 27 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Ford 1:18.186 1:17.825 +4.824 28 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:18.295 1:18.022 +5.021 29 34 Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini 1:21.612 1:18.139 +5.138 30 35 Eric van de Poele Lambo-Lamborghini 1:20.411 1:18.266 +5.265
Race Race report On Sunday Morning Prost's Ferrari had a rather dramatic blowup in the warmup, and the Frenchman had to start the race in the spare car. The start was very eventful with Patrese getting away well and with Mansell aggressively chopping across the front of Senna. Unimpressed, he tried to retake Mansell going into the first turn but Nigel held his line and then proceeded to sweep underneath Berger to grab second at the second corner. After lap 1 the order was Patrese, Mansell, Berger, Senna, and Alesi. Mansell seemed content to shadow Patrese until lap 18 when he slipstreamed past his teammate on the main straight and proceeded to pull away. Things were looking good for Williams until Mansell came in for his stop on lap 29 and disaster struck: a communications mix-up by the pit crew resulted in Mansell being sent off with the right rear wheel of his car not properly attached. The wheel rotated clean off and a frustrated Mansell was left stranded in the pit lane. In the heat of the moment, the crew scampered over to the car and fitted a fresh wheel outside of the pit box, a violation of the rules.
Mansell emerged in 17th place and started a charge through the field; he was up to sixth when he was finally shown the black disqualification flag on lap 51. He would, however, keep the fastest lap of the race, set on lap 43. The incident left Patrese comfortably in the lead from Berger and Senna, and Senna went second when Berger's engine blew on lap 37, he was followed out of the race by Prost's Ferrari, which also decided it had enough. On lap 40 the order was Patrese, Senna, Alesi, Martini, and Capelli, with the latter three being involved in an exciting battle for third place; Alesi didn't make errors despite being under pressure from the Minardi, and so the order remained unchanged until the late stages when the fifth placed Capelli suffered a front wing problem and ended up in the barriers, he came in the pits for a front wing change but retired only a lap later. Patrese cruised home to his second win of the season and fifth of his career. Senna was second and tightened the screw on his third drivers title. Alesi, Martini, Piquet, and Schumacher rounded out the top six. With three races to go Senna led Mansell by 24 points.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 71 1:35:42.304 1 10 2 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 71 + 20.941 3 6 3 28 Jean Alesi Ferrari 71 + 53.554 6 4 4 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ferrari 71 + 1:03.498 8 3 5 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 71 + 1:10.033 11 2 6 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 71 + 1:16.582 10 1 7 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Ilmor 70 + 1 lap 7 8 33 Andrea de Cesaris Jordan-Ford 70 + 1 lap 14 9 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Ferrari 70 + 1 lap 13 10 32 Roberto Moreno Jordan-Ford 70 + 1 lap 16 11 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Lamborghini 70 + 1 lap 23 12 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Yamaha 69 + 2 laps 19 13 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Honda 68 + 3 laps 21 14 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Judd 68 + 3 laps 26 15 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Ford 68 + 3 laps 24 16 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Lamborghini 68 + 3 laps 20 17 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Ilmor 64 Front wing 9 4 Stefano Modena Tyrrell-Honda 56 Engine 12 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 51 Illegal pit stop 4 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Ford 40 Transmission 25 27 Alain Prost Ferrari 39 Engine 5 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 37 Engine 2 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Judd 18 Engine 17 22 JJ Lehto Dallara-Judd 14 Gearbox 18 8 Mark Blundell Brabham-Yamaha 12 Suspension 15 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Judd 1 Engine 22 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Ford 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 34 Nicola Larini Lambo-Lamborghini 35 Eric van de Poele Lambo-Lamborghini 18 Fabrizio Barbazza AGS-Ford 14 Olivier Grouillard Fondmetal-Ford 10 Alex Caffi Footwork-Ford 31 Pedro Chaves Coloni-Ford
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ayrton Senna* 83 2 Nigel Mansell* 59 3 Riccardo Patrese 44 4 Gerhard Berger 31 1 5 Nelson Piquet 25Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda* 114 2 Williams-Renault* 103 3 Ferrari 43 4 Benetton-Ford 36 5 Jordan-Ford 13Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Competitors in bold and marked with an asterisk still had a mathematical chance of becoming World Champion.
References