The 1988 Monaco Grand Prix (formally the 46e Grand Prix de Monaco) was a Formula One motor race held on 15 May 1988 at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo. It was the third race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship.
The 78-lap race was won by Frenchman Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-Honda. Prost took his 30th win – including 4th and final in Monaco – after Brazilian teammate Ayrton Senna crashed out late on while leading comfortably. Austrian driver Gerhard Berger finished second in a Ferrari, with Italian teammate Michele Alboreto third, scoring his 20th podium. It was McLaren's 58th win, 150th podium and 40th fastest lap. Honda engine scored its 30th win.
Qualifying Qualifying report The McLaren-Hondas continued their dominant form from the previous race at Imola, as Ayrton Senna took pole position by an almost unbelievable 1.5 seconds ahead of teammate Alain Prost, with a further 1.2 seconds back to the Ferrari of Gerhard Berger in third. Berger's teammate Michele Alboreto was fourth, while Nigel Mansell was fifth in the Williams, the quickest of the naturally-aspirated cars, albeit some 3.6 seconds behind Senna. Completing the top ten were Alessandro Nannini in the Benetton, Derek Warwick in the Arrows, Riccardo Patrese in the second Williams, Eddie Cheever in the second Arrows and Jonathan Palmer in the Tyrrell, while among the non-qualifiers was Satoru Nakajima, whose Lotus was powered by the same Honda turbo engine as the McLaren.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:26.464 1:23.998 2 11 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:28.375 1:25.425 +1.427 3 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:29.001 1:26.685 +2.687 4 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:29.931 1:27.297 +3.299 5 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:28.475 1:27.665 +3.667 6 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:29.093 1:27.869 +3.871 7 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:29.928 1:27.872 +3.874 8 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:29.130 1:28.016 +4.018 9 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:32.889 1:28.227 +4.229 10 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:30.679 1:28.358 +4.360 11 1 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:30.924 1:28.403 +4.405 12 14 Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:29.597 1:28.527 +4.529 13 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:31.375 1:28.536 +4.538 14 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:32.148 1:28.610 +4.612 15 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:31.662 1:28.625 +4.627 16 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:29.539 1:28.640 +4.642 17 36 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:33.691 1:29.075 +5.077 18 32 Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:31.861 1:29.093 +5.095 19 22 Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:33.183 1:29.298 +5.300 20 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:31.964 1:29.480 +5.482 21 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 1:33.158 1:29.601 +5.603 22 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:35.216 1:29.603 +5.605 23 9 Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:33.005 1:30.121 +6.213 24 31 Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 1:32.792 1:30.252 +6.254 25 21 Nicola Larini Osella 1:36.705 1:30.335 +6.337 26 26 Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:36.036 1:30.505 +6.507 2 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:30.611 1:31.573 +6.613 10 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:33.585 1:30.613 +6.615 23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Ford 1:32.627 1:30.793 +6.795 4 Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 1:34.192 1:30.816 +6.818
Race Race report At the start, Senna led away, while Berger overtook Prost when the Frenchman momentarily could not engage second gear. Behind them, a variety of accidents occurred at Sainte-Dévote: Alex Caffi hit the wall in his Dallara; Philippe Streiff, who had started 12th in his AGS, retired when an accelerator cable broke; and World Champion Nelson Piquet collided with Cheever, which forced the Brazilian to retire at the end of the first lap and thus end a disastrous weekend for the Lotus team.
The running order of Senna, Berger, Prost, Mansell, Alboreto and Nannini was maintained until lap 33 when Alboreto took Mansell off at the Swimming Pool, ending the Englishman's race. Nannini then suffered a gearbox failure on lap 39. On lap 51, Patrese collided with Philippe Alliot's Lola while trying to lap him; Alliot retired immediately.
On lap 54, Prost passed Berger for second on the run to Sainte-Dévote, though he was some 50 seconds behind Senna. In an effort to put some pressure on his team-mate, he started trading fastest laps with him. With 11 laps remaining, McLaren team boss Ron Dennis radioed Senna to slow down to ensure a safe 1-2 finish, allowing Prost to gain six seconds.
On lap 67, Senna lost concentration at Portier, causing him to crash his McLaren into the barrier and damage the car's front suspension. Immediately afterwards, he went to his home in Monaco to contemplate losing a race that he had dominated from the first time he took to the track for free practice on Thursday morning; the McLaren team did not even hear from him until that evening, when he walked into the pits as they were packing up.
Prost thus took his fourth Monaco win in five years, with Berger some 20 seconds behind and Alboreto a further 21 seconds back. Warwick finished fourth after a race-long battle with Palmer, while Patrese recovered from his collision with Alliot to take the final point, passing the other Lola of Yannick Dalmas on the last lap. Patrese's point was also the first-ever World Championship point scored by a Judd-powered car and his first point for Williams.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 11 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 78 1:57:17.077 2 9 2 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 78 + 20.453 3 6 3 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 78 + 41.229 4 4 4 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 77 + 1 lap 7 3 5 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 77 + 1 lap 10 2 6 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 77 + 1 lap 8 1 7 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 77 + 1 lap 21 8 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 76 + 2 laps 16 9 21 Nicola Larini Osella 75 + 3 laps 25 10 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 72 + 6 laps 22 12 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 66 Accident 1 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 50 Collision 13 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 45 Fuel system 14 9 Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 43 Gearbox 23 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 38 Gearbox 6 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 36 Halfshaft 15 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 32 Collision 5 22 Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 28 Engine 19 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 17 Engine 20 32 Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 14 Brakes 18 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 8 Engine 9 26 Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 6 Engine 26 31 Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 5 Suspension 24 1 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1 Collision 11 36 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 0 Spun off 17 14 Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 0 Throttle 12 2 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 10 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Ford 4 Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 33 Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford Missed weight check
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Alain Prost 24 2 Gerhard Berger 14 3 Ayrton Senna 9 4 Nelson Piquet 8 5 Michele Alboreto 6Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda33 2 Ferrari20 3 Lotus-Honda9 4 Arrows-Megatron6 5 Benetton-Ford4Source:
References