The 1988 Hungarian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 7 August 1988 at the Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary. It was the tenth race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship.
The 76-lap race was won from pole position by Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, with French teammate Alain Prost second and Belgian Thierry Boutsen third in a Benetton-Ford. The win, Senna's sixth of the season, moved him level on points with Prost at the top of the Drivers' Championship.
Gallery
Report Qualifying The tight and twisty Hungaroring offered a chance for the naturally-aspirated cars against the turbos, and they took seven of the top ten positions in qualifying. However, Ayrton Senna still took pole position in his McLaren-Honda, his eighth of the season, pipping the Williams of Nigel Mansell by 0.1 seconds. Mansell was driving against doctor's orders as he had developed chickenpox. On the second row of the grid were Thierry Boutsen in the Benetton and Ivan Capelli in the March, and on the third row were Alessandro Nannini in the second Benetton and Riccardo Patrese in the second Williams. Senna's teammate Alain Prost could only manage seventh, while Gerhard Berger was ninth in his Ferrari, the two separated by the second March of Maurício Gugelmin. Completing the top ten was Alex Caffi in the Dallara.
Race
Mansell made a good start and almost took the lead but Senna held onto his position, and thanks to the superior power of his Honda engine he pulled away slightly down the main straight to head the field into turn 1. Patrese also made an excellent start climbing from 6th to 3rd while Prost was slow away and was only 9th at the end of the first lap. Capelli made a great start and in fact almost overtook Mansell into the first turn before his engine suddenly went sour and he pitted after just 2 laps to have a serious misfire investigated. On lap 12, Mansell lost downforce running close behind the McLaren and spun down to 4th place, leaving Senna to fend off the attacks of the other Williams, that of Patrese. The Italian later dropped back with engine problems, while similar problems were afflicting Nannini.
On lap 32, Prost had climbed to 3rd place behind Senna and Boutsen. On lap 37, Mansell pitted to replace tyres, which were ragged and causing vibrations to the car. Prost passed Boutsen on lap 47 and set out chasing down Senna. Two laps later, while Senna prepared to lap Yannick Dalmas' Lola and Gabriele Tarquini's Coloni, Prost passed all three of them in a breathtaking move down the main straight. However he was too quick going into the first turn and ran wide enabling Senna to regain the lead. Prost set the fastest lap of the race but was forced to drop back with vibrations caused by a loose wheel bearing. On lap 58 Mansell retired still feeling the effects of chickenpox. He later admitted that racing in Hungary was a mistake as he was then forced to miss the next two races. Boutsen closed on Prost, but the Frenchman pressed on and pushed Senna. Just half a second covered the two McLarens as they crossed the line. Boutsen took the third spot on the podium, unable to challenge further due to a broken exhaust. Berger, Gugelmin and Patrese completed the points scorers.
Classification
Pre-qualifying PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap136 Alex CaffiDallara-Ford2:01.593232 Oscar LarrauriEuroBrun-Ford2:03.343 +1.750331 Gabriele TarquiniColoni-Ford2:03.371 +1.778433 Stefano ModenaEuroBrun-Ford2:04.168 +2.57521 Nicola LariniOsella2:05.626 +4.033
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:30.422 1:27.635 2 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 1:30.151 1:27.743 +0.108 3 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:30.780 1:27.970 +0.335 4 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:32.675 1:28.350 +0.715 5 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:29.779 1:28.493 +0.858 6 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 1:30.382 1:28.569 +0.934 7 11 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:29.589 1:28.778 +1.143 8 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:35.237 1:29.099 +1.464 9 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:31.192 1:29.244 +1.609 10 36 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:32.887 1:29.891 +2.346 11 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:33.494 1:30.103 +2.468 12 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:32.514 1:30.185 +2.550 13 1 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 1:35.346 1:30.405 +2.770 14 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:32.589 1:30.908 +3.273 15 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:32.304 1:31.052 +3.417 16 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:33.597 1:31.123 +3.488 17 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 1:33.192 1:31.200 +3.565 18 22 Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 1:48.994 1:31.523 +3.888 19 2 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:34.194 1:31.646 +4.011 20 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:33.132 1:31.719 +4.084 21 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:34.001 1:31.741 +4.106 22 31 Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 1:35.991 1:32.160 +4.525 23 14 Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 1:32.973 1:32.265 +4.630 24 26 Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 1:34.843 1:32.342 +4.707 25 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 1:35.685 1:32.477 +4.842 26 33 Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 1:35.389 1:32.614 +4.979 32 Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 1:35.990 1:32.987 +5.352 10 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 1:36.716 1:33.357 +5.722 4 Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 1:35.693 1:33.694 +6.059 9 Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 1:36.223 1:34.701 +7.066
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 12 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 76 1:57:47.081 1 9 2 11 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 76 + 0.529 7 6 3 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 76 + 31.410 3 4 4 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 76 + 1:28.670 9 3 5 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 75 + 1 Lap 8 2 6 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Judd 75 + 1 Lap 6 1 7 2 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 73 + 3 Laps 19 8 1 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Honda 73 + 3 Laps 13 9 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 73 + 3 Laps 17 10 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 72 + 4 Laps 11 11 33 Stefano Modena EuroBrun-Ford 72 + 4 Laps 26 12 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 72 + 4 Laps 20 13 31 Gabriele Tarquini Coloni-Ford 71 + 5 Laps 22 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 65 Brakes 12 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Judd 60 Driver Unwell 2 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 55 Brakes 14 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 40 Electrical 15 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Judd 32 Engine 25 22 Andrea de Cesaris Rial-Ford 28 Halfshaft 18 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 24 Overheating 5 36 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 22 Engine 10 26 Stefan Johansson Ligier-Judd 19 Throttle 24 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 8 Collision 16 14 Philippe Streiff AGS-Ford 8 Collision 23 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 5 Engine 4 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 3 Engine 21 32 Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Ford 10 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed 4 Julian Bailey Tyrrell-Ford 9 Piercarlo Ghinzani Zakspeed 21 Nicola Larini Osella
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Ayrton Senna 66 2 Alain Prost 66 3 Gerhard Berger 28 4 Thierry Boutsen 16 5 Michele Alboreto 16Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda132 2 Ferrari44 3 Benetton-Ford22 4 Lotus-Honda16 5 Arrows-Megatron10Source:
References