The 1990 Portuguese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 23 September 1990 at Autódromo do Estoril. It was the thirteenth race of the 1990 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race was the 19th Portuguese Grand Prix and the seventh to be held at Estoril. It was scheduled to be held over 71 laps of the circuit but was stopped after 61 laps, a race distance of , after an accident involving the Arrows of Alex Caffi and the Lola of Aguri Suzuki.

Nigel Mansell took pole position in his Ferrari and was leading when the race was stopped, thus taking his only victory of the season and his last for the Ferrari team. Mansell finished 2.8 seconds ahead of Drivers' Championship leader Ayrton Senna in the McLaren-Honda, who in turn finished 1.3 seconds ahead of rival Alain Prost in the other Ferrari. Senna thus extended his lead over Prost to 18 points with three races remaining.

This also marked the first race in which an effective traction control system was used in Formula One. Scuderia Ferrari used the system on Prost's Ferrari 641; which gave the Frenchman an eventual third-place podium finish. Mansell's 641 was also equipped with the same traction control system; however, the Englishman decided to switch his system off for the race. Nonetheless, he still won the race.

Qualifying Pre-qualifying report The Friday morning pre-qualifying session produced a similar result to the previous two races, with the same four cars pre-qualifying, albeit in a slightly different order. Olivier Grouillard was fastest for the third time in a row in the Osella, half a second ahead of the AGS of Yannick Dalmas. Now a regular pre-qualifier after the disastrous period with the Subaru engine, Bertrand Gachot was third fastest in the Coloni, nearly a second ahead of Gabriele Tarquini in the other AGS.

This left the now-usual trio missing out on pre-qualification. The two EuroBruns of Robert Moreno and Claudio Langes were again fifth and sixth, with Langes more than two seconds slower than his team-mate as the team began to lose touch with their rivals. The Life team had finally abandoned their unreliable and vastly underpowered W12 engine, and had fitted the L190 with a well-used Judd CV V8. It had taken ten days to modify the chassis, and the car was now 80 kg lighter. But the engine cover now did not fit properly, and it flew off on Bruno Giacomelli's shakedown lap, halfway through the session. It was slightly damaged and the team had no replacement, so no further running was possible.

Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:19.384 — 2 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:19.885 +0.501 3 31 Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Ford 1:20.000 +0.616 4 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:20.942 +1.558 5 33 Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 1:21.188 +1.804 6 34 Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd 1:23.447 +4.063 7 39 Bruno Giacomelli Life-Judd no time —

Qualifying report Tyrrell's Satoru Nakajima qualified 20th but withdrew due to influenza after crashing in the Sunday morning warm-up session. The grid was adjusted accordingly, although only 25 drivers started as no non-qualifier was reinstated.

Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 2 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:14.861 1:13.557 — 2 1 Alain Prost Ferrari 1:14.536 1:13.595 +0.038 3 27 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:14.246 1:13.601 +0.044 4 28 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:14.552 1:14.292 +0.735 5 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:15.539 1:14.723 +1.166 6 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:15.542 1:14.728 +1.171 7 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:15.646 1:14.934 +1.377 8 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:16.092 1:15.112 +1.555 9 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:16.123 1:15.411 +1.854 10 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 1:16.477 1:15.673 +2.116 11 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 1:17.189 1:16.012 +2.455 12 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 1:18.242 1:16.284 +2.727 13 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 1:17.653 1:16.290 +2.733 14 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 1:17.569 1:16.296 +2.739 15 12 Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 1:17.414 1:16.762 +3.205 16 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:17.045 1:16.795 +3.238 17 10 Alex Caffi Arrows-Ford 1:18.725 1:16.946 +3.389 18 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:17.252 1:17.066 +3.509 19 9 Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 1:18.630 1:17.081 +3.524 20 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.097 no time +3.540 21 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 1:17.330 1:17.120 +3.563 22 11 Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 1:17.904 1:17.259 +3.702 23 25 Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 1:18.958 1:17.269 +3.712 24 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:17.962 1:17.341 +3.784 25 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:18.581 1:17.621 +4.064 26 7 David Brabham Brabham-Judd 1:18.967 1:17.715 +4.158 27 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:18.512 1:17.775 +4.218 28 24 Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 1:18.669 1:18.280 +4.723 29 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:20.226 1:18.815 +5.258 30 31 Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Ford 1:20.662 1:20.516 +6.959

Race Race report At the start, with both Ferraris on the front row (Mansell on pole, Alain Prost second), Mansell got too much wheelspin and slid across the track towards Prost, who had to avoid being shunted into the pitwall. All of this allowed the McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger to slip past Mansell and Prost to make it a McLaren 1–2 with Senna leading into the first corner. After all the mid race tyre stops, it was Senna who emerged as the race leader, followed by Mansell, Berger, and Prost. A few laps later Mansell had caught Senna and passed him into turn one (Senna letting him through, unlike the year before when they collided).

On lap 52, race leader Nigel Mansell was attempting to lap the Ligier JS33B of Philippe Alliot when the Frenchman stuck to the racing line by driving inches in front of Mansell into the inside of "Curva 2" corner. However, the right rear wheel of his car hit the left front of Mansell's Ferrari and Alliot was sent spinning into the Armco barrier. Mansell came out unscathed from this incident, and eventually won the race which was stopped early due to an accident between Suzuki and Caffi.

Ferrari announced that Jean Alesi would partner Alain Prost for 1991. Alesi was reported to have already signed a contract with Williams, but changed his mind when Ferrari showed an interest, feeling that this would give him a better chance of winning a championship.

By winning this race, Mansell tied Stirling Moss' longstanding record of most F1 Grand Prix wins without a Drivers' Championship, at 16. Mansell would then extend it to 29 across the next two years, until finally clinching the title at the 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix, at which point Moss would have that record handed back to him.

Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 2 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 61 1:22:11.014 1 9 2 27 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 61 + 2.808 3 6 3 1 Alain Prost Ferrari 61 + 4.189 2 4 4 28 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 61 + 5.896 4 3 5 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 61 + 57.418 6 2 6 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 61 + 58.249 9 1 7 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 60 + 1 lap 5 8 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 60 + 1 lap 8 9 9 Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 60 + 1 lap 19 10 25 Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 59 + 2 laps 22 11 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 59 + 2 laps 16 12 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 59 + 2 laps 14 13 10 Alex Caffi Arrows-Ford 58 Collision 17 14 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 58 Collision 11 15 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 58 + 3 laps 13 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 52 Accident 20 7 David Brabham Brabham-Judd 52 Gearbox 25 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 51 Engine 12 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 30 Engine 7 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 24 Gearbox 10 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 21 Gearbox 23 12 Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 14 Alternator 15 11 Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 5 Throttle 21 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 3 Halfshaft 24 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 0 Spun off 18 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford Driver unwell 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 24 Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 31 Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Ford 33 Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 34 Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd 39 Bruno Giacomelli Life-Judd

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Ayrton Senna 78 2 Alain Prost 60 3 Gerhard Berger 40 4 Thierry Boutsen 27 5 Nelson Piquet 26Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda118 2 Ferrari85 3 Williams-Renault44 4 Benetton-Ford43 5 Tyrrell-Ford15Source:

References