The 1990 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jerez on 30 September 1990. It was the fourteenth race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship, and the fifth and last Spanish Grand Prix to be held at Jerez (though the circuit would host the European Grand Prix in and ).
The 73-lap race was won by Alain Prost, driving a Ferrari, with teammate Nigel Mansell second and Alessandro Nannini third in a Benetton-Ford. Prost's Drivers' Championship rival, Ayrton Senna, took the 50th pole position of his career in his McLaren-Honda, but retired with a failed radiator, allowing Prost to close to within nine points of him in the championship with two races remaining.
This would be the last Ferrari race win until the 1994 German Grand Prix and the last one-two victory until the 1998 French Grand Prix. Also for the all-time Grand Prix wins leader of the time in Prost, this would be his last win until the 1993 South African Grand Prix.
The event was marred by a serious incident during Friday practice, when Martin Donnelly crashed his Lotus 102 at the high-speed Turn 14. Donnelly was thrown from the wreckage, suffering serious injuries that ended his Formula One career. This also turned out to be the last F1 race and podium for Nannini, who severed his right arm in a helicopter crash the following week (though he would return to racing as a touring car driver), as well as the last race for the back-marking EuroBrun and Life teams.
Footage from Donnelly's practice crash was used to present a major plot point for the 2025 film F1.
Qualifying Pre-qualifying report In the Friday morning pre-qualifying session, the same four drivers went through to the main qualifying sessions as had progressed in the previous three events. This time it was Yannick Dalmas who topped the time sheets in his AGS, the first time he had done so this season. Gabriele Tarquini made it an AGS 1–2, just over a tenth of a second behind. Olivier Grouillard was a shade slower in third in the Osella, while Bertrand Gachot was nearly two seconds slower in the Coloni, back in fourth.
In fifth place, Roberto Moreno missed the cut by just 0.018 of a second in the EuroBrun, with Claudio Langes just over a second behind in sixth. Langes' gap to Gachot of 1.133 seconds represented the closest the Italian had come all season to successfully pre-qualifying, as he had failed to pre-qualify for all 14 races so far this season. This proved to be his last opportunity, as EuroBrun withdrew from Formula One after this event.
It was also the last event for the hapless Life team, who also withdrew afterwards. Bruno Giacomelli managed two laps in the L190 before it stopped midway through the circuit, its new Judd engine apparently not providing much improvement. The car had never come within 12 seconds of pre-qualifying successfully at any of its 14 events. To make matters worse, the Life team did not bring a jack to Jerez, forcing mechanics to lift the L190 by its suspension arms. The absence of EuroBrun and Life at the last two Grands Prix of the season avoided the need for pre-qualifying at those events.
Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:22.470 — 2 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:22.592 +0.122 3 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:22.708 +0.238 4 31 Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Ford 1:24.603 +2.133 5 33 Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 1:24.621 +2.151 6 34 Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd 1:25.736 +3.266 7 39 Bruno Giacomelli Life-Judd 1:42.699 +20.229
Qualifying report
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 27 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:18.900 1:18.387 — 2 1 Alain Prost Ferrari 1:20.026 1:18.824 +0.437 3 2 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:21.005 1:19.106 +0.719 4 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:19.923 1:19.604 +1.217 5 28 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:19.643 1:19.618 +1.231 6 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:20.562 1:19.647 +1.260 7 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:20.721 1:19.689 +1.302 8 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:21.111 1:19.700 +1.313 9 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:21.383 1:20.367 +1.980 10 11 Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 1:22.111 1:20.610 +2.223 11 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:22.255 1:21.060 +2.673 12 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 1:23.019 1:21.167 +2.780 13 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 1:23.783 1:21.170 +2.783 14 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 1:22.690 1:21.215 +2.828 15 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 1:21.740 1:21.244 +2.857 16 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 1:23.485 1:21.277 +2.890 17 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:22.953 1:21.467 +3.080 18 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 1:22.403 1:21.551 +3.164 19 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 1:23.866 1:21.916 +3.529 20 25 Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 1:23.290 1:21.996 +3.609 21 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:24.784 1:22.288 +3.901 22 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:23.260 1:22.466 +4.079 23 12 Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 1:22.659 no time +4.272 24 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:23.249 1:22.716 +4.329 25 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:23.641 1:23.133 +4.746 26 9 Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 1:24.043 1:23.161 +4.774 27 7 David Brabham Brabham-Judd 1:25.899 1:23.163 +4.776 28 24 Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 1:25.093 1:23.274 +4.887 29 10 Bernd Schneider Arrows-Ford 1:24.675 1:23.924 +5.537 30 31 Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Ford 1:26.593 1:25.114 +6.727
Race Race report On the start Patrese collided with Jean Alesi, and sending the Frenchman into a heavy spin at turn 1 into the gravel trap and then retired as a result. As it was Senna who lead the early stages before lap 27 as Nelson Piquet then took the lead for two laps as a result of not pitting before Prost then took the lead on lap 29, Piquet who pitted after 40 laps would eventually retire with battery problems after 48 laps, Ayrton Senna would also retire with the result of a punctured radiator on lap 54 forcing the Brazilian into retirement, as did Gerhard Berger after colliding with Thierry Boutsen on Lap 57. From there the Ferrari drivers eventually dominated the race with reigning world champion Alain Prost leading his teammate Nigel Mansell home by 22 seconds for a 1-2 finish. British Team Lotus driver Martin Donnelly had a horrific crash during Friday practice at the very fast Turn 14; the seat of his Lotus 102 broke free and was flung clear of the wreck. Donnelly received serious injuries that took months of recovery, bringing an end to his Formula One career, although he later returned to racing. Team Lotus decided not to retire from the race, and Derek Warwick was close to the point-scoring positions when he became the race's final retirement on lap 63 with a broken gearbox in the other Lotus 102. Donnelly attributed his survival to safety improvements made after Riccardo Paletti's fatal accident at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix.
The race also turned out to be the last race of Alessandro Nannini's Formula One career. Nannini claimed the final podium position of the race in his Benetton B190, the ninth podium of his career, finishing ahead of the Williams pair of Thierry Boutsen and Riccardo Patrese. One week after the race, his right arm was severed in a helicopter accident. Nannini recovered and returned to racing as a touring car driver.
At the start of the race, Gerhard Berger, desperate to move up from his fifth place on the grid, gave Jean Alesi no room, resulting in Alesi moving to the outside, where he was hit and put out of the race by Riccardo Patrese.
The Larrousse-Lola of Aguri Suzuki claimed the final championship point of the race, continuing an encouraging season for the French team. It was an encouraging race for another French team, Yannick Dalmas and Gabriele Tarquini both qualified in AGS JH25s in a first for the team, but AGS never again got two cars onto a Formula One grid. Dalmas finished in ninth position, the highlight of the season for the small French team. The ninth-placed finish saved the team from pre-qualifying for the first half of 1991 as it moved them up to a crucial 13th place in the Constructors Championship. As a consequence, Scuderia Italia dropped into pre-qualifying, as they failed to finish higher than 10th all season.
McLaren driver Ayrton Senna's lap 53 retirement with a failed radiator reduced his lead in the world championship over Prost to nine points with just the Japanese and Australian Grands Prix remaining in the season.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Alain Prost Ferrari 73 1:48:01.461 2 9 2 2 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 73 + 22.064 3 6 3 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 73 + 34.874 9 4 4 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 73 + 43.296 7 3 5 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 73 + 57.530 6 2 6 30 Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 73 + 1:03.728 15 1 7 25 Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 72 + 1 lap 20 8 15 Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 72 + 1 lap 12 9 18 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 72 + 1 lap 23 10 9 Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 71 + 2 laps 25 11 Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 63 Gearbox 10 16 Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 59 Physical 19 28 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 56 Collision 5 27 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 53 Radiator 1 20 Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 47 Battery 8 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 47 Engine 17 14 Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 45 Wheel bearing 21 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 41 Spun off 11 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 22 Spun off 13 29 Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 20 Gearbox 18 3 Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 13 Spun off 14 17 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 5 Engine 22 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 5 Collision 24 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 0 Spun off 4 21 Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 0 Throttle 16 12 Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini Driver injured 7 David Brabham Brabham-Judd 24 Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 10 Bernd Schneider Arrows-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 69 3 Gerhard Berger 40 4 Nigel Mansell 31 5 Thierry Boutsen 30Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda118 2 Ferrari100 3 Williams-Renault49 4 Benetton-Ford47 5 Tyrrell-Ford15Source:
References