Boutsen inherited third for Williams. This was after Prost had tried to block Senna and pushed him close to the grass during one of the aborted starts. Swede Stefan Johansson finished 5th, scoring the Onyx team's first points, and Olivier Grouillard took the final points paying position. In the thin air of Mexico City's high altitude, the turbos were able to perform at their optimum, while the naturally aspirated cars actually lost approximately 20–25% of their power.
Senna, knowing the Ferraris were closing in, dived under Schlesser's Williams at the Rettifilo chicane instead of waiting for the long, fast Curva Grande that would follow. The race of attrition saw Christian Danner score a surprise 4th place in his Rial, while Herbert and Boutsen rounded out the scoring zone.
As Williams would find out, the power needed to run the suspension made the already underpowered Judd V8 sluggish compared to its rivals.
The team also switched from Judd engines to the Ford Cosworth DFR, powering the new JS33. Prost's win over Senna in Australia saw him score eleven more points in total than the Brazilian, but only the eleven highest scores counted, with Senna's eight wins and three seconds giving him a total of 90 points to Prost's 87.
The Australian Grand Prix was overshadowed by the ongoing controversy surrounding the Japanese race, but once the appeals had been considered, Prost was crowned the champion for the third time. After pitting for repairs, Senna worked his way past both Williams and the Benettons to take a three-second victory. Prost disliked the wet, and his failing gearbox only added to the Brazilian's chances. [28] The team started the year with their 1988 line-up of Yannick Dalmas and Philippe Alliot, but Dalmas was recovering from Legionnaires' disease and was eventually replaced by Éric Bernard, who in turn made way for Alboreto. Enzo Ferrari, the founding father of Ferrari and its F1 team Scuderia Ferrari, died on 14 August at the age of 90. Berger went to his left to pass both cars only to find Cheever had done the same to pass Larrauri, and the American had what was left of the road.
The fastest atmo qualifier, the Benetton-Ford of Alessandro Nannini, finished in 7th place. Peter Higham, The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing, 1995, page 126, Learn how and when to remove this template message, List of Formula One World Championship points scoring systems, 1988 Formula One results and images at f1-facts.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1988_Formula_One_World_Championship&oldid=971586754, Articles needing additional references from January 2007, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 7 August 2020, at 01:47. [citation needed]. He whittled down Prost's 5 second lead to just under a second by lap 30, but the latter pulled a few seconds ahead by the 35th lap. There are enough accidental shunts in this business without people actually trying to cause them.....". The 1989 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 43rd season of FIA Formula One motor racing.
For the first time in 1988, Ayrton Senna was not on pole position.
Mansell was the first non-turbo front row starter in Formula One since Keke Rosberg had qualified his Williams-Ford on pole at the same circuit for the opening race of the 1983 season. Berger miraculously survived with just a broken rib, shoulder bone and burns to his back and hands, due to rescue crews removing him from the wreck in less than 60 secs. Gerhard Berger qualified second behind Senna (who took his record 7th straight pole position), with Alboreto third and Prost only managing fourth on the grid on his least favorite track on the calendar. The DFR, a development of the customer DFZ engine used by various teams in 1988, was reportedly the most powerful non-turbo engine, producing approximately 610 bhp (455 kW; 618 PS) (compared to around 580 bhp (433 kW; 588 PS) for the DFZ). [21][23] Benetton continued as the de facto works Ford team, but had to make do with the Cosworth DFR-powered 1988 car, the B188, until the new HB-powered B189 was introduced at the French Grand Prix. He ended sixth while Prost retook the championship lead by obtaining his fifth victory of the year. Had the race been flagged after 70 laps, Palmer would have finished 4th having already been lapped by Prost instead of running out of fuel and being classified as 9th and last.
Prost was later lapped by his teammate going into Woodcote in a move that also saw Senna take the lead for the first time from Berger.
In the second wet race in a row, Senna took the win from Prost, with Berger taking the bottom step of the rostrum. All through the year, Prost's better feel at setting up a car was not only noticed by his teammate, but mimicked.
Steve Nichols' McLaren MP4/4, combined with the championship winning Honda V6 turbo, made a mockery of the rest of the grid. The top six cars were all sitting very close and when the rain started to fall, so did Prost.
The 1988 season also included a single event which did not count towards the World Championship, the Formula One Indoor Trophy at the Bologna Motor Show.
Nigel Mansell doubled his British Grand Prix efforts and scored another six points. The 1998 Formula One Season was the 49th season of the Drivers' World Championship and the 40th season of the Constructors' Championship. Only 30 cars were allowed to take part in the main qualifying sessions, so pre-qualifying was retained from 1988. Incredibly though, the turbocharged Osella of Nicola Larini with its ancient "Osella V8" (a re-badged Alfa Romeo 890T first seen in 1983), allegedly the most powerful engine in the field, failed to qualify.