add site
services
publishers
database
health videos
toolbar
stats
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise add site services publishers database health videos
| | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
2001 State Farm Grand Prix steeplechasers.org | Personal Trainers throughout United States - CFR - Leading Personal... fitnessandresults.com | Coaching: United States, directory for Coaching/United States healthysense.com |
The 1991 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on March 10, 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona.
[edit] SummaryAyrton Senna's new McLaren-Honda had not turned a wheel prior to arriving in Phoenix for the start of the 1991 Formula One season, but when it did, no one could even stay close. On pole by more than a second over rival Alain Prost, Senna stamped his authority on the race from the green light, leaping into an immediate lead and leading every lap.  The 1991 McLaren chassis had only had one brief test session, and the two race cars were completed about 4 am Friday, six hours before the first practice session. Not many believed it could be ready to win, but Senna predicted that the new V-12 Honda would eventually be better than the previous year's V-10.
   The Ferraris of Alain Prost and Jean Alesi were expected to be the strongest team, but their V-12s and 7-speed semiautomatic gearboxes were not well suited to the tight turns and short straights of the street circuit. As it turned out, they were not the only ones plagued by gearbox problems throughout the race, but they fared better than most.
On Sunday, Prost began his second season at Ferrari alongside Senna on the front row. At the start, he fell in behind the Brazilian, with Nigel Mansell slipping ahead of Riccardo Patrese. Alesi and Gerhard Berger followed, then Nelson Piquet, Roberto Moreno, Stefano Modena and Emanuele Pirro. A lap later, Alesi, in his first race for Ferrari, swept past Patrese, but by then Senna was pulling away. After ten laps, he had a lead of ten seconds over Prost. Behind Senna, the most ambitious driver on the track in the early laps was Patrese, as he found himself on the tail of two separate but sensational three-way battles. First, after getting back by Alesi for fourth on lap 16, Patrese closed on Mansell who was immediately behind Prost. By lap 22, Patrese was close enough to attack his Williams teammate but overshot onto the escape road, as Mansell swerved to avoid him. Upon rejoining, Patrese quickly latched onto Alesi and Berger, as the new three-car train now covered fourth through sixth places. Patrese had gotten past Berger when, suddenly, two of the top six runners retired on consecutive laps. On lap 35, Mansell pulled over when the Williams' new semi-automatic gearbox failed, and on the next time around, Berger's race ended as well. When Patrese passed Alesi for the second time, Alesi realized the Ferrari had eaten up his D-compound Goodyear tires, and he was forced to pit on lap 43. He rejoined in seventh. Three laps later, Prost was being hounded by Patrese, and he also pitted, ceding second spot to the Williams. When the Ferrari crew had problems changing his right rear tire, the Frenchman dropped to seventh behind Modena's Tyrrell-Honda.
With Patrese out, Senna led Piquet, who was having to hold off Alesi, by over a minute. Alesi squeezed up to second on lap 53, while four laps later Prost disposed of Modena. Then on lap 70, with one brilliant move into Turn Five, Prost went from fourth to second. With Alesi and Piquet running second and third, Piquet's Benetton pulled alongside Alesi– who had set the race's fastest lap while Prost was in the pits– in Turn Four, but could not get by. Down the straight, however, Piquet passed Alesi for second place. Prost also went by his new teammate on the left, and then sliced back to the right, between Alesi and Piquet, beating Piquet to the apex of Turn Five and regaining second place. By now Senna led by 40 seconds, pacing himself, and Prost simply consolidated second. Gearbox troubles dropped Alesi to fifth before he retired less than 10 laps from the finish, leaving third place to Piquet who, like the two Tyrrells following, had never pitted for tires. Martini was pressing Nakajima for fifth, only to have his engine let go after 75 laps. A similar problem removed Gachot from eighth on the same lap, promoting Suzuki to sixth. The race ended a lap short of the planned 82 as the two-hour limit was reached. After the race, Senna assessed his new car's performance: "I had small problems with the gearbox, and the car balance was not optimum, so it was very difficult to drive. I'm looking forward to running a proper circuit with proper conditions and see what the car can do." Prost and the rest of the field could only imagine how they were going to catch him when that happened. Indeed, they rarely did and Senna would go on to capture his second consecutive, third and final Driver's Championship. [edit] Classification [edit] Notes
[edit] External links[edit] References
Coordinates: 33°26′52.5″N 112°4′28.5″W / 33.447917°N 112.074583°W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
