Qualifying
Just five months after his crash at the 1987 Japanese Grand Prix, Mansell produced a sensational performance to qualify his naturally aspirated Williams second, 1.5 seconds faster than the next 'atmo' car, the Benetton-Ford of Thierry Boutsen in 7th. On the pole was Senna in his first drive for McLaren with a time almost two seconds slower than Mansell's 1987 pole time. The second row was occupied by Gerhard Berger's Ferrari (Berger's time was reportedly much slower than he managed in the annual Rio pre-season tests just two weeks prior to the race which led to speculation that the Ferraris had not been using the FIA mandated pop off valves in testing), and Alain Prost's McLaren, the Frenchman not being happy with his new car in qualifying.
The four non-qualifiers were the Tyrrell-Ford of Julian Bailey, the turbo Zakspeeds of Piercarlo Ghinzani and Schneider, and the turbo Osella of Nicola Larini. Alex Caffi failed to pre-qualify his Dallara.
Read more about this topic: 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix