Race Summary
The race was held in pouring rain, the first wet race since the 1985 Belgian Grand Prix. Senna made an excellent start to tail Berger and Alboreto into the first turn. Alboreto had actually beaten Berger away but with the inside line the Austrian pulled ahead through Copse. Senna was soon past the Italian and unsuccessfully challenged Berger for the lead. Prost's start was awful and he fell back to 9th place. On lap 3, Ivan Capelli dropped back with electrical trouble.
By lap 14, Maurício Gugelmin, Alessandro Nannini and Mansell were fighting for 3rd place. One lap later, Senna finally took the lead under the Bridge chicane, overtaking Berger and lapping Prost, who was running very slowly, at the same time. Using his skill in wet conditions, Senna managed to pull away and build a lead. On lap 20, Mansell passed Nannini for 4th, after which the Italian spun at Club and let Gugelmin through. Two laps later, Mansell passed Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari for 3rd, the Italian was already receiving alarming messages from his Ferrari's fuel read out. On lap 24 Prost retired claiming handling problems of his McLaren. He would cop plenty of flack from the French press who saw it as Prost giving up rather than race on with some French commentators labeling the double World Champion a "coward".
"The handling of my car was terrible from the start. Understeer here, oversteer there...I was getting into huge slides, taking huge risks, to run 15th. Why risk a big accident, maybe break a leg or something, and put myself out for the rest of the year - so I can maybe be 12th or something? Everyone does what he wants with his own car and his own life. I know maybe I lost the championship today, but I decided to stop."
Alain Prost in the McLaren pit following his retirement from the British Grand Prix.Seeking out the wet parts of the track to cool his tyres, Mansell drove very well to set the fastest lap at an average speed of 206 km/h in difficult weather track conditions. On lap 50, he caught and passed Berger who only 20 laps before had a 50 second break on the Englishman and held 2nd place until the finish, some 23 seconds behind Senna. As he'd predicted the Austrian was suffering with a fuel deficit and was losing places rapidly. On the very last corner, he ran out of fuel and dropped from 5th down to 9th losing places to Piquet, Warwick, Cheever and Patrese in the run from the Woodcote Chicane to the finish line. The same problem happened to Alboreto, who had run out of fuel on lap 63.
Nannini, despite two further spins, claimed his first Grand Prix podium finish helping further justify Benetton's decision to sign him. Gugelmin collected his first World Championship points, and Nelson Piquet and Derek Warwick rounded out the top 6.
Nigel Mansell set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:23.308 on lap 48. This compared to the lap record of 1:09.832 he set during his 1987 win at Silverstone in dry conditions.
Read more about this topic: 1988 British Grand Prix
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