Qualifying Summary
As expected at the Japanese track where engine power can make up for a lot, it was no surprise to see the McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost on the front row on this, Honda's home track (the company in fact owns the Suzuka Circuit). In 1988 the turbos had been qualifying (and often racing) faster than they had in previous seasons despite the restricted 2.5 bar of turbo boost available. At Suzuka the situation was reversed, Senna's pole time was 1.8 seconds slower than Gerhard Berger's 1987 time. Berger himself could only manage 3rd on the grid with a time that was 3.3 seconds slower than his 1987 time.
He was joined on the 2nd row by the sensational Ivan Capelli in the naturally aspirated March-Judd who was in front of the two Lotus-Hondas of outgoing World Champion Nelson Piquet who was suffering from a virus and home town favourite Satoru Nakajima.
Nakajima, not normally the best of qualifiers or racers despite having equipment superior to most, including the same all-powerful Honda V6 turbo engine as the McLarens, could have easily been excused for performing poorly this meeting and indeed from actually taking part at all. Only 30 minutes before the start of Friday morning's practice session he was informed of the very sad news that his mother had just died that morning. In the circumstances his effort in Saturday qualifying to equal his more illustrious team mate's time right down to the thousandth of a second was exceptional. Piquet and Nakajima qualified 5th and 6th respectively, Piquet in front for having set his time earlier in the last qualifying session. Nakajima had actually been faster than the triple World Champion on Friday, an effort that won the much maligned Japanese driver new fans in the F1 paddock.
French driver Yannick Dalmas was declared medically unfit for the race and was replaced in the Larrousse team by Japan's Aguri Suzuki who had been competing in and would win the 1988 Japanese Formula 3000 championship. Suzuki qualified 20th on his F1 debut, one place behind temporary team mate Philippe Alliot.
Read more about this topic: 1988 Japanese Grand Prix
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