The 1990 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 30 September, 1990 at Jerez. It was the 31st Spanish Grand Prix and the fifth and last time the Grand Prix was held at the Jerez circuit in Valencia before moving to a new larger facility near Barcelona in Catalonia, though it was not the last time Formula One raced here; F1 returned twice in the 1990s for a race titled the European Grand Prix.
Ferrari drivers dominated the race with reigning world champion Alain Prost leading his teammate Nigel Mansell home by 22 seconds for a 1-2 finish. British Team Lotus driver Martin Donnelly had a horrific crash during Friday practice; the seat of his Lotus 102 broke free and was flung clear of the wreck. Donnelly received serious injuries that took months of recovery, bringing an end to his Formula One career, although he later returned to racing. Team Lotus decided not to retire from the race, and Derek Warwick was close to the point-scoring positions when he became the race's final retirement on lap 63 with a broken gearbox in the other Lotus 102.
The race also turned out to be the last race of Alessandro Nannini's Formula One career. Nannini claimed the final podium position of the race in his Benetton B190, the ninth podium of his career, finishing ahead of the Williams pair of Thierry Boutsen and Riccardo Patrese for which he and his Brazilian team mate Nelson Piquet had been season-long rivals. One week after the race, his right arm was severed in a helicopter accident. Nannini recovered and returned to racing as a touring car driver.
At the start of the race, Gerhard Berger, desperate to move up from his fifth place on the grid, gave Jean Alesi no room, resulting in Alesi moving to the outside, where he was hit and put out of the race by Riccardo Patrese.
The Larrousse-Lola of Aguri Suzuki claimed the final championship point of the race, continuing an encouraging season for the French team. It was an encouraging race for another French team, Yannick Dalmas and Gabriele Tarquini both qualified in AGS JH25s in a first for the team, but AGS never again got two cars onto a Formula One grid. Dalmas finished in ninth position, the highlight of the season for the small French team.
McLaren driver Ayrton Senna's lap 53 retirement with a failed radiator reduced his lead in the world championship over Prost to nine points with just the Japanese and Australian Grands Prix remaining in the season. This increased tensions between the two championship protagonists, leading to a showdown at the Suzuka racetrack in Japan, every bit as controversial as their clash twelve months prior at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix.
Famous quotes containing the words spanish and/or grand:
“I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)
“What do you do in the Grand Hotel? Eat, sleep, loaf around, flirt a little, dance a little. A hundred doors leading to one hall. No one knows anything about the person next to them. And when you leave, someone occupies your room, lies in your bed. That’s the end.”
—William A. Drake (1900–1965)