1988 Italian Grand Prix

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The 1988 Italian Grand Prix was held on September 11, 1988 at Monza. It is remembered for the extremely improbable 1-2 finish for the Ferrari team, and the only race of the 1988 season that Team McLaren failed to win.

The 1988 Formula 1 season was dominated by Team McLaren, who had won all 11 of the season's races before the Italian Grand Prix, and would go on to win the 4 remaining races. The team's strength was its turbocharged Honda engine, which was both powerful and reliable. The team's drivers were Frenchman Alain Prost (the 1985 and 1986 World Champion) and Ayrton Senna, a rising star from Brazil, who would go on to win the 1988 World Championship.

The 1988 Italian Grand Prix was the first Formula 1 race in Italy held after the death of Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari, making it a very emotional event for his team and its passionate fans, the tifosi. However, with the McLaren dominance, hopes for a home victory seemed bleak.

Ayrton Senna duly took pole position, and led the race from the start with Alain Prost in second and the two Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto in a distant third and fourth respectively. The order showed no signs of changing until lap 35 of 51, when Prost suffered an extremely rare Honda engine failure. The Ferraris inherited second and third places, while Senna continued to dominate the race. This domination continued until there were two laps remaining in the race, when Senna attempted to lap the Williams of Jean-Louis Schlesser, who was substituting for the ill Nigel Mansell. Senna attempted to pass Schlesser on the inside of the first chicane, but he was too far behind and the two cars collided. Senna spun into the gravel trap and was forced to retire from the race. The Italian crowd was overjoyed as Berger inherited the win, with Alboreto taking second place.

[edit] Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	51	1'17:40	3	9
2	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	51	+0.502	4	6
3	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	51	+35.532	5	4
4	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	51	+36.114	6	3
5	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	51	+52.522	11	2
6	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	51	+59.878	8	1
7	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Judd	51	+ 1:14.743	10
8	15	Mauricio Gugelmin	March-Judd	51	+ 1:32.566	13
9	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	50	+ 1 Lap	9
10	12	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	49	Collision	1
11	5	Jean-Louis Schlesser	Williams-Judd	49	+ 2 Laps	22
12	4	Julian Bailey	Tyrrell-Ford	49	+ 2 Laps	26
13	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Judd	49	+ 2 Laps	24
Ret	11	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	34	Engine	2
Ret	30	Philippe Alliot	Larrousse-Ford	33	Engine	20
Ret	14	Philippe Streiff	AGS-Ford	31	Clutch	23
Ret	10	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed	28	Engine	15
Ret	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Rial-Ford	27	Chassis	18
Ret	9	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Zakspeed	25	Engine	16
Ret	36	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	24	Engine	21
Ret	29	Yannick Dalmas	Larrousse-Ford	17	Radiator	25
Ret	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	15	Engine	14
Ret	2	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	14	Engine	12
Ret	24	Luis Perez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	12	Gearbox	19
Ret	1	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Honda	11	Clutch	7
Ret	21	Nicola Larini	Osella	2	Engine	17
DNQ	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford
DNQ	26	Stefan Johansson	Ligier-Judd
DNQ	31	Gabriele Tarquini	Coloni-Ford
DNQ	33	Stefano Modena	Euro Brun-Ford

[edit] Notes

• Fastest Lap: Michele Alboreto 1'29.070

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