1991 German Grand Prix

Ayrton Senna spent a night in a hospital in Mannheim after crashing during pre-race testing a week earlier. Senna suffered a tyre failure at the end of a long straight, causing the car to launch into the air and turn over several times. The McLaren-Honda went 15 feet into the air and was destroyed in the crash, according to witnesses. After regaining consciousness, Senna was taken to hospital with neck and chest bruising.^[1][2][3][4]

There were two changes to the entry list, the first was at Lotus where Johnny Herbert was replaced by young German Michael Bartels because of the former's Japanese Formula 3000 commitments, and the second was at Footwork where Alex Caffi was back in action after his road accident. Elsewhere Satoru Nakajima announced he would retire at the end of the year.

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

The participants in the Friday morning pre-qualifying sessions were reshuffled prior to this event, the season having reached its mid-point. Scuderia Italia (Dallara) and Jordan had scored points, and were thus relieved of the requirement to pre-qualify, and could automatically join the rest of the field in the main qualifying sessions from here on. By virtue of Nicola Larini's seventh place finish at the first round in Phoenix, the Modena team were also lifted out of pre-qualifying, despite struggling in the sessions at recent Grands Prix.^[5]

Taking their places during the Friday morning sessions were Brabham, AGS, and Footwork, who had all failed to score points so far in 1991, or match Modena Lambo's seventh place finish at any race. Fondmetal and Coloni were also still required to pre-qualify.

Here at Hockenheim, the fastest pre-qualifier was Martin Brundle in the Brabham BT60Y. He was over a second faster than the AGS JH25B of Gabriele Tarquini, with Michele Alboreto just a tenth behind in the Footwork FA12C, despite gearbox problems. The fourth pre-qualifier was the other Brabham of Mark Blundell.^[5]

The four entrants missing out included Fondmetal driver Olivier Grouillard, who suffered an engine failure and finished fifth fastest, ahead of the second Footwork of Alex Caffi, who had returned to the cockpit after missing four races. The second AGS of Italian Fabrizio Barbazza was seventh, nearly a second ahead of regular backmarker Pedro Chaves for the cash-strapped Coloni team.^[5]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	1:42.810
2	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:43.939	+1.129
3	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Ford	1:44.034	+1.224
4	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	1:44.257	+1.447
5	14	Olivier Grouillard	Fondmetal-Ford	1:44.645	+1.835
6	10	Alex Caffi	Footwork-Ford	1:45.282	+2.472
7	18	Fabrizio Barbazza	AGS-Ford	1:46.604	+3.794
8	31	Pedro Chaves	Coloni-Ford	1:47.546	+4.736

In Saturday practice Érik Comas had a massive accident at the Ostkurve chicane in his Ligier. The French driver was unhurt, but it raised questions about the safety of the second chicane. In qualifying, Nigel Mansell took pole from title rival Ayrton Senna. Gerhard Berger was third, followed by Riccardo Patrese- the Williams and McLaren cars were within 4 tenths of each other but were all nearly 2 seconds faster of the next fastest cars, the 2 Ferraris of Alain Prost and Jean Alesi, which were a second quicker than the next fastest car behind them. Then following the Ferraris were Andrea de Cesaris, Nelson Piquet, Roberto Moreno, and Pierluigi Martini in the Minardi, taking full advantage of his Ferrari engine around the high speed circuit.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:37.467	1:37.087
2	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:38.208	1:37.274	+0.187
3	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:37.946	1:37.393	+0.306
4	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:38.146	1:37.435	+0.348
5	27	Alain Prost	Ferrari	1:39.422	1:39.034	+1.947
6	28	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:39.391	1:39.042	+1.955
7	33	Andrea de Cesaris	Jordan-Ford	1:40.387	1:40.239	+3.152
8	20	Nelson Piquet	Benetton-Ford	1:40.560	1:40.878	+3.473
9	19	Roberto Moreno	Benetton-Ford	1:41.968	1:40.957	+3.870
10	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ferrari	1:40.998	1:41.373	+3.911
11	32	Bertrand Gachot	Jordan-Ford	1:41.443	1:41.308	+4.221
12	16	Ivan Capelli	Leyton House-Ilmor	1:42.025	1:41.330	+4.243
13	3	Satoru Nakajima	Tyrrell-Honda	1:41.515	1:41.390	+4.303
14	4	Stefano Modena	Tyrrell-Honda	1:41.566	1:41.952	+4.479
15	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Yamaha	1:42.294	1:41.615	+4.528
16	15	Maurício Gugelmin	Leyton House-Ilmor	no time	1:41.735	+4.648
17	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:41.823	1:41.929	+4.736
18	21	Emanuele Pirro	Dallara-Judd	1:42.021	1:42.672	+4.934
19	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Ferrari	1:42.132	1:42.058	+4.971
20	22	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Judd	1:42.171	1:42.708	+5.084
21	8	Mark Blundell	Brabham-Yamaha	1:43.414	1:42.216	+5.129
22	30	Aguri Suzuki	Lola-Ford	1:45.037	1:42.474	+5.387
23	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Judd	1:44.816	1:42.726	+5.639
24	34	Nicola Larini	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:44.596	1:43.035	+5.948
25	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Ford	1:43.797	1:43.321	+6.234
26	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Lamborghini	1:43.803	1:43.364	+6.277
27	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Ford	1:44.362	1:43.409	+6.322
28	12	Michael Bartels	Lotus-Judd	1:46.409	1:43.624	+6.537
29	17	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:43.787	1:43.918	+6.700
30	35	Eric van de Poele	Lambo-Lamborghini	1:44.489	1:44.207	+7.120