Date 15 July 1990 | Course length 4.778 km (2.969 mi) | |
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Official name XLIII Foster's British Grand Prix Location Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone, United Kingdom Course Permanent racing facility Distance 64 laps, 305.904 km (190.080 mi) | ||
The 1990 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 15 July 1990. It was the eighth round of the 1990 Formula One season. It was the 45th British Grand Prix and the 26th to be held at Silverstone. The race was held over 64 laps of the four kilometre circuit for a race distance of 306 kilometres.
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French reigning World Champion Alain Prost won his third race in succession in his Ferrari 641 taking a 40-second win over Belgian driver Thierry Boutsen driving a Williams FW13B. It was Boutsen's best result for the year to date. Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna was third driving a McLaren MP4/5B.
Prost's win put him into the lead of the championship for the first time in 1990, giving him a two-point lead.
Race report
Local hero Nigel Mansell led until his gearbox began to malfunction. He was overtaken (against team orders, and to Mansell's chagrin) by Alain Prost. After retiring from the race Mansell famously threw his gloves into the crowd and announced he would retire from F1 at the end of the season, a decision he later reversed.
Riccardo Patrese became the first driver ever to start 200 Grands Prix. On race day, he retired and his team-mate Thierry Boutsen reached the podium.
Éric Bernard and Aguri Suzuki both scored the best results of their career up to this point. For Suzuki, it was the first points scoring finish of his career.
Ivan Capelli was the charger in the race. Starting 10th he spun early to avoid the collision between Patrese and Alessandro Nannini. Then racing with a broken exhaust header he charged hard, eventually passing Gerhard Berger for 3rd and for a time being the fastest driver on the track before retiring on lap 48 with a fuel leak.
Ligier needed at least a top 8 finish to avoid prequalification, but Nicola Larini could not do better than 10th place, while teammate Philippe Alliot only managed to finish 13th.
This would be the last motor race on the original high-speed Silverstone circuit; the day after the race, a construction crew funded by Tom Walkinshaw immediately began work on reprofiling and incorporating the newly designed corners.