Date 2 June 1991 | Course length 4.430 km (2.763 mi) | |
Location Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Montreal, Quebec, Canada Course Temporary street circuit Distance 69 laps, 305.670 km (190.686 mi) Weather Mild with temperatures approaching 25 °C (77 °F); wind speeds up to 12 kilometres per hour (7.5 mph) | ||
The 1991 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on 2 June 1991.
Contents
Report
There had been a lot of action in the back rooms of Formula One between the Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix, with the most notable change being that Cesare Fiorio had been fired as team manager of Ferrari and had been replaced by Piero Ferrari. Meanwhile, John Barnard had left as Benetton's technical director; he was replaced by Gordon Kimball (father of future IndyCar driver Charlie Kimball.
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve had been modified from the year before: the right-left sequence right before the start-finish straight had been slowed down.
On the driver front, Julian Bailey had been fired by Lotus and was replaced by Johnny Herbert, who would fail to qualify for the race, while Alex Caffi was out of action for Footwork as a result of injuries sustained in a road accident. His place was taken by Stefan Johansson.
In practice Riccardo Patrese had a huge accident, walking away unhurt.
Qualifying was all Williams with Patrese taking pole position from team-mate Mansell, out-qualifying Mansell for the fifth straight race. Senna was third followed by Prost, Moreno, Berger, Alesi, Piquet, Modena, and Pirro.
At the start Mansell got away well and led Patrese, Senna, Prost, Berger, and Moreno. Berger's race was short lived as he went out on lap 4 with electronics problems, while Aguri Suzuki retired when his Lola rather dramatically caught fire. Moreno was out on lap 10 when he spun off, while Prost was suffering from gearbox problems. The Frenchman had managed to hold on while he engaged in a lively battle with teammate Alesi and Piquet's Benetton.
Mansell led Patrese and Senna on lap 25 when Senna suffered the same fate as team-mate Berger and retired leaving Mansell and Patrese a long way ahead of the Alesi–Prost–Piquet battle. This ended Senna's thus far perfect season. Prost retired shortly after with a gearbox failure on lap 27 and Ferrari's misery was compounded on lap 34 when Alesi's engine blew up.
The Williams drivers were now well ahead of the pack, but Piquet closed on Patrese, the Italian suffering from gearbox troubles of his own. In the late stages Patrese was passed by an impressive Stefano Modena in the Tyrrell. On the last lap Mansell led from Piquet, Modena, Patrese, de Cesaris, and Gachot when he suddenly slowed to a halt at the hairpin. Mansell, while waving to the crowd during the final lap, he had forgotten to change down for the L'Epingle hairpin and had allowed his car's Renault V10 engine revs to fall too low and he stalled the car. With the engine stalled it was not possible to select a gear, and he was forced to retire, the official reason being an electrical failure. Piquet thus took an unexpected victory for Benetton at the expense of his old rival Mansell, who was classified sixth. Jordan's five points assured them that they would no longer have to pre-qualify when the draw was reshuffled at the halfway point of the season.