1991 Mexican Grand Prix – Turbos & Tantrums

Down Mexico Way, as the teams head to the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, as Mansell hopes he can put the disappointment of Montreal behind him, Senna hopes to take the initiative back and Ferrari hopes to just to better…

Annoyingly, FOM have blocked a good chunk of the footage of this one, as it also appears in their own “Best Mexican GP battles” video or something.

Even more annoyingly, YT assumes that when content is blocked like that, it assumes that it’s a song, so it gives you the option to mute the audio in the affected section, or black it out entirely. The option to lose the video and keep the audio is not there. So back to the editing suite and re-upload we go.
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https://ko-fi.com/turbotantrum
https://www.redbubble.com/people/TurbosTantrums/shop?asc=u

#Formula1 #RetroF1 #1990s

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as the F1 circus headed south from
Canada to Mexico over in South Africa
the legal Frameworks in shrining
apartheid were being dismantled the
population registration act which since
19 50 had required all citizens to have
an official racial classification given
at Birth and affecting almost every
aspect of their life was repealed but as
the opposition African National Congress
were Keen to point out this was more
symbolic than anything and that the last
battle would be the big one a new
Constitution that would give everyone
the vote including all 30 million black
citizens 68% of the population who have
been disenfranchised up to this point
president de clerk was clear though that
that was what he wanted and was
confident an agreement could be reached
in a referendum back in March the people
of Russia had voted to establish the
office of President and in June the
elections were held the two main
candidates were Nikolai rof gorbachov’s
preferred candidate and a good party man
and Boris yelton an independent
candidate who had been elected chairman
of the Supreme Soviet at the same time
as the referendum yelton had been
outspoken about his opposition to the
glasnost and perista reform and he had a
personal animosity with M gorbachov as
well and was a fierce proponent of
Russian autonomy within the USSR the
result was very one-sided with yelton
winning 58.5 6% of the vote to ROV
17.22% and he would take office in July
with Alexander rut skoy as his
Deputy on the day before the Mexican
Grand Prix an enormous volcanic eruption
took place in the Philippines Mount
Pinatubo in central lison have been
simmer for the last year or so and
catastrophically blew its top sending an
ash cloud 25 m 40 km into the atmosphere
sending lethal pyroclastic flows
blasting down the mountain side
destroying almost everything within a 30
km or 19 M radius seismologists of the
US Geological Survey had been keeping an
eye on things and evacuations in the
days before the eruption are calculated
to have saved tens of thousands of lives
but 847 were killed and 10,000 left
homeless while the ash wrecked local
agriculture changed the weather and
permanently altered the geography as
valleys were filled with the huge
amounts of solid matter ejected from the
mountain which in turn shrank to a
relatively tiny Caldera it was the
second most powerful eruption of the
entire 20th century behind only a 1912
eruption in Alaska and was 10 times more
powerful and the famous 1980 eruption of
mounts St
Helens and on the same day the Indian
General ener election occasioned by the
fall of Chandra shika’s government back
in March ended the size of India
necessitates a multi-day election
Chandra Shaker’s Coalition had collapsed
but the previously dominant Indian
National Congress wasn’t quite able to
capitalize fully becoming the largest
party but not winning enough seats for
an outright majority PV narasimma became
the new prime minister the first from
Southern India and the first not to
speak Hindi as a first language he
promised economic and financial reforms
which he hoped would head off the
predicted economic crisis but getting
anything done in a minority government
would be as difficult as
always and so to Mexico where the race
itself was in some trouble although it
still attracted plenty of Spectators and
there was a capacity crowd this year as
usual sponsors were increasingly staying
away from the lucrative Hospitality
Suites Bernie Eon confirmed though that
the event had been renewed through to
1993 at least the teams weren’t
necessarily happy to hear it the High
Altitude circuit meaning the engines a
gas for air and about 20% down on power
Maro forier described it as basically a
Formula 3000 event and just like in sa
Paulo the pollution and poverty as well
as the everpresent risk of the old Mont
Zuma’s Revenge meant nobody really
enjoyed the trip outside of the racing
either John Barnard had at least got out
of the trip by quitting Benetton who
recruited Gordon Kimble formerly of
McClaren and Ferrari and JB’s old
right-and man over at Bron meanwhile the
owners had replaced Dave Price As man
manager was John McDonald the m in the
old Ram team and Yamaha had made some
improvements to their engine predictably
the British motoring press had been
going for Manel in the weeks between
races and Ricardo Petra was allegedly
asking not unreasonably why he was still
number two exactly given his
performances relative to Manel so far
while leip was reporting just before the
race that Alam Prost wanted to drive for
Williams which led to him having to
hastily reassure everyone that he was
committed to seeing out his contract
with Ferrari through the end of
1992 he was still open about his
problems with the 642 chassis but
Ferrari were working on a new one the
643 which they hoped would be ready for
the return to Europe to improve their
competitiveness meanwhile ad and sna had
been home to Brazil for a break between
races and had fallen off his jet ski and
given himself a bit of a cut on the
scalp there was nothing to worry about
but his appearance with a big dressing
on his head certainly got tongues
wagging once journalists noticed with
most thems coming straight from Canada
there was little development done on the
cars though Richard deila had made some
changes to gu’s fo at one chassis which
the fun metal team were hoping would get
them out of pre-qualifying Stephan
Johansson was still in the footwork and
Jackie Oliver had proclaimed himself
very disappointed by Cathy’s
unprofessional behavior not to say
downright dangerous but there was talk
that burn Schneider could return to the
team at the next race if he could get
out of his current commitments while
Johnny Herbert would continue at Lotus
for the time being
the larus team were here but without
Gerard who was off in Japan desperately
trying to drum up some sponsorship amid
news that the team’s Ford engine deal
had been pulled for 1992 due to lack of
payment and that the team mechanics had
been told it might be wise to dust off
their CVS people were saying that there
was a good chance that the team wouldn’t
see their home race in a month’s time
Frank Williams and some of his staff
nearly didn’t make it with an important
part fell off their private jet midair
and they had to divert arriving a day
late but in one piece Friday’s early
pre-qualifying session was hit by
downpour which made things interesting
letto still top of the standings
followed by dzus but Olivier gu third
and praising the new car to the High
Heavens and Nicola lini fourth A Philip
to the team after their recent struggles
until his rear wing was judged to be
slightly too high and he was
disqualified which rather got Gasho off
the hook so with Chavez actually going
faster than someone for a change thanks
to Pirro having a spin but still 6 and 1
half seconds off the pace the top four
reported for qualifying
proper betron gash had a big off on
Friday picking up a puncture on the
notorious peralada and red flagging the
session for a while and then sna made
him feel a bit better by doing exactly
the same thing only without the puncher
he was just pushing too hard Petra
meanwhile pushed through a bout of
Montezuma’s Revenge to go fastest with
Manel second and Senna third about half
the grid improved their times on a
changeable Saturday with Mod the second
fastest on the day but eth over overall
as Petra dominated to take pole again
with Mansel once again alongside .28
seconds behind and Senna third for the
second race running aazy took a fine
fourth for Ferrari followed by burger
and P on Row three Prost back in seventh
but then he’d won here last year from
13th so you never know alongside moder’s
trell Roberto Morena was nth alongside
Olivier guar who had frankly stunned the
entire Paddock by parking the Fon metal
in the top 10 10 just ahead of dzus and
Mark Blundell enjoying the new iteration
of the amaha Martin brunel’s copy of the
new engine had some electrical problems
and he had to use the old one and would
start from
17th Bernard and Suzuki were 18th and
19th and gash led up 20th ahead of the
two Laden house cars with the two low
tied 24th and 25th Johnny Herbert making
his first start of the Year Mich Alberto
dragged his footwork onto the grid
despite a about of the flu and despite
the POR engine being stricken with an
oil surge problem particularly in
peralada but Stefan Johansson never the
greatest one laap qualifier even in his
hday was back in 29th sandwiched between
the two ags’s with Eric komas missing
out by an agonizing 500s of a second it
was a lazy’s turn to exit the circuit at
high speed on Sunday morning but he was
likewise fine to take the start and the
car hadn’t been as badly damaged as it
looked either and he was able to start
in his race car the skies on Sunday were
cloudy with rain threatening the surface
in Mexico was so dusty and uneven and
treacherous in the wet that the stewards
had decided that if it did rain during
the race they would red flag the whole
event bring everyone in for tires and
then do a restart once everyone had
their wets on goodye had shot all of
their runners in C compounds which they
thought ought to go the distance while
the pelli runners were split with PK and
the turs on the harder GF 22s and Moreno
and the braams on the softer gf9
compound Manel would start in the spare
car after his usual Steed sprang an oil
leak which the team couldn’t locate in
time and then the cars all lined up but
an over enthusiastic Marshall saw a puff
of smoke from the back of Leto’s delara
and started waving the yellow flags so
the start was aborted and round they
went again and then at the second start
Olivier gu started waving and ronal
brunerius scrubbed the start again
having the fond metal push to the back
of the grid though in ag grieved Olivia
protested that he hadn’t stalled he’d
seen Blundell behind raise his hand but
he was deemed at fault and had to start
in the back which was a real shame for
him after his great qualifying Alberto’s
car wouldn’t start at the third time of
asking and he would have to start from
the pit Lane though he was starting with
the back anyway third time was the charm
as Petra got away a little slowly having
trouble finding a gear again and Mansel
went by to the lead a wide track and
long lead into the first Corner saw them
go Six Wide at one point allowing a lazy
to Leap Frog his way up into second
place ahead of senna Petra burger and PK
with Mod a 7 th and Prost e8th Moreno
9th and dezar is 10th Senna pulled out
to take second down the main straight as
the second lap began crowding a la over
but nearly losing the place again as a
feisty Jean jined the other way aiming
for the inside of turn one until Senna
blocked him behind them mner had got
past PK to go sixth while proster
dropped back to 10th and azerus was up
to eighth past both him and PK Manel was
pushing hard but sna wasn’t letting him
go anywhere while petroy was Challen ing
a lazy for third place which he took at
the end of lap two Berger was already a
long way behind those two in fifth his
engine not sounding healthy and clearly
holding up the following pack of modna
PK dezar and Moreno but not for long as
his engine let go at the end of lap five
leaving the Austrian having completed a
grand total of 18 racing laps over the
last three races combined and his
Misfortune also took out Pier Luigi
Martini who unavoidably hit the oil
Burger had dropped on the
Peril on lap 11 pet try had caught right
up to Senna and pulled out out dragging
the McLaren down the main straet and
taking second you don’t often see Senna
get overtaken fair and square on the
track Never mind with his little fuss as
Petra he did here and he wasn’t done yet
steaming up to the back of mantel and
starting to look for a way past Frank
Williams had been asked before the race
if there were team orders and he’ said
no absolutely not that he’s not in the
business of deciding races with a coin
toss a reference to the 1989 par Daka
rally in which the pjo sport boss Jean
Todd had tossed a coin to decide which
of his two rival drivers Ari vatan and
Jackie I would take the win certainly
Petra had been saying all weekend that
he was here to win and had been looking
focused and determined in between trips
to the L all weekend he was all over
Manel in the infield sections while
Mansel was able to pull away a little on
the Straits and behind them a lazy was
stuck to the back of s’s Car 2 and went
back up to Third on lap 13 mno was fifth
dezar is Sixth and PK 7th while Prost
was way down the order struggling with
the handling of his Ferrari at the end
of that lap Petra made a move and both
Williams’s went side by side down the
straight but Manel had the inside line
and in a cloud of Tire smoke from both
cars he kept the place but only for a
corner or two as Petra used his momentum
to take Mansel through the moisa salana
complex and take the lead and now a lazy
was right behind Manel did Nigel have a
problem well yes actually his engine was
are slightly overheating and a bit down
on power but not as big a problem as a
lazy had because his clutch was sticking
no sooner H he got past Manel offc
screen then it stuck and throw him into
a spin dropping him to ninth so as Petra
started to pull away from Mansel the red
five Williams now had Santa right on his
gearbox with PK taking fourth off modna
just behind him and azerus following
through a lap later and Pros retired
with a misfiring engine on lap 17 by
which time guah and Gilman had also
already already fallen by the
wayside Manel now began to pull away
from Senna who had his old rival PK
right behind him in the beniton and
looking to get past fresh off his win in
Canada and having seen Petra and aazy
both get past eron in previous laps and
Martin brundle meanwhile had pitted for
tires but his right rear hadn’t quite
gone on right and fell off in the ‘s
pitching Martin into the sand trap on
lap 20 so the order was Petra leading
Manel Now by some 7.2 seconds then
another 3 seconds back to S and P with
dzus fifth Moreno sixth then a lazy
letto Gasher and Blondell in the top 10
Petra was still charging too setting a
series of fastest laps and now carving
his way through the back markers passing
nakimo with almost nobody else in sight
meanwhile a bit of a train had developed
behind s and PK with deszaras aazy and
Moreno the Ferrari having got past the
Benetton off camera a couple of laps
earlier on lap 29 dezar has ambushed PK
to take fourth of him and a lazy tried
unsuccessfully too which prompted Nelson
to pit for new tires despite running the
harder pelli compounds and not having
planed to stop it was a cracking stop
but still dropped him to eighth behind
Gasho and ahead of Bernard and Blundell
who are battling fiercely off camera for
ninth Mansel had come to overtake
Nakajima himself and been bulked a
little through the infield which allowed
Senna to close up again and both went
past on the start finish straight As
Senna also tried to pull the same move
on Manel that petroia had pulled on him
going wide into turn one in order to get
the line for turn two but Mansel chopped
him off decisively and while the cameras
were watching that a la got past azerus
again into fourth Santa was all over
Mansel around lap 34 just over half
distance and tried the same move at the
end of that lap with the same result
next time he tried the inside just to
keep Manel on his toes as a lazy closed
on the pair too Petra meanwhile went
past Blundell and Bernard as he began
lapping into the top 10 while Manel and
Senna approached the two low tie running
together near the back to lap them for a
second time and right behind them were a
lazy and dezar is still hard at it and
leaving Moreno
behind Senna dropped back a little to
take a breather as the dark clouds Loom
further while further back PK had
finally got past Gasho and into the
points because a laaz had trailed into
retire his clutch finally having given
away entirely and now Santa was back on
manel’s case again with dearis just 8
Seconds behind the McLaren and closing
PK’s charge came a Cropper on lap 45
when his left rear wheel bearing failed
he kept it running round to the pit Lane
but the left rear wheel wouldn’t go on
the Miss shot bearing and he was out it
was about 2/3 distance now and mansel’s
engine seemed to have sorted itself out
so the Englishman put the hammer down
left sna behind and took the fastest lap
and shortly afterwards Moreno pitted
unfortunately His Radio had stopped
working and he couldn’t actually tell
him he was coming and in the
circumstances the 7.59 second stop was a
pretty good effort by the crew and only
dropped him behind Gasho meaning the
Jordans were once again fourth and fifth
which would Delight Eddie Jordan even
further so Moreno was Sixth and the last
man onlapped Bernard and Blondell now
seventh and eighth Suzuki ninth until
his gearbox jammed and sent him spinning
into retirement so it was morby Deli 9th
and boots and 10th hackin and Herbert
were cruising along together in 11th and
12th while the TS were both right at the
back after having all sorts of Tire
problems and both needing multiple
stops Manel was now catching petraia to
Second a lap getting the gap down to 18
seconds with 15 or so laps left to go as
Gasho suffered a similar fate to Suzuki
a gearbox failure that left him stranded
in the sand no double points finish for
Jordan this time and Eddie no doubt
looking on nervously as an enormous
forklift appeared to take the car away
but it was great news for Eric Bernard
who thus went up into the points Mansel
broke the lap record as petroy came up
to lap Mar with 12 laps to go as
Blondell coasted to a bitterly
disappointed halt from sth and it was
starting to look like it might yet be a
close finish with some pundits wondering
if it was Petra’s turn to have some
minor car trouble or if his illness had
drained his stamina soon Manel was in
view down the main straight 7 seconds
behind with seven laps to go Manel went
quicker than his qualifying lap down
came the Gap Petra spent a lap getting
past Herbert five laps to go and 5
Seconds between the williamses then then
Manel took his time with the lotuses and
the Gap only came down to 4.5 seconds
with four laps to go Petra blasted past
Nakajima again and the Gap was 3.3 with
three laps left Patrick head and the
Honda boys were talking about something
animatedly in the garage reported the TV
Crews and now Manel with two laps to go
was within a few car lengths of a Tracy
the last lap began 1.48 Seconds Apart
with limited places to pass Manel just
couldn’t get close enough the end and
Ricardo Petra took his fourth career win
nearly collecting a cruising boots and
who’d slowed right down to avoid having
to do another lap Frank Williams and Co
would be delighted with a fantastic
one-w finish after all their wo so far
this year while Ron Dennis and McLaren
would not be happy at all Sena trailing
in nearly a minute behind the williamses
deszaras picked up another three points
for Jordan Moreno Salvage to for
Benetton and Eric Bernard took what
might yet be a vital point for the
troubled Laro team with more belli
botson the low TI and turs the remaining
Runners so Jubilation for Williams and
if Manel was disappointed not to be the
one on the winner step he didn’t show it
unhappiness for McLaren where both Senna
and Dennis were open about the V12 Honda
just not being good enough and
depression at Ferrari with a double
retirement for the second race running
petraia overtook PK and Manel overtook
Prost in the dri standings with Williams
taking second from Benetton after being
the first team to get a one-w finish in
in the new point system and got 16
points rather than 15 there was now a
month before racing would resume at the
brand new Manu cor circuit in France
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