Pre-qualifying report The Friday morning pre-qualifying pool was slightly changed at this Grand Prix, the mid-point of the season.
Footwork driver
Michele Alboreto was relieved of the necessity to pre-qualify, and was replaced in the pool by
Gabriele Tarquini of
Fondmetal. Thus both Fondmetal drivers were now required to pre-qualify, alongside the two
Larrousse drivers and the two
Andrea Moda drivers. The session itself followed the usual pattern for this season, with the two Andrea Moda cars being the ones to drop out at this stage.
Bertrand Gachot was comfortably fastest for Larrousse, with Tarquini over 2.7 seconds slower in second. Gachot's team-mate
Ukyo Katayama was third, 1.4 seconds ahead of the final pre-qualifier,
Andrea Chiesa, who was using the older
Fondmetal GR01 after driving, and writing off, the new
GR02 at the last race. The Andrea Moda team had arrived at the circuit, unlike the previous event in
France, and had engines with them, unlike the prior event in
Canada. With the first part of the session taking place in damp conditions,
Perry McCarthy was held in the pits by his team until the track was almost dry. However, he was then sent out with his team-mate
Roberto Moreno's used wet tyres on his car, and managed only one timed lap before his clutch failed. Despite McCarthy setting a time fast enough to pre-qualify at that stage, all the other entrants subsequently took advantage of the drying track and went much faster. However, Moreno was still unable to match Chiesa's time, finishing fifth in the session, over 1.6 seconds slower than the Fondmetal.
Pre-qualifying classification Qualifying report Nigel Mansell dominated qualifying, taking his eighth pole position of the year by nearly two seconds from
Williams teammate
Riccardo Patrese with a further 0.8 seconds back to
Ayrton Senna's
McLaren in third. Alongside Senna on the second row was
Michael Schumacher in the
Benetton, with their respective teammates
Gerhard Berger and
Martin Brundle on the third row.
Johnny Herbert was seventh in his
Lotus, ahead of
Jean Alesi's
Ferrari, with
Mika Häkkinen in the other Lotus and
Érik Comas in the
Ligier completing the top ten.
Damon Hill qualified for the first time, taking the 26th and last slot in his
Brabham.
Qualifying classification finished sixth in his
Lotus 107. ==Race==