Qualifying Summary
The grid was composed again of a front row of two McLarens, then Michele Alboreto on Ferrari, the two Marches and Gerhard Berger's second Ferrari. Qualifying had been severely hindered by violent thunderstorms which struck the area throughout the weekend. When the track was dry, both the McLarens and Ferraris went through the speed trap at 328 km/h (204 mph) on Hockenheim's long straights, with television commentator Murray Walker saying during the race coverage on the BBC that the McLarens actually topped 207 mph (333 km/h) in final qualifying, which put them some 6 mph (10 km/h) slower than the speeds recorded during qualifying for the 1987 race when the turbo cars had approximately 350 bhp (261 kW; 355 PS) more than they did in 1988. The straight line speed difference was the major reason Senna's pole time in the McLaren was 1.98 seconds slower than Mansell's the previous year. The fastest of the 'atmo' cars on the long straights was Ivan Capelli's March-Judd which was recorded at 194 mph (312 km/h). Alessandro Nannini (Benetton-Ford) was the fastest atmo qualifier, though he was 3.6 seconds slower than Senna.
As had become standard practice in 1988, the Lotus-Hondas of Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakajima weren't able to match the similarly engined McLarens, with Piquet qualifying 3, and Nakajima 4 seconds slower than Ayrton Senna's pole time. The turbocharged Arrows-Megatrons of Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever also failed to impress in qualifying, with Warwick 5.8 and Cheever 6.5 seconds slower than Senna.
Read more about this topic: 1988 German Grand Prix
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