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 the 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 dropping him to near last. 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 a point, at least a Top 8 finish to avoid prequalification, but Nicola Larini in the better of them failed to finish better than 10th. He would have needed to finish ahead of Stefano Modena in the Brabham and Jean Alesi in the Tyrrell.
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.
Read more about this topic: 1990 British Grand Prix
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