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Grands Prix, with the most notable change being that Cesare Fiorio had been fired as team manager of Ferrari and had been replaced by Piero Ferrari.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.
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 an impressive 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.
The William's 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. It is erroneously reported that he suffered a late gearbox failure, in reality Mansell let his engine revs drop too low while he was waving to the crowd in celebration, thereby stalling the engine. A delighted Piquet thus took an unlikely victory for Benetton at the expense of his old rival Mansell, who would be 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.
Read more about this topic: 1991 Canadian Grand Prix
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