Podium Grand Prix France 1991 - Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna

What an amazing group of people... some better than others. It happened at the F1 circuit of Formula 1 in France, Magny Cours, in 1991. Nigel Mansell won the race for Williams-Renault , with Alain Prost in second place driving for Ferrari and Ayrton Senna, collecting points in the third position, for Mclaren Honda.

In the front row, we have the President of the FISA, with a Nazi past, Jean Marie Balestre, and the President of France, François Miterrand.

This all happened in 1991. Good times.

The French GP had been moved to Magny-Cours for the first time which was not a popular move. The lack of local facilities was the main grievance, there being not enough hotels, and people having to drive for hours to get to the area. The system of pre-qualifying was developed in response to the increasing number of teams competing in Formula 1. It was decided that 30 cars were the maximum safe limit to compete for 26 grid places. The cars which had to pre-qualify were decided at the beginning and the midpoint of each season. The 26 cars which had achieved the best results in the previous two-half seasons automatically entered official qualifying for the race. All the other cars had to pre-qualify for the 4 remaining slots available for official qualifying. Those that failed to pre-qualify just went home.

Riccardo Patrese took his third consecutive pole position in his Williams while Ayrton Senna pushed hisMcLaren so hard that he lost control at the final corner and crossed the line while spinning into the wall. He was still third behind Alain Prost's Ferrari and ahead of Nigel Mansell's Williams. The top four were separated by only three-tenths of a second. Gerhard Berger (McLaren) was fifth with Ferrari's Jean Alesi sixth and then the two Benettons of Nelson Piquet and Roberto Moreno. The top 10 was completed by Mauricio Gugelmin'sLeyton House and Gianni Morbidelli in his Minardi-Ferrari.

From left to right, back row: picking his nose, Alain Prost for Ferrari, Nigel Mansell for Williams-Renault, Ayrton Senna for McLarenHonda
Front row: FISA President -Nazi Jean Marie Balestre, President of France - François Miterrand

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