1988 Detroit Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 6 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One season | |||
 |
|||
| Date | June 19, 1988 | ||
| Official name | 7th Enichem Detroit Grand Prix | ||
| Location |
Detroit street circuit Detroit, Michigan |
||
| Course | Temporary street course | ||
| Course length | 4.023 km (2.5 mi) | ||
| Distance | 63 laps, 253.449 km (157.5 mi) | ||
| Weather | Warm and sunny with temperatures up to 91.9 °F (33.3 °C); wind speeds up to 11.1 miles per hour (17.9 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Time | 1:40.606 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Alain Prost
|
McLaren-Honda | |
| Time | 1:44.836 on lap 4 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Second | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Third | Benetton-Ford | ||
The 1988 Detroit Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on June 19, 1988, in Detroit, Michigan. It was the sixth race of the 1988 Formula One season.
Ayrton Senna's third win of the season made it six out of six for McLaren in 1988, on the way to an unprecedented 15 wins and ten 1-2 finishes in 16 races. Senna's victory matched the season total of teammate Alain Prost, who finished 38 seconds behind the Brazilian in second place. Thierry Boutsen took third for Benetton, as he had a week before in Canada, and Andrea de Cesaris scored the first points ever for the Rial team by finishing fourth. Minardi also scored their first point with Pierluigi Martini's sixth place.
With turbocharged engines scheduled to be eliminated prior to 1989, and their effectiveness intended to be curtailed by two rule changes for 1988, few teams opted to develop totally new equipment that would only be used for one season. Only Honda, who defected to McLaren from defending Constructor's Champion Williams, and Ferrari developed new engines to meet the revised turbo rules– boost reduced from 4 bars to 2.5, and fuel capacity reduced from 195 liters to 150 (refueling was banned from 1984 through 1993), and only McLaren developed a completely new chassis. Though the new rules were intended to narrow or eliminate the performance gap between the turbos and the normally aspirated engines, Honda and Ferrari were able to display a 50 horsepower (37 kW) advantage over the best 3.5-liter equipment of the opposition. With that kind of power differential, the only new chassis in the field, and Senna and Prost behind the wheel, McLaren quickly turned the season into a two-man show.
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