1988 German Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 9 of 16 in the 1988 Formula One season | |||
 |
|||
| Date | 24 July 1988 | ||
| Official name | Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland | ||
| Location | Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, West Germany | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 6.797 km (4.223 mi) | ||
| Distance | 44 laps, 299.068 km (185.832 mi) | ||
| Weather | Wet and cool | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Time | 1:44.596 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Alessandro Nannini
|
Benetton-Ford | |
| Time | 2:03.032 on lap 40 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Second | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Third | Ferrari | ||
The 1988 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 24 July 1988 at the Hockenheimring, Hockenheim. It was the ninth race of the 1988 Formula One season.
At the midpoint of the season, pre-qualifiers were re-evaluated. After a 4th-place finish in the Detroit Grand Prix, Andrea de Cesaris (Rial) was promoted to the top 26 cars automatically allowed for qualifying sessions. Relegated to pre-qualifying was Nicola Larini in the turbocharged Osella.
Before the German Grand Prix, Williams announced that Thierry Boutsen would be joining the team in 1989 replacing Nigel Mansell who would be joining Ferrari.
For the first half of the season, Ferrari drivers Michele Alboreto and Gerhard Berger had been hampered by both the lack of throttle response and by high fuel consumption from their V6 turbo engines. The fuel consumption had often seen both drivers forced to continually back off their race pace in order to be able to have enough fuel to finish. Early in the season the teams Technical Director John Barnard had suggested to the teams engineers that they reduce the rpm's by 1,000 and re-map the engine to compensate for the loss of power. As the relationship between the team and Barnard, who was still based in England rather than at the factory in Maranello, was strained at best, the engineers had ignored his advice. However, after both cars had run out of fuel in Britain (costing pole winner Berger 5th place as he ran out in sight of the flag while Alboreto had run dry 5 laps earlier), changes were made to the Tipo 033A prior to Germany that just happened to match Barnard's earlier suggestions. Predictably the result was no loss of power while the fuel consumption was significantly improved, though it was still no match for the Honda V6 that powered the McLarens.
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