1991 German motorcycle Grand Prix

  1991 German Grand Prix

Race details
Race 6 of 15 races in the 1991 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	26 May 1991
Location	Hockenheim
Course	Permanent racing facility 6.788 km (4.218 mi)
500 cc
Pole position
Rider	Mick Doohan	Honda
Time	2:00.362
Fastest lap
Rider	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki
Time	1:59.846
Podium
First	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki
Second	Wayne Rainey	Yamaha
Third	Mick Doohan	Honda
250 cc
Pole position
Rider	Helmut Bradl	Honda
Time	2:06.934
Fastest lap
Rider	Helmut Bradl	Honda
Time	2:06.725
Podium
First	Helmut Bradl	Honda
Second	Carlos Cardús	Honda
Third	Wilco Zeelenberg	Honda
125 cc
Pole position
Rider	Loris Capirossi	Honda
Time	2:20.304
Fastest lap
Rider	Loris Capirossi	Honda
Time	2:20.257
Podium
First	Ralf Waldmann	Honda
Second	Loris Capirossi	Honda
Third	Heinz Lüthi	Honda
Sidecars
Pole position
Rider	Steve Webster	Krauser
Passenger	Gavin Simmons
Time	2:10.006
Fastest lap
Rider	Egbert Streuer	LCR-Yamaha
Passenger	Peter Essaff
Time	2:10.444
Podium
First	Ralph Bohnhorst	Bohnhorst
	Bruno Hiller
Second	Alain Michel	Krauser
	Simon Birchall
Third	Rolf Biland	LCR-ADM
	Kurt Waltisperg

The 1991 German motorcycle Grand Prix was the sixth round of the 1991 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 24–26 May 1991 at the Hockenheim circuit.

500 cc race report

Mick Doohan was on pole, Wayne Rainey was 1 second back in 4th, with Eddie Lawson on the front row again on the ever improving Cagiva.

Doohan took the lead at the start ahead from Rainey, Eddie Lawson and John Kocinski. Doohan and Rainey developed a small gap to Kevin Schwantz, Lawson and Wayne Gardner. In the stadium section, Rainey tried to go through the inside of Doohan, but going off the racing line proved too slippery and he had to sit-up and got Schwantz on his back wheel.

Rainey recovered his rhythm and passed Doohan, but Schwantz was closing. Kocinski crashed out. Doohan re-took the lead of the trio with Rainey and Schwantz.

Another Rainey/Doohan battle ended inconclusively when Rainey came alongside Doohan and pointed to Doohan’s back tire which was shedding chunks. Going into the stadium section, Schwantz took the lead and Doohan started dropping back.

Last lap: Rainey was in front of Schwantz. Schwantz stayed behind Rainey through the first chicane, trying to build momentum for a draft pass. He managed it and took the lead from Rainey.

It looked like Schwantz has made a tactical error, letting Rainey draft him on the last straight that leads into the stadium section. Rainey draft passed and prepared for the right turn, but Schwantz swung out from behind and performs a spectacular late-braking pass—the RGV was squirming from side-to-side and the back tire was hopping up and down leaving a dashed black line of rubber. Schwantz got it under control and made the turn, but Rainey wasn't giving up and tried to stay on Schwantz’ left as they headed to a left turn, but Schwantz had better drive coming out of the previous turn and got in front of Rainey and stayed there to the line.

After the race Rainey commentated: “... I thought I was pretty lucky that we beat Doohan there when he had a problem. That’s who I was racing for the championship.”^[1]

500 cc classification

Pos	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki	18	+36:20.491	2	20
2	Wayne Rainey	Yamaha	18	+0.016	4	17
3	Mick Doohan	Honda	18	+8.944	1	15
4	Eddie Lawson	Cagiva	18	+11.568	3	13
5	Wayne Gardner	Honda	18	+25.500	6	11
6	Didier de Radiguès	Suzuki	18	+1:00.264	7	10
7	Juan Garriga	Yamaha	18	+1:11.175	8	9
8	Adrien Morillas	Yamaha	18	+1:24.711	12	8
9	Doug Chandler	Yamaha	18	+1:41.466	10	7
10	Eddie Laycock	Yamaha	17	+1 lap	13	6
11	Cees Doorakkers	Honda	17	+1 lap	14	5
12	Michael Rudroff	Honda	17	+1 lap	15	4
13	Hans Becker	Yamaha	17	+1 lap		3
14	Simon Buckmaster	Suzuki	17	+1 lap		2
Ret	John Kocinski	Yamaha	8	Retired	5
DNS	Jean-Philippe Ruggia	Yamaha			9
DNS	Alex Barros	Cagiva			11
DNQ	Sepp Doppler	Honda
DNQ	Helmut Schutz	Honda
DNQ	Niggi Schmassman	Honda
DNQ	Martin Trösch	Honda
[2]

250 cc classification

Pos	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	Helmut Bradl	Honda	15	31:59.456	1	20
2	Carlos Cardús	Honda	15	+13.517	5	17
3	Wilco Zeelenberg	Honda	15	+14.034	3	15
4	Luca Cadalora	Honda	15	+23.707	9	13
5	Masahiro Shimizu	Honda	15	+43.569	7	11
6	Andreas Preining	Aprilia	15	+43.756	6	10
7	Àlex Crivillé	JJ Cobas	15	+43.825	12	9
8	Jochen Schmid	Honda	15	+43.960	8	8
9	Martin Wimmer	Suzuki	15	+44.219	10	7
10	Stefan Prein	Honda	15	+44.585	11	6
11	Paolo Casoli	Yamaha	15	+45.081	13	5
12	Harald Eckl	Aprilia	15	+47.530	14	4
13	Doriano Romboni	Honda	15	+50.256	15	3
14	Jean-Pierre Jeandat	Honda	15	+59.494		2
15	Carlos Lavado	Yamaha	15	+1:04.087		1
16	Dominique Sarron	Yamaha	15	+1:21.210
17	Bernd Kassner	Yamaha	15	+1:21.432
18	Fausto Ricci	Yamaha	15	+1:46.045
19	Patrick van der Goorbergh	Yamaha	15	+1:50.704
20	Kevin Mitchell	Yamaha	15	+1:50.882
21	Jean Foray	Yamaha	15	+1:50.946
22	Marcellino Lucchi	Aprilia	15	+1:53.122
23	Wayne Doran	Aprilia	15	+1:58.967
24	Ian Newton	Yamaha	15	+2:09.344
25	Peter Linden	Honda	14	+1 lap
Ret	Corrado Catalano	Honda	8	Retired
Ret	Bernard Hänggeli	Aprilia	7	Retired
Ret	Pierfrancesco Chili	Aprilia	6	Retired	2
Ret	Loris Reggiani	Aprilia	4	Retired	4
Ret	Renzo Colleoni	Aprilia	3	Retired
Ret	Urs Jucker	Yamaha	3	Retired
Ret	Jaime Mariano	Aprilia	1	Retired
DNS	Alberto Puig	Yamaha
DNS	Frédéric Protat	Aprilia
DNS	Leon van der Heyden	Honda
DNS	Erkka Korpiaho	Aprilia
DNS	Stefano Pennese	Aprilia
[2]

125 cc classification

Pos	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	Ralf Waldmann	Honda	14	33:12.041	6	20
2	Loris Capirossi	Honda	14	+0.288	1	17
3	Heinz Lüthi	Honda	14	+1.343	5	15
4	Gabriele Debbia	Aprilia	14	+1.549	8	13
5	Alessandro Gramigni	Aprilia	14	+1.558	10	11
6	Jorge Martínez	JJ Cobas	14	+3.893		10
7	Alfred Waibel	Honda	14	+4.395	12	9
8	Dirk Raudies	Honda	14	+4.503	3	8
9	Nobuyuki Wakai	Honda	14	+22.679	14	7
10	Kazuto Sakata	Honda	14	+22.682	4	6
11	Luis Alvaro	Derbi	14	+22.958	13	5
12	Hans Spaan	Honda	14	+34.926	9	4
13	Maurizio Vitali	Gazzaniga	14	+38.459		3
14	Kinya Wada	Honda	14	+38.754		2
15	Johnny Wickström	Honda	14	+38.857		1
16	Stefan Kurfiss	Honda	14	+39.281
17	Hisashi Unemoto	Honda	14	+39.536
18	Herri Torrontegui	JJ Cobas	14	+39.544
19	Thierry Feuz	Honda	14	+40.116
20	Jos van Dongen	Honda	14	+40.286
21	Stefan Brägger	Honda	14	+40.344
22	Arie Molenaar	Honda	14	+41.113
23	Gimmi Bosio	Honda	14	+41.381
24	Wolfgang Fritz	Honda	14	+58.364
25	Hans Koopman	Honda	14	+58.653
26	René Dünki	Honda	14	+58.659
27	Ian McConnachie	Honda	14	+1:35.943
Ret	Adolf Stadler	JJ Cobas	12	Retired	7
Ret	Fausto Gresini	Honda	12	Retired	2
Ret	Manuel Herreros	JJ Cobas	10	Retired
Ret	Robin Appleyard	Honda	10	Retired
Ret	Emilio Cuppini	Gazzaniga	8	Retired
Ret	Francisco Debon	JJ Cobas	7	Retired
Ret	Bruno Casanova	Honda	4	Retired
Ret	Julián Miralles	JJ Cobas	1	Retired
Ret	Peter Öttl	Rotax	0	Retired	11
DNS	Ezio Gianola	Derbi			15
DNS	Koji Takada	Honda
DNQ	Steve Patrickson	Honda
DNQ	Alain Bronec	Honda
DNQ	Peter Galvin	Honda
DNQ	Manuel Hernández	Honda
DNQ	Olivier Petrucciani	Aprilia
DNQ	Serafino Foti	Honda
DNQ	Alan Patterson	Honda
DNQ	Hubert Abold	Honda
DNQ	Jean-Claude Selini	Honda
DNQ	Thomas Engl	Honda
DNQ	Phillip Unhola	Honda
DNQ	Taru Rinne	Honda
[2]

Sidecar classification

Pos	Rider	Passenger	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	Ralph Bohnhorst	Bruno Hiller	Bohnhorst	14	30:56.749	2	20
2	Alain Michel	Simon Birchall	Krauser	14	+0.241	4	17
3	Rolf Biland	Kurt Waltisperg	LCR-ADM	14	+2.427	5	15
4	Egbert Streuer	Peter Essaff	LCR-Yamaha	14	+10.363	3	13
5	Barry Brindley	Trevor Hopkinson	LCR-Yamaha	14	+10.989	11	11
6	Steve Abbott	Shaun Smith	LCR-Krauser	14	+11.214		10
7	Markus Egloff	Urs Egloff	Yamaha	14	+11.629	9	9
8	Darren Dixon	Sean Dixon	LCR-Krauser	14	+11.722	7	8
9	Yoshisada Kumagaya	Bryan Houghton	Krauser	14	+19.850	14	7
10	Masato Kumano	Eckhart Rösinger	LCR-Yamaha	14	+28.059	10	6
11	Klaus Klaffenböck	Christian Parzer	LCR	14	+28.533	12	5
12	Theo van Kempen	Jan Kuyt	LCR-Krauser	14	+55.021		4
13	Werner Kraus	Thomas Schröder	ADM	14	+1:11.940	15	3
14	Barry Smith	David Smith	Windle-ADM	14	+1:12.437		2
15	Ivan Nigrowsky	Nicolas Barillon	LCR	14	+1:13.169		1
16	Gary Thomas	Michel van Puyvelde	Krauser	14	+1:35.782
17	Tony Baker	Simon Prior	LCR-Krauser	13	+1 lap
18	Alfred Zurbrügg	Martin Zurbrügg	LCR-Yamaha	1	+3 laps	13
Ret	Paul Güdel	Charly Güdel	LCR-Krauser	13	Retired	6
Ret	Steve Webster	Gavin Simmons	Krauser	9	Retired	1
Ret	Tony Wyssen	Killian Wyssen	LCR-Krauser	3	Retired	8
Ret	René Progin	Gary Irlam	LCR	1	Retired
DNQ	Markus Bösiger	Peter Markwalder	ADM
Ret	Mark Reddington	Robert Parker	Krauser
DNQ	Jos van Stekelenburg	Rinie Bettgens	LCR
DNQ	Hans Hügli	Adolf Hänni	LCR
DNQ	Frank Voigt	Holger Voigt	Schuh-Spezial
DNQ	Reiner Kosta	Jurg Egli	Yamaha
DNQ	Bernd Scherer	Peter Höss	LCR
[2]

References

1. Scott, Michael: "Wayne Rainey", page 154. Haynes Publishing, 1997.
2. Scott, Michael (ed.). Motocourse 1991-1992. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-905138-88-0.