1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Route to the final
Two minutes after half-time, Craig Shakespeare gave Walsall the lead with a low strike and nine minutes later Kelly scored Walsall's third goal after holding off a tackle from Chris Withe to convert O'Kelly's headed pass. No further goals were scored and the first leg ended 3–1 to Walsall. The second leg of the semi-final took place at Fellows Park in Walsall three days later. Notts County took an early lead, once again with a headed goal from Yates, in the 12th minute of the match.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Route to the final
Although the visiting side dominated the match and made several chances to score, Walsall equalised on the hour mark when Trevor Christie scored from around 12 yards (11 m) after the initial strike by Kelly was blocked by Yates. The match ended 1–1 and Walsall progressed to the final with a 4–2 aggregate victory.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Route to the final
Bristol City faced Sheffield United in the other semi-final and the first leg was held at Ashton Gate in Bristol on 15 May 1988. In front of their largest crowd in nine years, Alan Walsh put the home side ahead two minutes before half-time with his 14th goal of the season after shooting from close range after a long throw-in from Steve McClaren. Bristol City's goalkeeper Keith Waugh made a number of saves, from Richard Cadette, Wally Downes and Paul Stancliffe, and the match ended 1–0. The second leg was played three days later at Bramall Lane in Sheffield.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Route to the final
In the 16th minute, Bristol City took the lead when Carl Shutt scored with a diving header. Colin Morris equalised after half-time after he lifted the ball over Waugh in the Bristol City goal and the match ended 1–1. With a 2–1 aggregate victory, Bristol City progressed to the final while Sheffield United were relegated to the Third Division.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Match, Background
Bristol City had last played in the Second Division in the 1979–80 season after which they suffered three consecutive relegations before gaining promotion from the Fourth Division in the 1983–84 season. Walsall had been promoted to the Third Division after ending the 1979–80 season as Fourth Division runners-up. They had finished the previous season in eighth position, one place outside the play-offs. Before the final, there was speculation over the future of Kelly who had scored 25 goals for Walsall during the season: he was reportedly the subject of a £500,000 transfer bid from First Division side Liverpool.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Match, Background
Colin Gordon was no longer available for selection by Bristol City as Reading had refused to extend his loan. Gordon had scored five goals in ten games for Bristol City, but his loan had expired the day of the first leg of the final: Reading had insisted on a transfer fee of £70,000 to secure Kelly's services but Bristol City's manager Joe Jordan said "there's no way we can afford that."


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Match, Background
Both matches between the sides during the regular season ended in draws, 1–1 at Fellows Park in September 1987 and 0–0 at Ashton Gate the following February. According to bookmakers, Bristol City were clear favourites to win the final over two legs.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Match, First leg, Summary
The first leg of the final kicked off at 7:45 p.m. on 25 May 1988 at Ashton Gate in front of 25,128 spectators and refereed by Joe Worrall. Walsall made the better start with Christie going close to scoring within the opening minute of the match. Bristol City's Walsh then saw his carefully placed shot saved by Fred Barber, the Walsall goalkeeper. Seven minutes before half-time, Graeme Forbes fouled Steve Neville and Walsh scored directly from the resulting free kick to give Bristol City the lead. Both Rob Newman and Neville went close to doubling the lead but the half ended with Bristol City leading 1–0.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Match, First leg, Summary
Walsall equalised in the 62nd minute: Forbes' header from a Mark Goodwin corner was cleared off the Bristol City goalline and Christie bundled in the rebound. Joe Jordan, Bristol City's player-manager, substituted himself on for Neville two minutes later, and soon after saw his shot pass a foot wide of the Walsall goalpost. With ten minutes remaining, a Peter Hart free kick was headed on by Christie to Kelly who scored to give Bristol City the lead. In the final minute of the match, Barber's goal kick found Kelly in Bristol City's half of the pitch who ran with the ball and shot from around 20 yards (18 m), past Waugh in the goal to score and make the final score 3–1.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Match, Second leg, Summary
O'Kelly was unavailable for Walsall for the match having pulled a calf muscle in the first leg. The second leg of the final kicked off at 3 p.m. on 28 May 1988 at Fellows Park in front of 13,941 spectators and was refereed by George Tyson. Bristol City started the stronger of the sides and Barber punched a shot away from Ralph Milne in the third minute. An early strike from Walsh hit the Walsall goalpost, a shot from Shutt went close and Walsh's 25 yards (23 m) free kick also narrowly missed the target. In the 31st minute, Walsh played in a corner which Newman headed into the Walsall goal and although Craig Shakespeare hooked the ball out from under the crossbar, the linesman adjudged that the ball has crossed the goalline.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Match, Second leg, Summary
Cynthia Bateman, writing in The Guardian suggested that the "strong, swirling wind was not altogether responsible for some pretty awful football". Shakespeare and Kelly had both come close to equalising, but midway through the second half, McClaren crossed for Shutt to shoot past Barber to make it 2–0 and level the aggregate score at 3–3. In the 76th minute Forbes saw his header cleared off the Bristol City goalline by Steve Galliers. With no outright winner after 90 minutes, a penalty shootout was used to determine which side would host the replay: Walsall won 4–2 and earned the right to play the deciding match at Fellows Park.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Match, Replay, Summary
The replay of the final kicked off at 3 p.m. on 30 May 1988 at Fellows Park in front of 13,007 spectators and refereed by George Courtney. Walsall took the lead in the 11th minute: Bristol City's John Pender had tackled Shakespeare but failed to clear the ball which Kelly won and struck past Waugh. Six minutes later, Kelly ran onto a through-ball from Goodwin and scored his second goal. Within minutes, Walsall were 3–0 ahead:  Goodwin's corner was headed into the Bristol City net by Phil Hawker. Willie Naughton's diving header just before half-time went wide for Walsall and the half ended without further scoring.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Match, Replay, Summary
Although the second half started with Bristol City winning a series of corners, it was Walsall who scored. Kelly beat Galliers and struck the ball which took a deflection off Humphries before spinning round Waugh and ending in the Bristol City goal off the goalpost, to complete Kelly's hat-trick. Towards the end of the match, Shutt was sent off for a foul on Barber and the match ended 4–0 to Walsall who secured promotion to the Second Division.


1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final, Post-match
Kelly was sold by Walsall to West Ham United in July 1988 for a fee of £600,000. Walsall's manager Tommy Coakley was sacked in December 1988 after a losing streak of eleven games, culminating in a 5–1 Boxing Day defeat at home to Oxford United which sent Walsall to the bottom of the league. He was replaced the following January by John Barnwell, but Walsall ended their following season in last position in the Second Division and were relegated back to the Third Division. Bristol City's next season saw them finish in 11th position in the Third Division, five places and nine points outside the play-offs.


1988 Football League play-offs
The Football League play-offs for the 1987–88 season were held in May 1988, with the two-legged finals taking place at the finalists home stadiums. The play-off semi-finals were also played over two legs and were contested by the teams who finished in 3rd, 4th and 5th place in the Football League Second Division and Football League Third Division and the 4th, 5th, 6th placed teams in the Football League Fourth Division table, along with a team from the league above. The winners of the semi-finals progressed through to the finals, with the winner of these matches either gaining promotion or avoiding relegation for the following season.


1988 Football League play-offs, Background
The Football League play-offs have been held every year since 1987. They take place for each division following the conclusion of the regular season and are contested by the four clubs finishing below the automatic promotion places. For the first three seasons the final was played over two legs but this was changed to a single match at Wembley Stadium from 1990. Additionally, for the 1986–87 and 1987-88 play-offs the semi-finals included a team from the next league who had finished above the relegation positions up, e.g. one team from the first tier and three teams from the second tier. The team from the higher division would be relegated if they failed to win the play-offs, with the play-off winner being promoted in their place.


1988 Football League play-offs, Third Division, Final
Walsall 3–3 Bristol City on aggregate - Walsall won 4-2 on pens to decide who would host the replay.


1988 Formula One Indoor Trophy
The 1988 Formula One Indoor Trophy took place on December 7–8 at the Bologna Motor Show. The winner was Luis Pérez-Sala in a Minardi-Ford.


1988 Formula One Indoor Trophy, Participants
This was the inaugural Formula One Indoor Trophy, held after the close of the 1988 season. Of the six participants, five were Italians, and none were from any of the leading teams.


1988 Formula One Indoor Trophy, Participants
Nicola Larini was representing Osella, as he had for the entire season. Minardi sent two representatives, Pierluigi Martini and the only non-Italian at the event, Spaniard Luis Pérez-Sala. These were the drivers that had driven for them in the regular season, after Martini replaced Adrian Campos mid-season.


1988 Formula One Indoor Trophy, Participants
EuroBrun had been represented by Oscar Larrauri and Stefano Modena during the season, but it was Fabrizio Barbazza, who had never driven in a Grand Prix, who drove the car at the Indoor Trophy. BMS Scuderia Italia also sent along one of their Dallara cars, driven by regular driver Alex Caffi.


1988 Formula One Indoor Trophy, Participants
The only other entrant was from FIRST, who were not even an F1 constructor at the time, but in fact an International Formula 3000 entrant. The car was driven by Gabriele Tarquini, who had driven for the team in F3000 in 1987, but by the time of the Indoor Trophy was driving for French team AGS.


1988 Formula One Indoor Trophy, Results
The six drivers were drawn into three quarter final head to head races. Caffi would face Larini, Martini would face Tarquini and Pérez-Sala would face Barbazza. As could be expected from the form of the season, Caffi, Martini and Pérez-Sala were all victorious. As the closest loser, Larini also progressed to the semi finals to make up the full complement of four.


1988 Formula One Indoor Trophy, Results
Larini was defeated again in the semis by Pérez-Sala, but Caffi pulled a surprise against Martini to prevent an all-Minardi final. In that final though, Pérez-Sala once again followed the expected course, taking the victory.


1988 Formula One World Championship
The 1988 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 42nd season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1988 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1988 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 3 April and ended on 13 November. The World Championship for Drivers was won by Ayrton Senna, and the World Championship for Constructors by McLaren-Honda.


1988 Formula One World Championship
Senna and McLaren teammate Alain Prost won fifteen of the sixteen races between them; the only race neither driver won was the Italian Grand Prix, where Ferrari's Gerhard Berger took an emotional victory four weeks after the death of team founder Enzo Ferrari. McLaren's win tally has only been bettered or equalled in seasons with more than sixteen races; their Constructors' Championship tally of 199 points, more than three times that of any other constructor, was also a record until 2002.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Drivers and constructors
The following drivers and constructors competed in the 1988 season. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Goodyear.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
The pre-season was a very contentious time, with many theories of the championship flying around: whether the Honda engines would prove successful with McLaren; whether Ferrari would be able to continue the trend set by the last two rounds of 1987 in which Gerhard Berger scored successive victories in Japan and Australia; whether Williams would be able to continue their success without Honda and Nelson Piquet; and whether reigning world champion Piquet could succeed in defending his title with the Honda-powered Lotus.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
The Jim Clark and Colin Chapman cups, awarded the previous year for drivers and constructors, respectively, who were using naturally aspirated engines, had been withdrawn as such engines would become mandatory from 1989 onwards, with severe restrictions on turbocharged units for this season. Of the eighteen teams on the grid, twelve – including Williams and Benetton – took the gamble of using either the new Judd CV or 1987's Cosworth DFZ (badged as Ford) V8 engines, to give themselves an extra year to get used to the new regulations. As they had a contract with Ford, Benetton had exclusive use of the Cosworth DFR engine.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
The DFR, a development of the customer DFZ engine used by various teams in 1988, was reportedly the most powerful non-turbo engine, producing approximately 610 bhp (455 kW; 618 PS) (compared to around 580 bhp (433 kW; 588 PS) for the DFZ).


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
Six teams – McLaren and Lotus with their 650 bhp (485 kW; 659 PS) Honda engines, Ferrari produced around 660 bhp (492 kW; 669 PS) version of their 1987 engine (though early in the season power output of the Ferrari V6 was only around 620 bhp), Arrows with their 640 bhp (477 kW; 649 PS) Megatron engines, Osella with the old Alfa Romeo 890T V8 turbo re-badged as the "Osella V8" which produced around 700 bhp (522 kW; 710 PS) (the most powerful engine on the grid, but nowhere near the class of the Honda or Ferrari and often proved slower than the DFZ V8), and Zakspeed with their own 640 bhp (477 kW; 649 PS) 4cyl turbo (though like the Osella, such horsepower was wasted by the small German team) – decided to build one last turbo car to make the most out of their experience using such engines, despite the aforementioned restrictions.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
Of the teams running turbocharged engines, only McLaren and Lotus produced completely new cars for the season, the McLaren MP4/4 and Lotus 100T. Ferrari, Arrows, Zakspeed and Osella all fronted with updated versions of their 1987 cars and engines. Honda also went all out and produced the RA168E which was specifically designed to cope with the new 2.5 bar turbo limit and the lower fuel limit of 150 litres, down from 1987's 195 litre limit. This was hoped to give Honda teams an advantage as all other turbo engines had been originally designed for previous years higher boost levels and greater fuel allowance.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
The turbo powered cars were producing approximately 300 bhp (224 kW; 304 PS) less than in 1987 thanks to the FIA's controversial pop-off valves. Introduced in 1987 to restrict turbo boost to 4.0 bar, this was further reduced in 1988 to only 2.5 bar, while the turbos were also restricted to a fuel tank size of only 150 litres compared to a maximum of 215 litres for the "atmos".


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
The March team introduced a new designer to Formula One in 1988, one who would go on to produce many Grand Prix and World Championship winning cars in his career. Adrian Newey designed the sleek looking and aerodynamically effective March 881 for the team's second season back in F1. Like Williams, March took a gamble on the new 600 bhp (447 kW; 608 PS) Judd V8 engine (an engine John Judd had based on a Honda Indycar block).


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
Looking for an advantage now that they couldn't rely on superior Honda turbo power, Williams added their reactive suspension system, introduced late in 1987, to the new Williams FW12. Lotus on the other hand, who had re-introduced active suspension to Formula One at the start of 1987 (after previously experimenting with the system in 1982 and 1983), reverted to conventional suspension for their 1988 challenger, the Lotus 100T, due to the extra weight and the 5% engine power that the computer controlled system required to run properly. As Williams would find out, the power needed to run the suspension made the already underpowered Judd V8 sluggish compared to its rivals.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
There were three new teams on the grid this year – BMS Scuderia Italia (using a Dallara chassis), Rial and EuroBrun – while Coloni was embarking on its first full season after entering two races towards the end of 1987. BMS, Rial and Coloni all entered one car while EuroBrun entered two, thus increasing the number of participants at each race to 31. It was decided that only 30 cars should be allowed to participate in the qualifying sessions, and so pre-qualifying, which had been used in several races during the late 1970s and early 1980s, was re-introduced.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
For 1988, this consisted of the aforementioned five cars taking part in an extra session on Friday morning before the first session of qualifying proper (the session was run concurrently with the first un-timed practice session on the three street circuits on the calendar, though it took place on Thursday at Monaco), with the slowest car to miss out on the rest of the weekend. Dallara were late in producing their first Formula One car, the F188, so BMS were forced to use a modified Dallara Formula 3000 chassis, the 3087, at the first race in Brazil.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
While there were new teams on the grid in 1988, the Brabham team would not appear in a Grand Prix season for the first time since 1961. After losing use of the turbo BMW engines and failing to secure a replacement, and after missing the FIA's entry deadline for the 1988 season, team owner Bernie Ecclestone announced Brabham's withdrawal before the opening race in Brazil. Ecclestone later sold the team to Swiss slot machine magnate Walter Brun (part owner of the Eurobrun team), who in turn sold it to Swiss financier Joachim Luhti who returned the team to F1 in 1989. No team used Brabham's 1987 car numbers 7 and 8.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
Pre -season testing in Rio de Janeiro at the newly named Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet (formerly known as the Jacarepaguá Circuit) was dominated by Ferrari seemingly continuing on with the form that saw Gerhard Berger win the final two races of 1987. Both Berger and Michele Alboreto set times during the Rio tests which were significantly faster than anyone else, and faster than had been recorded during the 1987 Brazilian Grand Prix, prompting rumours that the Scuderia had been running their cars without the FIA's mandatory pop-off valve, or had the valve set at 1987's 4.0 bar limit.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Pre-season
The rumours seemed to carry weight when just a month later for the opening race at the same circuit when the pop-off valves were to be in use, neither Berger nor Alboreto could get near their testing times from the previous month, and both were well down on top speed compared to the McLaren and Lotus-Hondas.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 1 – Brazil
For the first race of the season in Brazil, with Ferrari being the only completely stable option and having dominated the Rio tests the previous month, many agreed that both Berger and Alboreto (should he find the motivation) would be in serious contention, and this was supported in Berger's second place behind Alain Prost's McLaren as well as setting the fastest race lap for the Ferrari. Though in a post-race interview Berger warned that Ferrari had a lot of work to do to catch up with Honda as the Ferrari V6 seemed to lack power compared to its rivals.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 1 – Brazil
Remarkable also, was Nigel Mansell's recovery from his accident in Japan to score a front row position for his non-turbo Judd-powered Williams on his first race back. Making Mansell's lap even more remarkable was that his Judd engined Williams FW12 was only timed at only 265 km/h (165 mph) on the long back straight compared to over 290 km/h (180 mph) for the Honda turbos of McLaren and Lotus. Mansell was the first non-turbo front row starter in Formula One since Keke Rosberg had qualified his Williams-Ford on pole at the same circuit for the opening race of the 1983 season.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 1 – Brazil
Of the new teams and drivers, both EuroBruns qualified for the race, as did the Rial of Andrea de Cesaris, while Luis Pérez-Sala also qualified his Minardi-Ford. The Tyrrell-Ford of Julian Bailey failed to qualify, as did the turbocharged Zakspeed of Bernd Schneider. The converted F3000 Dallara-Ford of Alex Caffi failed to pre-qualify for its only race, with the full F1 chassis ready before the next race.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 1 – Brazil
Senna's first race for McLaren got off to a bad start when the cars gear selector broke on the grid, causing a restart. The Brazilian was eventually disqualified for switching to the spare car after the green flag had been waved following the warm-up lap. At the time he had risen up to second place after starting from the pits.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 1 – Brazil
Making it look easy and confirming his mastery of the circuit, Prost won his fifth Brazilian Grand Prix in seven years, easing off over the last few laps to ensure he finished with enough fuel not to be underweight to finish 10 seconds in front of Berger, with World Champion Nelson Piquet finishing third in his first race for Lotus-Honda. With Derek Warwick (Arrows-Megatron), Alboreto (Ferrari) and Satoru Nakajima (Lotus-Honda) finishing 4th, 5th and 6th respectively the points were a clean sweep for the turbo powered cars, though Mansell and the Benettons of Boutsen and Nannini did run in the points for long periods of the race.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 2 – San Marino
At Imola however, it was plain to see what all the teams had feared. Steve Nichols' McLaren MP4/4, combined with the championship winning Honda V6 turbo, made a mockery of the rest of the grid. In qualifying both Senna and Prost were 3 seconds faster than the Lotus-Honda of Piquet in 3rd.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 2 – San Marino
At the end of the race Senna and Prost (who had almost stalled at the start and was only in 8th by the time the field got to Tosa, giving Senna a clear track while Prost took a number of laps to get to second) had lapped the entire field, with teammate Prost only 2.3 seconds behind a fuel conserving Senna at the finish. Indeed, both McLarens set faster race laps than anyone else had qualified. The McLarens lapping the field with 5 laps remaining was bad news for the Benettons of Thierry Boutsen and Alessandro Nannini respectively.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 2 – San Marino
This meant that both Piquet (Lotus) and Berger (Ferrari) had one lap less that they had to try and stretch their fuel and now could afford to up their turbo boost if needed. Over the final 5 laps, Piquet pulled away from a challenging Boutsen (who was down on power due to a cracked exhaust), while Berger passed Nannini for 5th place on the last lap by cutting the grass at the Acque Minerali chicane, though no action was taken for cutting a corner to make a pass for position.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 2 – San Marino
During qualifying, 1982 World Champion and the last driver to win the title driving a naturally aspirated car Keke Rosberg, said in an interview at about the new rules that if you ignored the McLarens it was quite a competitive race between the turbos and the 'atmos'.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 2 – San Marino
Considering that the Imola circuit had always been considered a power track that spelled good news for the FIA's turbo restriction rules, especially with drivers of the faster atmo cars, Nigel Mansell's Williams-Judd and the Benetton-Fords of Nannini and Boutsen, regularly challenging the turbos of Lotus-Honda (fastest through the speed trap in qualifying at 302 km/h (188 mph)), Ferrari and Arrows-Megatron, though the McLarens (which were 1.5 km/h slower at Tosa than Piquet in qualifying) were out of reach of everyone.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 2 – San Marino
The acceleration of the Honda V6 turbo in the sleek, lowline McLaren, and their downforce in the corners was unsurpassed. That, combined with who many considered the two best drivers in the world, saw the McLarens simply in another league at Imola. Though most in the F1 paddock and the press agreed that while Senna and Prost were the best drivers, all things being equal they weren't three seconds a lap faster than every one else.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 2 – San Marino
For the first time since the team entered Formula One in 1976, both Ligiers failed to qualify for a race. Stefan Johansson, who could boast 11 podium finishes over the past 3 seasons with Ferrari and McLaren, could only manage 28th fastest, with 7 time Grands Prix winner René Arnoux (who also had 18 pole positions to his credit, including 2 at Imola) could only manage 29th fastest. Both drivers were over 8.5 seconds slower than Senna's pole time. The problem for the Ligiers was a lack of downforce from the Judd powered JS31 with Johansson telling that he had to use a wet weather technique even on a dry track.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 3 – Monaco
Despite what many expected, the championship would hardly be considered boring with the McLaren onslaught peaking with the drivers fighting in several feuds. At Monaco, after Alain Prost set the fastest lap, Senna refused to accept that his teammate could be driving faster than he was, especially after Senna out qualified Prost by over a second. Senna pushed and after taking back the fastest lap, Ron Dennis got on the radio and told his drivers to effectively 'cool it' as Senna's lead was 50 seconds with only 12 laps remaining.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 3 – Monaco
Senna, his rhythm broken, then had a major lapse in concentration and hit the wall at Portier. What made Senna's mistake all the more astounding was that he had completely dominated the weekend, taking pole by 1.4 seconds from Prost (who was 1.2 seconds faster than Berger's 3rd placed Ferrari) and from the start of the race had simply run away and hid from the field.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 3 – Monaco
Prost, who had made the best start but was passed in quick succession by Senna and Berger when he couldn't engage second gear, spent 54 laps trying to find a way around the Ferrari as his teammate pulled away by almost a second per lap. The McLaren got alongside the Ferrari many times past the pits but simply ran out of room to pass before Sainte Dévote. Finally on lap 54 Prost got a good run out of the final turn and was able to out brake Berger going into Sainte Dévote. He then set about pulling away from the Ferrari while also trying to put some pressure on Senna. Thanks to Senna's crash, Berger picked up second place behind Prost with teammate Alboreto third.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 3 – Monaco
After Senna's crash, the McLaren team didn't see or hear from him until that night as he didn't return to the pits until the team was packing up after the race. As the Brazilian lived in Monaco, the general belief was that he went back to his home to contemplate losing a race he had totally dominated.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 4 – Mexico
In Mexico, it was nearly a repeat of San Marino: McLaren 1–2, with this time only one other driver on the lead lap. Gerhard Berger had picked up his third podium in four races, giving him the edge on Piquet and Alboreto for the title of "Best of the Rest" – the race for third. As expected, turbo cars dominated in the thin air of Mexico City, with the front three rows of the grid shared between the McLaren-Hondas, Ferraris, Lotus-Hondas. This dominance continued in the race. Behind the Prost-Senna 1–2 came a Ferrari 3–4 with Alboreto finishing behind his teammate, while Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever finished 5th and 6th after a race long dice in their Arrows-Megatron turbos. Warwick and Cheever would later remark that their race was "good fun".


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 4 – Mexico
In the thin air of Mexico City's high altitude, the turbos were able to perform at their optimum, while the naturally aspirated cars actually lost approximately 20–25% of their power. This advantage allowed the Zakspeed of Bernd Schneider to qualify an impressive 15th for his first Grand Prix start in what wasn't the most competitive car in the field. Incredibly though, the turbocharged Osella of Nicola Larini with its ancient "Osella V8" (a re-badged Alfa Romeo 890T first seen in 1983), allegedly the most powerful engine in the field, failed to qualify.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 4 – Mexico
The last qualifying session was dominated by Philippe Alliot's terrifying crash after he lost control of his Lola, coming out of the Peraltada curve that leads onto the pit straight (the Peraltada, being slightly banked, was being taken at speeds in excess of 240 km/h (149 mph) in qualifying). After riding the outside curbing, the car suddenly pulled hard right, cut across the track and collided with the pit wall, barrel-rolling down the straight and back across the track, immediately disintegrating, and in the end stopped upside down in the middle of the track. Remarkably, Alliot was not only unhurt, but the Larrousse team was able to rebuild the car overnight and Alliot was able to take his place on the starting grid.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 4 – Mexico
The fastest atmo qualifier, the Benetton-Ford of Alessandro Nannini, finished in 7th place. The Italian, who finished just in front of teammate Thierry Boutsen after another race long duel between teammates, finished the race without a point and in severe pain from a pinched nerve in his right foot from never having to drive as hard for so long.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 4 – Mexico
Honda's 1–2 finish with McLaren had its flip side though as both Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakajima failed to finish due to blown Honda engines.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 5 – Canada
After not racing in Canada in 1987 due to a sponsorship dispute, Formula One returned to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix. The circuit had been changed since the last visit in 1986, with the pits relocated to the opposite end of the circuit, the new complex gaining general approval from those who mattered, the teams themselves. Canada again proved a repeat of the McLaren onslaught, this time Boutsen's Benetton being the only other car on the lead lap, and 50 seconds behind.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 5 – Canada
Canada saw the first on-track fight for the lead between the two McLaren drivers. Prost won the start and led until lap 19 when Senna passed him under braking for the L'Epingle Hairpin. The Brazilian then pulled away from his teammate to win by 5 seconds, with Boutsen and further 46 seconds back in third.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 5 – Canada
Nelson Piquet's season of disappointment continued with a 4th-place finish in his Lotus-Honda, again one lap down on the McLarens. After qualifying 6th, the reigning World Champion was passed early on by ex-teammate Nigel Mansell's Williams-Judd, and then spent many laps fighting off the AGS-Ford of Philippe Streiff until the Frenchman suffered suspension failure on lap 41.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 6 – Detroit
This was repeated in Detroit, however this time third placed Boutsen failed to stay on the lead lap as Senna took his second victory in a row, and his third in a row in Detroit, making it six out of six for McLaren and Honda. Prost finished 38.7 seconds behind in second. For the first time since Brazil, there was something other than a McLaren on the front row.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 6 – Detroit
Gerhard Berger qualified second behind Senna (who took his record 7th straight pole position), with Alboreto third and Prost only managing fourth on the grid on his least favorite track on the calendar. This would prove to be the final ever Formula One Detroit Grand Prix, the temporary street circuit failing to meet the FIA's minimum pit requirements.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 7 – France
The French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard saw another 1–2 for McLaren, this time with Prost at the helm for his home Grand Prix, followed by the Ferraris, though this time Alboreto led home Berger with the Italian the only driver not lapped by the McLarens. Piquet raced a brilliant race, despite losing second gear, to come through for a fifth place. For the first time in 1988, Ayrton Senna was not on pole position. In France it was French hero Prost who qualified fastest almost half a second up on his teammate. The race saw the second true fight of the season between the McLarens, with Prost coming out on top after a brave passing move at the ultra fast Courbe de Signes when Senna had been momentarily baulked by the Dallara of Alex Caffi and the Minardi of Pierluigi Martini.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 7 – France
At the team's home Grand Prix, Ligier suffered the embarrassment of neither René Arnoux (who turned 40 the day after the race) or Stefan Johansson being able to qualify for the race.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 8 – Britain
At the wet British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Nigel Mansell surprised all by scoring a second place for an atmos car for his first finish of the season after seven races of DNFs, a result which definitely pleased the hordes of British fans who were still gripped in Mansell-mania despite the driver's (or rather, the car's) lacklustre performance through the year. Senna won, with the podium rounded off by Nannini, proving that Silverstone was an unusually good race for the atmos cars. Silverstone also saw the only non-McLaren pole position when Gerhard Berger claimed pole in his Ferrari. It was also the only time neither McLaren qualified on the front row as Alboreto qualified second.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 8 – Britain
Mansell's race was helped when the 'reactive suspension' used on the Williams FW12 was dumped by the team after Friday qualifying and a conventional suspension was put in its place. Team Technical Director Patrick Head called the work "a bit of a bodge", but the new suspension transformed the car and allowed Mansell and teammate Riccardo Patrese to enter the race with confidence for the first time all season (after Friday qualifying, Patrese had been 30th and last, almost 21 seconds slower than provisional pole man Alboreto).


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 8 – Britain
Prost got a horror start and was down in 9th at the end of the first lap with BBC commentator and 1976 World Champion James Hunt noting as early as lap 2 that his Honda engine was badly misfiring. Prost was later lapped by his teammate going into Woodcote in a move that also saw Senna take the lead for the first time from Berger. Prost suffered his first DNF of the season when he retired on lap 24 citing an engine misfire and poor handling, though in complete contrast to his win in France a week earlier, he was attacked in the French press, many of whom felt he had simply given up.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 8 – Britain
McLaren had dominated, winning the first eight races of the season, with Prost and Senna winning four each. Prost led the championship with 54 points from Senna on 48 and Gerhard Berger on 21. McLaren were making a mockery of the Constructors' Championship having scored 102 points, 68 in front of second placed Ferrari.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 9 – Germany
Germany proved a return to the year's trend, with the long straights of Hockenheim showcasing the brute strength of the turbos, with the only atmos car on the lead lap behind both McLarens and Ferraris respectively being Capelli's March. Capelli recorded the fastest 'atmo' speed trap of the season during qualifying, the Judd V8 pushing the March 881 to 312 km/h (194 mph), though this was significantly slower than the McLarens at 333 km/h (207 mph), and Ferraris at 328 km/h (204 mph). Unable to exploit the power of their Megatron turbos thanks to the pop-off valve regularly cutting in at around 2.3 bar instead of the full 2.5 bar limit, the Arrows A10Bs of Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever struggled, only trapping at around 315 km/h (196 mph).


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 9 – Germany
Gerhard Berger survived a high speed spin in qualifying. His Ferrari was attempting to pass the EuroBrun of Oscar Larrauri and the Arrows of Eddie Cheever on the final straight before the stadium section of the track. Berger went to his left to pass both cars only to find Cheever had done the same to pass Larrauri, and the American had what was left of the road. At almost 280 km/h (174 mph), the Ferrari put its left wheels on the grass, sending it into a spin between the Arrows and EuroBrun. Luckily, Larrauri had only been cruising at the time and was able to avoid the spinning Ferrari. Berger managed to stop his car before it hit the barrier on the opposite side of the track.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 9 – Germany
In the second wet race in a row, Senna took the win from Prost, with Berger taking the bottom step of the rostrum. Alessandro Nannini set his first career fastest lap in his Benetton-Ford V8. The Italian had been in 4th place before having to pit to fix a broken throttle bracket which cost him 4 laps and almost 20 places and angrily drove the rest of the race flat out, setting a time that was 1.856 seconds faster than the next best set by Prost.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 9 – Germany
Defending World Champion Nelson Piquet made the strange decision to start the race on slick tyres. It proved to be the wrong choice as his Lotus aquaplaned on the wet surface and clouted the tyre barrier going into the Ostkurve chicane on the first lap. Larrousse driver Philippe Alliot would later repeat Piquet's mistake. He changed from wets to slicks just 8 laps later and while being lapped by Senna, went offline and aquaplaned into the same tyre barrier the Lotus had hit. Like Piquet's Lotus, Alliot's Lola was out on the spot with rear suspension damage.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 10 – Hungary
At the following Grand Prix at Hungary, Senna secured his 24th pole position, securing the third highest total after legendary champions Jim Clark and Juan Manuel Fangio, backing his qualifying effort up by taking victory over teammate Prost by just over half a second. This was Senna's sixth win of the season, and third on the trot, with Prost on just four wins.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 10 – Hungary
Despite suffering from Chickenpox, Nigel Mansell secured his first front row start since the opening race in Brazil. On the tight and twisty Hungaroring, the only turbo powered cars in the top 7 were the McLarens, with Prost down in 7th place. Mansell got the better of the start and briefly led, but before the first turn the power of the Honda turbo told and Senna was through into the lead. Mansell and teammate Riccardo Patrese then pressured Senna until Mansell spun his Williams on lap 12, dropping him to 4th place. Patrese then set about taking the lead from Senna but was forced to drop back with engine trouble and would eventually finish 6th.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 10 – Hungary
Prost's race was better than qualifying, and though he again made a slow start and was 9th at the end of the opening lap, he fought his way up to second behind Senna on lap 47. On lap 49 he took the lead from Senna down the pit straight in a breathtaking move where he not only passed Senna but also the lapped Yannick Dalmas and Gabriele Tarquini. Unfortunately his burst of speed also saw him run wide at the first corner allowing Senna to dive underneath and re-take the lead.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 10 – Hungary
From that point Prost's McLaren developed a vibration which saw him drop back from Senna, though he again charged late in the race and was only half a second behind at the finish. Thierry Boutsen once more finished "best of the rest" in his Benetton, finishing half a minute behind the McLarens, his race not helped by a broken exhaust which robbed the Ford DFR of power. Rounding out the points were Berger, Gugelmin and Patrese. After a race long duel, the Lotus pair finished out of the points in 7th and 8th respectively, with Satoru Nakajima gaining praise for finishing in front of his more illustrious teammate. Nakajima and Piquet finished 3 laps behind the McLarens.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 11 – Belgium
The 1988 Belgian Grand Prix showed Prost one thing: to not change his set-up at the last minute. All through the year, Prost's better feel at setting up a car was not only noticed by his teammate, but mimicked. Senna had used Prost's set-ups for every race thus far, and the race at Spa was no different.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 11 – Belgium
This annoyed Prost, and he changed his aero-settings at the last minute (running less wing with the hopes of being faster on the straights and the long run from Stavelot to the Bus Stop chicane), hoping to give himself an edge over the pole-sitting Senna. At the start, Prost took the lead after Senna suffered wheel spin, but on the first lap Senna with greater downforce was noticeably faster through Eau Rouge. Despite running with more wing than his teammate, Senna was able to then slipstream Prost up the Kemmel Straight and easily out braked him into Les Combes.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 11 – Belgium
From there Senna steadily drew away from his teammate who was unhappy with the balance of his car after his last minute setting change, going on to take an easy 30 second win. Third and fourth was filled by the two Benettons, however they were both disqualified from the results long after the race had ended for using illegal fuel (in fact, the DQ was not known until after the season had ended meaning most publications showed the Benettons as finishing 3rd and 4th). This saw Ivan Capelli gain his first ever podium in Formula One. The 1–2 for McLaren meant that the points gap became big enough that Ferrari lost any chance of catching them in Constructors' Championship, securing McLaren one of the earliest recorded Constructors' Championship victories.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 11 – Belgium
After racing in Hungary against doctors orders, Nigel Mansell was forced to miss the Belgian Grand Prix through illness and was replaced by Martin Brundle, who after four years in F1 was driving a V12 Jaguar XJR-9 for Tom Walkinshaw Racing in the 1988 World Sportscar Championship (Brundle would win that championship). After qualifying 12th, and actually being fastest in the 2nd, wet qualifying session, Brundle finished in 7th place, one lap behind his former British Formula 3 rival Senna.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 11 – Belgium
Two weeks before the Belgian Grand Prix, Formula One lost its best known and one of its most loved people. Enzo Ferrari, the founding father of Ferrari and its F1 team Scuderia Ferrari, died on 14 August at the age of 90. In the first race since the death of their teams founder, Berger and Alboreto qualified 3rd and 4th respectively with Alboreto being the fastest through the speed trap on the Kemmel Straight at 312 km/h (194 mph). Both were a DNF in the race however, Berger out on lap 11 with injection trouble, and while Alboreto's engine blew on lap 35.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 12 – Italy
Before the Italian Grand Prix, Prost was quoted as saying that, as it was very possible that McLaren would take out a perfect sixteen out of sixteen victories, the winner would be determined between which McLaren driver would take the most wins, and on the chance they both took eight, it would be determined on their second places, which at the time Prost had more of despite having fewer wins. This meant Prost with 4 wins to Senna's 7 could only let Senna win one more time.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 12 – Italy
Monza, being another high speed circuit, would prove to be another McLaren dominated race, with both sitting on the front row, again with both Ferrari's behind. The race fell into regular routine as Senna lead from the start and Prost close behind. Prost had actually won the start, but as he changed gear from 1st to 2nd his Honda engine began to misfire allowing Senna to power past before the Retifillo chicane.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 12 – Italy
At the end of the first lap with Senna holding a 2-second lead, Prost, correctly believing the misfire was bad enough that he wouldn't finish the race, turned his turbo boost up to full and gave chase. However, on lap 35 of 51, Prost's championship hopes seemed to evaporate when his Honda engine finally blew. The tifosi cheered as their drivers were shifted to second and third, albeit some 30 seconds behind Senna, and Honda were left embarrassed with one of their engines expiring on their main rivals (Ferrari) home track.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 12 – Italy
Unfortunately for McLaren though, what Prost had done was force Senna to use too much fuel in his desire to stay in the lead (many in the pits, including his former Lotus team boss Peter Warr believed that Senna had effectively been suckered by Prost and should have realised that if he was using too much fuel then Prost was also, something Prost did not usually do).


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 12 – Italy
This forced Senna to back off over the last 16 laps in order to ensure a finish, and it allowed the Ferrari's to close the gap from 30 seconds when Prost retired, to just over 5 seconds with just two laps remaining as Senna came up to lap the Williams of Jean-Louis Schlesser, standing in for the still unwell Nigel Mansell.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 12 – Italy
Senna, knowing the Ferraris were closing in, dived under Schlesser's Williams at the Rettifilo chicane instead of waiting for the long, fast Curva Grande that would follow. Senna took his normal line through the corner while Schlesser moved over to give him room. The Williams locked its brakes in the dust and marbles on the edge of the circuit and slid wide. Schlesser (a noted rally driver who was used to such things) then regained control and turned the Williams to avoid the sand trap and found Senna had not allowed any room for the Frenchman to rejoin the circuit.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 12 – Italy
The Williams T-boned the right rear tyre of the McLaren, breaking its rear suspension and destroying any hopes of a perfect winning season for McLaren. The tifosi erupted as the #12 McLaren was beached on a curb and out of the race; Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto sat first and second, where they remained at the finish only half a second apart. The victory was made poignant by the fact that it was the first Italian Grand Prix since Enzo Ferrari's death. Both drivers and team dedicated the victory to the "old man". This race would prove to be the only chink in McLaren's perfect year and their only double retirement.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 12 – Italy
Arrows, whose engine guru Heini Mader had finally solved the Megatron engine's pop-off valve problem giving them comparable power to the Honda and Ferrari engines (approximately 640 bhp (477 kW; 649 PS)), finished 3rd and 4th, with Cheever gaining the final spot on the rostrum just six-tenths in front of Derek Warwick. It would prove to be the final podium finish for both Arrows with their old BMW M12 engine (re-badged as Megatron in 1987) which had been introduced to F1 with the Brabham team back in 1982. With full power now available, during qualifying Cheever pushed his Arrows A10B to 200 mph (322 km/h), comfortably faster than the McLarens and Ferraris which were timed at 192 mph (309 km/h).


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 13 – Portugal
The following Grand Prix in Portugal proved to be an exciting affair, for all but Ayrton Senna who suffered race long with handling troubles. He ended sixth while Prost retook the championship lead by obtaining his fifth victory of the year. March driver Ivan Capelli secured his first career podium with a brilliant second, with Boutsen once again finishing third in his Benetton.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 13 – Portugal
As the field finished the first lap of the race, Prost, who had claimed his second pole of the year (and pulled a psychological ploy on Senna by setting his time early in the final session, then spending the rest of the session lounging in the McLaren pits wearing jeans and a T-shirt, almost daring the Brazilian to beat him), pulled out of Senna's slipstream to pass his teammate for the lead down the straight. In a famous vision, Senna almost pushed his teammate into the pit wall at over 280 km/h (174 mph), something which didn't please the race winner. This was after Prost had tried to block Senna and pushed him close to the grass during one of the aborted starts.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 14 – Spain
At the Spanish Grand Prix, Prost secured his sixth win of the season, again in an attempt to delay an almost inevitable eighth race win for Senna – that would secure his first of three championships. As in Portugal, Senna suffered from fuel gauge problems, as well an overheating engine and was lucky to secure fourth. Nigel Mansell doubled his British Grand Prix efforts and scored another six points.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 14 – Spain
He moved into second early and while never seriously threatening Prost for the lead, it was only a slow stop for tyres on lap 47 which prevented the Englishman from pressuring the Frenchman late in the race. Alessandro Nannini continued to impress when drove a steady race to finish third in his Benetton.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 14 – Spain
During qualifying, Grand Prix's most experienced driver Riccardo Patrese was fined $10,000 for brake testing the Tyrrell of Julian Bailey. Patrese's action, which caused the Tyrrell to hit the back of the Williams, fly into the air and off the track into a gravel trap, was widely condemned by those in the paddock. One unnamed driver was quoted as saying "I hope they fine him his bloody retainer. There are enough accidental shunts in this business without people actually trying to cause them....."


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 15 – Japan
The penultimate round in Japan was, once again, where the title was decided. This time it was the end of the weekend, and not the beginning. Prost made a superb start to the lead, whilst Senna stalled, lucky in the fact that Suzuka had a sloping grid, helping to start his car. Senna knew he had nothing to lose and everything to gain in this race, and knew he could seal the championship here. By the end of the lap he had already made up six positions, and by the fourth lap he was sitting in fourth position.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 15 – Japan
The top six cars were all sitting very close and when the rain started to fall, so did Prost. Capelli took this chance to become the first naturally aspirated car to lead a Grand Prix in over 4 years, thrilling the March team. Unfortunately, this was not to last as his electronics would eventually fail. By then, Senna was hot on the tail of Prost. Prost disliked the wet, and his failing gearbox only added to the Brazilian's chances.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 15 – Japan
When the pair came round to lap some back-markers, as Prost was caught up with de Cesaris, Senna went past to take the lead, and set three consecutive fastest laps and setting a new lap record. As he was now in front of the field of competitors and due to become world champion, he signaled to stop the race. However, the race ran its full distance and Honda were reveling in their 1–2 finish, whilst Prost was bitter, but readily accepted that Senna was a deserving champion.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 15 – Japan
Other than those with Honda engines, the Japanese fans had two local drivers to cheer for the first time. Japanese Formula 3000 champion Aguri Suzuki was substituting for the sick Yannick Dalmas in the Larrousse team (Dalmas would later be diagnosed with Legionaire's Disease). Suzuki joined Satoru Nakajima as the only Japanese drivers in F1 at the time. The much-maligned Nakajima won praise at the meeting when he drove despite finding out only 30 minutes before the first practice session that his mother had died that morning. The inspired Japanese driver was faster than his World Champion teammate Piquet on the first day of qualifying, and matched the Brazilian's time to the thousandth of a second during the second session.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 16 – Australia
McLaren secured their 12th 1–2 qualifying for the season, with Senna setting his record 13th pole for the year, again doing his last minute act by literally beating Prost's time on the last lap of qualifying. In the last turbo Formula One race until the 2014 season, Bernd Schneider failed to qualify his Zakspeed, while Nicola Larini failed to pre-qualify the Osella.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 16 – Australia
A relaxed Nigel Mansell, in his last race in his first spell for Williams, qualified 3rd, though he wasn't confident going into the race as both he and Riccardo Patrese had suffered brake trouble all through practice and qualifying and the Adelaide Street Circuit had been notoriously hard on brakes in its 3 race history.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 16 – Australia
Before the race Gerhard Berger told both Prost and Senna that with it being the last race for the turbos he was going to "go for it" and run the race with full turbo boost. He reasoned it was better to go out in the lead rather than just drone around in the wake of the McLarens. True to his word, Berger led the race by using maximum turbo boost in his engine and had passed Prost for the lead on lap 14.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 16 – Australia
His race was only to last another 9 laps though as he crashed with René Arnoux on lap 25. After that the race turned into another McLaren demonstration, though late in the race Nelson Piquet did briefly threaten Senna who had been having gear selection problems almost from the start. Mansell's fear of the Williams's brakes came to fruition when he spun into the barriers on lap 65 simply through having no brakes left. He had been in fourth place at the time just in front of Patrese, but had not been able to truly challenge Piquet who was able to use Honda power on the 900-metre-long Brabham Straight to keep his former teammates at bay.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Season, Round 16 – Australia
Prost would go on to win in Adelaide, leading home Senna and outgoing champion Nelson Piquet giving Honda turbos a fitting 1–2–3 finish in the final race of the first turbo era in Formula One. Prost's win over Senna in Australia saw him score eleven more points in total than the Brazilian, but only the eleven highest scores counted, with Senna's eight wins and three seconds giving him a total of 90 points to Prost's 87. While Prost agreed that Senna deserved his championship win, he went on to be a proponent of the 90's scoring system where all results would count to the final results with the winner scoring 10, not 9, points.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Summary
Incredibly, of the 14 races Alain Prost finished in 1988 he would record seven wins and seven second places, yet it wasn't enough to win the championship. His wins total equaled the single season record he himself had equalled in 1984 (Jim Clark had won 7 races in 1963) when he had also lost the world championship to then McLaren teammate Niki Lauda. However, unlike Lauda who scored 5 wins and it was his regular points finishes that gave him his 3rd championship, the wins record now belonged to Senna who finished with eight wins. Senna also set the single season pole winning record by claiming the fastest time on thirteen occasions during the year, finishing the season with 29 career pole positions, only four behind the record, which was another held by the great Jim Clark.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Summary
In Adelaide, FOCA boss Bernie Ecclestone summed up the season by saying that what McLaren had actually done was nothing more than their usual professional job and that they didn't really do anything exceptional. With the Honda turbo they clearly had the best engines, and in Senna and Prost they had the two best drivers. The problem was that just about every other team performed well below par and the McLarens were rarely challenged. He then jokingly added that all the teams, including McLaren, would have to up their performance in 1989 as Brabham (which he had sold to EuroBrun owner Walter Brun) would be back in Formula One.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Season summary, Summary
While the McLaren-Honda's had dominated the 1988 Formula One season like no one had before, the FIA's rules to limit turbo cars boost and fuel tank size had the desired effect of bringing the atmospheric cars back into contention. This was shown by front row starts for Nigel Mansell in Brazil and Hungary, as well as three 2nd and eight 3rd-place finishes for the non-turbo cars, and on each occasion that a non-turbo car finished on the podium, the only cars to finish in front of them were the all-conquering McLaren-Honda's.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Results and standings, Scoring system
Points were awarded at each round to the top six finishers at each Grand Prix as follows:


1988 Formula One World Championship, Results and standings, Scoring system
For the drivers championship only the eleven best results contributed to the World Championship.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Results and standings, World Drivers' Championship standings
† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Results and standings, World Drivers' Championship standings
* Only the best 11 results counted toward the championship. Prost scored 105 points during the year, but only 87 points were counted toward the championship. Senna scored 94 points, with 90 points counted toward the championship by virtue of winning more races. Thus, Senna became the World Champion, although he did not score the most points over the course of the year.


1988 Formula One World Championship, Results and standings, Non-championship event results
The 1988 season also included a single event which did not count towards the World Championship, the Formula One Indoor Trophy at the Bologna Motor Show.


1988 Fort Lauderdale Strikers season
The 1988 Fort Lauderdale Strikers season was the first season of the new team in the new American Soccer League. It was the first outdoor team to be fielded by the club in a professional league in four years, since the original North American Soccer League. It was the club's twenty-second season in professional soccer. This also marked the return of the Fort Lauderale Striker's name after moving the club back from Minnesota to Florida. Previously, the club had been represented as the Minnesota Strikers. During their inaugural year in the ASL, the team won the Southern Division and made it through the playoffs and into the ASL Championship. They were this year's Runner's-up.


1988 Fort Lauderdale Strikers season, Competitions, 1988 ASL All-Star game
The ASL All-Star game was hosted by the Fort Lauderdale Strikers at Lockhart Stadium. Players that were unable to play due to injury, as well as any Strikers selected to the squad were replaced, since the All-Stars' opponent was the Strikers. George Best also suited up for the Strikers in the match. The match ended in a 3–3 draw after 90 minutes, and moved directly to a penalty shootout. Both teams converted four of five attempts, and in an unusual move agreed to end it there with the consent of the referees.


1988 Fosters Professional
The 1988 Fosters Professional was a non-ranking snooker tournament, which took place in October 1988. The tournament featured four professional players and was filmed in RTÉ Studios.


1988 France rugby union tour of South America
The 1988 France rugby union tour of South America was a series of eight matches played by the France national rugby union team in Argentina and Paraguay in June 1988. The French team won six matches, drew one and lost one. The two-match series against the Argentina national rugby union team was drawn, France winning the first game and Argentina the second.


1988 France rugby union tour of South America, Matches
LegendALU= Alumni, BCR= Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club, BN= Banco Nacion, CAR=Club Atlético del Rosario, CASI=C.A. San Isidro, CP=Club Pucará, CUBA=Club Universitario B.A., CUY=Unión de Rugby de Cuyo, HC=Hindú Club, IRFU=Irish Rugby Football Union, JCR=Jockey Club Rosario, LP= La Plata Rugby Club, ORC=Olivos Rugby Club, SIC=San Isidro Club, SL=Club San Luis, SM=Club Atlético Ferrocarril General San MartínUAR=UAR, UCR= Unión Cordobesa de Rugby, URR= Unión de Rugby de Rosario, URT=Unión de Rugby de Tucumán


1988 France rugby union tour of South America, Matches
San Isidro Club: C.Pirán; P.Chevalier Boutell, D.Cuesta Silva, M.Loffreda (capt. ), A.Ramallo; R.Madero, A.Soares Gache; F.Conti, I.Cirio R.De Vedia; G.Gassó, R.Petti; D.Cash, J.J.Angelillo, L.Lonardi. France: S.Blanco; D.Camberabero, M.Andrieu, D.Charvet, P.Lagisquet; F.Mesnel, P.Berbizier (capt. ); M.Cécillon, L.Rodríguez, E.Champ; J.Condom, A.Lorieux; P.Ondarts, P.Marocco, L.Armary.


1988 France rugby union tour of South America, Matches
Tucumán: P.Imbert; G.Terán, J.Gianotti, S.Mesón, J.Soler; R.Sauze, P.Merlo; G.Palau, M.Picci (capt. ), P.Garretón; P.Buabse, O.Fascioli; J.Coria, R.Le Fort, R.Horta (75' R.Prado). France: J.B.Lafond; B.Lacombe, D.Charvet, P.Bérot, D.Camberabero; J.Trille, M.Hondagne (capt.) ; J.Gratton, C.Deslandes, A.Carminati; D.Erbani, P.Beraud; P.Ondarts, P.Marocco, JP Garuet-Lempirou


1988 France rugby union tour of South America, Matches
Buenos Aires: G.Angaut (LP); C.Wagner (HC), M.E.licagaray (CUBA), G.Maschwitz (CUBA), P.Lanza (CUBA); S.Salvat (ALU), A.Soares Gache (SIC), (capt. ) ; F.Conti (SIC), J.Delguy (CP), J.Uriarte (CUBA); G.Travaglini (CASI), D.Silva (ORC); M.Urbano (BCR), A.Courreges (CASI), D.González (San Luis. France: S.Blanco; P.Lagisquet, P.Sella, M.Andrieu, P.Bérot; F.Mesnel, P.Berbizier (capt.) ; M.Cécillon, L.Rodriguez (58' D.Erbani), E.Champ; J.Condom, A.Lorieux; L.Armary, P.Din¬trans, JP Garuet-Lempirou (34'P.Ondarts)


1988 France rugby union tour of South America, Matches
Provincias Argentinas: G.Del Castillo (URR); J.Soler (URT), S.Mesón (URT), P.Garzón (UCR), (G.Terán (URT); G.Filizzola (CUY), P.Merlo (URT), (capt. ); G.Suárez Lago (CUY), G.Maldonado (UCR), D.Tobal (UCR); O.Fascioli (URT), C.Montene¬gro (UCR); J.Coria (URT), R.Le Fort (URT), A.Centeno (UCR). Francia : J-B Lafond (20' M.Andrieu); D.Camberabero, U.Charvet, F.Velo, P.Bérot; J.Trille, M.Hondagne; P.Athapignet, J.Graton; P.Beraud, D.Erbani; P.Ondarts, D.Dubroca (capt. ), P.Marocco.


1988 France rugby union tour of South America, Matches
Argentina:: A.Scolni (ALU); G.Terán (URT), D.Cuesta Silva (SIC), M.Loffreda (SIC), C.Mendy (LT); F.Turnes (BN), D.Baetti (CAR); P.Garretón (URT), G.Milano (JCR), J.Allen (CASI), (capt. ) ; A.Iachetti (HC), E.Branca (CASI); D.Cash (SIC), J.J.Angelillo (SIC) (D.González - San Luis), S.Dengra SM  France: S.Blanco; P.Bérot, P.Sella, M.Andrieu, P.Lagisquet; F.Mesnel, P.Berbizier (capt.) ; E.Champ, L..Rodríguez, A.Carminati. ; J.Condom, A.Lorieux; JP Garuet-Lempirou, P.Din¬trans, P.Ondarts.


1988 France rugby union tour of South America, Matches
Córdoba:  J.Tomalino; L.Muzi, P.Garzón, J.Caminotti (capt.) (70' E.Rodríguez), R.Capelli; D.Domínguez R.López Aragón; D.Tobal, G.Maldonado, G.Ruiz Montes de Oca; C.Montenegro, G.Bravo, A.Centeno, C.Hernández (65' G.Bernardi), J.Gigena. France: J.Trille; B.Lacombe, F.Velo, D.Charvet, P.Lagisquet; D.Camberabero, NI.Hondagne, M.Cécillon, C.Deslandes (P.Arthapignet), J.Gratton; P.Beraud, D.Erbani; P.Marocco, C.Dubroca (capt. ),L.Armary.


1988 France rugby union tour of South America, Matches
Argentina: A.Scolni (ALU); D.Cuesta Silva (SIC), M.Loffreda (SIC), F.Turnes (BN), C.Mendy (LT); R.Madero (S.I.C); D.Baetti (CAR); J.Allen (CASI) (capt. ).G.Milano (JCR), P.Garretón (URT); A.Iachetti (HC), E.Branca (CASI); D.Cash (SIC), A.Courreges (CASI), S.Den¬gra SM  France: S.Blanco; P.Bérot, P.Sella, M.Andrieu, P.Lagisquet; F.Mesnel, P.Berbizier (70' M.Hondagne) (capt. ); A.Carminati, L.Rodriguez, M.Cécillon; J.Condom, A.Lorieux ; JP Garuet-Lempirou, P.Dintrans, P.Ondarts.


1988 Freedom Bowl
The 1988 Freedom Bowl pitted former Mountain States Conference rivals BYU and Colorado against one another for the first time in a bowl game. It was only the second time the two teams met one another in football since the Buffaloes joined the Big 8. BYU (8-4) came into the game in a bit of a tailspin after losing three of its final four regular season games. Colorado was a team on the rise and was a year away from becoming a fixture in the top 10.


1988 Freedom Bowl, Game summary
BYU fell into an early hole after a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs from Eric Bieniemy gave Colorado a 14-7 halftime lead. The Cougars rallied in the second half after backup quarterback Ty Detmer was inserted into the game. Detmer completed 11-of-19 passes for 129 yards in the second half. Trailing 17–14 in the fourth quarter, BYU eventually won the game on a pair of field goals - one from 31 yards and another from 35 yards - from kicker Jason Chaffetz. In the stats department, BYU ran for 152 yards on 42 carries while the Buffaloes ran for 273 yards on 60 carries. In passing, BYU had 168 yards on 15-of-28 combined, with one interception. Colorado was 5-for-16 with 64 yards and two interceptions.


1988 Freedom Bowl, Aftermath
The Bowl game served as a springboard for both programs over the next couple of seasons. Colorado would end up claiming a split national championship in 1990, while Detmer won the Heisman the same year and led BYU to a top-10 ranking at two different points during the same season.


1988 French Figure Skating Championships
The 1988 French Figure Skating Championships (French: Championnat de France Elite) took place in Grenoble for singles and pairs and in Lyon for ice dance. Skaters competed in the disciplines of men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dancing on the senior level. The event was used to help determine the French team to the 1988 Winter Olympics, the 1988 World Championships, and the 1988 European Championships.


1988 French Grand Prix
The 1988 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 3 July 1988 at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet. The race, contested over 80 laps, was the seventh race of the 1988 Formula One season and was won by Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-Honda, with teammate Ayrton Senna second and Michele Alboreto third in a Ferrari.


1988 French Grand Prix, Qualifying
The two McLarens lined up in their usual front row places, but, for the first time this season, Alain Prost was ahead of Ayrton Senna, the Frenchman beating the Brazilian by almost half a second to take his first pole since the 1986 Monaco Grand Prix and in doing so stopping his teammate from a record-breaking 7th pole in succession. The two Ferraris filled the second row, Gerhard Berger beating Michele Alboreto by over 1.1 seconds, though neither driver believed they could race with the McLarens simply because of fuel consumption.


1988 French Grand Prix, Qualifying
On the third row were the two normally-aspirated Benettons of Thierry Boutsen and Alessandro Nannini, while the Lotuses of Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakajima filled the fourth row, Piquet being the last driver to qualify under 1:10. The top ten was completed by the Williams of Nigel Mansell (over 2.7 seconds slower than Prost and almost 4 seconds slower than his 1987 pole time) and the March of Ivan Capelli, who had recovered after fracturing his left foot in a crash during practice in Detroit two weeks before.


1988 French Grand Prix, Qualifying
Meanwhile, Ligier had a disastrous weekend on their home turf with both René Arnoux and Stefan Johansson failing to qualify, though they did have a celebration of sorts over the weekend as Arnoux turned 40 the day after the race. Julian Bailey also failed to qualify in his Tyrrell, while Piercarlo Ghinzani qualified 22nd in his Zakspeed but was excluded for missing a weight check, thus promoting Oscar Larrauri's EuroBrun to the last grid spot.


1988 French Grand Prix, Qualifying
Larrauri qualifying was to the displeasure of many of those towards the front of the grid as the Argentine in the slower than most EuroBrun-Ford Cosworth had developed a reputation of being a mobile chicane in both qualifying and races and most felt that would be a problem on the shortest track on the F1 calendar.


1988 French Grand Prix, Race summary
Prost led away from Senna and the two Ferraris, with Piquet passing the two Benettons for fifth. Despite worries in the McLaren pit about overly high fuel consumption (the fuel readouts in the cars were showing less fuel used than what the Honda telemetry was telling the team), Ron Dennis was reportedly prepared to let his drivers run out of fuel at the expense of a perfect season if it taught them to be more conservative given their obvious advantage over the field, though ultimately the onboard readouts were proved correct. Prost maintained a two-second advantage over Senna until the mid-race pit stops, while an early stop by Berger on lap 22 allowed teammate Alboreto through into third. While both McLarens were racing each other out front, they were still pulling away from the field at sometimes a second per lap.


1988 French Grand Prix, Race summary
Senna made his pit stop three laps before Prost, enabling him to take the lead thanks to a slow stop for Prost with a sticking front wheel, but traffic on the Mistral Straight (including a less than helpful Piquet who most likely enjoyed seeing Senna lose the lead to Prost at close quarters) and a gearbox problem allowed Prost to close right up to him and then overtake him on lap 61 as they lapped Alex Caffi and Pierluigi Martini at the Signes corner.


1988 French Grand Prix, Race summary
Meanwhile, Berger reclaimed third only for Alboreto to pass him again during the pit stops, while Mansell suffered his seventh consecutive retirement, dropping out on lap 49 with suspension problems, though he had been dropping back for a number of laps with power loss from his Judd V8 engine.


1988 French Grand Prix, Race summary
After returning to the pits and getting himself cleaned up, the Englishman left the circuit profoundly fed up with the performance of the Williams, fuelling ongoing speculation in the press that he would leave the team at the end of the year to join Ferrari after the Italian team had announced they would not be keeping Alboreto for 1989. Despite the rumours turning out to be correct, Mansell continued to deny he was joining Ferrari.


1988 French Grand Prix, Race summary
In the closing laps, Prost pulled away as Senna's gearbox troubles continued, losing several gears. The Brazilian eventually finished nearly 32 seconds behind the Frenchman, though he was still nearly 35 seconds ahead of Alboreto, the last man on the lead lap. Berger was fourth ahead of Piquet, who also suffered gearbox problems in the later stages of the race; the final point went to the Benetton of Nannini. France was the first time since the 1987 Monaco Grand Prix that Alboreto had finished in front of his teammate in a race where they both finished. During the race Alboreto had the advantage of an almost perfectly balanced car, while Berger complained of severe understeer, something not needed at the high speed Signes corner at the end of the Mistral.


1988 French Grand Prix, Race summary
The fastest lap of the race, a 1:11.737 set by Prost on lap 45, was over two seconds slower than the 1:09.548 set by Piquet in a Honda-powered Williams the previous year – a consequence of the restrictions imposed on turbocharged engines this season with the major difference being the speeds attained on the now 1 km long Mistral Straight. In 1987 the fastest turbo cars (Honda powered) were timed at 325 km/h (202 mph) on the straight. In 1988 the top speed was recorded at 311 km/h (193 mph).


1988 French Grand Prix, Race summary
For Prost it was his third win in his home Grand Prix after winning in both 1981 at Dijon (his first Grand Prix victory) and 1983 at the full length Paul Ricard. On both occasions he had been driving for the factory Renault team.


1988 French Matignon Accords referendum
A referendum on the Matignon Accords on New Caledonia was held in France on 6 November 1988. The accords were approved by 80% of voters, although turnout was just 36.9%. In New Caledonia it was approved by 57% of voters.


1988 French Matignon Accords referendum
"Acceptez-vous de permettre aux habitants de la Nouvelle-Calédonie de voter pour l'autodétermination en 1998?"


1988 French Matignon Accords referendum
"Do you agree to allow New Caledonian residents to vote for self-determination in 1998?"


1988 French Open
The 1988 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 23 May until 5 June. It was the 92nd staging of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam tennis event of 1988.


1988 French Open, Seniors, Men's doubles
Andrés Gómez /  Emilio Sánchez Vicario defeated  John Fitzgerald /  Anders Järryd, 6–3, 6–7, 6–4, 6–3


1988 French Open, Seniors, Women's doubles
Martina Navratilova /  Pam Shriver  defeated  Claudia Kohde-Kilsch /  Helena Suková, 6–2, 7–5


1988 French Open, Seniors, Mixed doubles
Lori McNeil /  Jorge Lozano defeated  Brenda Schultz-McCarthy /  Michiel Schapers, 7–5, 6–2


1988 French Open, Juniors, Boys' doubles
Jason Stoltenberg /  Todd Woodbridge defeated  Cristiano Caratti /  Goran Ivanišević, 7–6, 7–5


1988 French Open, Juniors, Girls' doubles
Alexia Dechaume /  Emmanuelle Derly defeated  Julie Halard /  Maïder Laval, 6–4, 3–6, 6–3


1988 French Open – Men's Doubles
The Men's Doubles tournament at the 1988 French Open was held from 23 May until 5 June 1988 on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. Andrés Gómez and Emilio Sánchez won the title, defeating John Fitzgerald and Anders Järryd in the final.


1988 French Open – Men's Singles
Third-seeded Mats Wilander defeated Henri Leconte 7–5, 6–2, 6–1 in the final to win the Men's Singles tennis title at the 1988 French Open. This was his third and final French Open men's singles title. Leconte remains the last Frenchman to reach the French Open Men's Singles final. Ivan Lendl was the two-time defending champion, but lost in the quarterfinals to Jonas Svensson.


1988 French Open – Men's Singles, Seeds
The seeded players are listed below. Mats Wilander is the champion; others show the round in which they were eliminated.


1988 French Open – Mixed Doubles
The Mixed Doubles tournament at the 1988 French Open was held from 23 May until 5 June 1988 on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. Lori McNeil and Jorge Lozano won the title, defeating Brenda Schultz and Michiel Schapers in the final.


1988 French Open – Women's Doubles
The Women's Doubles tournament at the 1988 French Open was held from 23 May until 5 June 1988 on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver won the title, defeating Claudia Kohde-Kilsch and Helena Suková in the final.


1988 French Open – Women's Singles
Steffi Graf was the defending champion, and she successfully defended her title by defeating Natasha Zvereva in the final, 6–0, 6–0, to win the Women's Singles tennis title at the 1988 French Open. The official time of the match given on the scoresheet was 34 minutes, however just 32 minutes of playing time, split into two periods of nine and 23 minutes due to a rain break. It is the only "double bagel" Grand Slam final of the Open Era.


1988 French Open – Women's Singles
Graf recorded a total of six 6–0 sets during her seven matches, and was her second step to complete the first and so far only Calendar Year Golden Slam in the history of tennis. It was the first Grand Slam final not to be contested by either Martina Navratilova or Chris Evert since the 1981 French Open. Graf won the championship without dropping a set and losing only 20 games the entire tournament.


1988 French Open – Women's Singles Qualifying
Players who neither had high enough rankings nor received wild cards to enter the main draw of the annual French Open Tennis Championships participated in a qualifying tournament held in the week before the event.


1988 French cantonal elections
Cantonale elections to renew canton general councillors were held in France on 25 September and 2 October 1988. Abstention exploded to 50.9% in the first round and 53% in the runoff, likely due to the election being the third held that here after the presidential and legislative elections. The right narrowly won, with 50.3% to 49.6% to the left. However, the status quo prevailed.


1988 French cantonal elections, Electoral system
The cantonales elections use the same system as the regional or legislative elections. There is a 10% threshold (10% of registered voters) needed to proceed to the second round.


1988 French cantonal elections, Sources
Alain Lancelot, Les élections sous la Ve République, PUF, Paris, 1988


1988 French legislative election
French legislative elections took place on 5 and 12 June 1988, to elect the ninth National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, one month after the re-election of François Mitterrand as President of France.


1988 French legislative election
In 1986, the Socialist Party (PS) of President Mitterrand lost the legislative election. For the first time under the Fifth Republic, the President was forced to "cohabit" with a hostile parliamentary majority and cabinet. He chose the RPR leader Jacques Chirac as Prime Minister. The two heads of the executive power were rivals for the 1988 presidential election.


1988 French legislative election
Inspired by the example of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Chirac campaigned on an aggressively right-wing set of policies (including privatizations, abolition of the solidarity tax on wealth and tightening restrictions on immigration) but he was faced with significant opposition in French society. For his part, Mitterrand presented himself as the protector of national unity. He campaigned for a "united France" and warned against "the appropriation of the state by a clan", targeting Chirac and the RPR. An alliance between the Socialists and the center-right UDF was evoked.


1988 French legislative election
After Mitterrand's re-election, Chirac resigned. Some politicians and commentators suggested not dissolving the National Assembly and instead nominating a UDF Prime minister (Valéry Giscard d'Estaing or Simone Veil). President Mitterrand refused. The polls indicated a "pink surge" if new legislative elections were organized. However, he nominated the moderate Socialist Michel Rocard to lead the cabinet and declared that it was unhealthy for democracy if one party held all the power.


1988 French legislative election
In spite of a very good result in the first round, the "Presidential Majority" (composed of the PS and the Left Radicals) obtained only a small parliamentary majority after the second round. The PS and its allies won 276 seats against 271 for the Republican right-wing coalition and 27 Communists. The re-establishment of the majoritarian two-ballot system resulted in the National Front, which had held 35 seats during the previous term, dropping to only one seat.


1988 French legislative election
Some personalities from "civil society" and four UDF politicians participated in the government. They were supported by a minority of their party, which created a new parliamentary group: the Union of the Centre. The executive power relied on the "Presidential Majority" which widened towards the Union of the Centre or the French Communist Party depending on the policy being advocated by the government.


1988 French motorcycle Grand Prix
The 1988 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the eleventh round of the 1988 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 22–24 July 1988 at the 5.81 km (3.61 mi) Paul Ricard Circuit.


1988 French motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Frenchman Christian Sarron claimed his 5th pole position in a row on his Yamaha YZR500, and his last ever in 500 GP.


1988 French motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Like most of the mid-field, Niall Mackenzie (Honda) jumped the start and raced to the lead, but the race was allowed to continue and no penalties were handed out by race officials. On the 1.8 km long Mistral Straight for the first time Wayne Gardner used the power of his factory Rothmans Honda to shoot to the lead from Kevin Schwantz (Suzuki), Mackenzie and Wayne Rainey (Yamaha).


1988 French motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Gardner and pole sitter Sarron battled for the lead with Schwantz and Eddie Lawson (Yamaha), who was battling a shoulder injury suffered in the previous race in Yugoslavia only one week before and had turned to famed Austrian Willi Dungl to help him get fit to race. Gardner's Honda had the advantage on the Mistral Straight over all but Lawson's YZR500, but Lawson, Sarron and Schwantz had the advantage through the turns, though the Suzuki was clearly the slowest on the Pit and Mistral straights. The quartet gradually pulled away from Rainey, who in turn pulled away from a pack including Randy Mamola (Cagiva), Didier de Radiguès (Yamaha), Pierfrancesco Chili (Honda) and Kevin Magee (Yamaha).


1988 French motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Going into the last lap, Gardner had pulled out a two-second lead over the trio and looked set to win his fourth race in a row. However, going through the Courbe de Signes at the end of the Mistral his bike developed mechanical problems when a crankshaft bolt broke loose and found its way into the water pump, though he had a big enough gap over Wayne Rainey to struggle home in 4th place only 5.720 seconds behind Lawson. Gardner's breakdown allowed Lawson to win the race and extend his lead in the championship.


1988 French motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Sarron consolidated his second place in the title race, finishing only 0.22 behind the American. In one of the closest top 3 finishes in history, Schwantz finished in 3rd place only 0.24 behind Sarron and less than half a second from winning. Schwantz came out of the final turn and knowing his bike didn't have the acceleration to pass, pulled a wheelie until after crossing the line and celebrated on the cool down lap for gaining an unexpected podium finish.


1988 French motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
Wayne Gardner, back in the form that has seen him win the World Championship in 1987, had the consolation of setting the races fastest lap.


1988 French motorcycle Grand Prix, 500 cc race report
1988 was the final time that the French motorcycle Grand Prix would be held on the full length 5.81 km (3.61 mi) Paul Ricard circuit. When Grand Prix racing next returned to the circuit in 1991, the 3.812 km (2.369 mi) 'Club' circuit was used.


1988 French presidential election
Presidential elections were held in France on 24 April and 8 May 1988.


1988 French presidential election
In 1981, the Socialist Party leader, François Mitterrand, was elected President of France and the Left won the legislative election. However, in 1986, the right regained a parliamentary majority. President Mitterrand was forced to "cohabit" with a conservative cabinet led by the RPR leader Jacques Chirac. Chirac took responsibility for domestic policy while the President focused on his "reserved domain" – foreign affairs and defense policy. Moreover, several other prominent candidates opposed the two heads of the executive.


1988 French presidential election
Chirac's cabinet advocated liberal-conservative policies, in abolishing the solidarity tax on wealth and selling some public companies. It was faced with opposition from social movements, supported by President Mitterrand.


1988 French presidential election
Meanwhile, the leadership of Chirac over the right was challenged by the former UDF Prime Minister Raymond Barre. Barre gained some popularity by condemning the principle of the "cohabitation", claiming that it is incompatible with the "spirit of the Fifth Republic". He appeared as an alternative to the executive duo. In January 1988, when he announced his candidacy, Chirac was credited with 19.5% in the first round by SOFRES polls institute, against 23% for Barre. But, from the start of February, Chirac benefited from the internal divisions in the UDF, and took the lead among the right-wing candidates.


1988 French presidential election
On the left, the identity of the Socialist candidate was uncertain. Mitterrand said he was not sure he would run, and meanwhile, his internal rival Michel Rocard campaigned for the nomination. The favourite to win the election according to the polls, the incumbent president announced his candidacy at the end of March. He wrote an open letter to the French, where he proposed a moderate programme ("neither nationalisations, nor privatizations") and advocated a "united France" against "the appropriation of the state by a clan", targeting Chirac and the RPR.


1988 French presidential election
He benefited from the decline of the French Communist Party, represented by André Lajoinie. Lajoinie was faced with competition for the far-left vote by a "reforming Communist", Pierre Juquin and a Trotskyist, Arlette Laguiller. Meanwhile, the Ecologist Antoine Waechter refused to ally the Greens with either the left or the right. On the far-right, the  National Front leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, tried to confirm the FN's good result in the previous legislative election.


1988 French presidential election
The French economy shrugging off the early 1980s recession with 4% growth that year put the economy off the minds of voters as well as popular social programs being implemented, both of which gave Mitterrand the economic argument to achieve a second term despite the fallback in the last legislative election that caused cohabitation.


1988 French presidential election, Results
The second round consisted of a competition between the two heads of the executive power, but the first was marked by the unexpectedly high vote for the National Front, and a poor result for the Communist Party. Barre endorsed Chirac.


1988 French presidential election, Results
The TV debate between the two finalists, and protagonists of the "cohabitation", was very tense. Mitterrand wanted to show his ascendancy in naming his challenger "Mr Prime Minister". Chirac answered: "Here, you are not President, and I am not Prime Minister. We are two equal candidates. You will allow that I call you Mr Mitterrand". Mitterrand replied: "You are absolutely right, Mr Prime Minister". Besides, the two candidates clashed about their attitude to the September 1986 terrorist attacks.


1988 French presidential election, Results
François Mitterrand was re-elected President of France. Jacques Chirac resigned from the head of the cabinet. Michel Rocard succeeded him, then the Socialist Party obtained a relative parliamentary majority, President Mitterrand having dissolved the National Assembly. Chirac became president after winning the 1995 elections.


1988 French presidential election, Further reading
& Bell, David. François Mitterrand: A Political Biography (Polity, 2005).


1988 Fresno State Bulldogs football team
The 1988 Fresno State Bulldogs football team represented California State University, Fresno during the 1988 NCAA Division I-A football season as a member of the Big West Conference. The team was led by head coach Jim Sweeney, in his eleventh year, and they played their home games at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, California. They finished the 1988 season as champion of the Big West, with a record of ten wins and two losses (10–2, 7–0 Big West).


1988 Fresno State Bulldogs football team
Fresno State earned their third Division I-A postseason bowl game after the 1988 season. They played the Mid-American Conference (MAC) champion Western Michigan Broncos in the eight annual California Bowl in Bulldog Stadium on December 18. The Bulldogs lengthened their Division I-A Bowl unbeaten streak to three games by beating Western Michigan, 35–30.


1988 Friuli-Venezia Giulia regional election
The Friuli-Venezia Giulia regional election of 1988 took place on 26–27 June 1988.


1988 Friuli-Venezia Giulia regional election, Events
Christian Democracy was by far the largest party, largely ahead of the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Communist Party. After the election Adriano Biasutti, the incumbent Christian Democratic President, formed a government with the Italian Socialist Party, the Italian Democratic Socialist Party and the Italian Republican Party. In 1992 Biasutti was replaced by fellow Christian Democrat Vinicio Turello.


1988 Full Members' Cup Final
The 1988 Full Members' Cup Final was the third Full Members' Cup final, contested by First Division side Luton Town and Second Division team Reading at Wembley Stadium on 27 March 1988. It was the first, and only, Full Members' Cup final for both teams. Reading were making their first appearance at the national stadium, while Luton had not played at the ground since 1959.


1988 Full Members' Cup Final, Background
English teams had been banned from Europe following the Heysel Stadium disaster at the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus. The Football League started a new tournament for sides in the top two leagues to increase revenues, particularly for sides who had lost revenue through the lack of European football. The 1987–88 Full Members' Cup saw Reading start in the first round of the competition, while Luton were given a bye to the third round following their high league position in the previous season. Reading defeated a top division side in all rounds, excluding the quarter-finals.


1988 Full Members' Cup Final, Background
Reading's semi-final victory against Coventry City became the latest finish to a football match in Britain at the time, finishing at 22:38. The record stood until 2002.


1988 Full Members' Cup Final, Match summary
England international Mick Harford put Luton 1–0 up after fourteen minutes, although he admitted after the game that he handled the ball into the net. On twenty minutes, Michael Gilkes levelled the game for Reading. Gilkes was fouled five minutes later and Reading were awarded a penalty. Stuart Beavon dispatched it, despite Les Sealey, in the Luton goal, guessing the right direction. Mick Tait doubled Reading's lead on 55 minutes, while Neil Smillie finished the game off with the Royals' fourth.


1988 Full Members' Cup Final, Match summary, Aftermath
Reading became the second non-top flight side in a row to win the competition, after Blackburn Rovers, but were unable to defend the trophy due to relegation to the Third Division later on in the season. The club never played a Full Members' Cup match again, before the competition was abolished at the end of the 1991–92 season. The victory remains the only major trophy that the club has won, with two semi-final appearances in the FA Cup being the next best cup results for Reading.


1988 Full Members' Cup Final, Match summary, Aftermath
Victory for Luton would've been their first major trophy, as well, but they only had to wait a month after the Full Members' Cup final before they defeated Arsenal in the League Cup final to do so. They subsequently finished their First Division season in ninth position. Luton didn't appear in another Full Members' Cup final; a southern semi-final appearance in the 1990–91 season being their best performance following their defeat.


1988 Furman Paladins football team
The 1988 Furman Paladins football team represented the Furman Paladins of Furman University during the 1988 NCAA Division I-AA football season.


1988 Fusagasugá City Council election
The 1988 Fusagasugá City Council election was held on Sunday, 13 March 1988 accord Legislative Act 01 1986. In this election were elected the first mayors through popular vote.


1988 GP Ouest–France
The 1988 GP Ouest-France was the 52nd edition of the GP Ouest-France cycle race and was held on 23 August 1988. The race started and finished in Plouay. The race was won by Luc Leblanc of the Toshiba team.


1988 Geneva Open
The 1988 Geneva Open was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts that was part of the 1988 Nabisco Grand Prix. It was played at Geneva in Switzerland from 19 September through 26 September 1988. Unseeded Marián Vajda won the single title.


1988 Geneva Open, Finals, Doubles
Mansour Bahrami /  Tomáš Šmíd defeated  Gustavo Luza /  Guillermo Pérez Roldán 6–4, 6–3


1988 Geneva Open – Doubles
Ricardo Acioly and Luiz Mattar were the defending champions, but Acioly did not participate this year. Mattar partnered Ronnie Båthman, losing in the semifinals.


1988 Geneva Open – Doubles
Mansour Bahrami and Tomáš Šmíd won the title, defeating Gustavo Luza and Guillermo Pérez Roldán 6–4, 6–3 in the final.


1988 Geneva Open – Singles
Claudio Mezzadri was the defending champion, but lost in the second round this year.


1988 Geneva Open – Singles
Marián Vajda won the title, defeating Kent Carlsson 6–4, 6–4 in the final.


1988 Gent–Wevelgem
The 1988 Gent–Wevelgem was the 50th edition of the Gent–Wevelgem cycle race and was held on 20 April 1988. The race started in Ghent and finished in Wevelgem. The race was won by Sean Kelly of the Kas team.


1988 Georgia Bulldogs football team
The 1988 Georgia Bulldogs football team represented the University of Georgia during the 1988 NCAA Division I-A football season.


1988 Georgia Southern Eagles football team
The 1988 Georgia Southern Eagles football team represented the Georgia Southern Eagles of Georgia Southern College (now known as Georgia Southern University) during the 1988 NCAA Division I-AA football season. The Eagles played their home games at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Georgia. The team was coached by Erk Russell, in his seventh year as head coach for the Eagles.


1988 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team
The 1988 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team represented the Georgia Institute of Technology during the 1988 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Yellow Jackets were led by second-year head coach Bobby Ross, and played their home games at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, the first season under that name after it was renamed in honor of the legendary Georgia Tech head coach. The team competed as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, finishing in last and failing to a win a conference game for the second consecutive season.