Prost Claims 29th Grand Prix Win With His Fifth Victory in Brazil

Alain Prost of France, driving a McLaren-Honda Turbo, won the Brazilian Grand Prix for Formula One cars Sunday for an unprecedented fifth time.

Prost completed the 60 laps of the 187-mile race in 1 hour 36 minutes 6.857 seconds. His average speed for the first race of the Formula One season was 117 m.p.h.

It was the 29th career victory for the Frenchman, who has won more Grand Prix races than any other driver.

Gerhard Berger of Austria finished second in a Ferrari Turbo in 1:36:16, and defending world champion Nelson Piquet of Brazil was third in a Lotus-Honda Turbo. His time was 1:37:15.

Ayrton Senna of Brazil, who was in the pole position in the second McLaren-Honda, caused a restart when his gearbox broke on the starting grid and he had to switch to the team’s reserve car.

The Brazilian had to move back to last place for the restart and began a spectacular recovery, moving up to second place before race officials decided the car switch was illegal and disqualified him.

Prost, 33, also won the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1982, 1984, 1985 and 1987.