1990 Spanish Grand Prix

The 1990 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jerez on 30 September 1990. It was the fourteenth race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship, and the fifth and last Spanish Grand Prix to be held at Jerez (though the circuit would host the European Grand Prix in 1994 and 1997).

The 73-lap race was won by Alain Prost, driving a Ferrari, with teammate Nigel Mansell second and Alessandro Nannini third in a Benetton-Ford. Prost's Drivers' Championship rival, Ayrton Senna, took the 50th pole position of his career in his McLaren-Honda, but retired with a failed radiator, allowing Prost to close to within nine points of him in the championship with two races remaining.

This would be the last Ferrari race win until the 1994 German Grand Prix and the last one-two victory until the 1998 French Grand Prix. Also for the all-time Grand Prix wins leader of the time in Prost, this would be his last win until the 1993 South African Grand Prix.

The event was marred by a serious incident during Friday practice, when Martin Donnelly crashed his Lotus 102 at the high-speed Turn 14. Donnelly was thrown from the wreckage, suffering serious injuries that ended his Formula One career. This also turned out to be the last F1 race and podium for Nannini, who severed his right arm in a helicopter crash the following week (though he would return to racing as a touring car driver), as well as the last race for the back-marking EuroBrun and Life teams.

Footage from Donnelly's practice crash was used to present a major plot point for the 2025 film F1.

In the Friday morning pre-qualifying session, the same four drivers went through to the main qualifying sessions as had progressed in the previous three events. This time it was Yannick Dalmas who topped the time sheets in his AGS, the first time he had done so this season. Gabriele Tarquini made it an AGS 1–2, just over a tenth of a second behind. Olivier Grouillard was a shade slower in third in the Osella, while Bertrand Gachot was nearly two seconds slower in the Coloni, back in fourth.

In fifth place, Roberto Moreno missed the cut by just 0.018 of a second in the EuroBrun, with Claudio Langes just over a second behind in sixth. Langes' gap to Gachot of 1.133 seconds represented the closest the Italian had come all season to successfully pre-qualifying, as he had failed to pre-qualify for all 14 races so far this season. This proved to be his last opportunity, as EuroBrun withdrew from Formula One after this event.

It was also the last event for the hapless Life team, who also withdrew afterwards. Bruno Giacomelli managed two laps in the L190 before it stopped midway through the circuit, its new Judd engine apparently not providing much improvement. The car had never come within 12 seconds of pre-qualifying successfully at any of its 14 events. To make matters worse, the Life team did not bring a jack to Jerez, forcing mechanics to lift the L190 by its suspension arms. The absence of EuroBrun and Life at the last two Grands Prix of the season avoided the need for pre-qualifying at those events.