The 1990 Australian Grand Prix was held on 4 November 1990 at Adelaide and was the 500th race to contribute to the World Drivers’ Championship since the series had started in 1950. The race was held over 81 laps of the 3.78 km circuit for a race distance of 306 kilometres.
The race was won by Brazilian veteran Nelson Piquet in his Benetton. He took a 3.129 second victory over Nigel Mansell after the Englishman had tried a passing move under braking for the hairpin at the end of the Brabham Straight which almost took out both cars, Mansell somehow managed to pull his Ferrari up in time to just miss Piquet and the lapped Brabham-Judd of Stefano Modena as they turned into the right hand hairpin. This was Nigel Mansell’s last race for the Maranello team, as for the 1991 Formula 1 season the British former racing driver moved to Williams-Renault.
After making the best start, but being blocked in by the slow starting Berger, Alain Prost drove a steady, but for him unremarkable race other than a rare mistake when he ran wide at Brewery Bend late in the race while trying to stay ahead of the charging Mansell. Prost ran in 5th for most of the race, but eventually finished 3rd after Senna crashed out of the lead on lap 61 with gearbox trouble, and after Berger had also run wide at Brewery Bend and had to back off to conserve his tyres. Berger finished 4th, 9.6 seconds behind Prost.
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