Caffi's retirement. Reporters tried to interview Berger but his mechanic closed the garage door; just before the garage door closed ESPN pit reporter John Bisignano saw Berger being splashed with water. Throughout the race, Riccardo Patrese, Ivan Capelli and Eddie Cheever had been in close contact. When Capelli retired on lap 21 with a gearbox failure, Patrese and Cheever carried on the battle alone. After lap 51, the fight was for second place, with Patrese ahead. Despite a fuel pickup problem with his engine, Cheever mounted a challenge in the closing laps until his front brakes and one rear brake failed. He finished in third place. Stefan Johansson had managed to drag the Onyx not only through pre-qualifying but also onto the grid and drove a steady race to be running in 7th place just outside the points before having to retire on lap 50 with suspension damage from a previous puncture. As was predicted, the two-hour time limit was reached after 75 of the scheduled 81 laps, and Prost coasted to his only United States win (after not having won at Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit or Dallas), and increased his then all-time record victory total to 36 and his first win in a naturally aspirated car (his only other season in F1 without turbo power had been his rookie season with McLaren in when the team used the Cosworth DFV V8 engine). He also took the lead, by two points over Senna, in the Driver's Championship, which he eventually won. Patrese's runner-up placing was his second in a row. After struggling through practice, qualifying and warm up, and starting from 14th spot, Patrese and technical director Patrick Head had guessed at a setup and finally got it right for the race. Eddie Cheever's third place was the ninth and last podium finish of his F1 career. Christian Danner benefited from retirements ahead of him to take fourth place for Rial. It was his best career finish and matched the best ever finish for the team. Post-race Before the race there was a push to reduce the number of race laps from 81 to 70, due to the expected hot weather and after practice times had revealed the race would likely hit the two hour mark well before the scheduled number of laps had been reached. With the track almost the same length as the Adelaide Street