1986 Portuguese Grand Prix

Autódromo do Estoril
21 September 1986

Allen Berg

Allen Berg returned to the Osella team after Alex Caffi’s one-off appearance in Italy, but otherwise the field remained the same. The AGS team would make the second of their two 1986 appearances with Ivan Capelli at the wheel once again. Otherwise, the grid for 1987 continued to take shape; perhaps most significant was Ferrari’s announcement that Gerhard Berger would be driving for them in place of Stefan Johansson, the Austrian having impressed for the fledgling Benetton team. Pirelli had announced that they would be withdrawing from the sport in 1987, as would Renault as an engine supplier. McLaren caused a stir by showing up with an unusual paint-job on Rosberg’s car; the usual red chevrons had been repainted gold to promote

Marlboro’s new “Marlboro Gold” brand – unfortunately the particular shade chosen didn’t come across well on camera and the end result looked on TV like the car had just been left out in the sun too long.

With three races to go and four potential champions in the field, Bernie Ecclestone (wearing his FOCA hat rather than his Brabham hat) organised for the four men to go sit on a pit wall while he rustled up a photographer. The resulting photo was to become one of the most famous images of Formula One in the 1980s.

Ayrton Senna had scored his first pole position and maiden victory at the Estoril circuit in 1985, and repeated his pole position here 18 months later (the Portuguese race having been early in the 1985 season). Nigel Mansell’s Williams was alongside, with Prost and a buoyant Berger on row 2. Fabi’s second Benetton was fifth with Piquet a frustrated 6th. Rosberg parked his McLaren in 7th alongside Johansson’s Ferrari, with Patrese’s Brabham and Laffite’s Ligier on row 5. As in Italy, all 27 cars were allowed to start in recognition of AGS’ temporary status and as usual it was Allen Berg at the back.

Rosberg’s “Gold” McLaren

As the lights went green, it was Mansell who got the better start, both he and Senna laying down thick black marks as they burned away from the start, the pair quickly moving ahead of Berger, who had got ahead of Prost at the start. Soon, however, Mansell managed to draw away from Senna and attention focussed on the battle for third between Berger, Piquet and Prost. The Frenchman was keeping a watching brief as Piquet harried Berger. AGS’ campaign came to a premature end as Capelli rolled to a stop on lap 7 with a gearbox full of neutrals, That same lap, Piquet finally got past Berger into third place, while Mansell extended his lead with a fastest lap.

Piercarlo Ghinzani’s Osella was the next car to give up the ghost on lap 9, with Rothengatter’s Zakspeed following him into retirement the following lap just as he was lapped by Prost. Berger, meanwhile, seemed to be having some trouble and had dropped back to sixth, behind Prost and Rosberg, by lap ten. Alan Jones had a brake-induced spin and climbed out of his Lola on that lap, compounding a difficult full first season for Beatrice Haas Lola. Teo Fabi was by now running 7th, with the two Ferraris of Johansson and Alboreto right behind.

The top drivers had meanwhile become strung out already and the early stages of the race settled into a rhythm as Mansell clocked off the laps in total control. With 18 laps gone, Martin Brundle retired with a flaming Renault in the rear of his Tyrrell, almost as soon as he had been lapped by Mansell. The Williams driver was carving easily through the traffic and offering Senna no chance to close the 4-second gap. Around this time, Johansson got ahead of Fabi to move up into sixth place, but was 15 seconds behind the McLaren pair in 4th/5th. The lead Marlboro car, Prost, was hanging right on the rear wing of his great rival Piquet, who was having more trouble than Mansell with the backmarkers – however, Prost was severely held up getting past de Cesaris and Piquet was able to pull away again.

On lap 28, Piquet put up the fastest lap so far in 1:22.211, the same lap as Philippe Streiff parked the second Tyrrell with another Renault fire and Derek Warwick brought his Brabham in for the first scheduled tyre stop of the race, exiting in a good 8.1s. All eyes turned to the pitlane to hopefully liven up a rather dull race so far. Alboreto was next in, and out in 7.95s. Senna was the first of the frontrunners to stop, a comparatively tardy 10.12s from the usually excellent Lotus mechanics. Piquet now put the hammer down, hoping to use the opportunity to get ahead of Senna when he pitted himself, and drew close behind a cruising Mansell, while Prost also stopped, stationary for just under 9s and crucially rejoining ahead of Senna.

The next lap it was Mansell’s stop, a good 8.41s that put him back on the track without losing his lead. By the time the stops had shaken out it was half-distance, lap 35, and it was pretty much all back to what it had been before: Mansell led Senna, though now by a much bigger margin and the Lotus had Piquet and Prost right behind him. Rosberg was fifth with Fabi sixth, having got back ahead of the Ferraris.

The top four in the race were the top four in the championship (albeit not in the same order) and a terrific scrap developed between the two Brazilian rivals, with Piquet trying everything to get past Senna and the younger man making his Lotus as wide as possible, while Mansell clocked off more fastest laps, and Prost watched and hoped the two Brazilians would take each other out. The three came across a patch of traffic and the gaps extended and contracted as the drivers made their way through, while Rosberg disappeared from fifth with engine trouble. Berger took the place, only to have a coming-together with Johansson that put the Austrian out but allowed the Swede to continue. By this time, lap 45, the battle for 2nd was out of the traffic again and Prost had once more dropped back slightly from the two Brazilians. Piquet periodically closed up and pulled out as if to pass, but couldn’t make any impression on the Lotus.

Senna leads Piquet and Prost

The race continued fairly processionally, with the battle for 2nd-3rd-4th providing the most interest barring the retirements, and there weren’t even that many of those. After Berger’s accident on lap 45, the next to go was Nannini with a gearbox on lap 61, and Patrese was the last to go two laps later with another blown BMW engine. The TV director was reduced to showing slow-motion replays of Senna passing backmarkers to inject a bit of excitement. When the live picture reappeared, Senna was running on his own – where was Piquet? The answer soon came: he had had a small spin, swapping ends and rejoining in fourth, just ahead of the two Ferraris (who had both been lapped by Mansell) and a good 20 seconds behind third-placed Prost.

All seemed settled after a dull race, but on the very last lap, Senna suddenly slowed, his Renault engine having run dry. Prost and Piquet both got past but the chasing Ferraris were a lap down and Senna would take fourth nonetheless, freewheeling across the finish line just as Mansell, Prost and Piquet peeled into the parc ferme behind him.

Senna’s misfortune eliminated him from the championship running, but an ecstatic Mansell knew that the World Championship was in his grasp with two races to go. With a 10-point lead over second-placed Piquet (who was only a point ahead of Prost), Mansell could still be caught, but a win in Mexico would seal the deal.

Williams, meanwhile, did what everyone was expecting and wrapped up the Constructors’ title at Estoril, with a huge points advantage over McLaren, whose unfortunate number 2 driver, Keke Rosberg, was having a dreadful final season in the sport.

Drivers Championship
1	Nigel Mansell	70
2	Nelson Piquet	60
3	Alain Prost	59
4	Ayrton Senna	51
5	Keke Rosberg	22
6	Stefan Johansson	19
7=	Jacques Laffite	14
7=	René Arnoux	14
7=	Michele Alboreto	14
10	Gerhard Berger	6
11	Martin Brundle	5
12	Alan Jones	4
13=	Teo Fabi	2
13=	Riccardo Patrese	2
13=	Johnny Dumfries	2
13=	Patrick Tambay	2
17=	Phillippe Streiff	1
17=	Christian Danner	1

Constructors Championship
1	Williams-Honda	130
2	McLaren-TAG	81
3	Lotus-Renault	53
4	Ferrari	33
5	Ligier-Renault	28
6	Benetton-BMW	10
7=	Tyrrell-Renault	6
7=	Haas Lola-Hart	6
9	Brabham-BMW	2
10	Arrows-BMW	1

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1986 Italian Grand Prix

Autodromo Nazionale di Monza
7 September 1986

With a resurgent Alain Prost now threatening Mansell’s previously handy championship lead, the teams made the short jump from southern Austria to northern Italy as September arrived. McLaren designer John Barnard had announced his departure to the Ferrari team who must have hoped the news would cheer fans disappointed at the team’s season so far, and further depressed to hear that Michele Alboreto had hurt his arm in a motorcycle crash and, although he would be racing, he might well be off the pace.

Italian fans could be cheered, though, by two new faces on the grid: the Osella team gave a one-off debut to local driver Alex Caffi, while Ivan Capelli, who had driven two races for Tyrrell in 1985, was fronting the brand new AGS team, a French privateer outfit who would enter here and in Portugal pending a full-season entry for 1987.

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22. Alex Caffi

Young Alex Caffi caught the racing bug from his father, a small-time club racer, and raced Motocross before entering the junior single-seater formulae and going through them like a dose of salts while at the same time continuing to study as an accountant just in case. Runner-up in the Italian F3 series in 1984 and 1985, he could only manage third in a very strong field in 1986, a season also hampered by Caffi completing his military service. Nonetheless, sponsors got up the money to buy him a one-off race at home in Monza and he hoped he would be able to parlay this into a full-time drive for 1987.

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31. Ivan Capelli

Since making his Formula One debut for Tyrrell in the closing stages of the 1985 season, Ivan Capelli had returned to Formula 3000 and underlined his credentials as a potential star of the future by winning the European F3000 title with relative ease. With AGS looking for a driver for a short-term contract for the Italian and Portuguese races, Capelli was identified as a man who could get the most out of the car and lined up for the small French garage team.

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As in Austria, the Benetton-BMWs proved thunderously fast in a straight line – of which there were

plenty on the fast Monza circuit – and Teo Fabi took his career third pole position with Berger fourth despite being speed-trapped at 219mph (352kph), the fastest Formula One car ever. Between the two Benettons were the championship top two, with Prost second and Mansell third, with Brazilian rivals Senna and Piquet lining up on row three. Warwick, Rosberg, Alboreto and Patrese made up the top ten, with the two Brabhams having been second only to the Benettons through the speed traps. With one new car taking the entry to 27 for this race and the next only, FISA allowed all cars to start, and the beneficiary was Alex Caffi, starting 27th – Capelli in the new AGS was 25th, ahead of both Osellas.

The grid lined up for the parade lap, but the front row didn’t go anywhere: Prost’s car still had McLaren mechanics clustered around, while Fabi lurched forward briefly only to roll to a halt almost immediately. As the rest of the grid squeezed through, Fabi got his car going again and rejoined at the rear, while Prost abandoned his race car and nipped round to the pitlane, from where he would start in the spare.

All of this left Mansell and Berger at the effective front of the grid and it was the Austrian who got the better start as the field roared down to the first corner – or rather, most of them did: Senna’s Lotus suffered an immediate transmission failure and coasted to a halt before the first chicane. Berger led the two Williams cars, followed by a fast-starting Arnoux, Rosberg, a charging Alboreto and Alliot in the second Ligier. By the end of the lap, Berger was already pulling out a decent lead over Mansell, while Alboreto was up to fourth after disposing of Rosberg and Arnoux. At the back, Fabi and Prost were both charging and had already overtaken 8 cars, one of which – Rothengatter’s Zakspeed – soon dropped out with engine troubles. On the following lap, Tambay and Patrese had a coming-together which put both out.

Lap 7 saw the two Williams cars catch up to Berger and Mansell got past on the start-finish straight, with Piquet following through in a slightly hairy move a lap later. Alboreto went through in Piquet’s wake and Berger, having turned his boost down to conserve fuel, had gone from first to fourth within two laps. The Tifosi were enjoying Alboreto’s new-found speed for Ferrari, and now he was attacking Piquet’s Williams as the pair closed back up on Mansell, and set a new fastest lap in the process. His team-mate Johansson was also going well behind Berger in 5th place, while by lap 12 Fabi and Prost were up to 8th and 9th respectively as they charged back through the field.

Entertainment for the cameras was provided later that lap as Ghinzani’s rear suspension broke, spinning his Osella to a stop well off the racing line but giving the enthusiastic marshals no end of trouble in removing it. He seemed to set off a small wave of incidents, with Nannini’s Minardi out with a failed alternator, Warwick’s Brabham kicked into a spin by a brake fault and finally Alboreto had a sudden spin on lap 18, nudging a barrier and needing to stop for repairs. This promoted Berger back to third, with Johansson now fourth, Rosberg fifth and Prost back up into the points in sixth.

FIrst in for the pit stops was Piquet on lap 21, a slow stop of 17.68 seconds with a problem on the front-right. Prost took even longer, coming in on the same lap but taking 30 seconds while McLaren mechanics fussed around the front of the car. Rosberg’s stop, a lap later, went better at just 13 seconds but still wasn’t entirely trouble-free. Next of the front-runners in was Johansson, in and out in a good 9.68 seconds. On lap 24, Mansell, led Berger, Arnoux, Piquet, Johansson, Rosberg, Alboreto, Fabi and Prost, and it was time for his own stop. The Williams crew turned the number 5 car around in just 8.34 seconds and returning him in second place, while Alboreto had got past Rosberg so the Ferraris were running 5th and 6th. Berger was now back in the lead, 12 seconds ahead of Mansell, who was in turn 8 seconds ahead of Arnoux and Piquet. with the Ferraris another 15 seconds back.

On lap 26, the clerks of the course held out a black flag and a placard bearing the number 1 – Alain Prost had been, rather belatedly, disqualified for a breach of starting procedure in starting from the spare car. The Frenchman didn’t come in immediately while McLaren frantically protested, but it was all rendered moot when his TAG engine went phut half a lap later and he pulled over. Nelson Piquet, meanwhile, had passed Arnoux and was chasing Mansell, who was in turn closing on Berger and got past the Austrian on lap 28, just before he peeled into the pits anyway.

Once the pit stops had shaken out, therefore, Mansell led Piquet, with Arnoux third, Berger fourth, Johansson and Alboreto fifth and sixth. Arnoux was shortly to retire with a gearbox problem, though, and Capelli’s solid debut for AGS ended shortly afterwards when his left-rear tyre exploded. Two laps later, de Cesaris’ race was run with a blown Motori Moderni engine and on the same lap, the Tifosi were distraught to watch Alboreto pulling off with an engine failure of his own. Meanwhile at the front Piquet was putting in a series of Fastest Laps to catch Mansell, He caught up to his team-mate as the Englishman was lapping Philippe Streiff’s Tyrrell on lap 35. For two laps the Williamses duelled until Piquet elbowed his way through, banging wheels on the way, at the second chicane. Mansell immediately fought back, but the Brazilian wasn’t to be denied and soon began to pull away.

From there, the race settled down into its final third. Piquet pulled away from Mansell, while Fabi put on a late charge after having pitted for engine repairs, putting up a sequence of Fastest Laps before succumbing to a puncture on lap 44. Johansson got past Berger into third place but was unable to make much impression on the Williams cars, and that was how they finished. Nelson Piquet took a fine win on Brazilian national day to go second in the title race, with Mansell maintaining his lead in second place. Rosberg took fourth from Berger in the closing stages and Alan Jones pipped Thierry Boutsen to the final point. In the constructors’ race, Williams increased their lead and looked odds-on to take the title with just three races to go, while Ferrari finally overhauled Ligier to move up into fourth place.

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Drivers Championship
1	Nigel Mansell	61
2	Nelson Piquet	56
3	Alain Prost	53
4	Ayrton Senna	48
5	Keke Rosberg	22
6	Stefan Johansson	18
7=	Jacques Laffite	14
7=	René Arnoux	14
9	Michele Alboreto	12
10	Gerhard Berger	6
11	Martin Brundle	5
12	Alan Jones	4
13=	Teo Fabi	2
13=	Riccardo Patrese	2
13=	Johnny Dumfries	2
13=	Patrick Tambay	2
17=	Phillippe Streiff	1
17=	Christian Danner	1

Constructors Championship
1	Williams-Honda	117
2	McLaren-TAG	75
3	Lotus-Renault	50
4	Ferrari	30
5	Ligier-Renault	28
6	Benetton-BMW	10
7=	Tyrrell-Renault	6
7=	Haas Lola-Hart	6
9	Brabham-BMW	2
10	Arrows-BMW	1

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1986 Austrian Grand Prix

Österreichring
17 August 1986

With just a week between the Hungarian and Austrian races, the teams simply headed straight to the Styrian hills for the fastest circuit on the calendar – and probably the one in the prettiest surroundings. More silly-season rumours; that it would be McLaren-Renault for 1987, and that Alain Prost and designer John Barnard would both defect to Ferrari – the latter despite repeated denials from both parties. Another interesting rumour saw Minardi’s Alessandro Nannini joining the Benetton team. What was official, however, was that Pirelli would withdraw from Grand Prix racing at the end of the year.

The simple straights and wide curves of the Zeltweg track rewarded pure power, so many expected the Benetton-BMWs to go well here. Fewer expected them to lock out the front row of the grid, but that’s just what they did, with Teo Fabi taking his second career pole position, just pipping Berger to what would have been a popular pole at his home race. Brabham did similarly well, though it didn’t start promisingly for them when Patrese had a big off and destroyed his race car. However, he got in the spare and qualifed an excellent fourth, lining up alongside Rosberg’s McLaren. Then came the championship contenders; Prost 5th, Mansell 6th, Piquet 7th and Senna 8th. Alboreto was 9th and Derek Warwick’s Brabham rounded off the top ten.

It all fell apart for Brabham in the Sunday morning warm-up, however. First, Warwick’s gearbox broke, which led to him over-revving the BMW engine. The car was repaired ready for the race, only for Patrese to have exactly the same gearbox failure in his car – only now it was too late to repair in time, and he was already using the spare car. So the team took the decision to withdraw Warwick from the race and hand his car to Patrese who was team leader and had moreover qualified better. Warwick was not happy – Bernie Ecclestone had to physically drag him out of the car – but it was done, and there would be an empty slot in 10th place and a field of 25 runners.

When the lights went green, it was Berger’s Benetton that surged ahead into the lead, while Patrese staggered forwards and dropped straight back into the midfield. Rosberg also had a slow getaway and lost his third place to a charging Prost and both Williamses. At the end of the first lap, the Benetton pair had already pulled out a good lead over Prost, at the head of
the rest of the field and trying to hold off a determined Mansell. Another lap on, and the Benettons were off on their own, with Fabi constantly harrying new local hero Berger for the lead, while Patrese toured in with a broken BMW engine to complete Brabham’s dreadful weekend.

On lap 9, Ayrton Senna peeled into the pits for an early tyre change, his initial compound choice not having been working for him; on the same lap, his unfortunate team-mate Johnny Dumfries (who was being lapped already, having come in for repairs) came in to retire with a spark plug failure. A lap later, Senna was back in with a misfire – while he was in having his engine cover removed, Philippe Streiff went out with an engine failure, and his team-mate Martin Brundle followed with a turbo failure shortly afterwards, before the Lotus mechanics finally pronounced Senna’s engine dead on lap 13. The early attrition continued as both Minardis dropped out the same lap: de Cesaris with a clutch failure and Nannini with a spectacular spin caused by a rear suspension failure that caused his left-rear wheel to fall off.

On lap 17, Fabi smoothly passed Berger for the lead, only to instantly slow down and pull off with a broken engine; at the same time, Mansell tried to slingshot past Prost on the start/finish straight but couldn’t make the move stick – however, he continued trying all the way, while behind him, team-mate and championship rival Piquet came in for an early tyre stop on

lap 19 and rejoined in 6th. On lap 22, Mansell was shaping to have another go at Prost, but the McLaren peeled off into the pits for tyres and Mansell took second place. Prost rejoined third ahead of his old Renault sparring-partner Arnoux, with Alan Jones running well in fifth. At the end of lap 25, leader Berger peeled into the pits for a tyre stop of his own – only for the car to remain stationary after the change was made. The seconds ticked away as the Benetton mechanics frantically fiddled with the car and took the engine cover off, while Mansell swept past into the lead at the half-distance point. Prost came through second, 28 seconds behind Mansell and ahead of Arnoux, Piquet, Rosberg and Alboreto. As the Benetton mechanics worked, Boutsen’s race was over with a smoking BMW and Johansson came in for his regular tyre stop.

On lap 28, Mansell came in for his tyre stop; a stucking right-rear wheel nut cost him a few seconds but it was still a reasonable stop at 11 seconds – not quite quick enough to prevent Prost going by into the lead, setting fastest lap in the process. Mansell now had to overcome an 11.8s gap with fresh tyres and just under half the race to go. The following lap, Mansell’s championship prospects improved immensely as Nelson Piquet pulled into the Williams pit to retire with an overheating engine. Berger. meanwhile, had finally rejoined in fourteenth and last place, four laps adrift – but with the high retirement rate it was still worth continuing, and he put up the fastest lap in the process. Suddenly, Mansell was off too – his Williams pulling off the circuit with a broken CV joint and promoting Rosberg to second, with the Ferraris of Alboreto and Johansson following.

The closing stages of the race settled down, with the remaining cars clearly robust enough to stand the heat and their drivers now conserving fuel at this high-octane circuit. On lap 49, just three before the end, Rosberg’s McLaren rolled to a stop and the frustrated Finn hopped out, leaving Prost to take the win ahead of Alboreto and Johansson, a much-needed fillip for the Ferrari team. Also happy with their afternoon’s work were the Haas Lola team, with Jones fourth and Tambay fifth, and Christian Danner picked up the final point for Arrows – his career first point and Arrows’ first of a trying season. Berger finished just out of the points, in seventh place and 3 laps down after unlapping himself from Prost on lap 49 and setting the overall fastest lap of the race.

Prost moved up to just two points behind Nigel Mansell in the championship race, but with four races to go there were four men in the title race: Mansell, Prost, Senna and Piquet. Next up was the historic Italian Grand Prix at Monza – another fast circuit that would take its toll on car and driver.

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Drivers Championship
1	Nigel Mansell	55
2	Alain Prost	53
3	Ayrton Senna	48
4	Nelson Piquet	47
5	Keke Rosberg	19
6=	Jacques Laffite	14
6=	René Arnoux	14
6=	Stefan Johansson	14
9	Michele Alboreto	12
10	Gerhard Berger	6
11	Martin Brundle	5
12	Alan Jones	3
13=	Teo Fabi	2
13=	Riccardo Patrese	2
13=	Johnny Dumfries	2
13=	Patrick Tambay	2
17=	Phillippe Streiff	1
17=	Christian Danner	1

Constructors Championship
1	Williams-Honda	102
2	McLaren-TAG	72
3	Lotus-Renault	50
4	Ligier-Renault	28
5	Ferrari	26
6	Benetton-BMW	8
7	Tyrrell-Renault	6
8	Haas Lola-Hart	5
9	Brabham-BMW	2
10	Arrows-BMW	1

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1986 Hungarian Grand Prix

Hungaroring
10 August 1986

A Hungarian Grand Prix had been held in 1936 at the Népliget park in Budapest, won by Tazio Nuvolari, but 50 years on the news of Formula One’s first foray behind the Iron Curtain was something of a coup for Bernie Ecclestone. The massively commercial sport of F1 wasn’t a natural fit with a Communist country, but the Hungarian government was known for being relatively liberal. Press and travelling fans alike were expecting drab, concrete, Marxist architecture, long queues for dire food and a nightlife consisting of dour, depressed drinking dens. Most, then, were pleasantly surprised to find the city of Budapest looking beautiful, the food delicious and plentiful and the city’s wine bars lively and full of attractive locals. The circuit itself, in the hills a couple of miles outside the city, twisted and turned and would favour the agile cars over those with brute power.

“Silly season” was in full swing, with the paddock swirling with rumours. Mansell was said to have already signed for Ferrari despite Williams’ protestations; Prost strenuously denied similar rumours linking *him* to Maranello. On current form, it was difficult to imagine either driver wanting to make the move, but the Ferrari name had a strong pull. Back in the real world, Thierry Boutsen had opted to revert to the Arrows A8, while Christian Danner persisted with the troublesome new A9 chassis.

On the front row were the two battling Brazilians – Ayrton Senna on pole in the Lotus, with Piquet alongside in the Williams. Prost was third, his neat driving style suiting the circuit perfectly, and Mansell was fourth. Rosberg was fifth, and Tambay an outstanding sixth in the Lola-Ford, with team-mate Jones tenth; the first time both Haas cars had started in the top ten. Between them, Johansson was 7th, Dumfries an encouraging 8th and Arnoux 9th. Alboreto in the other Ferrari was down in 15th, and while the back two rows were as usual occupied by the Osella and Zakspeed teams, the Arrows team was an unaccustomed 21st (Danner) and 22nd (Boutsen).

Race day was hot, and astonishing crowds of over 200,000 spectators filled the stands and covered the surrounding hills. The lights went red, then green and away they went – Mansell got the best start of the lot and shot between Prost and Piquet, taking second from his team-mate and slotting in behind Senna. Tambay had also got a good start to go fourth, with Prost and Jones behind in the other Lola. As Senna came round to begin lap 3, Piquet moved on Mansell and took second place, with the leading Lotus having pulled out a two-second lead. Meanwhile there had already been two retirements: Berg’s Osella with a broken turbo and Rothengatter’s Zakspeed with a bust oil cooler. Piquet soon pulled away from Mansell who came under pressure from Tambay and the others behind him.

By lap 5, Piquet was closing gradually on Senna, while Prost crawled all over the back of Tambay’s Haas Lola trying to find a way past as Mansell gradually eased out again. Patrese had a moment and put his car backwards into a barrier. On the same lap, an unhappy Andrea de Cesaris posted yet another mechanical retirement as his Motori Moderni engine took an early bath. Tambay also had a spin on the unfamiliar twists and turns, got his car back in the running and rejoined 7th, promoting Prost to 4th, Jones to 5th and Rosberg into the points.Three laps later, Christian Danner peeled into the pits to retire his new Arrows A9 with suspension problems as Piquet closed right up on Senna. With only one real passing place on the circuit, though, getting past would be another matter. Behind them, another fight was developing as Prost tried to get past Mansell, making his way past on lap 11 and pulling away in pursuit of the leaders.

As the two Brazilians began lap 12, Piquet lunged past at the first corner – the only real passing place on the circuit – to take the lead, with Prost, Mansell, Rosberg and Dumfries now making up the top six. Prost was carving chunks out of the gap to Senna and was soon right behind the Lotus which was going visibly slower. As Piquet carved through the first of the backmarkers, he was drawing away from the battle for second, On lap 17, Prost came into the pits with an electrical problem, but unfortunately Rosberg was coming in for tyres at the same time; the Finn had to be waved through, which spoiled his race.

In the end, it didn’t matter for Prost – returning to the circuit well down the order, his suspension broke and punted him into the sand trap on lap 23. The order remained broadly the same for the next ten laps or so until Piquet came in for his pitstop from the lead. Senna put the hammer down and pushed hard trying to extend his lead before his own stop. Senna, Piquet and Mansell were by lap 37 the only runners on the same lap as Rosberg trundled in with a suspension failure of his own. Both McLarens out for the first time in a while. Meanwhile, Senna had drawn out a lead of over 30 seconds over Piquet before he finally pitted on lap 40 – a sticky right-rear lost him a few seconds, but he was still able to rejoin in the lead, some 7.5s ahead of Piquet, who in turn led Mansell by about 45s. Berger, Johansson and Dumfries held the rest of the points positions.

Berger’s race was run on lap 45 with a transmission problem, promoting Dumfries to 5th and Brundle to 6th, while Senna had pulled the gap out to 9s. Piquet had now stabilised the gap, while Senna had come around to lap Mansell, who promptly un-lapped himself and pulled away. Senna began to slow down as Piquet quickly began speeding up and reducing the gap by around a second a lap, while commentators around the world speculated as to what the problem could be. At the end of lap 54, Piquet pulled out to overtake Senna and got past – only to lose the place again under braking as he nearly slid wide. He spent the next couple of laps catching back up to the Lotus before trying again at the same spot, this time going left, around the outside, and practically power-drifting his Williams round the corner. The move stuck, and he pulled out a small gap from Senna – however, the Williams gradually began to lose grip and Senna came back strongly, harrying Piquet all the way to the end of the race but ultimately unable to make an impression and get past. The race hit the two-hour time limit a lap short of full distance, finishing after 76 laps.

Piquet thus won the race with Senna second and Mansell third – the exact same podium as in Germany two weeks earlier – with Johansson scoring some much-needed points for Ferrari, Johnny Dumfries finally breaking his duck for Lotus after a solid drive and Brundle taking the last point home to Tyrrell. Mansell, who had struggled all race with handling issues, was happy to take the third place that kept him in the championship lead. Non-scorer Prost dropped from second to fourth as an exciting four-way battle for the title was developing with just five races to go.

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Drivers Championship
1	Nigel Mansell	55
2	Ayrton Senna	48
3	Nelson Piquet	47
4	Alain Prost	44
5	Keke Rosberg	19
6=	Jacques Laffite	14
6=	René Arnoux	14
8	Stefan Johansson	10
9=	Gerhard Berger	6
9=	Michele Alboreto	6
11	Martin Brundle	5
12=	Teo Fabi	2
12=	Riccardo Patrese	2
12=	Johnny Dumfries	2
15	Phillippe Streiff	1

Constructors Championship
1	Williams-Honda	102
2	McLaren-TAG	63
3	Lotus-Renault	50
4	Ligier-Renault	28
5	Ferrari	16
6	Benetton-BMW	8
7	Tyrrell-Renault	6
8	Brabham-BMW	2

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1986 German Grand Prix

Hockenheimring
27 July 1986
The good news in the paddock was that Jacques Laffite was expected to make a full recovery; however, he would not be racing again this season at least, and Philippe Alliot was drafted in to replace him. Arrows had their new A9 chassis finally ready for both drivers, while Lotus announced that they would be using Honda engines from 1987 – a deal which came with Japanese driver Satoru Nakajima attached, meaning that poor Johnny Dumfries would have to find a new job at the end of the year. Finally, Keke Rosberg announced that he would be retiring from Formula One at the end of the season after a frustrating year so far.

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26. Philippe Alliot

Alliot had last been seen struggling around with the RAM team in 1985, and hadn’t impressed many – though few would have looked good in that car. He had tested for Ligier at the end of the season but with the capture of Arnoux he was not retained and returned to driving Formula 3000 with the ORECA team. After winning the race at Spa he was recalled by Ligier to replace the injured Laffite. With the blue cars having a good year, this could be his chance to show what he really had.

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The Finn, however, ended Saturday on Pole Position for the race – his first with the McLaren team – with Alain Prost alongside to make the first McLaren front-row lockout for some time. Ayrton Senna was third, with Berger alongside in the Benetton, its straight-line speed a real advantage at Hockenheim. The previously-dominant Williams cars were 5th (Piquet) and 6th (Mansell), with Patrese, Arnoux, Fabi and Alboreto rounding out the top ten. Johansson’s Ferrari was 11th, Palmer’s Zakspeed a fine 16th at the team’s home race (Rothengatter was back in a more accustomed 24th) and the Osella team took their usual places on the back row, Ghinzani 25th and Berg 26th.

The lights went green and the two McLarens got away slowly, but behind them Senna got a flyer and barged his way through the middle, banging wheels with Prost in the process and sending the Frenchman skidding wide and allowing Berger to wriggle through into second. Further back, Johansson tripped over Alliot’s fast-starting Ligier and slewed across the track, punting Fabi into the sand-trap in the process. The Ferrari and the Ligier managed to limp around to the pits, while the luckless Fabi was out. Rosberg, meanwhile, had got back past Berger into second place (only to lose it again shortly afterwards) while Piquet had got ahead of Prost, now down in fifth.

Senna finished the first lap with Berger’s BMW, roared on by the German crowd, hanging right on his rear wing, with Rosberg slightly behind the pair – until the first chicane, at which point Rosberg pulled an audacious move to overtake both and take the lead. He began pulling away as Piquet started worrying at Berger in third place. Before long he was past, and Senna found himself leading a multi-car train including Piquet, Berger, Prost, Mansell, Alboreto, Patrese and Arnoux. Before the end of the lap, Piquet was past Senna and heading off in pursuit of Rosberg. Berger was now dropping back with first Prost then Mansell coming past, and would stop in the pits on lap 5 for the team to tinker with his engine – he rejoined three laps behind. The following lap, Piquet made his way past Rosberg and into the lead, while Prost was up to third ahead of Senna. Behind them, Alboreto had got past Mansell, struggling with steering issues, but the Ferrari was out on lap 6 with a transmission failure.

Arnoux now took fifth from Mansell, and things began to settle down a little as the field strung out and the Hockenheimring’s reputation as a car-breaker was confirmed with a series of technical gremlins – Streiff with a blown engine on lap 8, Ghinzani with a clutch failure on 11, Alliot a lap later with an engine failure, and Boutsen toured in on lap 14 with a blown turbo, which proceeded to catch fire while the pit crew tried to take the engine cover off. Piquet was the first of the major runners to pit for tyres, a stop of 9.1s dropping him to 4th behind Rosberg, Prost and Senna. Next in was Mansell, a quick 8.8s stop on lap 17 as his team-mate put up the fastest lap so far on his fresh tyres.

A few laps later, Rosberg came in from the lead, and the McLaren team turned him round in just 7.5s, putting him back on the road third, while Arnoux stopped from 5th at the same time. The following lap it was Prost’s turn, a relatively slow 8.4, which put Piquet back in the lead with Senna, still second, yet to stop. The Brazilian Lotus driver finally came in on lap 21, just before half-distance, leaving Piquet leading the McLarens of Rosberg and Prost. However, his stop had been early enough it looked like a two-stop strategy against McLaren’s single-stop – would he be able to get far enough ahead of them to make another stop?

The retirements continued – both Minardis within a lap of each other with engine (Nannini) and gearbox (de Cesaris) problems, Patrese with a faulty sparkplug, By lap 23, the top six were back where they had been before the stops: Piquet, Rosberg, Prost, Senna, Arnoux and Mansell, with Piquet having a lead of just over 5.5s over Rosberg – but the Finn was gaining, not dropping back. With 18 laps to go, Piquet peeled back into the pits for his second stop, just shy of 8s, and rejoined third but just 5s behind Prost. On fresh tyres, the Williams reeled in the McLaren and caught him when Prost was delayed by backmarkers Berg and Tambay having their own battle. Both were passed successfully and half a lap later, as Mansell came in for his second stop, Piquet pulled out and breezed past Prost. Now there was an 11-second gap to Rosberg and Piquet set about chasing him down with just 12 laps to go. Two laps later it was 8.25s, the lap after that 5.6s, then 4.1, then 2.7. With 7 laps to go, Piquet was right on Rosberg’s tail as they lapped Warwick and as they began the following lap he made a slingshot move around the outside at the first chicane and took the lead.

The race looked set for the finish, but then, with just one lap to go, the McLarens suddenly both began to slow – first Prost, who was rapidly caught and passed by Senna, then Rosberg who toured off at the back chicane. Both were out of fuel – and Piquet was now zigzagging around the track to slosh the last bits of fuel into his engine as Senna tore into his lead. The double champion made it across the line to take the win with Senna second. Prost was still third, but his engine had stopped and he was coasting around the last corner, desperately trying to urge his car forward before leaping out and pushing it, but to no avail – Mansell surged past for third and Arnoux for fourth, so Prost pushed his car over to the side and gave up. Rosberg stuttered past to take 5th for the final insult, leaving Prost with a single point for his afternoon’s efforts.

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Drivers Championship
1	Nigel Mansell	51
2	Alain Prost	44
3	Ayrton Senna	42
4	Nelson Piquet	38
5	Keke Rosberg	19
6=	Jacques Laffite	14
6=	René Arnoux	14
8	Stefan Johansson	7
9=	Gerhard Berger	6
9=	Michele Alboreto	6
11	Martin Brundle	4
12=	Teo Fabi	2
12=	Riccardo Patrese	2
14	Phillippe Streiff	1

Constructors Championship
1	Williams-Honda	89
2	McLaren-TAG	63
3	Lotus-Renault	42
4	Ligier-Renault	28
5	Ferrari	13
6	Benetton-BMW	8
7	Tyrrell-Renault	5
8	Brabham-BMW	2

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1986 British Grand Prix

Brands Hatch
13 July 1986

Brands Hatch was packed to the gills with enthusiastic race fans, keen to support new British hero Nigel Mansell and welcome Frank Williams back to the paddock. The historic circuit looked, though, like it would be hosting its last British Grand Prix for a while, with a new FISA policy of making long-term contracts with circuits seeing the race awarded to Silverstone for a five-year period. Brands was a fine circuit, but there was a feeling that with limited space for expansion and only narrow run-off areas it was an inferior facility overall. Elsewhere in the paddock, with Renault withdrawing from F1 from next year, Ligier had announced a three-year deal for Alfa Romeo engines, and Lotus were rumoured to be negotiating with Honda.

Local hero Mansell could only manage second to team-mate Piquet in qualifying, with Senna third and Berger a fine fourth in the Benetton-BMW. The McLarens filled row three, with Rosberg ahead of Prost. Berger’s team-mate Fabi was seventh, with Arnoux 8th, Warwick’s Brabham 9th and Dumfries 10th. Ferrari’s doldrums continued with Alboreto 12th and Johansson 18th, with Allen Berg bringing up the rear as usual. Jacques Laffite, down in 20th after a frustrating day in the Ligier, had equalled Graham Hill’s record of 176 career starts, and would beat the record to become the most experienced Grand Prix driver ever when the race began on Sunday.

As the lights went green, Mansell got away slowly, with Senna, Berger and both McLarens surging past him and it was soon evident that something wasn’t right with his car as he toured slowly round – but soon all eyes were elsewhere as Thierry Boutsen lost his Arrows at Paddock, causing a chain reaction that caused Laffite’s Ligier to go head-on into the barriers and also took out Danner’s other Arrows, both Minardis, both Osellas and Rothengatter’s Zakspeed. Jonathan Palmer also pulled his Zakspeed over to help, as the driver was also a qualified doctor. Most drivers jogged back to the pits, but Jacques Laffite was trapped in his cockpit and as the trackside crews began to cut him out of the car the first start was declared void and a second attempt would be made.

The Williams team frantically adapted the spare car (set up for Nelson Piquet) for Nigel and in the end had plenty of time as the race start was delayed nearly an hour while Laffite – both legs broken – was helicoptered out to Sidcup hospital and the medical helicopter returned to the circuit.  Sadly for Jacques, with the original start declared void, Graham Hill’s record remained unbroken.

When the field lined up again, there were only 22 runners – In addition to Laffite’s absence, Osella had no spare car and both their race cars were too damaged to continue, while Boutsen had claimed the spare Arrows, leaving Danner with no drive. This time, Mansell got away well in second, slotting in behind Piquet, but Berger got a flying start to take Senna and glue his Benetton to Nigel’s rear wing. Within half a lap the Austrian was past, but at the start of lap 3 Mansell, having now got the measure of his new car, came back past the Benetton. As Mansell set about chipping away at Piquet’s lead, Senna had Rosberg’s McLaren clambering all over the back of him. A reprieve was granted to the Lotus driver as Rosberg’s miserable season continued with a gearbox failure on lap 8, while Piquet had now begun to pull away from Mansell.

As 1/3 distance approached the first runners began coming in for tyres – Alain Prost was first on lap 18, from fifth place, disposing of an original set of tyres that weren’t balanced right. The stop dropped him to ninth, and Alboreto found himself fifth after his dreadful qualifying. The Ferrari team weren’t out of the woods yet though, as Johansson’s engine started emitting smoke just as he was lapped by Piquet and Mansell, now running nose-to-tail. As the Swede parked up, Nigel Mansell got a slingshot past Piquet as the Brazilian missed a gear and went into the lead.

Berger’s race was run on lap 23, and de Cesaris’ shortly afterwards, both men with electrical troubles, while Alan Jones’ new Ford engine gave up the ghost at the same time. As Mansell and Piquet jockeyed for position, Prost was down in 8th with both Brabhams ahead of him – Warwick 6th in the new BT55 and Patrese 7th in the older BT54. As Prost put Patrese under pressure, Senna peeled into the pits for what seemed to be a tyre stop but proved to be his retirement with an attack of the old Lotus Gearbox. Alboreto thus moved up to third, followed by Arnoux, both Brabhams and Prost, the championship leader now 7th and just out of the points. Stuck in traffic, the McLaren driver was starting to be in danger of being lapped.

Piquet came in on lap 30 for a tyre-stop and Mansell did so two laps later – a 9.57 stop just enough to get him back out ahead on the road, but Piquet on warmer tyres was right with him and took a look once, twice and three times but Mansell made his Williams as wide as possible and Piquet was foiled by traffic. After that, the pair stabilised but continued to run close together. Arnoux was ploughing a lonely furrow in third, but had to make a second tyre stop after a poor choice of compound on his first stop. Prost moved up into third, still far behind the Williams boys but ready to capitalise if either broke down or – even better – they took each other out while scrapping.

Mansell continued serenely in the lead, clocking off several fastest laps while the rest of the field fell by the wayside – Patrese, lap 39 (engine), Fabi, lap 45 (fuel system), Nannini, lap 50 (steering) and Alboreto on lap 51 with another blown Ferrari turbo. A heart-stopping moment for the Englishman came on lap 48 when he came to lap Brundle’s Tyrrell at an inopportune moment and Piquet nearly capitalised, but was kept behind by some frantic defensive driving. Prost pitted for tyres again, unexpectedly, but returned without losing a position.

By lap 60 of 72, the Williams pairing had lapped every remaining car and were now lapping 4th-placed Arnoux for the second time, and nothing could stop Mansell from taking his first British Grand Prix win and moving into the championship lead – not even a late challenge from Piquet. Mansell staggered from his car to the tailgate of a Range Rover for the short trip to the podium, while 100,000 fans roared their approval.

Almost unnoticed, Prost took third and Arnoux fourth. Derek Warwick had been running 5th in the closing stages but found himself running out of fuel and as he dialled back to economise first Brundle and then – on the last lap – Streiff found their way past to break Brabham’s heart but secure a double points finish for Tyrrell. Warwick finished 8th, behind Johnny Dumfries, himself agonisingly close to chalking up his first point. Jonathan Palmer brough the Zakspeed home 9th, 6 laps adrift, and Boutsen trailed in tenth but unclassified, a whopping 13 laps off Mansell.

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Drivers Championship
1	Nigel Mansell	47
2	Alain Prost	43
3	Ayrton Senna	36
4	Nelson Piquet	29
5	Keke Rosberg	17
6	Jacques Laffite	14
7	René Arnoux	11
8	Stefan Johansson	7
9=	Gerhard Berger	6
9=	Michele Alboreto	6
11	Martin Brundle	4
12=	Teo Fabi	2
12=	Riccardo Patrese	2
14	Phillippe Streiff	1

Constructors Championship
1	Williams-Honda	76
2	McLaren-TAG	60
3	Lotus-Renault	36
4	Ligier-Renault	25
5	Ferrari	13
6	Benetton-BMW	8
7	Tyrrell-Renault	5
8	Brabham-BMW	2

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1986 French Grand Prix

Circuit Paul Ricard
6 July 1986

The Grand Prix circus returned to the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France for the first time since Elio de Angelis’ fatal accident, and a decision had been made to cut out the high-speed corner where the Brabham had crashed, at the end of the long Mistral straight, using the racing school track to curtail Mistral and shorten the circuit overall.

FISA had also announced some radical plans for the future. Turbocharged engines, which had been compulsory in 1986 for the first time, were now to be banned in the interests both of safety and of curtailing spiralling costs. Rather than an outright ban for 1987, however, it was decided to “phase out” the turbo engines. In 1987, turbocharged engines would be restricted to four bars (ie 4x atmospheric pressure) of boost and a 1l engine, while a new category of 3.5l normally-aspirated engine would be allowed. For 1988, then, the turbo boost would be further restricted to 2.5 bars, and an outright ban from 1989 onwards. The FIA hoped that the boost restrictions would encourage existing teams to convert early and new teams to enter, as well as easing the transition.

In team news, Patrick Tambay was back in action for Team Haas Lola, along with his new race engineer, Adrian Newey, hired away from the March IndyCar project.

Despite the Ligier team’s good showing at Detroitl local hopes rested largely on Alain Prost in his McLaren, but the Woking cars had traditionally focussed on race results rather than qualifying and Prost duly put his red and white car fifth on the grid, just behind Arnoux’s Ligier. At the front was Senna’s Lotus, with Mansell alongside and Piquet in third. Alboreto put his Ferrari in an encouraging 6th place, followed by Berger and Fabi in the Benettons and Johansson rounding out the top ten in the second Ferrari. The two Osellas again brought up the rear, with Berg the Laterne Rouge for the grid.

Alboreto’s encouraging qualifying came to naught as he stalled on the grid and Piquet got away slowly, while Mansell stormed away into the lead ahead of Senna, Arnoux, Berger, Prost and Dumfries (who had got a cracking start from 12th in the second Lotus). Rosberg got past Dumfries during the first lap, while Johansson came in before the end of the lap for the Ferrari mechanics to take the back off  his car and poke at the engine. It looked like it was going to be another long, frustrating race for Maranello.

A couple of laps later, with Jones already retired, Andrea de Cesaris was removed with an explosive turbo failure, and on the following lap, the fourth, Ayrton Senna skidded on the resultant oil slick and put his Lotus into the tyre barrier and out of the race. Mansell thus led with an increased margin, with Arnoux now second but gaining as Mansell was already encountering backmarkers, with Warwick, Rothengatter and Johansson all having made pit stops in the early stages. Behind Arnoux, Berger was now third, but holding up the two McLarens of Prost and Rosberg.

Prost got by Berger in traffic on lap 5, just as Johansson came in again, this time to retire with turbo issues, and Rosberg followed his team-mate past the Benetton shortly afterwards. Prost was soon up behind Arnoux and wasted little time in muscling his way past his compatriot and former Renault team-mate on lap 16, with Rosberg following through two laps later.

Prost was now up to second, with just over 4.4s between him and the leading Williams. Unable to keep up, Arnoux pitted for tyres at the end of lap 18, but undid a lot of the team’s good work when, on rejoining, he was forced to stamp on the brakes in order to avoid colliding with Tambay. Mansell, meanwhile, had pulled out another half-second over Prost as he continued carving through traffic, while Rosberg was being thoroughly left behind by the pair of them and his third place was coming

under threat from Piquet. The Brazilian made a (sub-9 second) tyre stop on lap 22, just as Berger collided with Danner’s Arrows and removed himself from proceedings. Danner called in for repairs but was able to continue.

Two laps later, with Prost having eaten up the gap, Mansell peeled off into the pits himself. The Williams team put him out in just 8.12 seconds, rejoining third just ahead of Jacques Laffite, who came in for his own stop a couple of laps later, while Mansell set about catching the McLarens, reeling off a series of Fastest Laps. Rosberg was next to pit for tyres, rejoining fourth, which promoted Mansell to second and Piquet to third, but Prost continued racing, even after a big lock-up under braking on lap 31 which must have flat-spotted his already old tyres.  With a 12-second lead over Mansell decreasing all the time, he surely couldn’t leave it much longer if he was to retain his lead.  Eventually he did, rejoining second, some 16 seconds behind Mansell with Piquet rapidly gaining and Rosberg behind the Williams.

As Prost made his way through traffic, he was balked by Alboreto, himself trying to better his position as he diced with Tambay. Prost made his way through but as Piquet did so, Rosberg pulled off a daring move around the outside and took third place. The Brazilian’s car began dropping back almost immediately with electrical gremlins while Rosberg nearly wiped off a front wheel trying a similarly ambitious move to lap Patrese’s Brabham. Phillippe Streiff’s Tyrrell pulled off in flames on lap 43 – the French driver hopped out with no apparent ill effects, but the fire resisted all attempts by the marshals to snuff it out with hand extinguishers and a fire engine had to come and hose it down.

Mansell continued serenely on in the lead, until he came in for his second tyre stop on lap 50 which dropped him to second, emerging just in front of Rosberg’s McLaren. On fresh rubber, he quickly pulled away from his 1985 team-mate but the question was whether the new tyres would make him fast enough to catch and pass the one-stopping Prost before the end of the race. He started well, tearing chunks out of Prost’s lead over the next laps, and putting up a new fastest lap some two seconds faster than the previous one. By lap 57 he was right behind Prost and as they came round to begin lap 58, Mansell breezed past on at the first corner. Prost managed to stick with Mansell as the pair carved through traffic, but once out on clear track, the Williams quickly pulled away.

And that was more or less how it finished; during the closing stages of the race, Piquet had an improvement in pace and reeled in Rosberg, making his way past the Finn just a few laps from the chequered flag. So Mansell took the win, with Prost second, Piquet third and Rosberg fourth, and the Ligiers of Arnoux and Laffite coming in fifth and sixth to round out the points.

Mansell’s win put him second in the title race, just a point behind Prost; both overtaking the unfortunate Senna. In the constructors’ stakes, Williams extended their lead over McLaren thanks to Piquet’s heroics in the closing stages.

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Drivers Championship
1	Alain Prost	39
2	Nigel Mansell	38
3	Ayrton Senna	36
4	Nelson Piquet	23
5	Keke Rosberg	17
6	Jacques Laffite	14
7	René Arnoux	8
8	Stefan Johansson	7
8=	Gerhard Berger	6
8=	Michele Alboreto	6
10=	Martin Brundle	2
10=	Teo Fabi	2
10=	Riccardo Patrese	2

Constructors Championship
1	Williams-Honda	61
2	McLaren-TAG	56
3	Lotus-Renault	36
4	Ligier-Renault	22
5	Ferrari	13
6	Benetton-BMW	8
7=	Tyrrell-Renault	2
7=	Brabham-BMW	2

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1986 Detroit Grand Prix

Detroit Street Circuit
22 June 1986

Although there were only 7 days between the Canadian and Detroit races, there were a few personnel changes for the race at the by now notorious street circuit. Christian Danner had completed his move to Arrows to replace the injured Marc Surer, and in his place came Canadian driver Allen Berg, while Lola needed a substitute for Patrick Tambay, still in pain from his Montreal crash. First choice was Mario Andretti, but he turned down the offer, recommending instead his son Michael. Andretti Jr, however, was unable to get an F1 Superlicence in time (thanks to an ongoing tiff between FISA and CART) and instead Eddie Cheever took time out from his sportscar duties with Tom Walkinshaw’s Jaguar team to fill in. Finally, the Benetton team arrived with some fantastic-looking coloured tyres, which caught the eye of photographers.

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16. Eddie Cheever

Like Derek Warwick, Eddie Cheever had had a promising career somewhat stalled by association with an underperforming factory team and, like Warwick, he had found himself out of an F1 drive when 1986 rolled around. He was driving touring cars for Jaguar in the meantime when he was offered a one-off drive for Haas Lola to replace the injured Patrick Tambay – an American driver in an all-American team a great draw at the US Grand Prix.

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22. Allen Berg

Vancouver-born Berg had begun karting in 1978 at the age of 17, and moved into Formula Atlantic three years later. By 1983 he had moved to the UK to compete in British Formula Three, but his timing was unfortunate, as he was up against the dominance of Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle. He won one race and came fifth overall, then challenged Johnny Dumfries for the title the following year. He returned to Canada to raise more funds and managed to secure a drive with Osella as a replacement for Christian Danner.

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As usual, Friday’s practice sessions were slower, with the street circuit needing some running-in and rubber laying down before it would be truly fast, with Mansell the best of the bunch. Saturday came, and in glorious weather the top drivers waited for optimum conditions. Senna came out first, halfway through the period, found a clear track and set a blistering course record of 1:38.301. Mansell went next but was balked by Alain Prost getting things wrong at the chicane and was half a second behind Senna, who took the pole position with Mansell second. Piquet was third, and the Ligiers were on form too, qualifying 4th (Arnoux) and 6th (Laffite), sandwiching Johansson’s Ferrari. Prost, after his accident, could only manage 7th, alongside Patrese’s Brabham, with Rosbeg and an excellent Cheever rounding out the top ten and Alboreto 11th in the other Ferrari. The other debutant, Allen Berg, would start his race from 25th place, ahead of Huub Rothengatter’s Zakspeed.

The hapless Rothengatter, however, would not even see the start, as his electrics failed partway round the parade lap. The remaining cars lined up and when the lights went green Mansell and Senna got away together and raced side-by-side to the first corner, while Arnoux got away well and tucked in behind them. It was Senna who went through in first, with Mansell climbing all over the back of him, while Prost had also moved ahead of Laffite into 6th. Arnoux wasn’t content with 3rd either, constantly looking for an opportunity to get by Mansell into second. Coming into lap 3, Senna missed a gear at the first corner and Mansell surged past into the lead, Senna now with Arnoux climbing all over the back of him. While Senna defended, Mansell pulled away and behind the Lotus-Ligier scrap for second, Piquet was leading Johansson, Laffite and Rosberg, all sitting on the gearbox of the car in front and jockeying for position.

Mansell pulled out a lead of over 5 seconds in the next few laps, while the Piquet-Johansson-Laffite-Rosberg scrap had caught up to Arnoux and formed a single six-car train led by Senna. Mansell, however, began having some brake problems and Senna put his foot down and began reeling him back in. On lap 6, the Lotus was past coming out of the tunnel and Arnoux followed past on the start-finish straight. Mansell was able to stay in touch with the Ligier, though, while Senna pulled out a handy lead of his own. Behind him, Laffite had got past Piquet and was now approaching Mansell, forming a Ligier-Williams sandwich. A lap later, he was past and the Ligiers were running 2nd and 3rd – a welcome comeback for the French team, if they could just keep hold of it.

It was lap 12 and Senna was already among the backmarkers, with the Ligiers following him through in formation, but before long the Lotus came in for a tyre stop and so the blue cars were running 1-2 for the first time in a very long while indeed. The French cars were running close together and Laffite soon challenged for the lead, barging his way past Arnoux on lap 17, and starting to pull out slightly while Mansell kept a watching brief in third, his brakes apparently now fine. Behind Mansell were Prost, Piquet and Senna, all around three seconds apart, and behind them the two Ferraris.

By lap 25, Laffite was pulling away into the lead while Mansell, still chasing Arnoux for second, was in turn being caught by Prost, who began swarming all over the back of him with Piquet in hot pursuit as well. As the little group concertinaed up, Senna began to close up, putting the top six all very close together and before long a five-car train had developed. Piquet got a slingshot past Prost to move up to fourth while Mansell was now clambering all over the back of Arnoux, and then a bullish Senna also forced his way past the McLaren coming out of the tunnel.

Mansell eventually had to wait for Arnoux to pit for tyres before he could get up to second place, but soon lost it to Piquet as the two Williams and Senna ran closely together, keeping in touch with Laffite as he deftly worked his way through traffic. Mansell’s brake problems now chose a bad moment to reappear and he lost his place to Senna and then Prost, only for the McLaren to immediately dive into the pits for a stop of 9.6s. Meanwhile, released from behind Mansell, Piquet got the hammer down and caught Laffite in short order. Within a lap he was through, with Senna now looming large in the Ligier’s mirrors. A few corners later, he was through too.

Mansell’s stop on lap 34 was a slow one at 12.8s as his team doused him with water to counteract the savage heat, but it didn’t seem to bother Piquet and Senna who cruised serenely at the head of the field, the former putting up the fastest lap so far at 1:42.911 as he went. Senna responded the next lap with 1:42.781, and retook the lead a few laps later as Piquet’s tyre stop went horribly wrong, lasting nearly 18.5s, while Senna’s own stop on lap 39 was a lightning 8.28s. Senna maintained the lead and Piquet hung onto second ahead of Prost, with the Ligiers now fourth (Arnoux) and fifth.

Piquet got his foot down, putting up a new fastest lap on lap 41, but a lap later he was out, wiping his nosecone off on the unforgiving barriers along the lakeside section so Senna now had a big lead over Arnoux, who had got past Prost into second place, but the Frenchman was on a charge and began carving  a second a lap out of Senna’s lead. For five laps, the hapless marshals failed to move Piquet’s car, which had been left in an awkward position by the exit of the last chicane – and no sooner did they get it moved and stop waving the yellow flags, than Arnoux got a bit wide and sideswiped it. Attempting to rejoin the track, Arnoux collided with Boutsen and put both drivers out.

This put Prost up to second again, 27 seconds behind the leader but the TAG engine was having problems, cutting out under braking – a big issue at a start-stop circuit like Detroit. Laffite began to reel Prost in, passing the McLaren to take second place, which he retained to the end. Senna took his fourth career win by 30 seconds at the end, with Laffite and Prost joining him on the podium and Alboreto, Mansell and Patrese taking the minor points. Senna took the lead in the Drivers’ championship, while McLaren closed to one point behind Williams in the Constructors’ race.

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Drivers Championship
1	Ayrton Senna	36
2	Alain Prost	33
3	Nigel Mansell	29
4	Nelson Piquet	19
5	Keke Rosberg	14
6	Jacques Laffite	13
7	Stefan Johansson	7
8=	Gerhard Berger	6
8=	René Arnoux	6
8=	Michele Alboreto	6
11=	Martin Brundle	2
11=	Teo Fabi	2
11=	Riccardo Patrese	2

Constructors Championship
1	Williams-Honda	48
2	McLaren-TAG	47
3	Lotus-Renault	36
4	Ligier-Renault	19
5	Ferrari	13
6	Benetton-BMW	8
7=	Tyrrell-Renault	2
7=	Brabham-BMW	2

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1986 Canadian Grand Prix

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
15 June 1986

Brabham were back up to two cars for the Canadian Grand Prix with Derek Warwick driving car number 8, but Arrows were a man down, Marc Surer having sustained serious injuries driving a rally car. The team had signed Christian Danner as a replacement but his contract could not be bought out until after the race, so he would stay with Osella in Montreal.

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8. Derek Warwick

Derek Warwick must have been kicking himself for turning down the opportunity to replace Jacques Laffite at Williams in favour of remaining loyal to the Renault team. He endured a frustrating season that ended in unemployment, while Nigel Mansell, who took the Williams drive in his stead, had won three races already. He had been wanted by Lotus for 1986 – which would have been another potential winning move – but had been vetoed by Senna. When Elio de Angelis died, his phone rang to offer him the drive, at least in part (said Ecclestone) because he was about the only available driver who hadn’t called in the days after the crash to enquire…

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Nigel Mansell took his first pole position of the year, lining up on the front of the grid alongside Ayrton Senna’s Lotus. Mansell’s Williams teammate Piquet was directly behind him in third, with Prost fourth ahead of old sparring partner Arnoux, going well in the Ligier. Rosberg was sixth, then Berger and 1981 winner Laffite on row 4, with the Brabhams of Patrese and Warwick rounding out the top ten. There was a nasty accident in the morning warmup when Patrick Tambay’s Beatrice-Lola suffered a suspension failure and the luckless Frenchman suffered leg injuries and was unable to start, so 14th place on the grid would also be empty.

When the lights went green, Mansell capitalised on his pole position to rocket into the lead with Senna in hot pursuit, with Prost nipping ahead of Piquet to claim third spot, chased by Rosberg, Arnoux, Berger and Alboreto having had a great start from 11th. Mansell immediately pulled away from Senna, who was leading a tight group behind him with Prost’s front wing tucked right up behind him. Rosberg soon got past Piquet too and joined in the battle for second; the three cars ran as one for a couple of laps until, on lap 4, Prost elbowed his way past at the hairpin forcing Senna to bounce over the kerbs and allowing Rosberg through as well. Senna’s lost momentum saw Piquet and Arnoux through as well and Berger was also looking for an opportunity.

By lap 6, Mansell had pulled out a lead of some five seconds over Prost, with Rosberg right on his tail and Piquet staying in touch a little way back, then another four seconds back to Arnoux and Senna. A few laps later and Rosberg was past Prost, squeezing through while the Frenchman negotiated a backmarker, and immediately began to pull away from his team-mate. Within a lap, he was right up behind Mansell, who had been held up by a recalcitrant Jonathan Palmer. The Finn was quicker past the Zakspeed and Prost likewise had little trouble. Rosberg was on a charge, and passed Mansell for the lead on lap 16, pulling out a small lead while Prost attacked Mansell. As the three came onto the home straight, Alessandro Nannini’s Minardi, just ahead, suddenly burst into flames and pulled off – the leaders passed harmlessly and Nannini hopped out of the car quickly enough, but it was another disappointing race for the little Italian team, who had already had to pull de Cesaris in for repairs. Danner and Fabi were already out, and Derek Warwick’s Brabham debut would end three laps later with an engine failure.

Then it was Rosberg’s turn to be held up by a backmarker – Phillippe Streiff’s Tyrrell – and allowed Mansell to catch up once more, while behind them Stefan Johansson was challenging Arnoux for sixth, with Senna having already gotten by for fifth. As Rosberg came up to lap Alan Jones, the veteran Australian tried to move aside but it was an awkward part of the track to do so and again he held Rosberg up, allowing Mansell right up onto the McLaren’s gearbox. As soon as the track allowed him, Jones got right out of the way, and Mansell dove in between the Lola and the McLaren to take the lead and lap Jones in one fell swoop, with Prost also getting past Jones and tucking up under Rosberg’s rear wing again. Rosberg wasn’t to be shaken off, though, and stuck with Mansell, while Alboreto had also disposed of Senna and was now in a three-way battle for the last point with Arnoux and Johansson that echoed the fight for the lead.

For lap after lap Rosberg harried Mansell for the lead with Prost keeping a watching brief behind, until the Finn peeled off for tyres on lap 26, heading out again after 13s, and Mansell made a better stop on the next lap. Prost now led, with Johansson now out, tripping over Johnny Dumfries while lapping the Lotus, which was on cold tyres having just changed them. Alboreto was next, then Prost – but a problem in the McLaren pit meant that the Frenchman’s stop took nearly 20s. Senna came in on lap 35, but Piquet, now second, remained out for lap after lap, maintaining a decent gap to Rosberg as the leaders threaded their way through heavy traffic. Finally, Piquet was in, a 10-second stop putting him back on the track in fourth. So after the stops had shaken out, the top four remained as they had been: Mansell, Rosberg, Prost, Piquet. Arnoux was non-stopping and was back ahead of Senna, now in sixth but chasing hard.

The race settled down after the excitement of the pitstops, with Senna’s pursuit of Arnoux and Piquet’s slow reeling in of Prost for third the only real bits of action on the track. Piquet got past Prost relatively easily on lap 46, and within a few laps both he and Prost were gaining on a fading Rosberg. Within one lap, Rosberg was down to fourth as Piquet and Prost both came past. On lap 56, with only 13 to go, Piquet had to pit for new tyres as his own were degrading rapidly, allowing Prost through into second and dropping him to fourth. Around the same time, as Mansell came through to lap the pair, Senna finally bludgeoned his way past Arnoux – never an easy man to pass at the best of times. Piquet wasted no time getting past Rosberg again on his fresh tyres.

And that was where they finished. Nigel Mansell took his second win of the season in commanding form, with Prost and Piquet joining him on the podium and Rosberg, Senna and Arnoux taking the minor points. In fact, the top six in the race were the top six on the grid, albeit in a different order.

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Drivers Championship
1	Alain Prost	29
2=	Ayrton Senna	27
2=	Nigel Mansell	27
4	Nelson Piquet	19
5	Keke Rosberg	14
6=	Jacques Laffite	7
6=	Stefan Johansson	7
8=	Gerhard Berger	6
8=	René Arnoux	6
10	Michele Alboreto	3
11=	Martin Brundle	2
11=	Teo Fabi	2
13	Riccardo Patrese	1

Constructors Championship
1	Williams-Honda	46
2	McLaren-TAG	43
3	Lotus-Renault	27
4	Ligier-Renault	13
5	Ferrari	10
6	Benetton-BMW	8
7	Tyrrell-Renault	2
8	Brabham-BMW	1

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1986 Belgian Grand Prix

Spa-Francorchamps
25 May 1986

In the aftermath of a dreadful Monaco Grand Prix, the Brabham team had headed for the Paul Ricard circuit between races to do some testing, but disaster struck when Elio de Angelis’ rear wing suddenly collapsed on the long Mistral straight, pitching him into a spin which saw him cartwheel over the crash barriers and come to rest, upside-down, before bursting into flames. Because it was only a test session, there were few marshals around and they took several minutes to arrive, clad in shorts and t-shirts and carrying small fire-extinguishers. It was another half-hour before the injured Italian could be extracted from his car and put in a helicopter to be taken to Marseilles hospital. He died there of smoke inhalation, 29 hours after his crash. His only injuries from the crash itself were some light burns and a broken collar-bone, neither life-threatening, and in the aftermath of the accident changes would be made to ensure that safety procedures at test sessions would be the same as those at races. Jean-Marie Balestre also announced that an extraordinary meeting of the FIA would take place in June, amid widespread speculation that steps would be taken to limit the allowed engine sizes.

In the meantime, though, the paddock was in shock as the teams arrived in Belgium: de Angelis had been a popular figure in the paddock, widely regarded as one of the last of the “gentleman players” and the figure who had kept the iconic Lotus team going during its darkest period. The Brabham team were there in Belgium with just one car, for Riccardo Patrese, while de Angelis’ former team-mates Mansell and Senna looked particularly pensive, as did his great off-track friend Keke Rosberg. Brabham had announced just before the race that Derek Warwick would drive the second car from the next race in Canada.

A more pleasant surprise awaited on Friday qualifying where rising star Gerhard Berger used the power of his BMW engine to go fastest and set provisional pole. It was only a gung-ho lap from Nelson Piquet in the spare car (after grenading the Honda in his race car) that kept the Austrian from his first career pole, and he had to be satisfied with his first front-row start instead. Prost and Senna took the second row with Nigel Mansell fifth and Teo Fabi completing a good couple of days’ work for Benetton in sixth place. Arnoux, Rosberg, Alboreto and Tambay rounded out the top ten with the second Ferrari of Johansson down in 11th and the second Lotus of Johnny Dumfries 13th. With no non-qualifiers, the two Osellas of Ghinzani and Danner brought up the rear of the grid.

The grid lined up and TV viewers were intrigued to see the pictures from the TV camera attached to Phillippe Streiff’s Tyrrell, following a successful experiment by the Renault team last year. The lights went red, then green and the cars swarmed off the start; Rosberg dove left and left the track briefly, kicking up dust from the sand at the side of the track, while Berger got away tardily and was swamped by Prost going past on his right and Senna on his left, while Arnoux got a flyer to leap up to fifth. Like Monaco, Spa has a tight first corner that invites accidents as twenty-plus cars all stream through on lap one, and so it proved: Berger turned into the hairpin and caught Prost, both cars coming to a stop right at the apex of the corner. As Piquet and Senna disappeared into the distance, everyone else came to a grinding halt and tried to find a way through. Fabi stopped dead and had to go the long way round, while Rosberg found himself with nowhere to go except peel round in an outward circle and rejoin right at the back. Once everyone was past, both Prost and Berger got moving again and limped round to the pits for repairs – Prost’s front wing was noticeably flapping. In fact, the only retirement from the accident was the innocent Patrick Tambay, who had gone round the outside of the stationary cars but run over some debris and broken something in his suspension.

Piquet was already pulling out a handy lead over Senna, with Mansell some way back in third place. Fourth was Johansson, who had been fortunate to be in the right place and could drive right past the accident without stopping, with Dumfries up to fifth, ahead of Laffite, Jones, Boutsen, Alboreto and the Tyrrells of Brundle and Streiff, all in a long conga of cars. Prost and Berger, after lengthy stops for repairs, rejoined at the back of the field. Mansell, meanwhile, had caught a struggling Senna and passed him for second place, and the Brazilian was now being threatened by Johansson’s Ferrari. Further back, Rosberg was on the move, up to 12th, while Alboreto had likewise overtaken Boutsen for 8th. By lap 3, both Osellas had already retired with engine failure and Jones and Alboreto had both moved ahead of Laffite – the new Lola chassis looking good for the 1980 champion – while Rosberg was now ahead of the Tyrrells and himself gaining on Boutsen’s Arrows. Meanwhile, Mansell spun on lap 5 and dropped back behind Johansson and Alboreto, though he soon re-took fourth from the Italian.

Rosberg’s fine charge came to a premature end on lap 7 when his TAG engine had a rare failure, and on the following lap Dumfries damaged his car in a spin and had to retire, and Boutsen’s electrics packed up – six retirements already. After that the racing settled down for a while, with the best entertainment being Mansell’s chase of Johansson, finally getting past the Swede for third on lap 15 and charging after Senna. Suddenly, that became a fight for the lead, as Piquet toured into the pits and climbed out, his turbo boost controls fritzed. On the same lap, Alain Prost put up the fastest lap as he charged through the midfield – his race not run yet.

Mansell was the first to come in for tyres, the Williams team getting him out in a stonking 8s, and the next lap it was Senna’s turn, the Lotus mechanics doing almost as well but still getting him out behind Mansell, while Johansson went into the lead – the first time a Ferrari had led in 1986 – for a single lap until he too pitted and Mansell became the fourth leader of the race, with a gap now of some 3 seconds over Senna as the two made their way through to lap the midfield cars. Alboreto had also got ahead of Johansson in the pitstops and the Ferrari twins were now fighting over third place. Prost, meanwhile, was up to seventh, aided by the retirements of Arnoux (engine) and Brundle (gearbox). Senna was steadily reeling Mansell in, getting the gap down to 1.5s by lap 28, roughly 2/3 distance.

Little changed in the last third of the race; Prost made his way up into sixth when Jones came in for a lengthy tyre stop, while Mansell pulled out again from Senna, and the two Ferraris had an entertaining duel over third place, which ended with Johansson taking the place from his team-mate. And that was how they finished; Mansell took his third win, and his first of the season to go third in the table, while Senna’s second place saw him back into the championship lead. Johansson took his first podium place since his second place in Detroit in 1985, and Alboreto posted his first finish of the year in fourth. Laffite finished a lonely fifth place with Prost picking up the last point after a good run from the back after his accident – a point that was sufficient to keep McLaren atop the Constructors’ table.

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Drivers Championship
1	Ayrton Senna	25
2	Alain Prost	23
3	Nigel Mansell	18
4	Nelson Piquet	15
5	Keke Rosberg	11
6=	Jacques Laffite	5
6=	Stefan Johansson	5
8	Gerhard Berger	6
9	René Arnoux	5
10	Michele Alboreto	3
11=	Martin Brundle	2
11=	Teo Fabi	2
13	Riccardo Patrese	1

Constructors Championship
1	McLaren-TAG	34
2	Williams-Honda	33
3	Lotus-Renault	25
4	Ligier-Renault	12
5	Ferrari	10
6	Benetton-BMW	8
7	Tyrrell-Renault	2
8	Brabham-BMW	1

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Elio de Angelis, 1958-1986