1986 Belgian Grand Prix

  1986 Belgian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 5 of 16 in the 1986 Formula One season
Date	May 25, 1986
Location	Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium
Course	Permanent racing facility 7.004 km (4.352 mi)
Distance	43 laps, 301.172 km (187.136 mi)
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda
Time	1:54.331
Fastest lap
Driver	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
Time	1:59.282 on lap 31
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda
Second	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault
Third	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari

The 1986 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on May 25, 1986.

Qualifying

Williams-Honda driver Nelson Piquet took pole late in the qualifying session using the teams spare car. Piquet's engine blew up in his race car during qualifying forcing him into the spare.^[1] Austrian Gerhard Berger scored his first front row start and the first for the BMW powered Benetton after being fastest in Friday qualifying. His Friday time of 1:54.468 was half a second faster than his Saturday time but still good enough for the front row.^[1] World Champion Alain Prost was third in his McLaren-TAG with the Lotus-Renault of Ayrton Senna completing the 2nd row. Nigel Mansell qualified 5th in his Williams-Honda with Teo Fabi completing the top 6 in his Benetton-BMW.

Race

Piquet won the start and led the field into the La Source hairpin but behind him was chaos. Senna had made a good start from the 2nd row and when Berger's car twitched under brakes Senna went to the outside and then turned hard into the right hand corner. In doing so he squeezed out Berger who in turn squeezed out Prost while avoiding Senna. Prost, who had gone inside when the Benetton twitched, hit the inside barrier damaging the nose of his car with the right front wing drooping on the ground. He then drove over Berger's wheel launching the rear of his McLaren into the air. Other drivers were forced to take avoiding action with Berger's team mate Fabi having to stop to avoid hitting his team mates damaged car while Prost's team mate Keke Rosberg had to do a complete 180 degree turn the wrong way to avoid the Benettons. Remarkably the only car that retired from the crash was the was Lola-Ford of Patrick Tambay who went inside the stopped Fabi but hit his right rear with his left front wheel and damaged the left front suspension putting him out on the spot. Through it all Senna emerged unscathed in 2nd place followed by Mansell and the two Ferraris of Stefan Johansson and Michele Alboreto.

Both Berger and Prost pitted at the end of lap 1 with Berger in for a long stop for repairs and Prost for a new nose cone, amazingly his rear suspension survived intact despite its unscheduled first corner flight. Mansell disposed of Senna on lap 2 and gave chase to his team mate. Piquet led until suffering turbo failure on lap 16 leaving Mansell in front from Senna. Prost emerged last on the road and only a few hundred metres in front of the leading Williams and knowing that he had to run 1 lap less than the rest set about the drive of the race as he was able to use more boost with little worry about fuel consumption. On his way to being the last car on the lead lap and finishing in 6th place he set a new lap record of 1:59.282 on lap 31.

Nigel Mansell scored his first win of 1986 and the 3rd win of his career. Senna, the cause of the first corner crash finished 20 seconds behind in second with Stefan Johansson finishing third after passing team leader Alboreto only two laps from home. Jacques Laffite finished 5th in his Ligier-Renault with Prost gaining a vital World Championship point for finishing 6th.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	43	1:27:57.925	5	9
2	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	43	+ 19.827	4	6
3	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	43	+ 23.592	11	4
4	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	43	+ 29.634	9	3
5	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault	43	+ 1:10.690	17	2
6	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	43	+ 2:17.772	3	1
7	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-BMW	42	+ 1 Lap	6
8	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	42	+ 1 Lap	15
9	17	Marc Surer	Arrows-BMW	41	+ 2 Laps	21
10	20	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-BMW	41	+ 2 Laps	2
11	15	Alan Jones	Lola-Ford	40	Out of Fuel	16
12	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Renault	40	+ 3 Laps	18
13	14	Jonathan Palmer	Zakspeed	37	+ 6 Laps	20
Ret	23	Andrea de Cesaris	Minardi-Motori Moderni	35	Out of Fuel	19
Ret	29	Huub Rothengatter	Zakspeed	25	Electrical	23
Ret	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Renault	25	Gearbox	12
Ret	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	24	Gearbox	22
Ret	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Renault	23	Engine	7
Ret	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	16	Turbo	1
Ret	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	7	Electrical	14
Ret	11	Johnny Dumfries	Lotus-Renault	7	Spun Off	13
Ret	2	Keke Rosberg	McLaren-TAG	6	Engine	8
Ret	21	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	3	Engine	24
Ret	22	Christian Danner	Osella-Alfa Romeo	2	Engine	25
Ret	16	Patrick Tambay	Lola-Ford	0	Accident	10

Notes

• Brabham fielded just one car after Elio de Angelis' fatal crash during a practice session at the Paul Ricard circuit.
• Last race: Marc Surer (was seriously injured in a rallying accident a week after this race).

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ayrton Senna 25 2 Alain Prost 23 3 Nigel Mansell 18 4 Nelson Piquet 15 5 Keke Rosberg 11

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-TAG 34 2 Williams-Honda 33 3 Lotus-Renault 25 4 Ligier-Renault 12 5 Ferrari 10

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1986/251/. Retrieved 2007-06-17.