1987 Austrian Grand Prix

Austria  1987 Austrian Grand Prix
Race details
Race 10 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One season

The Österreichring (last modified in 1977)
Date August 16, 1987
Official name XX Holiday Großer Preis von Osterreich
Location Österreichring, Spielberg, Styria, Austria
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.942 km (3.692 mi)
Distance 52 laps, 308.984 km (191.984 mi)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver Williams-Honda
Time 1:23.357
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda
Time 1:28.318 on lap 31
Podium
First Williams-Honda
Second Williams-Honda
Third Benetton-Ford

The 1987 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Österreichring on August 16, 1987. It was the tenth round of the 1987 Formula One season. It was the twentieth Austrian Grand Prix and the last to be held at the Österreichring for ten years. It was held over 52 laps of the six kilometre circuit for a race distance of 309 kilometres.

The race was won by British driver Nigel Mansell driving a Williams FW11B. He led home team mate Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet by 56 seconds. It was Mansell's third win of the season, and Williams' fifth consecutive win. Teo Fabi finished third in the best result of the season so far for the Benetton team. It was, however, the first of only two podiums for Benetton for the 1987 season. It was also the second and final podium of Fabi's Formula One career having previously had a third place at the 1984 Detroit Grand Prix.

Race summary

The race was plagued with accidents. The first major incident came when Stefan Johansson hit a deer with his McLaren MP4/3 after it wandered onto the circuit during Friday practice. The terrified deer was crossing the track to seek refuge from the noise of the cars when it was struck by Johansson traveling at close to 140 mph (225 km/h), killing it instantly. The McLaren left front suspension was broken in the impact causing it to spear off into the guardrail and all four corners of the car, as well as the carbon fibre monocoque were destroyed.[1] Johansson was fortunate to escape with little more than a headache, though he was later flown by helicopter to a hospital in Klagenfurt for x-rays after complaining of headaches and neck pains. His crash caused McLaren to have to fly a spare car overnight from the teams base in Woking. Nelson Piquet's Williams-Honda had collided with the AGS of Pascal Fabre, ending with the Williams impacting in the wall.

The first race start ended quickly after the Zakspeed of Martin Brundle crashed, then the two Tyrrells of Jonathan Palmer and Philippe Streiff collided in the ensuing chaos with Piercarlo Ghinzani also crashing his Ligier. The second attempt to start was more serious. Mansell on the front row crawled away with clutch problems and the grid compacted behind him. The Österreichring's narrow front straight saw to the rest when Eddie Cheever (Arrows) and Riccardo Patrese (Brabham) collided and half the grid, including Johansson, Alex Caffi (Osella), Ivan Capelli (March), Pascal Fabre, Philippe Alliot (Larrousse-Lola), and both Zakspeeds of Brundle and Christian Danner were involved in the ensuing pile-up.

For the third start Streiff was missing. Tyrrell had run out of usable cars and Palmer got the use of the surviving DG016 as he had qualified higher (24th) than his team mate (25th). Several drivers were in repaired cars or in spare cars, including Ayrton Senna after a CV joint failed in his Lotus during the second start. The third start, over two hours late, continued to claim cars. Alain Prost (McLaren) had an electrical failure as the warm-up lap began. The team mechanics got the car going and Prost started from pitlane along with Senna and the Ferrari of Michele Alboreto. The third attempt to start had no problems although Johansson soon pitted with a puncture then had a tyre fall off on his out lap after a chaotic pitstop. Johansson made it back to the pits and resumed.

Piquet led early from Thierry Boutsen in his Benetton and Mansell. Boutsen pitted with gear linking problem and Mansell leapt past Piquet during pitstops. Fabi (Benetton) was a lap down in third ahead of Boutsen in a season best result for the team. Recovering from their difficulties Senna, Prost and Johansson finished fifth, sixth and seventh. Ghinzani was eighth for Ligier ahead of Danner and René Arnoux in the second Ligier. Sixteen cars finished although Fabre had not completed enough laps to be classified and 14th placed Brundle would be disqualified for a bodywork infringement on the spare Zakspeed 871, pressed into service after the startline collisions.

Classification

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 52 1:18:44.898 2 9
2 6 Brazil Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 52 + 55.704 1 6
3 19 Italy Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 51 +1 Lap 5 4
4 20 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 51 +1 Lap 4 3
5 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 50 +2 Laps 7 2
6 1 France Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 50 +2 Laps 9 1
7 2 Sweden Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 50 +2 Laps 14  
8 26 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 50 +2 Laps 18  
9 10 West Germany Christian Danner Zakspeed 49 +3 Laps 20  
10 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 49 +3 Laps 16  
11 (1) 16 Italy Ivan Capelli March-Ford 49 +3 Laps 23  
12 (2) 30 France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 49 +3 Laps 22  
13 11 Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 49 +3 Laps 13  
14 (3) 3 United Kingdom Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 47 +5 Laps 24  
DSQ 9 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Zakspeed 48 Disqualified 17  
NC 14 France Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 45 Not Classified 26  
Ret 7 Italy Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 43 Engine 8  
Ret 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 42 Turbo 6  
Ret 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 35 Engine 10  
Ret 17 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 35 Engine 11  
Ret 18 United States Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 31 Tyre 12  
Ret 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 5 Turbo 3  
Ret 23 Spain Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 3 Electrical 19  
Ret 24 Italy Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1 Engine 15  
Ret 21 Italy Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 0 Electrical 21  
Ret 4 France Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 0 Accident 25  
Source:[2]

Notes

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 Brazil Nelson Piquet 54
2 Brazil Ayrton Senna 43
3 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell 39
4 France Alain Prost 31
5 Sweden Stefan Johansson 19

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 United Kingdom Williams-Honda 93
2 United Kingdom McLaren-TAG 50
3 United Kingdom Lotus-Honda 49
4 Italy Ferrari 17
5 United Kingdom Benetton-Ford 15

Jim Clark Trophy standings
Pos Driver Points
1 United Kingdom Jonathan Palmer 61
2 France Philippe Streiff 45
3 France Pascal Fabre 35
4 France Philippe Alliot 25
5 Italy Ivan Capelli 19

Colin Chapman Trophy standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 United Kingdom Tyrrell-Ford 106
2 France AGS-Ford 35
3 France Lola-Ford 25
4 United Kingdom March-Ford 19

References

  1. "SPORTS PEOPLE; Race Car Hits Deer". The New York Times. August 15, 1987.
  2. "1987 Austrian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
Previous race:
1987 Hungarian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1987 season
Next race:
1987 Italian Grand Prix
Previous race:
1986 Austrian Grand Prix
Austrian Grand Prix Next race:
1997 Austrian Grand Prix
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