1987 Japanese Grand Prix

  1987 Japanese Grand Prix

Race details
Race 15 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One season
Date	November 1, 1987
Official name	XIII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.859 km (3.641 mi)
Distance	51 laps, 298.829 km (185.670 mi)
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari
Time	1:40.042
Fastest lap
Driver	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
Time	1:43.844 on lap 35
Podium
First	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari
Second	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda
Third	Stefan Johansson	McLaren-TAG

The 1987 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Suzuka on November 1, 1987. It was the fifteenth and penultimate round of the 1987 Formula One season. It was the 14th Japanese Grand Prix and the third to be held as part of the Formula One World Drivers Championship. It was the first Japanese Grand Prix since the 1977 and the first to be held at the Honda-owned Suzuka Circuit, which originated as a test track for Honda motorcycles and automobiles.

Soichiro Honda was extremely enthusiastic about this race, and told his racing engineers "We have to win. And we have to keep winning..." ^[1] aiming for a hometown victory at Honda's home track in its native Japan. Mr. Honda had reason for optimism as four of the entrants were powered by Honda-made engines. The Lotus 99Ts of Ayrton Senna, who had won races earlier in the season and was joined on Team Lotus with national favourite Satoru Nakajima, along with the dominating Williams FW11Bs driven by Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, who were both vying for the overall championship. However, after Nigel Mansell was taken out of contention by a qualifying crash, the other three cars of Piquet, Senna and Nakajima could only qualify in 5th, 7th and 11th places respectively, with the best finish for Honda being Senna's 2nd place.

The race was won by Austrian driver Gerhard Berger driving a Ferrari F1/87. It was the end of a 38 race-losing streak for Formula One's most famous team and Berger's second Grand Prix victory having won the Mexican Grand Prix the previous year. Berger won by 17 seconds over Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna driving a Lotus 99T. Third was the McLaren MP4/3 of Swedish driver Stefan Johansson.

The world championship was decided during practice when British driver Nigel Mansell crashed his Williams FW11B heavily at the S curves. Mansell's injuries put him out of racing for the remainder of the season, leaving Brazilian Williams driver Nelson Piquet unopposed to claim his third World Championship, adding to his victories with Brabham in 1981 and 1983.

Qualifying

The 1987 Japanese Grand Prix was the first race to be held in Japan since James Hunt won in his McLaren at Fuji, in 1977. This time, the Grand Prix circus utilised the Honda owned Suzuka Circuit. The scene was set for a tense championship deciding race between bitter Williams Honda team mates, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. However, Mansell suffered a huge crash during Friday qualifying while trying to better Piquet's time which put him out of action for both the Japanese race and the subsequent Australian Grand Prix. As a consequence, Piquet won his third world championship before the race even began.

Qualifying once again demonstrated the return to form of Ferrari, as Gerhard Berger obtained his second pole position of the season, with the F1/87 being perfectly suited to the Suzuka circuit. Alain Prost qualified 2nd in his McLaren-TAG with Thierry Boutsen 3rd in his Benetton-Ford. Following Mansell's Friday crash, the three remaining Honda powered cars of Piquet, Senna, and Senna's team mate, local favourite Satoru Nakajima, could only qualify in 5th, 7th and 11th places respectively.

Race

At the start Berger immediately imposed his authority by building a cushion. Prost, in his McLaren, perhaps the only driver capable of challenging Berger for the victory, suffered a puncture on the first lap and, therefore, was out of contention. Prost, however, drove a superb race to climb up through the field finishing just outside the points with the consolation of having the fastest lap. Boutsen's Benetton ran second early on but could not live with the pace set by Berger, ultimately fading to fifth. Piquet spent much of the race behind Senna's Lotus but was unable to find a way past his countryman. The new world champion eventually retired in the pits with oil pouring from the rear of his Williams. At one stage Stefan Johansson in the McLaren closed on Berger, but the Austrian driver responded and eventually romped to a seemingly effortless victory, the first Ferrari's victory since the 1985 German Grand Prix. Ayrton Senna dramatically passed Johansson on the last lap to take second place. Michele Alboreto, in the second Ferrari, got away very slowly at the green lights leaving him towards the rear of the field. However, the Italian drove an aggressive race to climb his way back up the order to finish an excellent fourth despite suffering from a dragging undertray causing a huge amount of sparks. Boutsen and Nakajima rounded out the points.

Johansson's third place was the 54th and last podium finish for the Porsche designed TAG turbo V6 engine which had been first used in Formula One by McLaren at the 1983 Dutch Grand Prix.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	51	1:32:58.072	1	9
2	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda	51	+ 17.384	7	6
3	2	Stefan Johansson	McLaren-TAG	51	+ 17.694	9	4
4	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	51	+ 1:20.441	4	3
5	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	51	+ 1:25.576	3	2
6	11	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	51	+ 1:36.479	11	1
7	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	50	+ 1 Lap	2
8 (1)	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	50	+ 1 Lap	19
9	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	50	Out of Fuel	12
10	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	50	+ 1 Lap	13
11	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	49	+ 2 Laps	8
12 (2)	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Ford	49	+ 2 Laps	25
13	26	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Ligier-Megatron	48	+ 3 Laps	24
14 (3)	29	Yannick Dalmas	Lola-Ford	47	+ 4 Laps	22
15	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	46	Engine	5
Ret	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Megatron	44	Out of Fuel	17
Ret	21	Alex Caffi	Osella-Alfa Romeo	43	Out of Fuel	23
Ret	14	Roberto Moreno	AGS-Ford	38	Electrical	26
Ret	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	35	Engine	14
Ret	9	Martin Brundle	Zakspeed	32	Engine	15
Ret	8	Andrea de Cesaris	Brabham-BMW	26	Engine	10
Ret	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-Ford	16	Engine	6
Ret	10	Christian Danner	Zakspeed	13	Engine	16
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Ford	13	Accident	20
Ret	23	Adrián Campos	Minardi-Motori Moderni	2	Engine	21
Ret	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	0	Accident	18
DNS	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	0	Accident
Source:[2]

* Numbers in brackets refer to positions of normally aspirated entrants competing for the Jim Clark Trophy.

Lap Leaders

Gerhard Berger 50 (1-24, 26-51), Ayrton Senna 1 (25)

Notes

• Following Nigel Mansell's crash in early practice, Nelson Piquet won his 3rd and ultimately final World Drivers' Championship. He also became the 3rd driver to win the championship in a Williams following Alan Jones (1980) and Keke Rosberg (1982). This was also the first Drivers' Championship win for a Honda powered car.
• 2nd Grand Prix victory for Gerhard Berger and the 92nd win for Ferrari.
• 20th fastest lap for Alain Prost and the 38th for McLaren. It was also the 16th and final fastest lap for the TAG-Porsche engine.
• 54th and last podium finish for the TAG-Porsche engine in Formula One.
• 60th podium finish for Honda.
• 150th Grand Prix start for Arrows
• 214th and final Grand Prix start for Alfa Romeo. Although the Osella team would continue to use the Alfa Romeo 890T V8 engine in 1988, Alfa Romeo pulled its support from the team and the engine was badged as the "Osella V8" in 1988.^[3]

Championship standings after the race

• Bold text indicates the World Champions.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nelson Piquet 73 (76) 2 Nigel Mansell 61 3 Ayrton Senna 57 4 Alain Prost 46 5 Stefan Johansson 30

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Honda 137 2 McLaren-TAG 76 3 Lotus-Honda 64 4 Ferrari 38 5 Benetton-Ford 24

Jim Clark Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jonathan Palmer 86 2 Philippe Streiff 74 3 Philippe Alliot 43 4 Ivan Capelli 38 5 Pascal Fabre 35

Colin Chapman Trophy standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Tyrrell-Ford 160 2 Lola-Ford 43 3 March-Ford 38 4 AGS-Ford 35

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

References