| 1986 Austrian Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 12 of 16 in the1986 Formula One World Championship | |||
 The Österreichring(last modified in 1977) | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 17 August 1986 | ||
| Official name | XXIVGroßer Preis von Osterreich | ||
| Location | Österreichring Spielberg,Styria,Austria | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 5.942 km (3.692 miles) | ||
| Distance | 52 laps, 308.984 km (191.984 miles) | ||
| Weather | Dry | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Benetton-BMW | ||
| Time | 1:23.549 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Gerhard Berger | Benetton-BMW | |
| Time | 1:29.444 on lap 49 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-TAG | ||
| Second | Ferrari | ||
| Third | Ferrari | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1986 Austrian Grand Prix was aFormula Onemotor race held atÖsterreichring on 17 August 1986. It was the twelfth race of the1986 Formula One World Championship.
The 52-lap race was won byAlain Prost, driving aMcLaren-TAG, withFerrari driversMichele Alboreto andStefan Johansson second and third respectively. With Drivers' Championship challengersNigel Mansell,Nelson Piquet andAyrton Senna all retiring, Prost moved into second place in the Championship, two points behind Mansell.
Qualifying saw several surprises as theBenetton-BMWs ofTeo Fabi andGerhard Berger filled the front row, Fabi just under 0.2 seconds ahead, whileRiccardo Patrese took fourth in hisBrabham despite a crash, just behindKeke Rosberg'sMcLaren. The four Drivers' Championship challengers occupied fifth to eighth in the order of Alain Prost's McLaren, the twoWilliams of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, and Ayrton Senna'sLotus. Completing the top ten were Michele Alboreto's Ferrari andDerek Warwick in the second Brabham.
Pat Symonds would later claim that following Benetton's front-row lockout, the head ofBMW Motorsport,Paul Rosche, demanded to inspect theengine control unit chips installed in the team's engines to see if they had been tampered with in breach of contract (Benetton were using customer engines that were the original upright configuration rather than the special, tilted BMWs Brabham were using. Under the terms of their contract the team was not allowed to modify the engines or their ECUs in any way from the factory supplied settings). However, the team had wisely kept their supply of original BMW Motorsport chips for just such an occurrence and were able to provide Rosche with those rather than the modified ones they had actually been using.[1] The modified chips were said to give the Benetton-BMWs an alleged 1,400 bhp (1,044 kW; 1,419 PS), some 50 bhp (37 kW; 51 PS) over the official factory units used by Brabham. In fact, 1986 was the high watermark for power figures in Formula One with theBMW,Honda,Renault,Ferrari andTAG-Porsche turbo's all allegedly pumping out over 1,000 bhp (746 kW; 1,014 PS) in qualifying trim.
Derek Warwick in his lowlineBrabham BT55 was the quickest car through the speed trap heading into the high speed Bosch Kurve being recorded during qualifying at 344 km/h (214 mph). The low line Brabhams with their factory BMW turbos were proving to be far more effective on the high speed Österreichring where the Hella-Licht chicane was the only really slow section of the track. Showing the difference in car set up (and it must be said, drivers'), Patrese, running more wing than his team mate was some 1.682 seconds faster around the circuit even though his recorded top speed was 7 km/h (4 mph) slower.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19 |  Teo Fabi | Benetton-BMW | 1:26.421 | 1:23.549 | |
| 2 | 20 | Gerhard Berger | Benetton-BMW | 1:25.638 | 1:23.743 | +0.194 |
| 3 | 2 |  Keke Rosberg | McLaren-TAG | 1:23.956 | 1:23.903 | +0.354 |
| 4 | 7 | Riccardo Patrese | Brabham-BMW | 1:26.648 | 1:24.044 | +0.495 |
| 5 | 1 |  Alain Prost | McLaren-TAG | 1:24.346 | 1:25.285 | +0.797 |
| 6 | 5 |  Nigel Mansell | Williams-Honda | 1:25.515 | 1:24.635 | +1.086 |
| 7 | 6 |  Nelson Piquet | Williams-Honda | 1:25.090 | 1:24.697 | +1.148 |
| 8 | 12 | Ayrton Senna | Lotus-Renault | 1:26.650 | 1:25.249 | +1.700 |
| 9 | 27 | Michele Alboreto | Ferrari | 1:26.152 | 1:25.561 | +2.012 |
| 10 | 8 | Derek Warwick | Brabham-BMW | 1:26.892 | 1:25.726 | +2.177 |
| 11 | 26 | Philippe Alliot | Ligier-Renault | 1:26.999 | 1:25.917 | +2.368 |
| 12 | 25 | René Arnoux | Ligier-Renault | 1:26.797 | 1:26.312 | +2.763 |
| 13 | 16 | Patrick Tambay | Lola-Ford | 1:27.628 | 1:26.489 | +2.940 |
| 14 | 28 |  Stefan Johansson | Ferrari | 1:27.263 | 1:26.646 | +3.097 |
| 15 | 11 | Johnny Dumfries | Lotus-Renault | 1:27.212 | 1:27.833 | +3.663 |
| 16 | 15 |  Alan Jones | Lola-Ford | 1:27.420 | 1:27.476 | +3.871 |
| 17 | 3 | Martin Brundle | Tyrrell-Renault | 1:28.572 | 1:28.018 | +4.469 |
| 18 | 18 |  Thierry Boutsen | Arrows-BMW | 1:29.155 | 1:28.598 | +5.049 |
| 19 | 24 | Alessandro Nannini | Minardi-Motori Moderni | 1:31.974 | 1:28.645 | +5.096 |
| 20 | 4 | Philippe Streiff | Tyrrell-Renault | 1:31.455 | 1:28.951 | +5.402 |
| 21 | 14 | Jonathan Palmer | Zakspeed | 1:29.073 | 1:29.583 | +5.524 |
| 22 | 17 |  Christian Danner | Arrows-BMW | 1:29.430 | 1:40.236 | +5.881 |
| 23 | 23 | Andrea de Cesaris | Minardi-Motori Moderni | 1:33.263 | 1:29.615 | +6.066 |
| 24 | 29 |  Huub Rothengatter | Zakspeed | 2:21.202 | 1:32.512 | +8.963 |
| 25 | 21 | Piercarlo Ghinzani | Osella-Alfa Romeo | 1:35.070 | 1:33.988 | +10.439 |
| 26 | 22 |  Allen Berg | Osella-Alfa Romeo | 1:38.731 | 1:36.150 | +12.601 |
Warwick was a non-starter in bizarre circumstances. After the Englishman's car was repaired following a gearbox failure in the morning warm-up, the two Brabhams went to the grid, Patrese in the spare car following his qualifying crash. Then, as Patrese took his place on the grid, his own gearbox broke. As the Italian driver was six places ahead of Warwick, the decision was made on the grid to hand him Warwick's car for the rest of the race. Warwick later admitted that team ownerBernie Ecclestone had to physically drag him from the car as he refused to hand it over.
When the race got underway, local driver Berger took the lead from Fabi, while Rosberg and Patrese made slow starts and were overtaken by Prost, Mansell and Piquet. Patrese retired after two laps with an engine failure, while the same fate befell Senna after 13 laps. On lap 17, Fabi overtook Berger at the Bosch-Kurve, only for his own engine to fail seconds later. Mansell moved into second place when Prost made a pit stop for tyres, then the lead shortly afterwards when Berger pitted with a battery problem. Prost took the lead when Mansell made his own pit stop, before both Williams retired within three laps of each other, Piquet with an overheating engine and Mansell with a broken driveshaft. This left Prost around half a minute clear of team-mate Rosberg, with Alboreto up to third. Five laps from the end, Rosberg suffered an electrical failure, leaving Prost to win by a full lap from Alboreto with a further lap back to the second Ferrari of Stefan Johansson in third; the top six was completed by the twoHaas Lolas ofAlan Jones andPatrick Tambay and theArrows ofChristian Danner. Berger, having lost four laps as a result of his battery problem, made a charge to finish close behind Danner, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process.
Alan Jones was actually aided by a slipping clutch in hisLola-Ford as it meant much less wheelspin, thus he was able to complete the race (albeit 2 laps down on Prost) without having to stop to change hisGoodyears. His 4th place and Tambay's 5th were cause for celebration in the Haas Lola camp as it was their first ever World Championship points and the first for theCosworth designed and builtFord turboengine.
With the win, Prost moved from fourth to second in the Drivers' Championship and cut Mansell's lead to two points, 55 to 53, with Senna on 48 and Piquet on 47.
In the post race press conference, Alboreto was asked if the podiums were the start of a Ferrari revival, though he was reluctant to agree, instead pointing out that it was more through on the day reliability over most of their faster rivals than any great leap forward in speed by theF1/86.
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| Previous race: 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1986 season | Next race: 1986 Italian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1985 Austrian Grand Prix | Austrian Grand Prix | Next race: 1987 Austrian Grand Prix |
