| 1987 Mexican Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 14 of 16 in the1987 Formula One World Championship | |||
 | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 18 October 1987 | ||
| Official name | Gran Premio de México | ||
| Location | Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez,Mexico City,Mexico | ||
| Course | Permanent circuit | ||
| Course length | 4.421 km (2.747 miles) | ||
| Distance | 63 laps, 278.523 km (173.066 miles) | ||
| Weather | Sunny and hot | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Williams-Honda | ||
| Time | 1:18.383 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Nelson Piquet | Williams-Honda | |
| Time | 1:19.132 on lap 57 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Williams-Honda | ||
| Second | Williams-Honda | ||
| Third | Brabham-BMW | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1987 Mexican Grand Prix was aFormula One motor race held atAutódromo Hermanos Rodríguez inMexico City on 18 October 1987. It was the fourteenth race of the1987 Formula One World Championship. It was the 11thMexican Grand Prix and the second since the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was renovated and returned to the World Championship calendar.
The race was held over a total of 63 laps of the 4.42-kilometre (2.75 mi) circuit for a race distance of 278.5 kilometres (173.1 mi). The race was divided into two heats after British driverDerek Warwick crashed hisArrows A10 heavily exiting the high-speed Peraltada corner on lap 31 after a rear suspension failure; the Arrows car's rear suspension was weakened bySatoru Nakajima crashing his Lotus-Honda straight into the back of Warwick's car at the end of the main straight earlier in the race. The results of the first 30 laps were combined with the results of the second race of 33 laps to create a combined result.
The race was won by British driverNigel Mansell driving aWilliams FW11B. Mansell's combined time over the 63 laps was 26 seconds faster than his Brazilian teammate and eventual 1987 World Champion,Nelson Piquet. Piquet actually took the chequered flag first at the end of the second heat, but Mansell's lead over Piquet at the time of Warwick's accident was substantially larger. Piquet had been delayed after a collision withAlain Prost (McLaren MP4/3) on the first lap.
It was Mansell's sixth and last Grand Prix victory for the 1987 season.Riccardo Patrese finished third driving aBrabham BT56. It was Patrese's best result since finishing third in the1984 Italian Grand Prix. It was just the second podium of the year for Brabham. Brabham would only score one more podium before it would fold in 1992.
Attrition bit heavily into the race with just fifteen cars taking the second race start. Nine survived to the finish. Naturally aspirated Jim Clark Trophy cars climbed into the points withPhilippe Alliot (Lola LC87) taking his third top six result for the year.
Ayrton Senna was fined $15,000 for punching a corner marshal after they refused to push his stalled car.
Mansell's victory allowed him to close to within twelve points of his championship leading teammate. With just two races left, only the Williams drivers had enough points to win the championship.
During Saturday morning's 90 minute free practice session, a number of the turbo teams ran their cars at the 2.5 bar boost limit that would be enforced in1988. To the surprise of many, lap times actually proved faster than they would in the afternoon's qualifying session when the cars were running their full 4.0 bar boost settings withBBC commentatorMurray Walker later attributing it to the fact that at 2.5 bar the drivers had more useable power whereas the high horsepower figures (900–1,000 bhp (671–746 kW; 912–1,014 PS) was largely wasted in anything but a straight line where the faster turbo cars were regularly speed trapped at over 210 mph (338 km/h) on the circuit's 1.2 km (0.75 mi) long main straight during qualifying.[1]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 |  Nigel Mansell | Williams-Honda | 1:20.696 | 1:18.383 | ||
| 2 | 28 |  Gerhard Berger | Ferrari | 1:19.992 | 1:18.426 | +0.043 | |
| 3 | 6 | Nelson Piquet | Williams-Honda | 1:20.701 | 1:18.463 | +0.080 | |
| 4 | 20 |  Thierry Boutsen | Benetton-Ford | 1:20.766 | 1:18.691 | +0.308 | |
| 5 | 1 |  Alain Prost | McLaren-TAG | 1:20.572 | 1:18.742 | +0.359 | |
| 6 | 19 |  Teo Fabi | Benetton-Ford | 1:22.666 | 1:18.992 | +0.609 | |
| 7 | 12 | Ayrton Senna | Lotus-Honda | 1:21.361 | 1:19.089 | +0.706 | |
| 8 | 7 | Riccardo Patrese | Brabham-BMW | 1:21.720 | 1:19.889 | +1.506 | |
| 9 | 27 | Michele Alboreto | Ferrari | 1:21.290 | 1:19.967 | +1.584 | |
| 10 | 8 | Andrea de Cesaris | Brabham-BMW | 1:22.930 | 1:20.141 | +1.758 | |
| 11 | 17 | Derek Warwick | Arrows-Megatron | 1:23.347 | 1:21.664 | +3.281 | |
| 12 | 18 |  Eddie Cheever | Arrows-Megatron | 1:24.445 | 1:21.705 | +3.322 | |
| 13 | 9 | Martin Brundle | Zakspeed | 1:25.184 | 1:21.711 | +3.328 | |
| 14 | 24 | Alessandro Nannini | Minardi-Motori Moderni | 1:26.055 | 1:22.035 | +3.652 | |
| 15 | 2 |  Stefan Johansson | McLaren-TAG | 1:22.185 | 1:22.382 | +3.802 | |
| 16 | 11 |  Satoru Nakajima | Lotus-Honda | 1:23.750 | 1:22.214 | +3.831 | |
| 17 | 10 |  Christian Danner | Zakspeed | 1:23.992 | 1:22.593 | +4.210 | |
| 18 | 25 | René Arnoux | Ligier-Megatron | 1:24.299 | 1:23.053 | +4.670 | |
| 19 | 23 |  Adrián Campos | Minardi-Motori Moderni | 1:27.798 | 1:23.955 | +5.572 | |
| 20 | 16 | Ivan Capelli | March-Ford | 1:27.161 | 1:24.404 | +6.021 | |
| 21 | 26 | Piercarlo Ghinzani | Ligier-Megatron | 1:27.059 | 1:24.553 | +6.170 | |
| 22 | 3 | Jonathan Palmer | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:27.306 | 1:24.723 | +6.340 | |
| 23 | 29 | Yannick Dalmas | Lola-Ford | 1:28.156 | 1:24.745 | +6.362 | |
| 24 | 30 | Philippe Alliot | Lola-Ford | 1:27.184 | 1:25.096 | +6.713 | |
| 25 | 4 | Philippe Streiff | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:27.011 | 1:26.305 | +7.922 | |
| 26 | 21 | Alex Caffi | Osella-Alfa Romeo | 1:27.670 | 1:30.010 | +9.287 | |
| DNQ | 14 | Pascal Fabre | AGS-Ford | 1:30.285 | 1:28.655 | +10.272 | |
| Source:[2][3][4] | |||||||
Numbers in brackets refer to positions ofnormally aspirated entrants competing for theJim Clark Trophy.
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| Previous race: 1987 Spanish Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1987 season | Next race: 1987 Japanese Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1986 Mexican Grand Prix | Mexican Grand Prix | Next race: 1988 Mexican Grand Prix |
