The1985 Austrian Grand Prix was aFormula Onemotor race held atÖsterreichring on 18 August 1985. It was the tenth race of the1985 Formula One World Championship. It was the 25th Austrian Grand Prix and the 24th to be held at Österreichring. The race was run over 52 laps of the 5.94-kilometre (3.69 mi) circuit for a total race distance of 308.9 kilometres (191.9 mi).

1985 Austrian Grand Prix
Race 10 of 16 in the1985 Formula One World Championship
The Österreichring(last modified in 1977)
Race details
Date	18 August 1985
Official name	XXIII HolidayGroßer 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 (191.994 miles)
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
Time	1:25.490
Fastest lap
Driver	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
Time	1:29.241 on lap 39
Podium
First	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
Second	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault
Third	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The race was won by FrenchmanAlain Prost, driving aMcLaren-TAG, after he started frompole position. Prost took his fourth victory of the season by 30 seconds from BrazilianAyrton Senna in aLotus-Renault, with ItalianMichele Alboreto third in aFerrari. With the win, Prost moved level on points with Alboreto at the top of the Drivers' Championship.

This was the last F1 race until the start of1987 in which a car with anaturally aspirated engine was entered,Martin Brundle failing to qualify hisCosworth-poweredTyrrell.

Missing from the grid wasRAM driverManfred Winkelhock who had been killed in a sportscar race inCanada just a week before. His place was taken in the team byKenny Acheson for his first Formula One race since the1983 South African Grand Prix.

A secondToleman was driven byPiercarlo Ghinzani.

Before Saturday morning practice triple and defending World Champion (and1984 Austrian Grand Prix winner)Niki Lauda, flanked by a very unhappyMcLaren team bossRon Dennis, announced to the media that he would be retiring for good from Formula One following the season endingAustralian Grand Prix to concentrate on running his airlineLauda Air. Dennis was reportedly unhappy as he had paid Lauda a considerable amount of money to make his F1 comeback in1982 and he had unsuccessfully tried to get Lauda to continue racing into the1986 season.

A now relaxed Lauda gave his home fans something to cheer about when he qualified a season-high third. Lauda's team mateAlain Prost captured pole position, averaging 155.478 mph (250.219 km/h), followed byNigel Mansell (Williams-Honda), Lauda,Keke Rosberg (Williams) andNelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW). After a troubled qualifying,Ayrton Senna only qualified 14th on the grid in hisLotus-Renault.

The race was restarted after one lap (with Niki Lauda having made a great start from third on the grid to lead Prost as the race was stopped). Mansell had got away very slowly in his Williams, but behind himTeo Fabi in theToleman-Hart barely moved.Elio de Angelis'Lotus dived left to avoid Fabi and was hit by theFerrari ofMichele Alboreto. Fabi suffered damage as did theArrows-BMW of the second Austrian driver in the raceGerhard Berger. Luckily for those with damaged cars (especially championship leader Alboreto) the first lap was declared null and void and the race was completely restarted meaning those with damaged cars were permitted to start in the team spares. Lucky too was Prost who was able to change cars after hisMcLaren had developed a misfire.Piercarlo Ghinzani became a non-starter in his Toleman after team mate Fabi took over the spare TG185 for the race as he had qualified 6th while Ghinzani started 19th. This left Ghinzani without a drive.

On lap 13Andrea de Cesaris survived one of the biggest and most spectacular crashes ever seen in Formula One when hisLigier-Renault went off-line at the left hand Panorama Curve and slid onto the outside grassy embankment at high speed. The grass, wet from overnight rain caused the Ligier to initially slide sideways before his right rear hit a slight bank launching the car into a series of 4 consecutive mid-air rolls and flips with de Cesaris's head bouncing around freely in the cockpit. Somehow as soon as the Ligier came to a rest, de Cesaris undid his seat belt and walked away with nothing more than a mud-splattered helmet and driving suit.^[1] When he returned to the pits, the Ligier team had not yet seen a replay of the accident, and de Cesaris told the team that the car had stalled and wouldn't restart. However, the crash was the end for de Cesaris at Ligier, with team ownerGuy Ligier firing the Italian after he saw a replay of the crash stating "I can no longer afford to keep employing this man" referring to the constant repair bills from de Cesaris's crashes since he joined the team in1984. de Cesaris was fired from Ligier after he raced for the team at theDutch Grand Prix one week later.

With his 20th career victory, Prost moved into a shared lead in the World Drivers' Championship alongside Alboreto, with each having 50 points. After a string of non-finishes since his win in the second race of the season inPortugal, Senna drove a great race into second from a lowly (for him) 14th on the grid, with Alboreto finishing third in the spare Ferrari to retain his lead in the World Championship (now shared with Prost).Stefan Johansson (Ferrari), Elio de Angelis, andMarc Surer (Brabham), completed the points-scoring finishers.

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