| 1987 Austrian Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 10 of 16 in the1987 Formula One World Championship | |||
 The Österreichring(last modified in 1977) | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 16 August 1987 | ||
| Official name | XXVGroßer Preis von Österreich | ||
| 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 | Williams-Honda | ||
| Time | 1:23.357 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Nigel Mansell | Williams-Honda | |
| Time | 1:28.318 on lap 31(lap record) | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Williams-Honda | ||
| Second | Williams-Honda | ||
| Third | Benetton-Ford | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1987 Austrian Grand Prix was aFormula One motor race held atÖsterreichring on 16 August 1987. It was the tenth race of the1987 Formula One World Championship. It was the twentiethAustrian Grand Prix, and the last to be held until1997. 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), also being the last race in the original track.
The race needed to be restarted twice following crashes on the starting grid. It was eventually won by British driverNigel Mansell, driving aWilliams-Honda. Mansell took his third victory of the season by 56 seconds from Brazilian teammateNelson Piquet, with ItalianTeo Fabi third in aBenetton-Ford.
The race was plagued with accidents. The first major incident came whenStefan Johansson hit a deer with hisMcLaren 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 thecarbon fibremonocoque were destroyed.[1] Johansson was fortunate to escape with little more than a headache, though he was later flown by helicopter to a hospital inKlagenfurt for x-rays after complaining of headaches and neck pains. His crash causedMcLaren to have to fly a spare car overnight from the team's base inWoking.Nelson Piquet'sWilliams-Honda had collided with theAGS ofPascal Fabre, ending with the Williams impacting in the wall.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 |  Nelson Piquet | Williams-Honda | 1:23.357 | 1:49.991 | — | |
| 2 | 5 | Nigel Mansell | Williams-Honda | 1:23.459 | 1:33.779 | +0.102 | |
| 3 | 28 |  Gerhard Berger | Ferrari | 1:24.213 | 1:38.388 | +0.856 | |
| 4 | 20 |  Thierry Boutsen | Benetton-Ford | 1:24.348 | 1:48.124 | +0.991 | |
| 5 | 19 |  Teo Fabi | Benetton-Ford | 1:25.054 | no time | +1.697 | |
| 6 | 27 | Michele Alboreto | Ferrari | 1:25.077 | 1:45.518 | +1.720 | |
| 7 | 12 | Ayrton Senna | Lotus-Honda | 1:25.492 | 1:39.647 | +2.135 | |
| 8 | 7 | Riccardo Patrese | Brabham-BMW | 1:25.766 | 1:53.119 | +2.409 | |
| 9 | 1 |  Alain Prost | McLaren-TAG | 1:26.170 | 1:43.132 | +2.813 | |
| 10 | 8 | Andrea de Cesaris | Brabham-BMW | 1:27.672 | no time | +4.315 | |
| 11 | 17 | Derek Warwick | Arrows-Megatron | 1:27.762 | no time | +4.405 | |
| 12 | 18 |  Eddie Cheever | Arrows-Megatron | 1:28.370 | 1:37.908 | +5.013 | |
| 13 | 11 |  Satoru Nakajima | Lotus-Honda | 1:28.786 | 1:43.002 | +5.429 | |
| 14 | 2 |  Stefan Johansson | McLaren-TAG | 1:29.003 | 1:41.711 | +5.646 | |
| 15 | 24 | Alessandro Nannini | Minardi-Motori Moderni | 1:29.435 | 1:49.566 | +6.078 | |
| 16 | 25 | René Arnoux | Ligier-Megatron | 1:29.733 | no time | +6.376 | |
| 17 | 9 | Martin Brundle | Zakspeed | 1:29.893 | 1:42.383 | +6.536 | |
| 18 | 26 | Piercarlo Ghinzani | Ligier-Megatron | 1:30.682 | no time | +7.325 | |
| 19 | 23 |  Adrián Campos | Minardi-Motori Moderni | 1:30.797 | 1:47.128 | +7.440 | |
| 20 | 10 |  Christian Danner | Zakspeed | 1:31.015 | 1:48.880 | +7.658 | |
| 21 | 21 | Alex Caffi | Osella-Alfa Romeo | 1:32.313 | 1:50.273 | +8.956 | |
| 22 | 30 | Philippe Alliot | Lola-Ford | 1:33.741 | 1:48.595 | +10.384 | |
| 23 | 16 | Ivan Capelli | March-Ford | 1:34.199 | 1:54.807 | +10.842 | |
| 24 | 3 | Jonathan Palmer | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:34.619 | 1:49.308 | +11.262 | |
| 25 | 4 | Philippe Streiff | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:35.338 | 1:51.624 | +11.981 | |
| 26 | 14 | Pascal Fabre | AGS-Ford | 1:40.633 | 1:57.236 | +17.276 | |
| Source:[2][3][4] | |||||||
The race started at 2:30 pmCentral European Time (UTC+1). The first race start ended quickly after theZakspeed ofMartin Brundle crashed, then the twoTyrrells ofJonathan Palmer andPhilippe Streiff collided in the ensuing chaos withPiercarlo Ghinzani also crashing hisLigier. 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 whenEddie Cheever (Arrows) andRiccardo 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 andChristian Danner were involved in the ensuing pile-up.
For the third start Streiff was missing as Tyrrell had simply run out of usable cars and Palmer got the use of the surviving DG016 as he had qualified higher than his team mate (exactly the reverse of the situation earlier in the year inBelgium when Palmer was forced to sit out the restart with both race Tyrrells wrecked, Streiff got the spare as he had qualified ahead of Palmer). Several drivers were in repaired cars or in spare cars, includingAyrton Senna after a CV joint failed in hisLotus 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 the pitlane along with Senna and theFerrari ofMichele 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 fromThierry Boutsen in hisBenetton and Mansell. Boutsen pitted with gear linking problems and Mansell leapt past Piquet while negotiating lapped cars on the straight leading into the Bosch Kurve. 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 andRené 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.
Numbers in brackets refer to positions ofnaturally aspirated entrants competing for theJim Clark Trophy.
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| 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 |
