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1986 Australian Grand Prix

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1986 Australian Grand Prix
Race 16 of 16 in the 1986 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 26 October 1986
Official name LI Foster's Australian Grand Prix
Location Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide, Australia
Course Street circuit
Course length 3.780 km (2.350 miles)
Distance 82 laps, 309.760 km (192.670 miles)
Weather Sunny
Pole position
Driver Williams-Honda
Time 1:18.403
Fastest lap
Driver Brazil Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda
Time 1:20.787 on lap 82
Podium
First McLaren-TAG
Second Williams-Honda
Third Ferrari

The 1986 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 26 October 1986 at the Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide, Australia. It was the last of 16 races in the 1986 Formula One season. The event itself was remembered as the race that decided the Drivers' Championship for that season, particularly for it being a three-way tussle for the title and the dramatic manner in which it was settled. The drivers in contention for the title were; Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet, both of whom were racing for the Williams-Honda team, and McLaren's Alain Prost.

Mansell took pole position for the race, but this advantage was cancelled out following a poor start off the grid, with teammate Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Keke Rosberg all overtaking him and demoting the Brit down to fourth by the end of the first lap.

A few laps into the race, Finland's Keke Rosberg, in his final Grand Prix, took the lead from Piquet. This lead, however, wasn't to last and the Finn retired with a tyre puncture on lap 63, handing the lead back to Piquet and elevating Mansell into second place, which would have been sufficient for the Englishman to secure the championship. One lap later, Mansell's race ended in a spectacular fashion as his left-rear tyre exploded on the main straight with only 19 laps remaining. The title was then between Piquet and Prost with the Frenchman needing to finish ahead of the Brazilian if he wanted to successfully defend his title. Following the tyre failures of Rosberg and Mansell, the Williams team called Piquet in for a pre-cautionary stop and he came out of the pits 15 seconds behind Prost. Piquet made a late charge to close the gap to 4.2 seconds but Prost took victory to win his second of four titles.

It was not until the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix that there were again three possible drivers' title contenders entering the final race of the season.

Background

Coming into the race, three drivers had a chance of winning the '86 title. The leader of the championship prior to the race was British driver Nigel Mansell; six points behind him in second was Alain Prost, who was looking to defend his title and one point behind Prost was Mansell's teammate at Williams, Nelson Piquet. In fourth was Ayrton Senna, who was guaranteed to finish in that position regardless of what happened.

The Williams cars of Mansell and Piquet were far superior in speed to Prost's McLaren. However, Prost's consistency had seen him accumulate points all year, while the Williams pair battled with one another and their mind games eroded what would have been a dominant season for the team.

To win the championship Mansell needed either third position or higher, or for both Prost and Piquet to finish in second place or lower. For Prost or Piquet to win the championship, they would have to win the race, and see Mansell finish in fourth position or lower.

Unlike the Drivers' Championship, the Contructors' Championship had already been decided in Williams' favour, as they had a 48 point advantage over McLaren. While the Woking based team couldn't take the title, their place as runners-up was safe, however, as they were 30 points ahead of third placed Lotus.

Race summary

Qualifying

Mansell took pole position for the race with a time of 1 minute 18.403 seconds. His teammate, Nelson Piquet, and Lotus' Ayrton Senna were the only drivers within a second of Mansell's time. The third title contender, Alain Prost, was on the second row of the grid in fourth.

Race

The Prospect of a three way battle for the Drivers' Championship crown attracted a capacity crowd of 150,000 to the tight and twisty Adelaide circuit.[1]

Mansell started from pole position but yielded the lead to Ayrton Senna's Lotus at the second corner on lap 1 and fell behind both Piquet and Keke Rosberg on the same lap. Piquet also overtook Senna on lap 1 to take the lead but it would last only six laps as on lap 7, Rosberg took the lead from Piquet and began to build a sizeable gap between himself and the rest of the field.

On lap 23 Piquet spun, although no damage was sustained to the car, and he continued the race despite dropping back several places. Prost suffered a tyre puncture a few laps later and he dropped back to fourth after having to pit. Piquet charged back through the field, passing Mansell for second place on lap 44 but Prost closed on the two Williams cars and, with 25 laps to go, all three championship contenders were running together in positions 2, 3 and 4.

The battle became one for the lead on lap 63 when Rosberg suffered a right rear tyre failure and retired from the race. Mansell was elevated to second behind new leader Piquet, but Prost passed him almost immediately. Mansell didn't resist because he only needed a third place finish to win the championship.

Mansell was still in a comfortable third position when, on lap 64, his left rear tyre exploded at 180 miles per hour on the high-speed Brabham Straight. The Williams coasted to a stop in the run-off area at the end of the straight, Mansell having managed to avoid hitting anything, but his championship hopes were over. Fearing the same happening to the second car, Williams called Piquet to the pits and Prost took the lead. Piquet would make a late charge to close the gap but ran out of laps with which to challenge for the lead and Prost claimed both the race and the World Championship. By winning, Alain Prost became the first and so far only driver to ever win the AGP in both non-championship and World Championship form, having won the 1982 non-championship race as well.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Lap Gap
1 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:18.403
2 6 Brazil Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:18.714 +0.311
3 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:18.906 +0.503
4 1 France Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:19.654 +1.251
5 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 1:19.976 +1.573
6 20 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW 1:20.554 +2.151
7 2 Brazil Carlos Reutemann McLaren-TAG 1:20.778 +2.375
8 26 France Philippe Alliot Ligier-Renault 1:20.981 +2.578
9 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:21.709 +3.306
10 4 France Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 1:21.720 +3.317
11 23 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:22.012 +3.609
12 28 Sweden Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:22.050 +3.647
13 19 Italy Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 1:22.129 +3.726
14 11 United Kingdom Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 1:22.664 +4.261
15 15 Australia Alan Jones Lola-Ford 1:22.796 +4.393
16 3 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 1:23.004 +4.601
17 16 France Patrick Tambay Lola-Ford 1:23.008 +4.605
18 24 Italy Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:23.052 +4.649
19 7 Italy Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:23.230 +4.827
20 8 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Brabham-BMW 1:23.313 +4.910
21 14 United Kingdom Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 1:23.476 +5.073
22 18 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:24.295 +5.892
23 29 Netherlands Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed 1:25.181 +6.778
24 17 Germany Christian Danner Arrows-BMW 1:25.233 +6.831
25 21 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:25.257 +6.855
26 22 Canada Allen Berg Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:27.208 +8.806

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 France Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 82 1:54:20.388 4 9
2 6 Brazil Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 82 + 4.205 2 6
3 28 Sweden Stefan Johansson Ferrari 81 + 1 Lap 12 4
4 3 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 81 + 1 Lap 16 3
5 4 France Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 80 Out of Fuel 10 2
6 11 United Kingdom Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 80 + 2 Laps 14 1
7 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 79 + 3 Laps 5  
8 26 France Philippe Alliot Ligier-Renault 79 + 3 Laps 8  
9 14 United Kingdom Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 77 + 5 Laps 21  
10 19 Italy Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 77 + 5 Laps 13  
NC 16 France Patrick Tambay Lola-Ford 70 Not Classified 17  
Ret 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 63 Tyre 1  
Ret 7 Italy Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 63 Electrical 19  
Ret 2 Finland Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG 62 Tyre 7  
NC 22 Canada Allen Berg Osella-Alfa Romeo 61 Not Classified 26  
Ret 8 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Brabham-BMW 57 Brakes 20  
Ret 17 Germany Christian Danner Arrows-BMW 52 Engine 24  
Ret 18 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 50 Engine 22  
Ret 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 43 Engine 3  
Ret 23 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 40 Mechanical 11  
Ret 20 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW 40 Engine 6  
Ret 29 Netherlands Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed 29 Suspension 23  
Ret 15 Australia Alan Jones Lola-Ford 16 Engine 15  
Ret 24 Italy Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 10 Accident 18  
Ret 21 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 2 Transmission 25  
Ret 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 0 Accident 9  

Notes

Standings after Grand Prix

  • Bold text indicates the World Champions.
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

  1. ^ "Australian classic – Adelaide, 1986". Official Formula One website. 31 March 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-02. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) [dead link]

Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". Retrieved 2007-06-17. [dead link]

Previous race:
1986 Mexican Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1986 season
Next race:
1987 Brazilian Grand Prix
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1985 Australian Grand Prix
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1987 Australian Grand Prix