1987 San Marino Grand Prix

The 1987 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 3 May 1987 at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola. It was the second race of the 1987 Formula One season. It was the seventh San Marino Grand Prix and it was held over 59 laps of the five kilometre circuit for a race distance of 297 kilometres.

1987 San Marino Grand Prix
Race 2 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 3 May 1987
Official name 7° Gran Premio di San Marino
Location Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.040 km (3.131 mi)
Distance 59 laps, 297.360 km (184.770 mi)
Weather Sunny, warm
Pole position
Driver
Lotus-Honda
Time 1:25.826
Fastest lap
Driver Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford
Time 1:29.246 on lap 51
Podium
First
Williams-Honda
Second
Lotus-Honda
Third
Ferrari

The race was won by British driver Nigel Mansell driving a Williams FW11B. It was Mansell's eighth Grand Prix victory, his first (of two) at the Imola circuit. Mansell finished 27 seconds ahead of Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna driving a Lotus 99T. Third was Italian driver Michele Alboreto driving a Ferrari F1/87. The win gave Mansell a one-point lead in the championship over French McLaren driver Alain Prost.

Race summary

In Friday practice, championship contender Nelson Piquet was eliminated from the race after an accident at the Tamburello corner. A tyre of his Williams FW11B failed, which resulted in a violent impact against the wall (when the car was returned to the pits, Williams designer Patrick Head could not confirm if the crash was a fault with the FW11B as half the rear end had been torn off by the impact, while both Head and Nigel Mansell were seen talking a good look at Piquet's wreck). Whilst in his opinion he had only sustained a sore ankle, he was taken to the nearby Bellaria-Igea Marina hospital, and after medical checks he was forbidden to start by FIA Medical Delegate Sid Watkins. For the remainder of the weekend Piquet worked as a guest commentator on Italian television. Years later he revealed that he was "never quite right" after the accident, suffering headaches and sometimes double vision and for the rest of the 1987 season secretly visited the hospital for treatment. He did this in secret for fear that he would not be allowed to race either by Williams or Watkins.

Alarmed by reports from other drivers of excessive tyre blistering and the suggestion that Piquet's accident may have been caused by a tyre deflation, Goodyear withdrew all the tyres issued to teams (the original compounds taken to Imola were actually different to those supplied for a scheduled test at the circuit the week prior to the race). A replacement selection of the tyres used in the Imola test were flown in from England (with some also brought in from the nearby Ferrari factory in Maranello) and despite the lack of Customs officials due to an Italian public holiday, the new rubber was available for all teams by the Saturday morning practice session.

Saturday's qualifying went on smoothly, with Ayrton Senna claiming pole position on his Lotus 99T, the first ever pole position for an active suspension car, with Mansell alongside him in the front row. The second row was occupied by Teo Fabi in the Benetton B187 and Alain Prost's McLaren MP4/3; "home" team Ferrari took the whole third row with Michele Alboreto ahead of Gerhard Berger.

The race required two starts as Martin Brundle (Zakspeed 871), Thierry Boutsen (Benetton B187) and Eddie Cheever (Arrows A10) stalled on the original grid. Satoru Nakajima started from the pit lane owing to a faulty battery in his Lotus, and René Arnoux failed to take the second start after the suspension of his Ligier JS29B failed.

At the second start, Senna led off the line, but Mansell overtook him on lap two, at the Tosa corner, and went on to dominate the race. Prost took second place by overtaking Senna on lap 6; the Brazilian was then engaged in a battle with the two Ferraris, and took back second when Prost surprisingly retired with an alternator failure on lap 15. Berger retired with turbo boost failure on lap 17, and by that time Alboreto passed Senna to take second place.

On lap 22, Mansell pitted early due to a loose wheel balance weight and for three laps Alboreto led the race to the delight of the Tifosi. Senna retook first position with Alboreto's pit stop, then before Mansell returned to the front when the Brazilian stopped. Riccardo Patrese in his Brabham BT56 was now holding second place but he retired when his alternator failed on lap 57. Simultaneously, Teo Fabi retired with engine problems. Fabi's race had been wrecked by front wing damage sustained on the first lap when he collided with Cheever, although his attempted fightback did produce the fastest lap.

Mansell took a comfortable win with Senna holding second after Alboreto's turbo experienced problems. Alboreto salvaged a 3rd place finish, which would end up being the last podium Enzo Ferrari personally saw his Formula One team score, as he only attended Grand Prix races in Italy, and would die 15 months later. Stefan Johansson (McLaren MP4/3) was in fourth place whilst Derek Warwick's late race retirement after his Arrows A10 ran out of fuel, handed fifth to Brundle for what would the only time in 5 seasons (1985-1989) that a Zakspeed would finish a race in the points. Nakajima rounded off the points in sixth place, which meant he was the first Japanese driver to score a world championship point.[1]

Classification

Qualifying
PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
1 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 1:27.543 1:25.826 —
2 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:26.204 1:25.946 +0.120
3 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:25.997 — +0.171
4 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:29.317 1:26.135 +0.309
5 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 1:27.801 1:27.270 +1.444
6 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:28.229 1:27.280 +1.454
7 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:29.653 1:28.074 +2.248
8 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:28.447 1:28.421 +2.595
9 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 1:30.416 1:28.708 +2.882
10 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:30.379 1:28.848 +3.022
11 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:28.887 1:29.236 +3.061
12 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:28.929 1:28.908 +3.082
13 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:29.579 1:30.545 +3.753
14 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 1:31.078 1:29.861 +4.035
15 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 1:30.627 1:30.382 +4.556
16 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed 1:31.931 1:31.094 +5.268
17 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:31.789 — +5.963
18 23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:41.520 1:31.818 +5.992
19 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed 1:32.977 1:31.903 +6.077
20 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 1:32.873 1:32.248 +6.422
21 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:32.308 1:33.298 +6.482
22 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 1:35.001 1:33.155 +7.329
23 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:34.458 1:33.846 +8.020
24 16 Ivan Capelli March-Ford 1:37.463 1:33.872 +8.046
25 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:34.632 1:36.127 +8.806
26 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 1:39.747 1:36.159 +10.333
27 22 Gabriele Tarquini Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:43.446 — +17.620
Source:[2][3][4]

Race

Numbers in brackets refer to positions of normally aspirated entrants competing for the Jim Clark Trophy.

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 59 1:31:24.076 2 9
2 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 59 + 27.545 1 6
3 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 59 + 39.144 6 4
4 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 59 + 1:00.588 8 3
5 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed 57 + 2 Laps 14 2
6 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 57 + 2 Laps / Out of fuel 12 1
7 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed 57 + 2 Laps 17  
8 (1) 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 57 + 2 Laps 20  
9 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 57 + 2 Laps / Alternator 7  
10 (2) 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 56 + 3 Laps 21  
11 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 55 + 4 Laps / Out of fuel 10  
12 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 54 + 5 Laps / Out of fuel 19  
13 (3) 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 53 + 6 Laps 24  
Ret 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 51 Turbo 4  
Ret 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 48 Engine 11  
Ret 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 48 Clutch 9  
Ret 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 48 Clutch 23  
Ret 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 39 Spun off 13  
Ret 23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 30 Gearbox 16  
Ret 22 Gabriele Tarquini Osella-Alfa Romeo 26 Gearbox 25  
Ret 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 25 Turbo 15  
Ret 16 Ivan Capelli March-Ford 18 Engine 22  
Ret 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 16 Electrical 5  
Ret 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 14 Electrical 3  
Ret 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 7 Handling 18  
DNS 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 0 Suspension    
DNS 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda   Injury  
Source:[5]

Championship standings after the race
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for all four sets of standings.

References
  1. "A Race to Remember". Autosport. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  2. "San Marino Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  3. "San Marino Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2". formula1.com. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  4. "San Marino Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING". formula1.com. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  5. "1987 San Marino Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  6. "San Marino 1987 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
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1987 Belgian Grand Prix
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