1986 Austrian Grand Prix

The 1986 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Österreichring on 17 August 1986. It was the twelfth race of the 1986 Formula One World Championship.

1986 Austrian Grand Prix
Race 12 of 16 in the 1986 Formula One World Championship
The Österreichring (last modified in 1977)
The Österreichring (last modified in 1977)
Race details
Date 17 August 1986
Official name XXIV Großer 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 (191.984 miles)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver Benetton-BMW
Time 1:23.549
Fastest lap
Driver Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW
Time 1:29.444 on lap 49
Podium
First McLaren-TAG
Second Ferrari
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 52-lap race was won by Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-TAG, with Ferrari drivers Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson second and third respectively. With Drivers' Championship challengers Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna all retiring, Prost moved into second place in the Championship, two points behind Mansell.

Qualifying edit

Qualifying report edit

Qualifying saw several surprises as the Benetton-BMWs of Teo Fabi and Gerhard Berger filled the front row, Fabi just under 0.2 seconds ahead, while Riccardo Patrese took fourth in his Brabham despite a crash, just behind Keke Rosberg's McLaren. The four Drivers' Championship challengers occupied fifth to eighth in the order of Alain Prost's McLaren, the two Williams of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, and Ayrton Senna's Lotus. Completing the top ten were Michele Alboreto's Ferrari and Derek Warwick in the second Brabham.

Pat Symonds would later claim that following Benetton's front-row lockout, the head of BMW Motorsport, Paul Rosche, demanded to inspect the engine control unit chips installed in the team's engines to see if they had been tampered with in breach of contract (as Benetton were using customer engines as opposed to the works engines used by Brabham), but the team were able to provide him with unaltered chips rather than the modified ones they had been using.[1]

Qualifying classification edit

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 19   Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 1:26.421 1:23.549
2 20   Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW 1:25.638 1:23.743 +0.194
3 2   Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG 1:23.956 1:23.903 +0.354
4 7   Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:26.648 1:24.044 +0.495
5 1   Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:24.346 1:25.285 +0.797
6 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:25.515 1:24.635 +1.086
7 6   Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:25.090 1:24.697 +1.148
8 12   Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:26.650 1:25.249 +1.700
9 27   Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:26.152 1:25.561 +2.012
10 8   Derek Warwick Brabham-BMW 1:26.892 1:25.726 +2.177
11 26   Philippe Alliot Ligier-Renault 1:26.999 1:25.917 +2.368
12 25   René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 1:26.797 1:26.312 +2.763
13 16   Patrick Tambay Lola-Ford 1:27.628 1:26.489 +2.940
14 28   Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:27.263 1:26.646 +3.097
15 11   Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 1:27.212 1:27.833 +3.663
16 15   Alan Jones Lola-Ford 1:27.420 1:27.476 +3.871
17 3   Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 1:28.572 1:28.018 +4.469
18 18   Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:29.155 1:28.598 +5.049
19 24   Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:31.974 1:28.645 +5.096
20 4   Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 1:31.455 1:28.951 +5.402
21 14   Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 1:29.073 1:29.583 +5.524
22 17   Christian Danner Arrows-BMW 1:29.430 1:40.236 +5.881
23 23   Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:33.263 1:29.615 +6.066
24 29   Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed 2:21.202 1:32.512 +8.963
25 21   Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:35.070 1:33.988 +10.439
26 22   Allen Berg Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:38.731 1:36.150 +12.601

Race edit

Race report edit

Warwick was a non-starter in bizarre circumstances. After the Englishman's car was repaired following a gearbox failure in the morning warm-up, the two Brabhams went to the grid, Patrese in the spare car following his qualifying crash. Then, as Patrese took his place on the grid, his own gearbox broke. As the Italian driver was six places ahead of Warwick, the decision was made on the grid to hand him Warwick's car for the rest of the race. Warwick later admitted that team owner Bernie Ecclestone had to physically drag him from the car as he refused to hand it over.

When the race got underway, local driver Berger took the lead from Fabi, while Rosberg and Patrese made slow starts and were overtaken by Prost, Mansell and Piquet. Patrese retired after two laps with an engine failure, while the same fate befell Senna after 13 laps. On lap 17, Fabi overtook Berger at the Bosch-Kurve, only for his own engine to fail seconds later. Mansell moved into second place when Prost made a pit stop for tyres, then the lead shortly afterwards when Berger pitted with a battery problem. Prost took the lead when Mansell made his own pit stop, before both Williams retired within three laps of each other, Piquet with an overheating engine and Mansell with a broken driveshaft. This left Prost around half a minute clear of team-mate Rosberg, with Alboreto up to third. Five laps from the end, Rosberg suffered an electrical failure, leaving Prost to win by a full lap from Alboreto with a further lap back to the second Ferrari of Stefan Johansson in third; the top six was completed by the two Haas Lolas of Alan Jones and Patrick Tambay and the Arrows of Christian Danner. Berger, having lost four laps as a result of his battery problem, made a charge to finish close behind Danner, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process.

With the win, Prost moved from fourth to second in the Drivers' Championship and cut Mansell's lead to two points, 55 to 53, with Senna on 48 and Piquet on 47.

Race classification edit

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1   Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 52 1:21:22.531 5 9
2 27   Michele Alboreto Ferrari 51 + 1 Lap 9 6
3 28   Stefan Johansson Ferrari 50 + 2 Laps 14 4
4 15   Alan Jones Lola-Ford 50 + 2 Laps 16 3
5 16   Patrick Tambay Lola-Ford 50 + 2 Laps 13 2
6 17   Christian Danner Arrows-BMW 49 + 3 Laps 22 1
7 20   Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW 49 + 3 Laps 2  
8 29   Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed 48 + 4 Laps 24  
9 2   Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG 47 Electrical 3  
10 25   René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 47 + 5 Laps 12  
11 21   Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 46 + 6 Laps 25  
Ret 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 32 Halfshaft 6  
Ret 6   Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 29 Engine 7  
Ret 18   Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 25 Turbo 18  
Ret 19   Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 17 Engine 1  
Ret 26   Philippe Alliot Ligier-Renault 16 Engine 11  
Ret 24   Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 13 Suspension 19  
Ret 23   Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 13 Clutch 23  
Ret 12   Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 13 Engine 8  
Ret 3   Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 12 Turbo 17  
Ret 4   Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 10 Engine 20  
Ret 11   Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 9 Engine 15  
Ret 14   Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 8 Engine 21  
Ret 22   Allen Berg Osella-Alfa Romeo 6 Electrical 26  
Ret 7   Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 2 Engine 4  
DNS 8   Derek Warwick Brabham-BMW 0 Car raced by Patrese 10  
Source:[2]

Championship standings after the race edit

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

References edit

  1. ^ "Why a decades-old tradition had to be curtailed". GP Racing. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  2. ^ "1986 Austrian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 13 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Austria 1986 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 7 March 2019.


Previous race:
1986 Hungarian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1986 season
Next race:
1986 Italian Grand Prix
Previous race:
1985 Austrian Grand Prix
Austrian Grand Prix Next race:
1987 Austrian Grand Prix