1986 Brazilian Grand Prix

The 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro on 23 March 1986. It was the opening race of the 1986 Formula One World Championship. It was the 15th Brazilian Grand Prix and the seventh to be held at Jacarepaguá. The race was held over 61 laps of the 5.03-kilometre (3.13 mi) circuit for a race distance of 306.9 kilometres (190.7 mi).

1986 Brazilian Grand Prix
Race 1 of 16 in the 1986 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 23 March 1986
Official name 15º Grande Premio Brasil de Fórmula 1
Location Jacarepaguá Circuit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.031 km (3.126 miles)
Distance 61 laps, 306.891 km (190.693 miles)
Weather Hot, dry and sunny
Pole position
Driver Lotus-Renault
Time 1:25.501
Fastest lap
Driver Brazil Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda
Time 1:33.546 on lap 46
Podium
First Williams-Honda
Second Lotus-Renault
Third Ligier-Renault
Lap leaders

The race was won by local driver Nelson Piquet, driving a Williams-Honda, after he started from second position. Compatriot Ayrton Senna took pole position in his Lotus-Renault, but Piquet overtook him on lap 3 and went on to win from him by 34 seconds. Frenchman Jacques Laffite finished third in a Ligier-Renault.

Summary edit

The new season had seen many driver changes, the most significant was Piquet's arrival at Williams after seven years at Brabham, while Keke Rosberg joined McLaren and Elio de Angelis joined Brabham in the other major moves. Senna used his influence at Lotus to ensure they hired a driver that would not interfere with his campaign which left Derek Warwick out of a seat, although that would prove to be temporary. Williams was missing their team principal, Frank Williams who had had a car accident in pre-season testing that left him a quadriplegic.[1]

Senna led from pole position but was soon under threat from the Williams pair. Nigel Mansell spun off the track on the opening lap after contact with Senna, but Piquet was in the lead by lap three. As pitstops began it started to look as though Alain Prost (McLaren MP4/2C) might pull a surprise by only pitting once and snatching the win away from the Brazilians[1] but that came to an end along with Prost's TAG-Porsche engine just past half-distance.[2]

There was no threat to the Brazilian pair after that with Piquet retaking the lead from Senna after the latter's final tyre stop. Behind Laffite was his Ligier teammate René Arnoux. Fifth place was taken by the Tyrrell 014 of Martin Brundle, his first points finish since his debut season two years previously. Gerhard Berger finished sixth in his Benetton B186 on the debut for the new team which had taken over the Toleman team during the off-season. Philippe Streiff in the second Tyrrell, Elio de Angelis (Brabham BT55), Johnny Dumfries (Lotus 98T) and Teo Fabi (Benetton B186) were the only other finishers in a day of high attrition where Mansell had been the only non-mechanical retirement.

Classification edit

Qualifying edit

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 12   Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:26.893 1:25.501
2 6   Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:26.266 1:26.755 +0.765
3 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:27.406 1:26.749 +1.248
4 25   René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 1:30.563 1:27.133 +1.632
5 26   Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 1:30.175 1:27.190 +1.689
6 27   Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:30.156 1:27.485 +1.984
7 2   Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG 1:28.763 1:27.705 +2.204
8 28   Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:30.363 1:27.711 +2.210
9 1   Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:28.467 1:28.099 +2.598
10 7   Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:29.294 +3.793
11 11   Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 1:30.452 1:29.503 +4.002
12 19   Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 1:31.138 1:29.748 +4.247
13 16   Patrick Tambay Lola-Hart 1:31.429 1:30.594 +5.093
14 8   Elio de Angelis Brabham-BMW 1:31.682 1:31.074 +5.573
15 18   Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:32.911 1:31.244 +5.743
16 20   Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW 1:31.653 1:31.313 +5.812
17 3   Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 1:32.983 1:32.009 +6.508
18 4   Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 1:35.669 1:32.388 +6.887
19 15   Alan Jones Lola-Hart 1:33.664 1:33.236 +7.735
20 17   Marc Surer Arrows-BMW 1:33.781 1:34.144 +8.280
21 14   Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 1:35.199 1:33.784 +8.283
22 23   Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:37.835 1:34.646 +9.145
23 21   Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:38.165 1:35.980 +10.479
24 22   Christian Danner Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:39.389 1:36.558 +11.057
25 24   Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:40.739 1:37.466 +11.965

Race edit

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 6   Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 61 1:39:32.583 2 9
2 12   Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 61 + 34.827 1 6
3 26   Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 61 + 59.759 5 4
4 25   René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 61 + 1:28.429 4 3
5 3   Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 60 + 1 lap 17 2
6 20   Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW 59 + 2 laps 16 1
7 4   Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 59 + 2 laps 18  
8 8   Elio de Angelis Brabham-BMW 58 + 3 laps 14  
9 11   Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 58 + 3 laps 11  
10 19   Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 56 + 5 laps 12  
Ret 18   Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 37 Exhaust 15  
Ret 27   Michele Alboreto Ferrari 35 Fuel system 6  
Ret 1   Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 30 Engine 9  
Ret 22   Christian Danner Osella-Alfa Romeo 29 Engine 24  
Ret 28   Stefan Johansson Ferrari 26 Brakes 8  
Ret 16   Patrick Tambay Lola-Hart 24 Battery 13  
Ret 7   Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 21 Water leak 10  
Ret 14   Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 20 Engine 21  
Ret 17   Marc Surer Arrows-BMW 19 Engine 20  
Ret 24   Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 18 Clutch 25  
Ret 23   Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 16 Turbo 22  
Ret 21   Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 16 Engine 23  
Ret 2   Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG 6 Engine 7  
Ret 15   Alan Jones Lola-Hart 5 Injection 19  
Ret 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 0 Spun off 3  
Source:[3]

Championship standings after the race edit

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

References edit

  1. ^ a b Pye, Steven (2013-03-15). "Reliving the 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix". Guardian Sport Network. That 1980s Sport Blog. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
  2. ^ "Grand Prix Results: Brazilian GP, 1986". grandprix.com. GP Encyclopedia. Inside F1, Inc. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
  3. ^ "1986 Brazilian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 13 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  4. ^ a b "Brazil 1986 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.


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