1986 Australian Grand Prix

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 sixteenth and final race of the 1986 Formula One World Championship. The race decided a three-way battle for the Drivers' Championship between Brit Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda; his Brazilian teammate Nelson Piquet; and Frenchman Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-TAG.

1986 Australian Grand Prix
Race 16 of 16 in the 1986 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Race details
Date	26 October 1986
Official name	LI Foster's Australian Grand Prix
Location	Adelaide Street Circuit Adelaide, South Australia
Course	Temporary street circuit
Course length	3.779 km (2.348 miles)
Distance	82 laps, 309.878 km (192.549 miles)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda
Time	1:18.403
Fastest lap
Driver	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda
Time	1:20.787 on lap 82
Podium
First	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
Second	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda
Third	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari
Lap leaders

Mansell took pole position for the race, but a poor start off the grid enabled teammate Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Keke Rosberg to overtake him and demote him 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. However, the Finn retired with a puncture on lap 63, handing the lead back to Piquet and elevating Mansell into third place, which would have been sufficient to secure the championship. One lap later, Mansell's race ended as his left-rear tyre exploded on the main straight with 19 laps remaining. The title was then between Piquet and Prost with the latter needing to finish ahead of the former to successfully defend his title. Following the tyre failures of Rosberg and Mansell, the Williams team called Piquet in for a precautionary tyre change leaving him 15 seconds behind. He 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.

This was the final Grand Prix for 1980 World Champion Alan Jones and for 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg.

Background

Going into the race, three drivers were in contention for the World Championship. Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda, led with 70 points, while reigning champion Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-TAG, was second on 64 and Mansell's teammate Nelson Piquet was third on 63.

The Williams-Honda was superior in speed to the McLaren-TAG, with Mansell and Piquet having won nine of the previous fifteen races between them, and the team sealing the Constructors' Championship at the Portuguese Grand Prix in late September. However, Mansell and Piquet had been battling with one another and had taken points from each other on a number of occasions, while Prost's consistency had seen him accumulate points all year and thus remain in touch with the Williams drivers.

Nonetheless, Mansell went into the race in the strongest position among the three drivers, needing only to finish third or higher to take the title, while Prost and Piquet both needed to win to have any chance.

Qualifying report

Qualifying saw Mansell take pole position from teammate Piquet by 0.3 seconds, with Ayrton Senna third in his Lotus, a further 0.2 seconds back. Prost was fourth but 1.2 seconds behind Mansell, followed by René Arnoux in the Ligier and Gerhard Berger in the Benetton. Completing the top ten were Keke Rosberg in the second McLaren, Philippe Alliot in the second Ligier, Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari and Philippe Streiff in the Tyrrell. Andrea de Cesaris surprised by taking eleventh, the best grid position for the Minardi team up to this point, ahead of Stefan Johansson in the second Ferrari, Teo Fabi in the second Benetton and Johnny Dumfries in the second Lotus.

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	1:19.255	1:18.403
2	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	1:20.088	1:18.714	+0.311
3	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	1:21.302	1:18.906	+0.503
4	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	1:19.785	1:19.654	+1.251
5	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Renault	1:20.491	1:19.976	+1.573
6	20	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-BMW	1:22.260	1:20.554	+2.151
7	2	Keke Rosberg	McLaren-TAG	1:21.295	1:20.778	+2.375
8	26	Philippe Alliot	Ligier-Renault	1:22.765	1:20.981	+2.578
9	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:21.709	1:21.747	+3.306
10	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Renault	1:23.262	1:21.720	+3.317
11	23	Andrea de Cesaris	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1:23.476	1:22.012	+3.609
12	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	1:22.050	1:22.309	+3.647
13	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-BMW	1:22.584	1:22.129	+3.726
14	11	Johnny Dumfries	Lotus-Renault	1:23.786	1:22.664	+4.261
15	15	Alan Jones	Lola-Ford	24:46.383	1:22.796	+4.393
16	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Renault	1:24.061	1:23.004	+4.601
17	16	Patrick Tambay	Lola-Ford	1:24.584	1:23.008	+4.605
18	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1:25.593	1:23.052	+4.649
19	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	1:23.396	1:23.230	+4.827
20	8	Derek Warwick	Brabham-BMW	1:23.552	1:23.313	+4.910
21	14	Jonathan Palmer	Zakspeed	1:24.509	1:23.476	+5.073
22	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	1:24.768	1:24.295	+5.892
23	29	Huub Rothengatter	Zakspeed	1:25.746	1:25.181	+6.778
24	17	Christian Danner	Arrows-BMW	1:25.296	1:25.233	+6.831
25	21	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	3:03.680	1:25.257	+6.855
26	22	Allen Berg	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:28.912	1:27.208	+8.806

Race report

The prospect of a three-way battle for the Drivers' Championship crown attracted a capacity crowd of 150,000 to the Adelaide circuit.

Mansell yielded the lead to Senna's Lotus at the second corner on lap 1 and fell behind both Piquet and 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 puncture a few laps later and he dropped to fourth position 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. Rosberg later revealed that he would never have won the race anyway unless Prost failed to finish or had sufficient problem not to be able to challenge, as he had promised Prost and the team that he would give best to his teammate to help his bid to win back-to-back championships. Prost had just passed Mansell for third which became second when Rosberg retired, with Piquet now leading. Mansell only needed a third-place finish to win the championship.

Mansell was still in third position when, on lap 64, his left rear tyre exploded at 290 km/h (180 mph) on the high-speed Brabham Straight as he was lapping Alliot's Ligier, sending a shower of sparks flying behind him and severely damaging his left rear suspension. The Williams coasted to a stop in the run-off area at the end of the straight, Mansell managing to avoid hitting anything. 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, closing the gap from 15.484 seconds with 2 laps remaining to just 4.205 at the finish and Prost claimed both the race and the World Championship. Prost had so little fuel left that he pulled up only metres past the finish line.

In his last race for Ferrari, Johansson completed the podium in third place, albeit a lap down on Prost and Piquet. Martin Brundle ran out of fuel as he crossed the line in fourth place in his Tyrrell. His teammate Streiff finished fifth, two laps down, with Dumfries taking the final point in his Lotus.

By winning, Prost became the first and so far only driver to ever win the Australian Grand Prix in both non-championship and World Championship form, having won the non-championship 1982 Australian Grand Prix run for Formula Pacific cars at the Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne.

This was the last race for the Renault turbo engine, the French company being the pioneers in Formula One turbocharging back in 1977, as well as Renault's last F1 race as an engine supplier until their return with Williams in 1989. It was also the last F1 race for two former World Champions, 1980 champion Alan Jones and 1982 champion Rosberg, as well as the last race for Patrick Tambay, Dumfries, Allen Berg and Huub Rothengatter, and for Team Haas, whom both Jones and Tambay drove for.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	G	82	1:54:20.388	4	9
2	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	G	82	+4.205	2	6
3	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	G	81	+1 lap	12	4
4	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Renault	G	81	+1 lap	16	3
5	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Renault	G	80	Out of fuel	10	2
6	11	Johnny Dumfries	Lotus-Renault	G	80	+2 laps	14	1
7	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Renault	P	79	+3 laps	5
8	26	Philippe Alliot	Ligier-Renault	P	79	+3 laps	8
9	14	Jonathan Palmer	Zakspeed	G	77	+5 laps	21
10	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-BMW	P	77	+5 laps	13
NC	16	Patrick Tambay	Lola-Ford	G	70	+12 laps	17
Ret	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	G	63	Tyre	1
Ret	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	P	63	Electrical	19
Ret	2	Keke Rosberg	McLaren-TAG	G	62	Tyre	7
NC	22	Allen Berg	Osella-Alfa Romeo	P	61	+21 laps	26
Ret	8	Derek Warwick	Brabham-BMW	P	57	Brakes	20
Ret	17	Christian Danner	Arrows-BMW	G	52	Engine	24
Ret	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	G	50	Engine	22
Ret	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	G	43	Engine	3
Ret	23	Andrea de Cesaris	Minardi-Motori Moderni	P	40	Mechanical	11
Ret	20	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-BMW	P	40	Engine	6
Ret	29	Huub Rothengatter	Zakspeed	G	29	Suspension	23
Ret	15	Alan Jones	Lola-Ford	G	16	Engine	15
Ret	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	P	10	Accident	18
Ret	21	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	P	2	Transmission	25
Ret	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	G	0	Collision	9
Source:

Championship standings after the race

• Bold text indicates the World Champions.

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Alain Prost	72 (74)
2	Nigel Mansell	70 (72)
3	Nelson Piquet	69
4	Ayrton Senna	55
5	Stefan Johansson	23
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Williams-Honda	141
2	McLaren-TAG	96
3	Lotus-Renault	58
4	Ferrari	37
5	Ligier-Renault	29
Source:

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