1987 Austrian Grand Prix

The 1987 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Österreichring on 16 August 1987. It was the tenth race of the 1987 Formula One World Championship. It was the twentieth Austrian Grand Prix, and the last to be held until 1997. The race was run over 52 laps of the 5.94-kilometre (3.69 mi) circuit for a total race distance of 308.9 kilometres (191.9 mi), also being the last race in the original track.

1987 Austrian Grand Prix
Race 10 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One World Championship
The Österreichring (last modified in 1977)
Race details
Date	16 August 1987
Official name	XXV Großer Preis von Österreich
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	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda
Time	1:23.357
Fastest lap
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda
Time	1:28.318 on lap 31 (lap record)
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda
Second	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda
Third	Teo Fabi	Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders

The race needed to be restarted twice following crashes on the starting grid. It was eventually won by British driver Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda. Mansell took his third victory of the season by 56 seconds from Brazilian teammate Nelson Piquet, with Italian Teo Fabi third in a Benetton-Ford.

Race summary

The race was plagued with accidents. The first major incident came when Stefan Johansson hit a deer with his McLaren MP4/3 after it wandered onto the circuit during Friday practice. The terrified deer was crossing the track to seek refuge from the noise of the cars when it was struck by Johansson traveling at close to 140 mph (225 km/h), killing it instantly. The McLaren left front suspension was broken in the impact causing it to spear off into the guardrail and all four corners of the car, as well as the carbon fibre monocoque were destroyed. Johansson was fortunate to escape with little more than a headache, though he was later flown by helicopter to a hospital in Klagenfurt for x-rays after complaining of headaches and neck pains. His crash caused McLaren to have to fly a spare car overnight from the team's base in Woking. Nelson Piquet's Williams-Honda had collided with the AGS of Pascal Fabre, ending with the Williams impacting in the wall.

The first race start ended quickly after the Zakspeed of Martin Brundle crashed, then the two Tyrrells of Jonathan Palmer and Philippe Streiff collided in the ensuing chaos with Piercarlo Ghinzani also crashing his Ligier. The second attempt to start was more serious. Mansell on the front row crawled away with clutch problems and the grid compacted behind him. The Österreichring's narrow front straight saw to the rest when Eddie Cheever (Arrows) and Riccardo Patrese (Brabham) collided and half the grid, including Johansson, Alex Caffi (Osella), Ivan Capelli (March), Pascal Fabre, Philippe Alliot (Larrousse-Lola), and both Zakspeeds of Brundle and Christian Danner were involved in the ensuing pile-up.

For the third start Streiff was missing. Tyrrell had run out of usable cars and Palmer got the use of the surviving DG016 as he had qualified higher (24th) than his teammate (25th). Several drivers were in repaired cars or in spare cars, including Ayrton Senna after a CV joint failed in his Lotus during the second start. The third start, over two hours late, continued to claim cars. Alain Prost (McLaren) had an electrical failure as the warm-up lap began. The team mechanics got the car going and Prost started from the pitlane along with Senna and the Ferrari of Michele Alboreto. The third attempt to start had no problems although Johansson soon pitted with a puncture then had a tyre fall off on his out lap after a chaotic pitstop. Johansson made it back to the pits and resumed.

Piquet led early from Thierry Boutsen in his Benetton and Mansell. Boutsen pitted with gear linking problems and Mansell leapt past Piquet while negotiating lapped cars on the straight leading into the Bosch Kurve. Fabi (Benetton) was a lap down in third ahead of Boutsen in a season best result for the team. Recovering from their difficulties, Senna, Prost and Johansson finished fifth, sixth and seventh. Ghinzani was eighth for Ligier ahead of Danner and René Arnoux in the second Ligier. Sixteen cars finished although Fabre had not completed enough laps to be classified and 14th placed Brundle would be disqualified for a bodywork infringement on the spare Zakspeed 871, pressed into service after the startline collisions.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	1:23.357	1:49.991	—
2	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	1:23.459	1:33.779	+0.102
3	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:24.213	1:38.388	+0.856
4	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	1:24.348	1:48.124	+0.991
5	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-Ford	1:25.054	no time	+1.697
6	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:25.077	1:45.518	+1.720
7	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda	1:25.492	1:39.647	+2.135
8	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	1:25.766	1:53.119	+2.409
9	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	1:26.170	1:43.132	+2.813
10	8	Andrea de Cesaris	Brabham-BMW	1:27.672	no time	+4.315
11	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	1:27.762	no time	+4.405
12	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	1:28.370	1:37.908	+5.013
13	11	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	1:28.786	1:43.002	+5.429
14	2	Stefan Johansson	McLaren-TAG	1:29.003	1:41.711	+5.646
15	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1:29.435	1:49.566	+6.078
16	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Megatron	1:29.733	no time	+6.376
17	9	Martin Brundle	Zakspeed	1:29.893	1:42.383	+6.536
18	26	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Ligier-Megatron	1:30.682	no time	+7.325
19	23	Adrián Campos	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1:30.797	1:47.128	+7.440
20	10	Christian Danner	Zakspeed	1:31.015	1:48.880	+7.658
21	21	Alex Caffi	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:32.313	1:50.273	+8.956
22	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	1:33.741	1:48.595	+10.384
23	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Ford	1:34.199	1:54.807	+10.842
24	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	1:34.619	1:49.308	+11.262
25	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Ford	1:35.338	1:51.624	+11.981
26	14	Pascal Fabre	AGS-Ford	1:40.633	1:57.236	+17.276
Source:

Race

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

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	52	1:18:44.898	2	9
2	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	52	+ 55.704	1	6
3	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-Ford	51	+ 1 Lap	5	4
4	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	51	+ 1 Lap	4	3
5	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda	50	+ 2 Laps	7	2
6	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	50	+ 2 Laps	9	1
7	2	Stefan Johansson	McLaren-TAG	50	+ 2 Laps	14
8	26	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Ligier-Megatron	50	+ 2 Laps	18
9	10	Christian Danner	Zakspeed	49	+ 3 Laps	20
10	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Megatron	49	+ 3 Laps	16
11 (1)	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Ford	49	+ 3 Laps	23
12 (2)	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	49	+ 3 Laps	22
13	11	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	49	+ 3 Laps	13
DSQ	9	Martin Brundle	Zakspeed	48	Bodywork infringement	17
14 (3)	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	47	+ 5 Laps	24
NC	14	Pascal Fabre	AGS-Ford	45	+ 7 Laps	26
Ret	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	43	Engine	8
Ret	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	42	Turbo	6
Ret	8	Andrea de Cesaris	Brabham-BMW	35	Engine	10
Ret	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	35	Engine	11
Ret	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	31	Tyre	12
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	5	Turbo	3
Ret	23	Adrián Campos	Minardi-Motori Moderni	3	Electrical	19
Ret	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1	Engine	15
Ret	21	Alex Caffi	Osella-Alfa Romeo	0	Electrical	21
Ret	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Ford	0	Accident	25
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Nelson Piquet	54
2	Ayrton Senna	43
3	Nigel Mansell	39
4	Alain Prost	31
5	Stefan Johansson	19
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Williams-Honda	93
2	McLaren-TAG	50
3	Lotus-Honda	49
4	Ferrari	17
5	Benetton-Ford	15
Source:

Jim Clark Trophy standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Jonathan Palmer	61
2	Philippe Streiff	45
3	Pascal Fabre	35
4	Philippe Alliot	25
5	Ivan Capelli	19

Colin Chapman Trophy standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Tyrrell-Ford	106
2	AGS-Ford	35
3	Lola-Ford	25
4	March-Ford	19

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