1986 Brazilian Grand Prix

  1986 Brazilian Grand Prix

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

The 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jacarepaguá on March 23, 1986. It was the opening round of the 1986 Formula One season. It was the 15th Brazilian Grand Prix and the seventh to be held at Jacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro. The race was held over 61 laps of the five kilometre circuit for a race distance of 307 kilometres.

The race was won by Brazilian racer Nelson Piquet driving a Williams FW11. It was Piquet's second victory at his home race having won it previously three years earlier. He would have been the winningest Brazilian at his home race (with 3 wins) had his 1982 victory not been disqualified, and would have been the first Brazilian to win his home race three times. It was his 14th Grand Prix victory and the first for his new team, Williams. Piquet won by 34 second over countryman Ayrton Senna driving a Lotus 98T. A minute behind Piquet was French driver Jacques Laffite driving a Ligier JS27.

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 quadraplegic.^[1]

Senna led from pole position but was soon under threat from the Williams pair. Nigel Mansell spun off 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 team mate 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 finish 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

Qualifying

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

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]

Lap Leaders

Ayrton Senna 4 (1-2, 19, 41), Nelson Piquet 50 (3-18, 27-40, 42-61), Alain Prost 7 (20-26)

Notes

• 14th Grand Prix victory for Nelson Piquet and the 23rd win for Williams. It was also the 8th win for a Honda powered car and was also Piquet's 30th podium finish.
• 10th podium finish for Ayrton Senna who also claimed his 8th pole position. It was also the 99th pole position for Team Lotus and the 43rd by a Renault powered car.
• 1st Grand Prix start for Benetton. The team had been known as Toleman from 1981-1985 before being bought and renamed by the Italian fashion brand Benetton Group.
• 1st Grand Prix start for Alessandro Nannini and Johnny Dumfries.^[4]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nelson Piquet 9 2 Ayrton Senna 6 3 Jacques Laffite 4 4 René Arnoux 3 5 Martin Brundle 2

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Honda 9 2 Ligier-Renault 7 3 Lotus-Renault 6 4 Tyrrell-Renault 2 5 Benetton-BMW 1

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

References