| 1985 Italian Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 12 of 16 in the 1985 Formula One World Championship | |||
 | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 8 September 1985 | ||
| Official name | LVI Gran Premio d'Italia | ||
| Location | Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 5.800 km (3.60 miles) | ||
| Distance | 51 laps, 295.800 km (183.600 miles) | ||
| Weather | Dry | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Lotus-Renault | ||
| Time | 1:25.084 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Nigel Mansell | Williams-Honda | |
| Time | 1:28.283 on lap 38 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-TAG | ||
| Second | Brabham-BMW | ||
| Third | Lotus-Renault | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The 1985 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 8 September 1985. It was the twelfth round of the 1985 FIA Formula One World Championship. It was the 55th Italian Grand Prix and the 50th to be held at Monza. The race was held over 51 laps of the 5.8-kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 295.8 kilometres.
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The race was won by Frenchman Alain Prost driving a McLaren MP4/2B. It was Prost's fifth and final victory of the 1985 season as he powered towards the first of his four Formula One world championships. Prost won by almost 52 seconds over the Brazilian duo Nelson Piquet (Brabham BT54) and Ayrton Senna (Lotus 97T).
It was the debut race for the American owned Haas Lola team with their new car, the Lola THL1 running the Hart 415T turbocharged engine, driven by Australia's 1980 World Champion Alan Jones. Jones, who had retired following the 1981 season, was making a full-time return to Formula One after two races, the US Grand Prix West, and the non championship Race of Champions with Arrows in early 1983.
Missing from the grid was popular West German driver Stefan Bellof who was killed a week earlier in a World Sportscar Championship race at the Spa Circuit in Belgium. With his funeral set for the day after the Italian Grand Prix the Tyrrell team only ran the one car for Martin Brundle feeling it would be disrespectful to Bellof to bring a driver in to replace him for the race. Members of the Tyrrell team, including team boss Ken Tyrrell, attended Bellof's funeral the next day.
Also missing were the West German Zakspeed team because their driver Jonathan Palmer had broken his leg when he also crashed his Porsche 956 at the 1000 km of Spa the weekend before, though Palmer's accident came in practice. With only a week until the Italian Grand Prix and no spare driver the team was forced to miss the race, but would return at the next round, the re-scheduled Belgian Grand Prix with the 1985 Formula 3000 champion Christian Danner (also of West Germany) replacing Palmer.
Senna's pole position is often cited as one of his greatest moments. [1]
