1987 British Grand Prix

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1987 British Grand Prix
Race 7 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One World Championship
Silverstone Circuit 1987 to 1988.png
Race details
Date12 July 1987
Official name XL Shell Oils British Grand Prix
Location Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.778 km (2.969 miles)
Distance 65 laps, 310.570 km (192.979 miles)
Weather Sunny and warm
Pole position
Driver Williams-Honda
Time 1:07.110
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda
Time 1:09.832 on lap 58
Podium
First Williams-Honda
Second Williams-Honda
Third Lotus-Honda
Lap leaders
  • 1987 British Grand Prix

The 1987 British Grand Prix (formally the XL Shell Oils British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 12 July 1987 at the Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone. It was the seventh race of the 1987 Formula One World Championship. It was the 42nd British Grand Prix and the 23rd to be held at Silverstone. The race was held over 65 laps of the 4.78-kilometre (2.97 mi) circuit for race distance of 311 kilometres (193 mi).

Contents

The race was won by local driver Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda. In one of his most memorable Formula One performances, Mansell hunted down Brazilian team-mate Nelson Piquet, who had started from pole position, with three laps remaining. It was Mansell's third win of the season, and his second consecutive British Grand Prix victory. Ayrton Senna finished third in his Lotus-Honda, one lap behind.

The win moved Mansell into second place in the Drivers' Championship, level on points with Piquet and one point behind Senna.

Qualifying report

As usual, Honda-powered cars dominated the qualifying sessions, with Nelson Piquet taking pole position and Ayrton Senna third in his Lotus despite being a full second slower than Mansell. Alain Prost was fourth in his McLaren, while the Benettons of Thierry Boutsen and Teo Fabi were fifth and sixth, and the Ferraris of Michele Alboreto and Gerhard Berger seventh and eighth. Completing the top ten were Andrea de Cesaris in the Brabham and Stefan Johansson in the second McLaren.

During qualifying, Piercarlo Ghinzani's Ligier ran out of fuel in front of the pits. His mechanics jumped the pit wall, refuelled him on the track and then push-started him, a clear violation of the rules leading to Ghinzani's exclusion from the remainder of the event. Before the incident, the Italian had set a time which would have put him 19th on the grid.

Qualifying classification

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
16 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:07.5961:07.110
25 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:07.7251:07.180+0.070
312 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 1:09.2551:08.181+1.071
41 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:08.5771:09.492+1.467
520 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:09.7241:08.972+1.862
619 Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 1:10.2641:09.246+2.136
727 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:10.4411:09.274+2.164
828 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:10.3281:09.408+2.298
98 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 1:10.7871:09.475+2.365
102 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 1:10.2421:09.541+2.431
117 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:10.0121:10.020+2.902
1211 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:10.6191:10.998+3.509
1317 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:10.6541:10.781+3.544
1418 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:11.0531:11.310+3.943
1524 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:13.7371:12.293+5.183
1625 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 1:12.5031:12.402+5.292
179 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Zakspeed 1:12.8521:12.632+5.522
1810 Flag of Germany.svg Christian Danner Zakspeed 1:15.8331:13.337+6.227
1923 Flag of Spain.svg Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:15.7191:13.793+6.683
2021 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:18.4951:15.558+8.448
2130 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:16.7701:15.868+8.758
224 Flag of France.svg Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.2081:16.524+9.414
233 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:16.6441:17.105+9.534
2416 Flag of Italy.svg Ivan Capelli March-Ford 1:17.1221:16.692+9.582
2514 Flag of France.svg Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 1:19.1631:18.237+11.127
EX26 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 1:13.381no time+6.271

Race report

At the start, Prost was the quickest and took the lead, only to be passed by Piquet at Maggotts; Mansell soon followed his teammate. The race then developed into a battle between the two Williams drivers, with Piquet leading.

On lap 35, Mansell was around two seconds behind his teammate. Both Williams drivers were scheduled to complete the race without a tyre change, but Mansell and the team elected to make a stop to change tyres. Mansell rejoined the race some 29 seconds behind Piquet, with 28 laps remaining. On fresh rubber, Mansell began an epic charge, breaking the lap record eight times to the delight of the over 100,000 strong British crowd.

By lap 62 Mansell was right on Piquet's tail, and on lap 63 the Englishman overtook his teammate. Shortly after crossing the finish line, Mansell's car slowed down and was engulfed by the crowd. Initially it was thought that he had run out of fuel, but he had actually blown up the engine, out of the stress of running the last 6 laps on "Q" mode (which gives the engine +100 hp), and risking running out of fuel at any moment (his fuel display was reading "minus 2.5 laps"). In fact that incident was the last straw for the patience of the Honda management, since it had – again – threatened their easily attainable 1-2 result. Honda would switch their supply of engines from Williams to McLaren for 1988, while Piquet would sign for Lotus – also running Hondas – in the following weeks. [1] Senna finished third, one lap down, with a further lap back to teammate Satoru Nakajima in fourth. Derek Warwick was fifth in the Arrows-Megatron, with Fabi completing the top six.

Race classification

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

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
15 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 651:19:11.78029
26 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 65+ 1.91816
312 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 64+ 1 lap34
411 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 63+ 2 laps123
517 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 63+ 2 laps132
619 Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 63+ 2 laps61
720 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 62+ 3 laps5 
8 (1)3 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 60+ 5 laps23 
9 (2)14 Flag of France.svg Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 59+ 6 laps25 
Ret4 Flag of France.svg Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 57Engine22 
NC9 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Zakspeed 54+ 11 laps17 
Ret1 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 53Engine4 
Ret27 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 52Suspension7 
Ret18 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 45Engine14 
Ret23 Flag of Spain.svg Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 34Fuel system19 
Ret21 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 32Engine20 
Ret10 Flag of Germany.svg Christian Danner Zakspeed 32Gearbox18 
Ret7 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 28Turbo11 
Ret2 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 18Engine10 
Ret24 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 10Engine15 
Ret8 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 8Turbo9 
Ret28 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Ferrari 7Accident8 
Ret30 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 7Gearbox21 
Ret25 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 3Electrical16 
Ret16 Flag of Italy.svg Ivan Capelli March-Ford 3Accident24 
EX 26 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 0Excluded19 
Source: [2]

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. "Honda engines report" (PDF). Honda. 26 April 2001. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  2. "1987 British Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Britain 1987 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
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1987 French Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1987 season
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1987 German Grand Prix
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1986 British Grand Prix
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