1987 Japanese Grand Prix

Last updated
1987 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 15 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One World Championship
Suzuka circuit map (1987-2002).svg
Race details
Date1 November 1987
Official name XIII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.860 km (3.641 [1] miles)
Distance 51 laps, 298.860 km (185.703 miles)
Weather Dry
Attendance 247,000 [2]
Pole position
Driver Ferrari
Time 1:40.042
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG
Time 1:43.844 on lap 35
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Lotus-Honda
Third McLaren-TAG
Lap leaders
  • 1987 Japanese Grand Prix

The 1987 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Suzuka on 1 November 1987. It was the fifteenth and penultimate race of the 1987 Formula One World Championship.

Contents

The race was won by Austrian driver Gerhard Berger driving a Ferrari F1/87. It was the end of a 38-race losing streak for Formula One's most famous team and Berger's second Grand Prix victory having won the Mexican Grand Prix the previous year driving for Benetton. Berger won by 17 seconds over Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna driving a Lotus 99T. Third was the McLaren MP4/3 of Swedish driver Stefan Johansson. This would turn out to be Team Lotus's last second place finish.

Background

The 1987 Japanese Grand Prix was the first race to be held in Japan since James Hunt won in his McLaren at Fuji, in 1977. This time, the Grand Prix circus utilised the Honda-owned Suzuka Circuit, which originated as a test track for Honda motorcycles and automobiles.

Soichiro Honda was extremely enthusiastic about this race, and told his racing engineers "We have to win. And we have to keep winning..." [3] aiming for a hometown victory at Honda's home track in its native Japan. Soichiro Honda had reason for optimism as four of the entrants were powered by Honda-made engines. The Lotus 99Ts of Ayrton Senna, who had won races earlier in the season and was joined on Team Lotus with national favourite Satoru Nakajima, along with the dominating Williams FW11Bs driven by Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, who were both vying for the overall championship.

Qualifying

The scene was set for a tense championship-deciding race between the Williams-Honda teammates, bitter rivals Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. However, Mansell suffered a huge crash during Friday qualifying while trying to better Piquet's time, which put him out of action for both the Japanese race and the subsequent Australian Grand Prix. As a consequence, Piquet won his third World Championship before the race even began.

Qualifying once again demonstrated the return to form of Ferrari, as Gerhard Berger obtained his second pole position of the season, with the F1/87 being perfectly suited to the Suzuka circuit. Alain Prost qualified 2nd in his McLaren-TAG with Thierry Boutsen 3rd in his Benetton-Ford. Following Mansell's Friday crash, the three remaining Honda-powered cars of Piquet, Senna, and local favourite Satoru Nakajima, could only qualify in 5th, 7th and 11th places respectively. All drivers from 8th position and below moved up one position on the grid due to Mansell being unable to start. This also meant Roberto Moreno was permitted to race the AGS despite having the 27th fastest qualifying time.

Out of the 26 drivers who qualified for the race, only Riccardo Patrese had ever driven in a Japanese Grand Prix prior to 1987, having taken part of the 1977 race at Fuji.

Qualifying classification

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2GapGrid
128 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:42.1601:40.0421
21 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:42.4961:40.652+0.6102
320 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:43.1301:40.850+0.8083
427 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:42.4161:40.984+0.9424
56 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:41.4231:41.144+1.0995
619 Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 1:43.3511:41.679+1.6736
75 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:42.616no time+2.573DNS
812 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 1:44.0261:42.723+2.6817
97 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:44.7671:43.304+3.2628
102 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 1:43.6121:43.371+3.3299
118 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 1:46.3991:43.618+3.57610
1211 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:45.8981:43.685+3.64311
1318 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:45.4271:44.277+4.38512
1417 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:44.7681:44.626+4.58413
1524 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:48.9481:45.612+5.57014
169 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Zakspeed 1:46.7151:46.023+5.98115
1710 Flag of Germany.svg Christian Danner Zakspeed 1:49.3371:46.116+6.07416
1825 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 1:50.5421:46.200+6.15817
1930 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:49.4701:47.395+7.35318
203 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:48.9021:47.775+7.73319
2116 Flag of Italy.svg Ivan Capelli March-Ford 1:49.8141:48.212+8.17020
2223 Flag of Spain.svg Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:53.4551:48.337+8.29521
2329 Flag of France.svg Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 1:51.2301:48.887+8.84522
2421 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:49.0171:50.902+8.97523
2526 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 1:51.5541:49.641+9.59924
264 Flag of France.svg Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 1:50.8961:49.741+9.69925
2714 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Roberto Moreno AGS-Ford 1:51.8351:50.212+10.17026
Source: [4] [5] [6] [7]

Race

At the start Berger immediately imposed his authority by building a cushion. Prost, in his McLaren, perhaps the only driver capable of challenging Berger for the victory, suffered a puncture on the first lap and, therefore, was out of contention. Prost, however, drove a superb race to climb up through the field finishing just outside the points with the consolation of having the fastest lap. Boutsen's Benetton ran second early on but could not live with the pace set by Berger, ultimately fading to fifth. Piquet spent much of the race behind Senna's Lotus but was unable to find a way past his countryman. The new world champion eventually retired in the pits with oil pouring from the rear of his Williams. At one stage Stefan Johansson in the McLaren closed on Berger, but the Austrian driver responded and eventually romped to a seemingly effortless victory, the first Ferrari's victory since the 1985 German Grand Prix. Ayrton Senna dramatically passed Johansson on the last lap to take second place. Michele Alboreto, in the second Ferrari, got away very slowly at the green lights leaving him towards the rear of the field. However, the Italian drove an aggressive race to climb his way back up the order to finish an excellent fourth despite suffering from a dragging undertray causing a huge amount of sparks. Boutsen and Nakajima rounded out the points.

Johansson's third place was the 54th and last podium finish for the Porsche-designed TAG turbo V6 engine which had been first used in Formula One by McLaren at the 1983 Dutch Grand Prix.

Race classification

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
128 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Ferrari 511:32:58.07219
212 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 51+ 17.38476
32 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 51+ 17.69494
427 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 51+ 1:20.44143
520 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 51+ 1:25.57632
611 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 51+ 1:36.479111
71 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 50+ 1 lap2 
8 (1)3 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 50+ 1 lap19 
918 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 50Out of fuel12 
1017 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 50+ 1 lap13 
117 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 49+ 2 laps8 
12 (2)4 Flag of France.svg Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 49+ 2 laps25 
1326 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 48+ 3 laps24 
14 (3)29 Flag of France.svg Yannick Dalmas Lola-Ford 47+ 4 laps22 
156 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 46Engine5 
Ret25 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 44Out of fuel17 
Ret21 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 43Out of fuel23 
Ret14 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Roberto Moreno AGS-Ford 38Electrical26 
Ret24 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 35Engine14 
Ret9 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Zakspeed 32Engine15 
Ret8 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 26Engine10 
Ret19 Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 16Engine6 
Ret10 Flag of Germany.svg Christian Danner Zakspeed 13Engine16 
Ret16 Flag of Italy.svg Ivan Capelli March-Ford 13Accident20 
Ret23 Flag of Spain.svg Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 2Engine21 
Ret30 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 0Accident18 
DNS5 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda Qualifying practice accident  
Source: [8]

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

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. "1987 Japanese Grand Prix | Motorsport Database".
  2. "Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  3. Sato, Masaaki (2006). The Honda Myth: The Genius and his Wake. Vertical. p.  349. ISBN   1932234268.
  4. "1987 Japanese Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  5. "1987 Japanese Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2". formula1.com. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  6. "1987 Japanese Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING". formula1.com. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  7. "1987 Japanese Grand Prix - STARTING GRID". formula1.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  8. "1987 Japanese Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Japan 1987 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
Previous race:
1987 Mexican Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1987 season
Next race:
1987 Australian Grand Prix
Previous race:
1977 Japanese Grand Prix
Japanese Grand Prix Next race:
1988 Japanese Grand Prix
Awards
Preceded by
1986 Mexican Grand Prix
Formula One Promotional Trophy
for Race Promoter

1987
Succeeded by
1988 British Grand Prix