1987 San Marino Grand Prix

Last updated
1987 San Marino Grand Prix
Race 2 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One World Championship
Imola Circuit 1980-1995 Layout.png
Race details
Date3 May 1987
Official nameGran Premio di San Marino
Location Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.040 km (3.131 miles)
Distance 59 laps, 297.360 km (184.770 miles)
Weather Sunny, warm
Pole position
Driver Lotus-Honda
Time 1:25.826
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford
Time 1:29.246 on lap 51
Podium
First Williams-Honda
Second Lotus-Honda
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders
  • 1987 San Marino Grand Prix

The 1987 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 3 May 1987 at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola. It was the second race of the 1987 Formula One season. It was the seventh San Marino Grand Prix and it was held over 59 laps of the five kilometre circuit for a race distance of 297 kilometres.

Contents

The race was won by British driver Nigel Mansell driving a Williams FW11B. It was Mansell's eighth Grand Prix victory, his first (of two) at the Imola circuit. Mansell finished 27 seconds ahead of Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna driving a Lotus 99T. Third was Italian driver Michele Alboreto driving a Ferrari F1/87. The win gave Mansell a one-point lead in the championship over French McLaren driver Alain Prost.

Race summary

In Friday practice, championship contender Nelson Piquet was eliminated from the race after an accident at the Tamburello corner. A tyre of his Williams FW11B failed, which resulted in a violent impact against the wall (when the car was returned to the pits, Williams designer Patrick Head could not confirm if the crash was a fault with the FW11B as half the rear end had been torn off by the impact, while both Head and Nigel Mansell were seen taking a good look at Piquet's wreck). Whilst in his opinion he had only sustained a sore ankle, he was taken to the nearby Bellaria-Igea Marina hospital, and after medical checks he was forbidden to start by FIA Medical Delegate Sid Watkins. For the remainder of the weekend Piquet worked as a guest commentator on Italian television. Years later he revealed that he was "never quite right" after the accident, suffering headaches and sometimes double vision. For the rest of the 1987 season, he visited the hospital for treatment, but did so in secret for fear that he would not be allowed to race either by Williams or Watkins.

Alarmed by reports from other drivers of excessive tyre blistering and the suggestion that Piquet's accident may have been caused by a tyre deflation, Goodyear withdrew all the tyres issued to teams (the original compounds taken to Imola were actually different to those supplied for a scheduled test at the circuit the week prior to the race). A replacement selection of the tyres used in the Imola test were flown in from England (with some also brought in from the nearby Ferrari factory in Maranello) and despite the lack of Customs officials due to an Italian public holiday, the new rubber was available for all teams by the Saturday morning practice session.

Saturday's qualifying went on smoothly, with Ayrton Senna claiming pole position on his Lotus 99T, the first ever pole position for an active suspension car and also the last pole position for the original Lotus team,[ citation needed ] with Mansell alongside him in the front row. The second row was occupied by Teo Fabi in the Benetton B187 and Alain Prost's McLaren MP4/3; "home" team Ferrari took the whole third row with Michele Alboreto ahead of Gerhard Berger.

The race required two starts as Martin Brundle (Zakspeed 871), Thierry Boutsen (Benetton B187) and Eddie Cheever (Arrows A10) stalled on the original grid. Satoru Nakajima started from the pit lane owing to a faulty battery in his Lotus, and René Arnoux failed to take the second start after the suspension of his Ligier JS29B failed.

At the second start, Senna led off the line, but Mansell overtook him on lap two, at the Tosa corner, and went on to dominate the race. Prost took second place by overtaking Senna on lap 6; the Brazilian was then engaged in a battle with the two Ferraris, and took back second when Prost surprisingly retired with an alternator failure on lap 15. Berger retired with turbo boost failure on lap 17, and by that time Alboreto passed Senna to take second place.

On lap 22, Mansell pitted early due to a loose wheel balance weight and for three laps Alboreto led the race to the delight of the Tifosi. Senna retook first position with Alboreto's pit stop, then before Mansell returned to the front when the Brazilian stopped. Riccardo Patrese in his Brabham BT56 was now holding second place, but in the closing stages of the race his alternator developed trouble and he slowed right down, eventually finishing two laps down in ninth. [1] The closing stages also saw both Benetton drivers retire, Boutsen on lap 49 with an engine failure and Fabi three laps later with a turbo failure. Fabi's race had been wrecked by front wing damage sustained on the first lap when he collided with Cheever, although his attempted fightback did produce the fastest lap.

Mansell took a comfortable win with Senna holding second after Alboreto's turbo experienced problems. Alboreto salvaged a 3rd place finish, which would end up being the last podium Enzo Ferrari personally saw his Formula One team score, as he only attended Grand Prix races in Italy, and would die 15 months later. Stefan Johansson (McLaren MP4/3) was in fourth place whilst Derek Warwick's late race retirement after his Arrows A10 ran out of fuel, handed fifth to Brundle for what would the only time in 5 seasons (1985-1989) that a Zakspeed would finish a race in the points. Nakajima rounded off the points in sixth place, which meant he was the first Japanese driver to score a world championship point. [2]

Classification

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
112 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 1:27.5431:25.826
25 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:26.2041:25.946+0.120
36 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:25.997+0.171
41 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:29.3171:26.135+0.309
519 Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 1:27.8011:27.270+1.444
628 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:28.2291:27.280+1.454
727 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:29.6531:28.074+2.248
87 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:28.4471:28.421+2.595
92 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 1:30.4161:28.708+2.882
1018 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:30.3791:28.848+3.022
1117 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:28.8871:29.236+3.061
1220 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:28.9291:28.908+3.082
1311 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:29.5791:30.545+3.753
1425 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 1:31.0781:29.861+4.035
158 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 1:30.6271:30.382+4.556
169 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Zakspeed 1:31.9311:31.094+5.268
1724 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:31.789+5.963
1823 Flag of Spain.svg Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:41.5201:31.818+5.992
1910 Flag of Germany.svg Christian Danner Zakspeed 1:32.9771:31.903+6.077
2026 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 1:32.8731:32.248+6.422
2121 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:32.3081:33.298+6.482
224 Flag of France.svg Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 1:35.0011:33.155+7.329
2330 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:34.4581:33.846+8.020
2416 Flag of Italy.svg Ivan Capelli March-Ford 1:37.4631:33.872+8.046
253 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:34.6321:36.127+8.806
2614 Flag of France.svg Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 1:39.7471:36.159+10.333
2722 Flag of Italy.svg Gabriele Tarquini Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:43.446+17.620
Source: [3] [4] [5]

Race

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 591:31:24.07629
212 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 59+ 27.54516
327 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 59+ 39.14464
42 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 59+ 1:00.58883
59 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Zakspeed 57+ 2 Laps142
611 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 57+ 2 Laps121
710 Flag of Germany.svg Christian Danner Zakspeed 57+ 2 Laps17 
8 (1)4 Flag of France.svg Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 57+ 2 Laps20 
97 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 57+ 2 Laps7 
10 (2)30 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 56+ 3 Laps21 
1117 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 55Out of fuel [1] 10 
1221 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 54Out of fuel [1] 19 
13 (3)14 Flag of France.svg Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 53+ 6 Laps24 
Ret19 Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 51Turbo4 
Ret20 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 48Engine11 
Ret18 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 48Clutch9 
Ret3 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 48Clutch23 
Ret8 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 39Spun off13 
Ret23 Flag of Spain.svg Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 30Gearbox16 
Ret22 Flag of Italy.svg Gabriele Tarquini Osella-Alfa Romeo 26Gearbox25 
Ret24 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 25Turbo15 
Ret16 Flag of Italy.svg Ivan Capelli March-Ford 18Engine22 
Ret28 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Ferrari 16Electrical5 
Ret1 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 14Electrical3 
Ret26 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 7Handling18 
DNS25 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 0Suspension  
DNS6 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda  Injury 
Source: [6]

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jenkinson, Denis (June 1987). "Formula One: San Marino Grand Prix: Japanese Domination". Motor Sport . Vol. LXIII, no. 6. pp. 14–18. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  2. "A Race to Remember". Autosport. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  3. "San Marino Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  4. "San Marino Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2". formula1.com. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  5. "San Marino Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING". formula1.com. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  6. "1987 San Marino Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  7. 1 2 "San Marino 1987 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
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