1987 Australian Grand Prix

  1987 Australian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 16 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One season
Date	15 November 1987
Official name	LII Foster's Australian Grand Prix
Location	Adelaide Street Circuit Adelaide, South Australia
Course	Temporary street circuit
Course length	3.780 km (2.362 mi)
Distance	82 laps, 309.960 km (193.684 mi)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari
Time	1:17.267
Fastest lap
Driver	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari
Time	1:20.416 on lap 72
Podium
First	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari
Second	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari
Third	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford

The 1987 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Adelaide on 15 November 1987.

1987 was the first time in the history of the Australian Grand Prix (dating back to the first race in 1928) that no Australian driver was on the grid. As it turned out, no Australian driver would compete in an AGP until David Brabham drove for the Brabham team (founded in 1962 by his father, triple World Champion Jack Brabham) in the 1990 Australian Grand Prix.

Race

The third Australian Grand Prix to be held at Adelaide and the final round of the 1987 Formula One World Championship proved to be another eventful race. Gerhard Berger started from his third pole position of the year despite being ill during qualifying. The event had one vital missing ingredient in the form of Nigel Mansell, still recovering from his accident during qualifying for the 1987 Japanese Grand Prix. Standing in for Mansell at Williams was Italian veteran Riccardo Patrese, who was given permission from Brabham owner Bernie Ecclestone to join Williams one race early, having already signed for the team for 1988. 1987 Formula 3000 champion, young Italian Stefano Modena, replaced Patrese at Brabham to make his Formula One debut.

At the green light, it was Nelson Piquet, in his last race for Williams before moving to Lotus in 1988, who got away best of all, darting past Berger to take the lead into the first chicane. Alessandro Nannini in the Minardi was out immediately after crashing into the wall. A confident Berger, fresh from his victory in the previous race in Japan, re-passed Piquet going into turn three. The Austrian then went on to lead until the chequered flag to claim his third Grand Prix victory. Behind Berger developed a sparkling battle between Piquet, Alain Prost (McLaren), Michele Alboreto (Ferrari) and Ayrton Senna (Lotus). Piquet pitted for new tyres and later retired leaving the other trio to fight over second position. Senna eventually made a break from Alboreto and Prost who were being held up by back markers, with the Larrousse of Philippe Alliot in particular proving difficult to pass.

Prost suffered brake failure on lap 53, spinning off into the wall at Stag Turn and subsequently retiring. He had earlier jumped over a chicane when behind Alliot. Senna made a late charge in an attempt to catch Berger, but the Austrian had enough in hand to respond despite having what appeared to be a dragging under-tray. Senna finished second but was later disqualified when post race scrutineering revealed oversized brake ducts on his Lotus. Alboreto was promoted up to second to make it a Ferrari 1-2, the first since Alboreto and Stefan Johansson finished 1-2 in the 1985 Canadian Grand Prix. Third across the line was the Benetton of Thierry Boutsen. Of the races seven finishers (the Brabham of Andrea de Cesaris and the Williams of Patrese were classified as finishers despite not running at the end), Alboreto was the only driver to not be lapped by Berger.

The first non-turbo car to finish was the Tyrrell of Jonathan Palmer in 4th place. Frenchman Yannick Dalmas finished 5th in his Larrouse, with triple Australian Grand Prix winner Roberto Moreno (1981, 1983 and 1984) scoring a point in his Formula One debut with AGS by finishing 6th. The last car to cross the finish line was the Zakspeed of Christian Danner in 7th place, 3 laps down on Berger.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	82	1:52:56.144	1	9
2	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	82	+ 1:07.884	6	6
3	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	81	+ 1 Lap	5	4
4 (1)	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	80	+ 2 Laps	19	3
5 (2)	29	Yannick Dalmas	Lola-Ford	79	+ 3 Laps	21	0*
6 (3)	14	Roberto Moreno	AGS-Ford	79	+ 3 Laps	25	1
7	10	Christian Danner	Zakspeed	79	+ 3 Laps	24
8	8	Andrea de Cesaris	Brabham-BMW	78	Spun Off	10
9	5	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Honda	76	Oil Leak	7
DSQ	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda	82	Disqualified[1]	4
Ret	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	58	Brakes	3
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Ford	58	Spun Off	23
Ret	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	53	Brakes	2
Ret	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	53	Overheating	11
Ret	2	Stefan Johansson	McLaren-TAG	48	Brakes	8
Ret	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-Ford	46	Brakes	9
Ret	23	Adrián Campos	Minardi-Motori Moderni	46	Transmission	26
Ret	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	45	Electrical	17
Ret	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Megatron	41	Ignition	20
Ret	7	Stefano Modena	Brabham-BMW	31	Physical	15
Ret	26	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Ligier-Megatron	26	Ignition	22
Ret	11	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	22	Hydraulics[1]	14
Ret	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	19	Transmission	12
Ret	9	Martin Brundle	Zakspeed	18	Engine	16
Ret	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Ford	6	Spun Off	18
Ret	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	0	Accident	13
DNQ	21	Alex Caffi	Osella-Alfa Romeo	-	Did not qualify	27
Source:[2]

* Yannick Dalmas finished fifth but scored no points: he was racing in a second Lola car that wasn't eligible to score points because at the start of the season the team had only submitted an official entry for one car for the full championship.

Lap leaders

• Gerhard Berger 82 (1-82)

Notes

• 3rd Grand Prix victory for Gerhard Berger. It was also the 93rd win for Ferrari. With Berger also winning the previous round in Japan this saw Ferrari win back to back races for the first time since Gilles Villeneuve won the Monaco and Spanish Grands Prix in 1981.
• 68th and final Grand Prix start for the TAG-Porsche engine.
• 97th and final Grand Prix start for the BMW M12 engine, though the engine itself would live on until the end of 1988 badged as a "Megatron" and used by Arrows.
• 30th and final Grand Prix start for the turbocharged Ford TEC engine.
• 44th and final Grand Prix start for the Motori Moderni engine.
• 64th and final Grand Prix Start for Teo Fabi.
• 1st Grand Prix start for the 1987 Formula 3000 champion Stefano Modena.^[3]

Championship standings after the race

• Bold text indicates the champions.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nelson Piquet 73 (76) 2 Nigel Mansell 61 3 Ayrton Senna 57 4 Alain Prost 46 5 Gerhard Berger 36

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Honda 137 2 McLaren-TAG 76 3 Lotus-Honda 64 4 Ferrari 53 5 Benetton-Ford 28

Jim Clark Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jonathan Palmer 95 2 Philippe Streiff 74 3 Philippe Alliot 43 4 Ivan Capelli 38 5 Pascal Fabre 35

Colin Chapman Trophy standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Tyrrell-Ford 169 2 Lola-Ford 43 3 AGS-Ford 39 4 March-Ford 38

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

References