1986 Australian Grand Prix

Infobox Grand Prix race report
Type = F1
Country = Australia
Grand Prix = Australian
Official name = LI

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Date = October 26
Year = 1986
Race_No = 16
Season_No = 16
Location = Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide, Australia
Course = Street circuit
Course_mi = 2.350
Course_km = 3.780
Distance_laps = 82
Distance_mi = 192.670
Distance_km = 309.760
Weather = Sunny
Pole_Driver = Nigel Mansell
Pole_Team = Williams-Honda
Pole_Time = 1:18.403
Pole_Country = United Kingdom
Fast_Driver = Nelson Piquet
Fast_Team = Williams-Honda
Fast_Time = 1:20.787
Fast_L

Fast_Country = Brazil
First_Driver = Alain Prost
First_Team = McLaren-TAG
First_Country = France
Second_Driver = Nelson Piquet
Second_Team = Williams-Honda
Second_Country = Brazil
Third_Driver = Stefan Johansson
Third_Team = Ferrari
Third_Country = Sweden

The 1986 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 26, 1986 at the Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide, Australia. It was the last of 16 races in the 1986 Formula One season. The event itself was remembered as the race that decided the Drivers' Championship for that season. Three drivers were in contention for the title; Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet, both of whom were racing for the Williams-Honda team, and McLaren's Alain Prost.

Mansell took pole position for the race, but this advantage was cancelled out following a poor start off the grid, with teammate Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Keke Rosberg all overtaking him and demoting the Brit down to fourth by the end of the first lap.

A few laps into the race, Finland's Keke Rosberg, in his final Grand Prix, took the lead from Piquet. This lead, however, wasn't to last and the Finn retired with a tyre puncture on lap 63, handing the lead back to Piquet and elevating Mansell into second place, which would have been sufficient for the Englishman to secure the championship. One lap later, Mansell's race ended in a spectacular fashion as his left-rear tyre exploded on the main straight with only 19 laps remaining. The title was then between Piquet and Prost with the Frenchman needing to finish ahead of the Brazilian if he wanted to successfully defend his title. Following the tyre failures of Rosberg and Mansell, the Williams team called Piquet in for a pre-cautionary stop and he came out of the pits 15 seconds behind Prost. Piquet made a late charge to close the gap to 4.2 seconds but Prost took victory to win his second of four titles.

It was not until the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix that there were three possible drivers' title contenders entering the race.

Pre-race situation

Coming into the race, three drivers had a chance of winning the '86 title. The leader of the championship prior to the race was British driver Nigel Mansell; six points behind him in second was Alain Prost, who was looking to defend his title and one point behind Prost was Mansell's teammate at Williams, Nelson Piquet. In fourth was Ayrton Senna, who was guaranteed to finish in that position regardless of what happened.

The Williams cars of Mansell and Piquet were far superior in speed to Prost's McLaren. However, Prost's consistency had seen him accumulate points all year, while the Williams pair battled with one another and their mind games eroded what would have been a dominant season for the team.

Unlike the Drivers' Championship, the Contructors' Championship had already been decided in Williams' favour, as they had a 48 point advantage over McLaren. While the Woking based team couldn't take the title, their place as runners-up was safe, however, as they were 30 points ahead of third placed Lotus.

Race summary

Qualifying

Mansell took pole position for the race with a time of 1 minute 18.403 seconds. His teammate, Nelson Piquet, and Lotus' Ayrton Senna were the only drivers within a second of Mansell's time. The third title contender, Alain Prost, was on the second row of the grid in fourth.

Race

The Prospect of a three way battle for the Drivers' Championship crown attracted a capacity crowd of 150,000 to the tight and twisty Adelaide circuit.cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |author= |coauthors= |title=Australian classic - Adelaide, 1986|url=http://www.formula1.com/news/4171.html |format= |work= |publisher=Official Formula One website |id= |pages= |page= |date=March 31, 2006 |accessdate=2007-02-02 |quote=]

Mansell started from pole position but yielded the lead to Ayrton Senna's Lotus at the second corner on lap 1 and fell behind both Piquet and Keke Rosberg on the same lap. Piquet also overtook Senna on lap 1 to take the lead but it would last only six laps as on lap 7, Rosberg took the lead from Piquet and began to build a sizeable gap between himself and the rest of the field.

On lap 23 Piquet spun, although no damage was sustained to the car, and he continued the race despite dropping back several places. Prost suffered a tyre puncture a few laps later and he dropped back to fourth after having to pit. Piquet charged back through the field, passing Mansell for second place on lap 44 but Prost closed on the two Williams cars and, with 25 laps to go, all three championship contenders were running together in positions 2, 3 and 4.

The battle became one for the lead on lap 63 when Rosberg suffered a right rear tyre failure and retired from the race.

Needing only a third place finish to secure the championship, Mansell was running second when, on lap 65, his left rear tyre exploded at 180 miles per hour on the high-speed Brabham Straight. The Williams coasted to a stop in the run-off area at the end of the straight, Mansell having managed to avoid hitting anything, but his championship hopes were over. Fearing the same happening to the second car, Williams called Piquet to the pits and Prost took the lead. Piquet would make a late charge to close the gap but ran out of laps with which to challenge for the lead and Prost claimed both the race and the World Championship.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

References

"Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from cite web |title=The Official Formula 1 website |url=http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1986/2/ |accessdate=2007-06-17

External links

F1 race report
Name_of_race = Australian Grand Prix
Year_of_race = 1986
Previous_race_in_season = 1986 Mexican Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 1987 Brazilian Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 1985 Australian Grand Prix
Next_year's_race = 1987 Australian Grand Prix