1987 Australian Grand Prix

= Race =

The third Australian Grand Prix to be held at Adelaide and the final round of the 1987 Formula One Grand Prix season 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 veteren Riccardo Patrese, who was given special dispensation from Bernie Ecclestone of the Brabham team. The young Italian Stefano Modena replaced Patrese making his Formula One debut. At the green light, it was Nelson Piquet in his last race for Williams Honda before moving to Lotus Honda 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. Berger, still oozing with confidence from his victory at the 1987 Japanese Grand Prix 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, Prost, Alboreto and Senna. 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. Alliot in particular proved difficult to pass. Prost uncharacteristically appeared to make a mistake and slammed into the tyre wall and subsequently retired. He 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 for technical infringements on his Lotus. Alboreto was promoted up to second to make it a Ferrari 1-2, the first since the 1985 Canadian Grand Prix.

Results from the 1987 Australian Grand Prix held at Adelaide on November 15, 1987.

Classification

Notes

*Pole position: Gerhard Berger - 1:17.267cite book| last = Hamilton | first = Maurice | title = AUTOCOURSE 1987-88 | publisher = Hazleton Publishing | date = 1987 | pages = p223 | isbn = 0-905138-47-3]
*Fastest lap: Gerhard Berger - 1:20.416 on lap 72
*Ayrton Senna finished second but was excluded from the race results due to illegal front brake cooling duct dimensions.
*Yannick Dalmas finished fifth but scored no points: he was racing in a second Larrousse 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.
*Numbers in brackets refer to positions of normally-aspirated entrants competing for the Jim Clark Trophy.

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/1987/294/ | accessdate = 2007-07-08

F1 race report
Name_of_race = Australian Grand Prix
Year_of_race = 1987
Previous_race_in_season = 1987 Japanese Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 1986 Australian Grand Prix
Next_year's_race = 1988 Australian Grand Prix