1985 United States Grand Prix East

Infobox Grand Prix race report
Type = F1
Country = United States
Grand Prix = United States
GP_Suffix = East
Official name = 4th United States Grand Prix East
Date = June 23
Year = 1985
Race_No = 6
Season_No = 16
Location = Detroit street circuit
Detroit, Michigan
Course = Temporary street course
Course_mi = 2.56
Course_km = 4.120
Distance_laps = 63
Distance_mi = 161.28
Distance_km = 259.56
Weather = Clear, cool
Pole_Driver = flagicon|Brazil Ayrton Senna
Pole_Team = Lotus-Renault
Pole_Time = 1:42.051
Fast_Driver = flagicon|Brazil Ayrton Senna
Fast_Team = Lotus-Renault
Fast_Time = 1:45.612
Fast_L

First_Driver = flagicon|Finland Keke Rosberg
First_Team = Williams-Honda
Second_Driver = flagicon|Sweden Stefan Johansson
Second_Team = Ferrari
Third_Driver = flagicon|Italy Michele Alboreto
Third_Team = Ferrari

The 1985 United States Grand Prix East was a Formula One race held on June 23, 1985 in Detroit, Michigan. This event was also referred to as the Detroit Grand Prix.

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In 1985, for the first time in ten years, the United States hosted only one Grand Prix. In that race,Finland's Keke Rosberg took the lead from pole-sitter Ayrton Senna on lap 8, avoided the tire and brake problems that plagued the other front-runners, and held off the Ferraris of Stefan Johansson and Michele Alboreto to win. Stefan Bellof earned a scintillating fourth place for Tyrrell, scoring the last points for the legendary Cosworth-Ford V8 engine.

In Friday qualifying, Senna's Lotus was easily quickest in both sessions, nearly 1.2 seconds clear of Nigel Mansell's Williams. Still, changes to the course meant that Senna's time was over a second slower than Nelson Piquet's pole-winning time from the previous year. The Ferraris of Alboreto and Johansson were in third and ninth place, as Alboreto said, "Our suspension does not absorb the bumps nearly as well as the Lotus. I have trouble getting the power down, which is necessary between the slow corners." Rain on Saturday meant that the Friday times would determine the grid, and the teams would be without a much-needed second day of practice.

"The Williams teammates used different tire compounds in qualifying and were over a second apart on the grid. Rosberg, on qualifiers, was fifth, while Mansell chose the softer race compound and placed second. This revelation led Rosberg to gamble on using the soft race rubber for the race, while everyone else had the harder compound. Aided by a cool breeze on Sunday, this decision played an important role in the race's outcome."

Sunday was clear and breezy with a large and enthusiastic crowd. Unlike the 1984 race, the drivers made a clean start, as Mansell got away well on the outside and took the first corner ahead of Senna. In Turn 2, however, Senna took the lead back, and by the end of the first lap, Rosberg had also gotten around Mansell. After one lap, Senna and Rosberg were opening a gap to Mansell, Prost, Alboreto, Derek Warwick, Elio de Angelis, Johansson, Piquet and Lauda. The Tyrrells of Bellof and Martin Brundle, down on power to the turbos but always extremely well-suited to the tight Detroit circuit, each moved up six places on the first lap to 12th and 13th.

By lap seven, Senna and Rosberg led Mansell by seven seconds. On lap eight, Senna surrendered the lead when he pitted for tires. Warwick had dropped back steadily, eventually retiring with a broken driveshaft, while the McLarens of Prost and Lauda quickly experienced brake problems.Lauda made it back to the pits to retire with no brakes on lap 10, but when Prost had the same problem on lap 20, he was unable to slow for Turn 2 and slid into the tire wall.

de Angelis, on the other hand, was making steady progress. He took fourth when Senna pitted, then passed Alboreto for third and began closing the gap to Mansell, who also was struggling with overheating brakes. On lap 20, with Rosberg's lead at 24 seconds, de Angelis got around Mansell to take second place. Mansell pitted on lap 24 after losing another position to Johansson. He returned in ninth place only to retire immediately when he hit the wall hard in Turn 2.

As he was about to be lapped, Gerhard Berger damaged the nose of de Angelis' Lotus when heclosed the door on the Italian. When de Angelis pitted for tires and a new nose, the Tyrrells were nose to tail in fourth and fifth, hounding the Ferrari of Alboreto. Approaching Turn 16 on lap 31, Philippe Alliot moved over to let Alboreto through but didn't see Brundle right behind. When Alliot moved back to the racing line, Brundle had nowhere to go and hit the wall in a shower of sparks.

At the halfway point, Rosberg led Johansson by 33 seconds. Alboreto was another 10 seconds back, followed by Bellof, Senna and de Angelis. Several successive fastest laps by Senna allowed him to overtake Bellof and then quickly close the gap to Alboreto.

"Entering Turn 2, where the surface was beginning to break up and where both Prost and Mansell had crashed, Alboreto stayed right, away from the racing line and the bad patch at the apex. Senna charged through on the left, got on the marbles, and hit the wall exactly as the others had done, while Alboreto continued, minus the threat to his third place!"

Meanwhile, Rosberg, secure in the lead, had noticed his water temperature climbing. When a member of the crew noticed something caught in his radiator, he pitted to have it removed. The crew also gave him new tires, which he didn't want because Johansson was not far behind. Rosberg blasted out of the pits and just managed to beat the Ferrari to the first corner. Spurred on by the chance for his first win, Johansson hounded the Williams until, with just three laps to go, a brake disc broke up and he began to crawl around the circuit, hoping to make the finish.

Alboreto, in third, had also been trying to save his brakes, but he now had to contend with a charging Bellof. With two laps to go, the German had the Tyrrell right on Alboreto's tail, waiting for a mistake. Just as he was about to go by, however, Bellof's clutch began slipping, and he had to be content to follow the Ferrari home. de Angelis, the last driver on the lead lap took fifth place, and Piquet brought the Brabham home in sixth.

Classification

F1 race report
Name_of_race = United States Grand Prix East
Year_of_race = 1985
Previous_race_in_season = 1985 Canadian Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 1985 French Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 1984 United States Grand Prix East
Next_year's_race = 1986 United States Grand Prix East

Notes

* Rosberg's win was the fourth of his career and his second consecutive American win, having captured the one and only Dallas Grand Prix the year before.

References

* Innes Ireland (October, 1985). "4th Detroit Grand Prix: Look Out, Williams Is Back". "Road & Track", 158-162.