Mexican GP 1987

Mexican GP, 1987

The field was much as it had been all season, the only changes being that Osella had gone back to one car and Larrousse has expanded to two with Yannick Dalmas joining Philippe Alliot. Nelson Piquet was 18 point ahead with three races to go and so Nigel Mansell needed a good result without Piquet scoring too well. The atmosphere in the Williams had deteriorated badly between the two drivers but as Ayrton Senna was out of the running for the World Championship there was no chance that the two could take points from one another as they had in 1986 and let a third driver win the title.

In qualifying the drivers found that the Mexico City track had become more bumpy and there were a series of big accidents, including one of Mansell, another for Ayrton Senna. Mansell was on pole from Gerhard Berger second in his Ferrari ahead of Piquet, Thierry Boutsen (Benetton-Ford), Alain Prost (McLaren), Teo Fabi (Benetton) and Senna. The top 10 was rounded off by Riccardo Patrese (Brabham-BMW), Michele Alboreto (Ferrari) and Andrea de Cesaris (Brabham).

At the start Mansell made a bad start and was overtaken by Berger, Boutsen, Piquet and Prost. At the first corner Piquet and Prost tangled and both cars spun. Prost was out but Piquet got going again. So Mansell was third. There were further incidents down through the field with Stefan Johansson being spinning and being eliminated when he was hit by Christian Danner.

At the front Boutsen took the lead from Berger on the second lap with Mansell a distant third but then the Benetton began to misfire and Berger went back into the lead and Boutsen went out with electronic trouble. Berger retired six laps later with an engine failure and with Alboreto also having disappeared Ferrari's race was over.

Mansell was thus left in the lead with Senna second and Patrese third and Piquet fourth. Then there were red flags after Derek Warwick (Arrows-Megatron) had a huge accident at the final corner when something broke at the back of his car.

A new grid was formed up based on the order of the cars before the crash with the race being decided on aggregate. Piquet took the lead at the restart but with Mansell sitting behind him there was no way he could win the race. In the closing laps Senna spun off and so Piquet ended up in second place having done enough to beat Patrese on aggregate. Eddie Cheever was fourth in his Arrows with Fabi fifth and Philippe Alliot sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda  63 1h26m24.207s  
Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda  63 1h26m50.383s  
Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  63 1h27m51.086s  
18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron  63 1h28m05.559s  12 
19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Cosworth  61  
30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Cosworth  60  24 
Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Cosworth  60  22 
Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Cosworth  60  25 
29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Cosworth  59  23 
12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda  54 Spin 
16 Ivan Capelli March-Cosworth  51 Engine 20 
21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo  50 Engine 26 
26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron  43 Engine Overheating 23 
23 Adrian Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni  32 Gear Linkage  19 
25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Megatron  29 Ignition 18 
17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron  26 Accident 11 
Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW  22 Spin 10 
28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari  20 Engine 
20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Cosworth  15 Electrics  
24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni  13 Turbo 14 
27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  12 Engine 
Martin Brundle Zakspeed  Turbo 13 
Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG Porsche  Accident 15 
11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda  Accident 18 
10 Christian Danner Zakspeed  Accident 17 
Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  Accident 
nq 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Cosworth    27