Belgian GP 1986

Belgian GP, 1986

In the fortnight between Monaco and Belgium, there was a test at Paul Ricard and a rear wing failure on his Brabham caused Elio de Angelis to crash. The car cartwheeled over the barriers and landed upside down. The ill-equipped marshals were unable to turn it over and a fire broke out. This was put out and de Angelis was released and, after a lengthy wait for a helicopter, he was flown to hospital in Marseilles where he died. It was a shameful incident and one which led to the introduction of new safety standards for F1 tests but the sport had again lost one of its leading names. The Brabham team decided to run only Riccardo Patrese for the Belgian race. The field was otherwise unchanged.

There was a big surprise in qualifying as Gerhard Berger qualified his Brabham-BMW second behind Nelson Piquet's Williams-Honda. Alain Prost was third in his McLaren ahead of World Championship leader Ayrton Senna. Nigel Mansell was fifth in his Williams-Honda with Teo Fabi (Benetton), Rene Arnoux (Ligier-Renault), Keke Rosberg (McLaren), Michele Alboreto (Ferrari) and Patrick Tambay (Lola-Ford) completing the top 10.

Piquet made a good start to take the lead to go into the lead while Berger was slow away and found was between Senna and Prost at the hairpin. Prost and Berger collided and there was chaos behind them. When the dust settled Tambay was out with a broken suspension but everyone else was still going, albeit with some damage. This meant that Piquet was clear of Senna with Mansell third, Stefan Johansson (Ferrari) fourth, Johnny Dumfries (Lotus) fifth and Jacques Laffite (Ligier) sixth. Mansell quickly overhauled Senna but on lap five he spun and was overtaken by Senna and Johansson. Dumfries spun off and so Alboreto moved to fifth having passed the Ligiers, Arnoux having overtaken Laffite. Rene's race would end soon afterwards with a blown engine. Soon afterwards Piquet disappeared with another BMW engine failure and so Senna went into the lead with Mansell closing in. The pit stops resulted in Mansell getting ahead of Senna with Alboreto third and Johansson fourth. Senna closed in on Mansell but after a battle Mansell pulled away to win. Senna was second while the two Ferraris battled for third, Johansson eventually coming out ahead of Alboreto. Laffite was fifth with Prost salvaging one point for sixth place.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda  43 1h27m57.925s  5 
2 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault  43 1h28m17.752s  4 
3 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari  43 1h28m24.517s  11 
4 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  43 1h28m27.559s  9 
5 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault  43 1h29m08.615s  17 
6 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  43 1h30m15.697s  3 
7 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW  42  6 
8 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  42  15 
9 17 Marc Surer Arrows-BMW  41  21 
10 20 Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW  41  2 
11r 15 Alan Jones Lola-Hart  40 Out Of Fuel 16 
12 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault  40  18 
nc 14 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed  37  20 
r 23 Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni  35 Out Of Fuel 19 
r 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault  25 Gearbox 12 
r 29 Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed  25 Alternator 23 
r 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni  24 Gearbox 22 
r 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Renault  23 Engine 7 
r 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda  16 Turbo Boost Control 1 
r 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW  7 Electrics 14 
r 11 Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault  7 Spin/radiator 13 
r 2 Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG Porsche  6 Engine 8 
r 21 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo  3 Engine 24 
r 22 Christian Danner Osella-Alfa Romeo  2 Engines 25 
r 16 Patrick Tambay Lola-Hart  0 Accident 10