United States GP 1986

United States GP, 1986

With Patrick Tambay recovering from his leg injuries from Canada, the Beatrice Lola team hired Eddie Cheever for the weekend, while Christian Danner transferred from Osella to Arrows to replace the injured Marc Surer and so Canadian Allen Berg took over the second of the Italian cars.

Qualifying resulted in another pole position for Ayrton Senna in his Lotus-Renault with the two Williams-Hondas of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet second and third. Rene Arnoux was fourth in the Ligier-Renault ahead of Stefan Johansson's Ferrari and Jacques Laffite in the second Ligier. Then came Alain Prost's McLaren-TAG, Riccardo Patrese's Brabham-BMW, Keke Rosberg's McLaren and Cheever.

At the start Senna took the lead with Mansell second under pressure from Arnoux. On the second lap Senna missed a gear and Mansell went ahead, quickly leaving Senna to fight with Arnoux. Mansell was in trouble with brakes, however, and so Senna was soon able to catch him again and on the eighth lap Senna took the lead again. He was also on harder tires than Mansell so he was well placed for a victory. Mansell dropped back behind Arnoux and Laffite. On lap 12, however, Senna had a puncture and had to pit and so there was a Ligier 1-2 with Arnoux leading Laffite for a couple of laps before Jacques went ahead. Mansell was third with Prost fourth, Piquet fifth and Senna sixth. The pit stops got rid of the Ligiers as a competitive force, the team being much slower than the other front-runners and with Piquet and Mansell both slower than they should have been, Senna was ahead again when the stops were over. Piquet then crashed and the car was hit by Arnoux, who then tried to keep going and reversed into the path of Thierry Boutsen's Arrows. This left Senna a long way ahead of Prost with Laffite third and closing. Prost had a misfire and could do nothing to stop Laffite taking second before the finish.

Fourth place went to Alboreto with Mansell fifth after he had been up an escape road and Patrese was sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault  63 1h51m12.847s  1 
2 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault  63 1h51m43.864s  6 
3 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  63 1h51m44.671s  7 
4 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  63 1h52m43.783s  11 
5 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda  62  2 
6 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  62  8 
7 11 Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault  61  14 
8 14 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed  61  20 
9 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault  61  18 
10 8 Derek Warwick Brabham-BMW  60  15 
r 17 Christian Danner Arrows-BMW  51 Fuel Metering Unit 19 
r 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Renault  46 Accident 4 
r 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW  44 Accident 13 
r 23 Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni  43 Differential 23 
r 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda  41 Accident 3 
r 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari  40 Alternator 5 
r 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW  38 Gearbox 17 
r 16 Eddie Cheever Lola-Hart  37 Drive Pegs 10 
r 15 Alan Jones Lola-Hart  33 Drive Pegs 21 
r 22 Allen Berg Osella-Alfa Romeo  28 Electrics 25 
r 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault  15 Electrics 16 
r 21 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo  14 Turbo 22 
r 2 Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG Porsche  12 Gearbox 9 
r 20 Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW  8 Ignition 12 
r 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni  3 Turbo 24 
r 29 Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed  -1 Electrics 26