Mexican GP 1986

Mexican GP, 1986

It had been 16 years since the last Mexican GP and the autodrome had been completely rebuilt with a shorter circuit than the original but despite resurfacing work it was very bumpy. The only change from the field at the Portuguese GP was that AGS had not made the trip to Mexico. Qualifying was a familiar story with Ayrton Senna on pole in his JPS Lotus-Renault. Then came Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell in their Williams-Hondas with Gerhard Berger fourth in his Benetton-BMW. Next up was Riccardo Patrese (Brabham-BMW) ahead of Alain Prost (McLaren-TAG), Derek Warwick in the second Brabham, Patrick Tambay in the Haas Lola, Teo Fabi's Benetton and Philippe Alliot in the Ligier-Renault. The Ferraris were not competitive.

Mansell was in the position to win the World Championship if he could score a good result but at the start he made a mess of it and was left at the back of the field. Piquet and Senna were running first and second. Berger was third with Prost fourth. On the seventh lap Prost got ahead of Berger. Mansell charged up through the backmarkers but then had to pit for new tires. The only man not to do so was Berger, who reckoned that he might be able to go the distance on his Pirelli tires. When the other front-runners returned to action they were not able to close on Berger because the Goodyears were blistering in the heat.

Berger thus took his first Formula 1 victory, followed home by Prost and Senna, Piquet and Mansell were fourth and fifth while the final point went to Alliot.

As the F1 circus headed off to Australia Mansell was still in a dominant position in the World Championship six points clear of Prost and seven ahead of Piquet.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 20 Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW  68 1h33m18.700s  4 
2 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  68 1h33m44.138s  6 
3 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault  68 1h34m11.213s  1 
4 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda  67  2 
5 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda  67  3 
6 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault  67  10 
7 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW  66  21 
8 23 Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni  66  22 
9 17 Marc Surer Arrows-BMW  66  20 
10r 14 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed  65 Out Of Fuel 18 
11 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault  65  16 
12r 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari  64 Turbo 14 
13r 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  64 Accident 5 
14 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni  64  24 
15r 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Renault  63 Engine 13 
16 22 Christian Danner Osella-Alfa Romeo  61  26 
r 11 Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault  53 Battery 17 
r 8 Derek Warwick Brabham-BMW  37 Engine 7 
r 15 Alan Jones Lola-Hart  35 Gear Selection/radiator 15 
r 2 Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG Porsche  32 Puncture/suspension 11 
r 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  10 Turbo 12 
r 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault  8 Turbo 19 
r 21 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo  8 Turbo 25 
r 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW  4 Engine 9 
r 16 Patrick Tambay Lola-Hart  0 Accident 8 
ns 29 Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed   Accident 23