San Marino GP 1987

San Marino GP, 1987

After the season-opening race in Brazil there was a three-week gap during which March finished building the first 871 chassis for Capelli. Osella expanded to two cars with the second being run by a youngster called Gabriele Tarquini, while Brundle had the first of Zakspeed's new 871 chassis. Ligier was back in action with Megatron-engined cars for Rene Arnoux and Piercarlo Ghinzani. In addition there was another new team in the form of Gerard Larrousse's Lola-Cosworth team which had employed Philippe Alliot.

In qualifying Nelson Piquet had a huge accident at Tamburello corner when he suffered a tire failure and was forbidden from racing by F1 doctor Sid Watkins. Goodyear decided that in the interests of safety it would fly in new tires overnight for Saturday qualifying. On Saturday afternoon Ayrton Senna took pole position in his Lotus-Honda with Nigel Mansell second quickest in his Williams-Honda. The second row featured Teo Fabi (Benetton-Ford) and Alain Prost (McLaren-TAG) with the Ferraris of Michele Alboreto and Gerhard Berger together on the third row. The top 10 was completed by Stefan Johansson (McLaren), Riccardo Patrese (Brabham-BMW) and the two Arrows-Megatrons of Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever.

Senna led from the start but on the second lap at Tosa, Mansell swept into the lead and began to pull away. On lap 6 Prost found a way ahead of Senna and then clawed his way up behind Mansell and stayed there. Prost's race ended, however, on lap 15 when the McLaren suffered an alternator failure. By then Alboreto had got ahead of Senna and so was in second place with Senna third and Patrese fourth. Mansell stopped earlier than planned for new tires but was still ahead when everyone reemerged from their first stops. Patrese had moved to second with Alboreto and Senna chasing. In the closing laps Patrese dropped back because he had used too much fuel and so Alboreto was second until he lost boost pressure and Senna went ahead again.

Mansell took the flag just under half a minute ahead of Senna with Alboreto third. Johansson was fourth, Martin Brundle fifth (scoring Zakspeed's first points) and Satoru Nakajima picking up sixth in his Lotus-Honda.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda  59 1h31m24.076s  2 
2 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda  59 1h31m51.621s  1 
3 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  59 1h32m03.220s  6 
4 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG Porsche  59 1h32m24.664s  8 
5 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed  57  14 
6 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda  57  12 
7 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed  57  17 
8 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Cosworth  57  20 
9 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  57  7 
10 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Cosworth  56  21 
11r 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron  55 Out Of Fuel 10 
12r 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo  54 Out Of Fuel 19 
13 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Cosworth  53  24 
r 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Cosworth  51 Turbo 4 
r 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Cosworth  48 Engine 11 
r 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron  48 Engine Overheating 9 
r 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Cosworth  48 Clutch 23 
r 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW  39 Spin 13 
r 23 Adrian Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni  30 Gearbox 16 
r 22 Gabriele Tarquini Osella-Alfa Romeo  26 Gearbox 25 
r 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni  25 Engine 15 
r 16 Ivan Capelli March-Cosworth  18 Distributor Rotor Arm 22 
r 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari  16 Electronics 5 
r 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  14 Alternator Belt 3 
r 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron  7 Handling 18 
ns 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda   Accident/injury 26 
ns 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Megatron   Suspension 27