United States GP 1987

United States GP, 1987

The entry was unchanged from the field that had raced at Monaco three weeks earlier and as usual the battle for pole position was between the Honda-powered cars with Nigel Mansell fastest on this occasion with his Williams. Just behind him was Ayrton Senna's Lotus and Nelson Piquet's Williams. There was then a big gap back to Thierry Boutsen's Benetton-Ford, Alain Prost's McLaren-TAG, Eddie Cheever's Arrows-Megatron and Michele Alboreto's Ferrari. The top 10 was completed by Teo Fabi (Benetton), Riccardo Patrese (Brabham-BMW) and Derek Warwick in the second Arrows.

Mansell took the lead at the start and began to pull away from Senna while behind in the midfield Stefan Johansson (McLaren) damaged a front wing on the back of Warwick's Arrows and Satoru Nakajima (Lotus-Honda) crashed into the back of Ivan Capelli's Leyton House March and then managed to collide with Adrian Campos's Minardi at the next corner.

Behind the two front-runners Piquet had trouble keeping Cheever behind him and eventually gave himself a puncture when he tapped a wheel and had to pit for new tires. Cheever then had to fight to hold off Fabi and on lap seven the Benetton driver tried to pass and made a mess of it and ended up removing the nose of his car. Both drivers pitted, Fabi to retire and Cheever for new tires. He rejoined at the back. This left Alboreto third ahead of Boutsen and Prost and the only change in the next few laps was as Prost moved up ahead of the Benetton. Alboreto went out with gearbox failure and so Prost was third as the pit stops approached. During the stops Mansell had a wheel nut stick on his car and lost 10 seconds and that meant that Senna went into the lead with Mansell second, Prost third and Piquet, who had charged up through the field in fourth. Nelson continued his charge and overtook Prost and closed on Mansell, who was suffering from leg cramps. He eventually fell behind the Brazilian, Prost and Gerhard Berger (Ferrari).

Senna won at his ease with Piquet second and Prost third. The remaining points went to Berger, Mansell and the recovering Cheever.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda  63 1h50m16.358s  2 
2 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda  63 1h50m50.177s  3 
3 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  63 1h51m01.685s  5 
4 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari  63 1h51m18.959s  12 
5 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda  62  1 
6r 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron  60 Out Of Fuel 6 
7 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG Porsche  60  11 
8 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed  60  16 
9 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  60  9 
10 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Megatron  60  29 
11 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Cosworth  60  13 
12 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Cosworth  58  26 
r 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Cosworth  52 Brake Disc 4 
r 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron  51 Clutch 23 
r 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Cosworth  44 Accident 14 
r 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Cosworth  38 Accident 20 
r 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  25 Gearbox 7 
r 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni  22 Gearbox 18 
r 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed  16 Turbo/fire 15 
r 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron  12 Accident 10 
r 16 Ivan Capelli March-Cosworth  9 Battery 22 
r 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Cosworth  6 Accident 8 
r 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo  3 Gear Lever 19 
r 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW  2 Gearbox 17 
r 23 Adrian Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni  1 Accident 25 
r 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda  0 Accdident 24