Portuguese GP 1987

Portuguese GP, 1987

The Coloni team ddi not reappear in Portugal but Osella continued to run a second car for Franco Forini. Ferrari's progress throughout the summer months was confirmed with Gerhard Berger taking pole position ahead of Nigel Mansell's Williams-Honda, Alain Prost's McLaren and Nelson Piquet's Williams. Ayrton Senna was fifth in his Lotus-Honda and the top 10 was completed by Michele Alboreto in the second Ferrari, Riccardo Patrese's Brabham, Stefan Johansson's McLaren and the two Benetton-Fords of Thierry Boutsen and Teo Fabi.

At the start Mansell took the lead from Berger but behind them Alboreto collided with Piquet. Derek Warwick spun his Arrows to avoid them and then Satoru Nakajima (Lotus) collided with Martin Brundle (Zakspeed) and the rest of the field piled into the wrecks. The result was that Adrian Campos (Minardi), Christian Danner (Zakspeed), Rene Arnoux (Ligier), Philippe Alliot (Larrousse Lola) and Eddie Cheever (Arrows) were also involved.

There was a red flag.

At the restart everyone was able to start apart from Danner and Mansell went into the lead again. At the end of the first lap, however, Berger took the lead and with Senna fighting off Piquet for third place the race began to settle down. It took Piquet until the eleventh lap to overtake Senna. Mansell pressured Berger early on but then dropped away as his engine began to misfire and on lap 14 stopped on the circuit. Senna slowed and went into the pits with an electronic problem while Alboreto closed up on Piquet and began to make life difficult for the Brazilian. He eventually got ahead but Piquet soon retaliated. The mid-race pitstops elevated Prost to second place ahead of Piquet and Fabi, while Alboreto disappeared with a transmission failure. The order remained unchanged until the closing laps as Prost gradually closed on Berger and put the Austrian under pressure. On lap 68 of 70 Berger crumbled under the pressure and spun. Prost was in the lead and duly won his 28th victory, to beat Jackie Stewart's long-established record of 27 Grand Prix victories.

A disappointed Berger was second with Piquet third, Fabi fourth, Johansson fifth and Cheever sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  70 1h37m03.906s  3 
2 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari  70 1h37m24.399s  1 
3 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda  70 1h38m07.201s  4 
4r 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Cosworth  69 Out Of Fuel 10 
5 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG Porsche  69  8 
6 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron  68  11 
7 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda  68  5 
8 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda  68  5 
9 16 Ivan Capelli March-Cosworth  67  22 
10 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Cosworth  67  24 
11r 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni  66 Out Of Fuel 14 
12 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Cosworth  66  21 
13 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron  66  12 
14 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Cosworth  64  9 
r 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW  54 Injector Pipe 13 
r 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  38 Gear Linkage 6 
r 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed  35 Gearbox 17 
r 22 Franco Forini Osella-Alfa Romeo  32 Rear Wheel Bearing 26 
r 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Cosworth  31 Fuel Pump  19 
r 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Megatron  29 Intercooler  18 
r 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo  27 Turbo 25 
r 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron  24 Clutch/ignition 23 
r 23 Adrian Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni  24 Intercooler 20 
r 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda  13 Electrics 2 
r 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  13 Engine 7 
r 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed  0 Accident 16 
nq 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Cosworth    27