1985 South African Grand Prix

 1985 South African Grand Prix

Racing data
15th of 16 races in the 1985 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	XIV Grand Prix of South Africa
Date:	October 19, 1985
Place:	Midrand
Course:	Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
Length:	307.8 km in 75 laps of 4.104 km
Weather:	sunny and hot
Spectator:	~ 75,000
Pole position
Driver:	Nigel Mansell	Williams
Time:	1: 02.336 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Keke Rosberg	Williams
Time:	1: 08.149 min
Podium
First:	Nigel Mansell	Williams
Second:	Keke Rosberg	Williams
Third:	Alain Prost	McLaren

The 1985 South African Grand Prix took place on October 19th at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and was the 15th race of the 1985 Formula 1 World Championship .

Reports

background

The South African Grand Prix took place in 1985 as the penultimate race of the season. The drivers' world championship had been decided in favor of Alain Prost since the European Grand Prix two weeks earlier .

In protest against the political system in South Africa, the Renault and Ligier teams did not compete. RAM Racing decided not to participate for financial reasons. Since the Zakspeed team was also not present, only 21 vehicles were registered for the race weekend.

Niki Lauda returned to the field after several weeks of injury. Philippe Streiff , who actually could not have started due to Ligier's absence, was given the second cockpit of the Tyrrell team instead of Ivan Capelli .

The 1985 South African Grand Prix is ​​still the last race to be held on a Saturday. Since then, all races have taken place on a Sunday.

training

Nigel Mansell , who had achieved his first Grand Prix victory at Brands Hatch two weeks earlier , qualified for pole position from Nelson Piquet , Keke Rosberg and Ayrton Senna . Marc Surer and Elio de Angelis formed the third row on the grid.

run

Officially due to illness, Alan Jones withdrew his participation the morning before the race. But the real background was a controversy about politics in Africa and human rights activist Jesse Jackson , so only 20 cars started.

Since the two Alfa Romeo drivers Eddie Cheever and Riccardo Patrese collided and retired shortly after the start , the number was even reduced to 18 vehicles. Mansell took the lead ahead of Piquet, Surer, de Angelis and Senna.

Rosberg, who had dropped to fifth place before the first corner due to a shift error, was back in second place behind his teammates by the fifth lap. One of the reasons for this was that the two Brabham drivers Piquet and Surer retired due to engine damage. Behind the two Williams drivers in the lead, Lotus team- mates Senna and de Angelis dueled for third place.

On the eighth lap, Rosberg briefly took the lead, but then ran into oil, which had been left behind by Piercarlo Ghinzani's engine that had just blown out on the track, and fell to fifth place behind Mansell and de Angelis and the two McLaren drivers Cheers and Lauda back. Senna had retired on the previous lap due to an engine failure.

On lap ten, both McLaren drivers overtook de Angelis. Rosberg succeeded in doing this seven laps later. Most of the pilots at the top made a pit stop to change tires. Meanwhile, Lauda had to give up due to a turbocharger damage, so that Rosberg got back third place without a fight. In the 71st lap he finally passed Prost and thus secured the first Williams double victory since the 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix . As Elio de Angelis had to retire on lap 53 due to an engine failure, fourth place went to Stefan Johansson . Behind them followed the two Arrows pilots Gerhard Berger and Thierry Boutsen . Only seven drivers made it to the finish.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Marlboro McLaren International	1	Niki Lauda	McLaren MP4 / 2B	TAG / Porsche TTE PO1 1.5 V6 t	G
	2	Alain Prost
Tyrrell Racing Organization	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell 014	Renault EF4B 1.5 V6 t	G
	4th	Philippe Streiff
Canon Williams Honda Team	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams FW10	Honda RA163-E 1.5 V6 t	G
	6th	Keke Rosberg
Motor Racing Developments	7th	Nelson Piquet	Brabham BT54	BMW M12 / 13 1.5 L4 t	P
	8th	Marc Surer
John Player Special Team Lotus	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus 97T	Renault EF4 1.5 V6 t	G
	12	Ayrton Senna
Barclay Arrows BMW	17th	Gerhard Berger	Arrows A8	BMW M12 / 13 1.5 L4 t	G
	18th	Thierry Boutsen
Toleman Group Motorsport	19th	Teo Fabi	Toleman TG185	Hart 415T 1.5 L4 t	P
	20th	Piercarlo Ghinzani
Benetton Team Alfa Romeo	22nd	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo 184TB	Alfa Romeo 890T 1.5 V8 t	G
	23	Eddie Cheever
Osella Squadra Corse	24	Huub Rothengatter	Osella FA1G		P
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari 156/85	Ferrari 031 1.5 V6 t	G
	28	Stefan Johansson
Minardi F1 team	29	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi M185	Motori Moderni 615-90 1.5 V6 t	P
Team Haas (USA) Ltd	33	Alan Jones	Lola THL1	Hart 415T 1.5 L4 t	G

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Qualification training 1		Qualification training 2		begin
			time	Ø speed	time	Ø speed
01	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	1: 03.188	233.817 km / h	1: 02.366	236.898 km / h	01
02	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	1: 03.844	231.414 km / h	1: 02.490	236.428 km / h	02
03	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	1: 03.073	234.243 km / h	1: 02.504	236.375 km / h	03
04th	Ayrton Senna	Lotus Renault	1: 04.517	229,000 km / h	1: 02.825	235.168 km / h	04th
05	Marc Surer	Brabham-BMW	1: 05.411	225.870 km / h	1: 04.088	230.533 km / h	05
06th	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Renault	1: 04.611	228.667 km / h	1: 04.129	230.386 km / h	06th
07th	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	1: 06.083	223.573 km / h	1: 04.215	230.077 km / h	07th
08th	Niki Lauda	McLaren TAG Porsche	1: 05.357	226.057 km / h	1: 04.283	229.834 km / h	08th
09	Alain Prost	McLaren TAG Porsche	1: 05.757	224.682 km / h	1: 04.376	229.502 km / h	09
10	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows BMW	1: 05.079	227.023 km / h	1: 04.518	228.997 km / h	10
11	Gerhard Berger	Arrows BMW	1: 06.546	222.018 km / h	1: 04.780	228.070 km / h	11
12	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	1: 06.386	222.553 km / h	1: 04.948	227.480 km / h	12
13	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Toleman-Hart	1: 07.800	217.912 km / h	1: 05.114	226.901 km / h	13
14th	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	1: 07.159	219.991 km / h	1: 05.260	226.393 km / h	14th
15th	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1: 05.268	226.365 km / h	1: 05.757	224.682 km / h	15th
16	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	1: 05,406	225.888 km / h	1: 05.388	225.950 km / h	16
17th	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell Renault	1: 06.709	221.475 km / h	1: 05.649	225.051 km / h	17th
18th	Alan Jones	Lola-Hart	1: 07.144	220.041 km / h	1: 05.731	224.771 km / h	DNS
19th	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell Renault	1: 07.935	217.478 km / h	1: 06.205	223.161 km / h	18th
20th	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1: 10.025	210.988 km / h	1: 08.658	215.188 km / h	19th
21st	Huub Rothengatter	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1: 09.904	211.353 km / h	1: 09.873	211.446 km / h	20th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	75	1	1: 28: 22.866	01	1: 08.518
02	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	75	2	+ 7.572	03	1: 08.149
03	Alain Prost	McLaren TAG Porsche	75	1	+1: 51.794	09	1: 08.713
04th	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	74	1	+ 1 lap	16	1: 10.413
05	Gerhard Berger	Arrows BMW	74	1	+ 1 lap	11	1: 10.258
06th	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows BMW	74	2	+ 1 lap	10	1: 09.230
07th	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell Renault	73	2	+ 2 rounds	17th	1: 10.339
-	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Renault	52	1	DNF	06th	1: 09.960	Engine failure
-	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	45	0	DNF	19th	1: 14.428	defective water cooler
-	Niki Lauda	McLaren TAG Porsche	37	1	DNF	08th	1: 09,500	Turbocharger damage
-	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell Renault	16	0	DNF	18th	1: 11.404	Driving error
-	Ayrton Senna	Lotus Renault	08th	0	DNF	04th	1: 10.077	Engine failure
-	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	08th	0	DNF	15th	1: 10.850	Turbocharger damage
-	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	06th	1	DNF	02	1: 10.476	Engine failure
-	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Toleman-Hart	04th	2	DNF	13	1: 29.450	Engine failure
-	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	03	0	DNF	07th	1: 12.035	Engine failure
-	Marc Surer	Brabham-BMW	03	0	DNF	05	1: 12,100	Engine failure
-	Huub Rothengatter	Osella-Alfa Romeo	01	0	DNF	20th	1: 29.792	Electrical damage
-	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	00	0	DNF	12	-	collision
-	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	00	0	DNF	14th	-	collision

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Alain Prost McLaren 73 (76) 02  Michele Alboreto Ferrari 53 03  Ayrton Senna lotus 38 04th  Elio de Angelis lotus 33 05  Keke Rosberg Williams 31 06th  Nigel Mansell Williams 31 07th  Stefan Johansson Ferrari 24 08th  Nelson Piquet Brabham 21st 09  Niki Lauda McLaren 14th

Item driver constructor Points 10  Patrick Tambay Renault 11 11  Thierry Boutsen Arrows 11 12  Jacques Laffite Ligier 10 13  Derek Warwick Renault 5 14th  Marc Surer Brabham 5 15th  Stefan Bellof Tyrrell 4th 16  René Arnoux Ferrari 3 17th  Andrea de Cesaris Ligier 3 18th  Gerhard Berger Arrows 2

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  McLaren 90 02  Ferrari 80 03  lotus 71 04th  Williams 62 05  Brabham 26th

Item constructor Points 06th  Renault 16 07th  Arrows 13 08th  Ligier 13 09  Tyrrell 4th

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Motorsportarchiv.de: "Overview" ( Memento from February 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on April 23, 2013)
2. ↑ iforsports.com: Former F1 champion: I was paid by Ecclestone to fake illness and miss Grand Prix (accessed August 7, 2017)
3. ↑ grandprix.com: "Report" (accessed April 23, 2013)
4. ^ Motorsportarchiv.de: "WM-Stände" ( Memento from February 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on April 23, 2013)

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website