The 1985 British Grand Prix (formally the XXXVIII Marlboro British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 21 July 1985. It was the eighth race of the 1985 Formula One World Championship.
The 65-lap race was won by Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-TAG, after he started from third position. Michele Alboreto finished second in a Ferrari, with Jacques Laffite third in a Ligier-Renault. The win, Prost's third of the season, moved him to within two points of Alboreto at the top of the Drivers' Championship.
Report
Silverstone, a circuit located on a former World War II airfield located between London and Birmingham in England was known for being the fastest circuit used by Formula One; it was even faster than Monza and the Österreichring. The circuit's layout back then was quite different and simpler compared to the current layout used from 2010 onwards. Silverstone alternated the British Grand Prix with Brands Hatch and each circuit would host it every 2nd year.
Qualifying saw Keke Rosberg underline Silverstone's incredibly high speed laps by taking pole in his Williams with a lap of 1:05.591. At an average speed of 160.9 mph (259 km/h), it stood as the fastest qualifying lap in F1 history for 17 years. Alongside Rosberg on the front row was Nelson Piquet in the Brabham, while Alain Prost in the McLaren and Ayrton Senna in the Lotus were on the second row. Nigel Mansell in the second Williams and championship leader Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari filled the third row, while on the fourth were Andrea de Cesaris in the Ligier and Elio de Angelis in the second Lotus. Teo Fabi in the Toleman and Niki Lauda in the second McLaren completed the top ten.
At the start of the race, Senna made a superb start and passed Prost, the slow-starting Piquet and Rosberg to take the lead, while Mansell moved up to third and de Cesaris to fifth. Behind them, four cars were eliminated at the first corner, Copse, as Patrick Tambay in the Renault lost control and was hit by the second Ferrari of Stefan Johansson, which also caused the Osella of Piercarlo Ghinzani and the RAM of Philippe Alliot to crash into each other.
Back at the front, de Cesaris passed Prost and then Mansell to be third, before Prost repassed the Ligier on lap 9. Prost later admitted he was apprehensive about being behind the Ligier thanks to the unpredictable de Cesaris' reputation for crashing. Mansell dropped out on lap 18 with a clutch failure, before team-mate Rosberg suffered a broken exhaust four laps later. Senna continued to lead, with Prost now second and Lauda up to third ahead of de Cesaris, Piquet and Alboreto. Prost and Lauda's McLaren-TAG/Porsche MP4/2B's performance through high-speed corners was far superior to that of any other car competing that year – something that was a feature of all of the original Silverstone's 8 corners (10 if the 3-turn sequence of the Woodcote chicane is counted).
Alboreto passed Piquet for fifth, before moving up to fourth on lap 42 when de Cesaris's clutch failed. By then, Senna and Prost were running nose-to-tail. The Frenchman finally passed the Brazilian on lap 58, Lauda's electrics failing on the same lap. Then Senna's fuel injection failed, promoting Alboreto to second, while Jacques Laffite in the second Ligier moved up to third ahead of Piquet.
The chequered flag was erroneously shown at the end of lap 65, one lap early, with Prost having lapped the entire field. Halfway around what was meant to have been the final lap, Laffite ran out of fuel, which annoyed Piquet – he would have thus taken the final podium place had the error not been made. The final points were taken by Derek Warwick in the second Renault and Marc Surer in the second Brabham.
In the Drivers' Championship, Prost moved to within two points of Alboreto, while in the Constructors' Championship McLaren moved up to second, 18 points behind Ferrari.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 1:06.107 1:05.591 2 7 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:08.933 1:06.249 +0.658 3 2 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:06.308 1:08.532 +0.717 4 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:06.324 1:06.794 +0.733 5 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:09.080 1:06.675 +1.084 6 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:06.793 1:07.427 +1.202 7 25 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 1:11.082 1:07.448 +1.857 8 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 1:07.581 1:07.696 +1.990 9 19 Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 1:07.678 1:07.871 +2.087 10 1 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 1:07.743 1:09.001 +2.152 11 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:08.169 1:07.887 +2.296 12 16 Derek Warwick Renault 1:08.238 1:08.604 +2.647 13 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 1:09.898 1:08.240 +2.649 14 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 1:08.384 1:10.110 +2.793 15 8 Marc Surer Brabham-BMW 1:09.572 1:08.587 +2.996 16 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 1:10.756 1:08.656 +3.065 17 17 Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 1:09.870 1:08.672 +3.081 18 9 Manfred Winkelhock RAM-Hart 1:10.299 1:09.114 +3.523 19 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:09.413 1:09.131 +3.540 20 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 1:10.718 1:09.242 +3.651 21 10 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 1:11.162 1:09.609 +4.018 22 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 1:11.072 1:10.345 +4.754 23 29 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:13.645 1:15.363 +8.054 24 30 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 1:17.856 1:13.713 +8.122 25 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:16.400 no time +10.809 26 4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.009 1:16.596 +11.005
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 2 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 65 1:18:10.436 3 9 2 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 64 + 1 Lap 6 6 3 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 64 + 1 Lap 16 4 4 7 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 64 + 1 Lap 2 3 5 16 Derek Warwick Renault 64 + 1 Lap 12 2 6 8 Marc Surer Brabham-BMW 63 + 2 Laps 15 1 7 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 63 + 2 Laps 20 8 17 Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 63 + 2 Laps 17 9 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 62 + 3 Laps 14 10 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 60 Fuel injection, electronics 4 11 4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 59 + 6 Laps 26 1 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 57 Electrical 10 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 57 Spun Off 19 25 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 41 Clutch 7 29 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 38 Transmission 23 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 37 + 28 Laps 8 9 Manfred Winkelhock RAM-Hart 28 Turbo 18 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 21 Exhaust 1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 17 Clutch 5 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 17 Turbo 22 30 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 6 Engine 24 19 Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 4 Transmission 9 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1 Accident 11 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 0 Collision 13 10 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 0 Accident 21 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 0 Accident 25 Source:
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michele Alboreto 37 2 Alain Prost 35 3 Elio de Angelis 26 4 Keke Rosberg 18 5 Stefan Johansson 16Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 56 2 McLaren-TAG 38 3 Lotus-Renault 35 4 Williams-Honda 23 5 Renault 15Source:
References