The 1987 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 17 May 1987 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Francorchamps, Wallonia. Contested over 43 laps, the race was the 45th Belgian Grand Prix, the 33rd to be held at Spa and the fourth since the circuit was redeveloped in 1979, and the third race of the 1987 Formula One season.
The race was won by France's Alain Prost driving a McLaren-TAG. This was Prost's second victory of the 1987 season and his second in the Belgian Grand Prix (after 1983), as well as his 27th Grand Prix victory overall, equalling Jackie Stewart's all-time record. Prost's Swedish team-mate Stefan Johansson finished second, the only other driver on the same lap, giving McLaren their first 1-2 finish since the previous year's Monaco Grand Prix. Italy's Andrea de Cesaris, driving a Brabham-BMW, finished third despite having to push his car over the line as he had run out of fuel.
The win gave Prost a five-point lead over Johansson in the Drivers' Championship. Williams driver Nigel Mansell was three points further back; a first-lap collision with Ayrton Senna's Lotus had ultimately led to his retirement from the race, after which he angrily confronted the Brazilian driver in the Lotus garage.
Background The event, officially called the Grand Prix de Belgique, was held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps outside the Belgian village of Francorchamps. Untimed free practice sessions were held on the mornings of Friday 15 May, Saturday 16 May, and Sunday 17 May 1987, with timed qualifying practice sessions held on the Friday and Saturday afternoons and the main Grand Prix race itself held on the Sunday afternoon. Twenty-six cars were entered by fifteen constructors. All teams used Goodyear tyres. Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS), Arrows, Benetton Formula, Scuderia Ferrari, Ligier, Team Lotus, McLaren, Minardi, Tyrrell Racing, Williams, and Zakspeed had all modified their cars to varying extents ahead of this event. Friday practice was wet with temperatures below . The race was held in dry conditions with temperatures around .
Race summary Qualifying runs saw the two Williams FW11Bs take the front row, with Nigel Mansell on the pole, nearly 1.5 seconds faster than Nelson Piquet. Certainly, Piquet was still suffering the results of his accident at Imola. Ayrton Senna took the third place in his Lotus 99T ahead of the two Ferrari F1/87s of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto.
The race required two starts. On the first start Mansell took the lead ahead of Senna, Piquet and Alboreto. At the back of the grid René Arnoux (Ligier JS29B) and Andrea de Cesaris (Brabham BT56) tangled, whilst Thierry Boutsen (Benetton B187) hit Berger's spinning Ferrari F1/87. A more serious accident befell Philippe Streiff who crashed heavily at the Eau Rouge before the wreckage was hit by Tyrrell teammate Jonathan Palmer; both were unhurt but their Tyrrell DG016s were reduced to scrap. The accident was of such impact that Streiff's car was split in two. By virtue of qualifying 23rd to his teammate's 24th, and ironically by crashing first, Streiff was given the spare car for the restart forcing Palmer out of the race.
On the second start, Senna led Mansell away, but during lap one the Briton tried to overtake the Brazilian on the outside of the Fagnes chicane. The two controversially tangled, leading to the retirement of the Lotus 99T. Mansell rejoined the race at the back, until the damage sustained in the collision finally forced him to retire on lap 17. Mansell subsequently visited the Lotus garage where harsh words were exchanged and punches were thrown.
Berger retired on lap three with a broken piston whilst on lap 10 second place Michele Alboreto's wheel bearing broke and Nelson Piquet retired with a broken turbo pipe, handing the lead to Alain Prost from Teo Fabi and Stefan Johansson. It was a disappointing day for Ferrari, with Berger having retired earlier with smoke pouring from the back of the car. The pitstops changed little in the situation, and he maintained this to win easily by 25 seconds, despite concerns with his fuel consumption due to a faulty gauge. This was a race of attrition, with Thierry Boutsen's spare Benetton's drive shaft having failed, his teammate Fabi suffering an engine failure, and Patrese’s Brabham suffering electrical problems.
This was Prost's 27th win, equalling Jackie Stewart's record with team-mate Johansson making it a McLaren 1-2. Andrea de Cesaris drove superbly to finish third for Brabham despite having to push his car over the line with Eddie Cheever (Arrows A10), Satoru Nakajima (Lotus 99T) and Arnoux taking the remaining points. With the setbacks to the Tyrrell drivers, the Jim Clark points were won by the Lola LC87 of Philippe Alliot, who at one point spun in front of Prost before Pouhon while being lapped, giving him a minor scare. , this was also the last time that the Belgian Grand Prix was held at the beginning of the season; since 1988, it has always been held in July, August or September.
Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap Grid 1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 2:06.965 1:52.026 — 1 2 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 2:08.143 1:53.416 +1.390 2 3 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 2:08.450 1:53.426 +1.400 3 4 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 2:06.216 1:53.451 +1.425 4 5 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 2:07.459 1:53.511 +1.485 5 6 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 2:11.203 1:54.186 +2.160 6 7 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 2:08.752 1:54.300 +2.274 7 8 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 2:12.914 1:55.064 +3.038 8 9 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 2:12.358 1:55.339 +3.313 9 10 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 2:12.063 1:55.781 +3.755 10 11 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 2:15.321 1:55.899 +3.873 11 12 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 2:10.946 1:56.359 +4.333 12 13 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 2:13.871 1:57.101 +5.075 13 14 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 2:09.650 1:58.132 +6.106 14 15 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 2:11.441 1:58.649 +6.623 15 16 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 2:15.012 1:59.117 +7.091 16 17 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 2:15.339 1:59.291 +7.265 17 18 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed 2:14.432 2:00.433 +8.407 18 19 23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 2:14.945 2:00.763 +8.737 19 20 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed 2:20.610 2:01.072 +9.046 20 21 16 Ivan Capelli March-Ford 2:13.355 2:02.036 +10.010 21 22 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 2:13.082 2:02.347 +10.321 22 23 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 2:18.900 2:03.098 +11.072 23 24 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 2:14.931 2:04.677 +12.651 24 25 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 2:26.498 2:07.361 +15.335 25 26 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 2:16.268 2:12.086 +20.060 26Source:
Race Numbers in brackets refer to positions of normally aspirated entrants competing for the Jim Clark Trophy. Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 43 1:27:03.217 6 9 2 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 43 +24.764 10 6 3 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 42 Out of fuel 13 4 4 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 42 +1 lap 11 3 5 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 42 +1 lap 15 2 6 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 41 +2 laps 16 1 7 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 40 Out of fuel 17 8 (1) 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 40 +3 laps 22 9 (2) 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 39 +4 laps 23 10 (3) 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 38 Ignition 25 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 34 Engine 9 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed 19 Overheating 18 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 18 Wheel bearing 7 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 17 Accident 1 16 Ivan Capelli March-Ford 14 Engine 21 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 11 Exhaust 2 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 11 Fuel leak 26 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 9 Transmission 5 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed 9 Brakes 20 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 8 Radiator 12 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 5 Clutch 8 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 2 Engine 4 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1 Turbo 14 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 0 Collision 3 23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 0 Gearbox 19 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 0 Collision 24
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Alain Prost 18 2 Stefan Johansson 13 3 Nigel Mansell 10 4 Nelson Piquet 6 5 Ayrton Senna 6Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-TAG31 2 Williams-Honda16 3 Lotus-Honda9 4 Ferrari7 5 Brabham-BMW4Source:
Jim Clark Trophy standings PosDriverPoints 1 Philippe Streiff 21 2 Philippe Alliot 15 3 Pascal Fabre 12 4 Jonathan Palmer 9
Colin Chapman trophy standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Tyrrell-Ford30 2 Lola-Ford15 3 AGS-Ford12
Note: Only the top five positions are included for all four sets of standings.
References