1987 French Grand Prix

March 2019 F1 France French Paul Ricard 1986.png Grand Prix de France 5 July 1987 6 16 Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France Permanent racing facility 2.369 3.813 80 189.543 305.040 Sunny and hot Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:06.454 UK Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:09.548 68 Brazil 1968 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda UK Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda Brazil 1968 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG France FRA The 1987 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 5 July 1987 at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet. It was the sixth race of the 1987 Formula One World Championship. It was the 65th French Grand Prix and the eleventh to be held at Paul Ricard, and the second to be held on the shortened version of the circuit. The race was held over 80 laps of the 3.813 km mi on circuit for a race distance of 305.040 km mi. The race was won by British driver Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda, after he started from pole position. Mansell took his second victory of the season by 7.7 seconds from Brazilian teammate Nelson Piquet, with local driver Alain Prost third in a McLaren-TAG. Drivers' Championship leader, Brazilian Ayrton Senna, finished fourth in his Lotus-Honda, which was enough for him to retain the championship lead by one point over Prost, with Piquet and Mansell three and six points behind respectively. Race summary Qualifying For the first time since the 1986 Mexican Grand Prix, a non-Honda powered car was on the front row in the shape of the McLaren-TAG of Alain Prost, who qualified second. The pole position was taken once again by Nigel Mansell in his Williams-Honda, while the second row was occupied by Ayrton Senna's Lotus-Honda and Nelson Piquet's Williams. The fast nature of the circuit clearly suited the turbo cars: the best placed non-turbo driver was Ivan Capelli in the March 871 in 22nd place, about six seconds off the pace and 50 km/h 0 on slower on the Mistral Straight than the Williams-Hondas. Showing the advances in engine development, aerodynamics and tyres, on his pole lap Mansell was timed at 325 km/h 0 on on the Mistral. Even though the Mistral used in 1987 was some 800 metres shorter than when Formula One last used the full circuit at Paul Ricard in 1985, the sheer acceleration and top speed of the Williams-Hondas was comparable to the top speeds seen at the circuit from the 1985 season cars. During qualifying Arrows driver Derek Warwick gave a view on the strength of the turbocharged Honda RA167-E V6 engine and the acceleration advantage Williams had over the field since the opening round in Brazil. He noted that on one lap he entered the Mistral approximately 50 metres ahead of Piquet's Williams. Despite the known power of the Megatron (formerly BMW) turbo, Warwick claimed by the time they got to Signes just over one kilometre later the acceleration of the Honda had seen Piquet around 100 metres ahead of the Arrows A10. Race At the lights, Michele Alboreto jumped the start, whilst his Ferrari teammate Gerhard Berger stalled. Nigel Mansell led away and was joined by teammate Nelson Piquet at the front after he passed Prost on the Mistral Straight. Eddie Cheever retired his Arrows A10 on lap one after accidentally setting off the fire extinguisher whilst attempting to adjust the turbo boost. Andrea de Cesaris (Brabham BT56) then collided with Stefan Johansson, the McLaren requiring a pit stop for a damaged nosecone; the debris of his car caused some trouble to Mansell who ran into them. Mansell, Piquet and Prost were engaged in a gripping battle for the lead, separated by just two seconds. On lap 19, Piquet spun and Prost passed him for second. Meanwhile, Senna was holding onto a creditable fourth place. On lap 30, Piquet pitted for new tyres, followed two laps later by Senna. Meanwhile, Thierry Boutsen (Benetton B187) retired with electrical failure. Both Mansell and Prost came in for new tyres on lap 36, handing the lead to Piquet. Mansell completed his stop and closed rapidly on Piquet, breaking fastest lap records. On lap 46, at the Le Beausset corner, Piquet made an error and Mansell passed him on the inside to take a lead he would not lose. On lap 65 Piquet made a second stop which went wrong when the engine stalled, delaying him by an additional eight seconds. After exiting the pits, he caught and passed Prost (who was dealing with an electrical problem) on lap 67. Piquet was about 20 seconds behind Mansell, but on the final laps he was gaining at two seconds a lap. With seven laps to go, the gap was reduced to just 13 seconds, but Mansell paced himself to win by 7.7 seconds. Johansson had fought courageously up to sixth place after two pit stops to repair damages on his McLaren, but retired just five laps from the chequered flag. In his home race, Prost took the final podium place some 48 seconds behind Piquet. Senna finished fourth ahead of Teo Fabi's Benetton B187 in fifth. Philippe Streiff drove a superb race to take his first World Championship point and the victory for the Jim Clark Trophy in his Tyrrell-Ford. Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 5 GBR Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:06.454 1:06.705 2 1 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:06.877 1:07.843 +0.423 3 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 1:07.303 1:07.024 +0.570 4 6 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:07.270 1:07.140 +0.686 5 20 BEL Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:08.077 1:08.176 +1.623 6 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:08.198 1:08.335 +1.744 7 19 ITA Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 1:08.293 1:11.815 +1.839 8 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:08.390 1:08.916 +1.936 9 2 SWE Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 1:08.577 1:09.095 +2.123 10 17 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:09.256 1:08.800 +2.346 11 8 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 1:09.499 1:08.949 +2.495 12 7 ITA Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:09.458 1:08.993 +2.539 13 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 1:09.430 1:09.970 +2.976 14 18 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:09.828 1:09.869 +3.374 15 24 ITA Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:10.388 1:09.868 +3.414 16 11 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:12.268 1:10.652 +4.198 17 26 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 1:10.798 1:10.900 +4.344 18 9 GBR Martin Brundle Zakspeed 1:11.451 1:11.170 +4.716 19 10 FRG Christian Danner Zakspeed 1:11.456 1:11.389 +4.935 20 21 ITA Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:12.167 1:12.555 +5.713 21 23 ESP Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:13.145 1:12.551 +6.097 22 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Ford 1:13.204 1:12.654 +6.200 23 30 France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:13.026 1:14.422 +6.572 24 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:13.443 1:13.474 +6.989 25 4 FRA Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 1:13.553 1:13.525 +7.071 26 14 FRA Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 1:14.699 1:14.787 +8.245Source:French Grand Prix – Qualifying 1 https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1987/races/516/france/qualifying-1.html formula1.com 17 September 2017French Grand Prix – Qualifying 2 https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1987/races/516/france/qualifying-2.html formula1.com 17 September 2017French Grand Prix – Overall Qualifying https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1987/races/516/france/qualifying-0.html formula1.com 17 September 2017 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 5 UK Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 80 1:37:03.839 1 9 2 6 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 80 + 7.711 4 6 3 1 France Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 80 + 55.255 2 4 4 12 Brazil 1968 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 79 + 1 lap 3 3 5 19 Italy Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 77 + 3 laps 7 2 6 (1) 4 France Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 76 + 4 laps 25 1 7 (2) 3 UK Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 76 + 4 laps 24   8 2 Sweden Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 74 + 6 laps 9   9 (3) 14 France Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 74 + 6 laps 26   Ret Retired 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 71 Suspension 6   NC Not classified 11 Japan 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 71 + 9 laps 16   Ret Retired 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 64 Engine 8   Ret Retired 17 UK Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 62 Turbo 10   Ret Retired 30 France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 57 Gearbox 23   Ret Retired 16 Italy Ivan Capelli March-Ford 52 Engine 22   Ret Retired 23 Spain Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 52 Turbo 21   Ret Retired 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 33 Exhaust 13   Ret Retired 20 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 31 Engine 5   Ret Retired 10 West Germany Christian Danner Zakspeed 26 Overheating 19   Ret Retired 26 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 24 Engine 17   Ret Retired 24 Italy Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 23 Turbo 15   Ret Retired 7 Italy Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 19 Differential 12   Ret Retired 9 UK Martin Brundle Zakspeed 18 Wheel 18   Ret Retired 21 Italy Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 11 Engine 20   Ret Retired 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 2 Turbo 11   Ret Retired 18 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 0 Electrical 14  Source:1987 French Grand Prix http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1987/284/ formula1.com https://web.archive.org/web/20141103143517/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1987/284/ 3 November 2014 23 December 2015 Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna 27 2 FRA Alain Prost 26 3 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet 24 4 GBR Nigel Mansell 21 5 SWE Stefan Johansson 13Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1987/france/championnat.aspx France 1987 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 17 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR Williams-Honda45 2 GBR McLaren-TAG39 3 GBR Lotus-Honda30 4 ITA Ferrari17 5 GBR Brabham-BMW4Source: Jim Clark Trophy standings PosDriverPoints 1 GBR Jonathan Palmer 33 2 FRA Philippe Streiff 30 3 FRA Pascal Fabre 26 4 FRA Philippe Alliot 15 5 ITA Ivan Capelli 6 Colin Chapman Trophy standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR Tyrrell-Ford63 2 FRA AGS-Ford26 3 FRA Lola-Ford15 4 GBR March-Ford6 Note: Only the top five positions are included for all four sets of standings. References French Grand Prix 1987 1987 Detroit Grand Prix 1987 British Grand Prix 1986 French Grand Prix 1988 French Grand Prix French Grand Prix Category:French Grand Prix Grand Prix French Grand Prix