1985 Brazilian Grand Prix

1st round of the 1985 Formula One season F1 Brazil Brazilian Grand Prix XIV Grande Prêmio do Brasil April 7 Autódromo_de_Jacarepaguá_1978-1995.png 1985 1 16 Jacarepaguá CircuitJacarepaguá, Rio de Janeiro Permanent racing facility 3.126 5.031 61 190.693 306.891 Dry, 34 C F air temperature Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:27.768 Italy Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:36.702 34 France Alain Prost McLaren-TAG France Michele Alboreto Ferrari Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault Italy BRA The 1985 Brazilian Grand Prix (officially known as the XIV Grande Prêmio do Brasil) was a Formula One motor race held at Jacarepaguá in Jacarepaguá, Rio de Janeiro on 7 April 1985. It was the first round of the 1985 Formula One World Championship, and marked the 13th edition of the Brazilian Grand Prix as a round of the World Championship since its inception in 1950. Alain Prost, driving for McLaren was the defending race winner heading into the race. In qualifying, Ferrari driver, Michele Alboreto took pole, his second of his career. In the race, he would finish second on the podium behind eventual race winner, Prost, while Elio de Angelis rounded out the podium in the Lotus car. Of note, even though René Arnoux finished 4th for Ferrari, he was sacked after the race, with both the team and Arnoux never revealing the reason behind the sacking. The driver who finished 7th in this race, Stefan Johansson, was picked up by the Scuderia for the rest of the year. This race was also Nigel Mansell's first race of seven seasons with the Williams team. Background The 1985 Formula One season saw an entry list of 28 drivers competing, with Zakspeed officially joining Formula One with Jonathan Palmer as their driver, though they wouldn't be competing in the opening round as they were going to join the field in Portugal. Zakspeed competed only in the European races that season for financial reasons. The other brand new team that was competing in the 1985 season was Minardi, who had competed in Formula Two from 1980 to 1984 with a custom chassis before stepping up and competing in F1.Roebuck Nigel Nigel Roebuck Grand Prix World Formula One Championship Motorbooks International 31 The Toleman team, meanwhile, missed the race due to being unable to secure a tyre contract. Unfortunately for the team, Goodyear refused to supply them with tyres after the manner in which team boss Alex Hawkridge had switched from Goodyear's to Pirelli's in their Formula 2 days, while Pirelli also refused to supply their tyres to the team after it had broken their contract in 1984 to go with Michelin instead. With the French company pulling out of Formula One, this left Toleman without any tyres. Their lead driver, Stefan Johansson was present however and substituted for Stefan Bellof when the German driver was suspended by his Tyrrell team due to a contract dispute. The opening round in Brazil was the first round of the 1985 championship, this was the 14th edition of the Brazilian Grand Prix since its inception in 1972. It was also the 13th time that a Formula One World Championship had been held there with the 1972 edition being a non-championship race. The race was held at the Jacarepaguá circuit which held its first Grand Prix in 1978 and would host the Brazilian GP from 1981 to 1989.https://www.racing-reference.info/tracks/Jacarepagua/ Jacarepagua Racing Reference 23 September 2021 Qualifying Qualifying for the 1985 Brazilian Grand Prix was held in two sessions with the first on the Friday and the second one on the Saturday. In the Friday session, Lotus who did some aerodynamic tweaks to their Renault powered car, similar to the Lola's new CART Indycar, went to the top of the timesheets on Friday morning. But Elio de Angelis wouldn't be able to improve on his time with the driver responding after the second qualifying session, "I am sure I could have retained the pole."Roebuck Nigel Townsend John Nigel Roebuck December 1985 Grand Prix World Formula One Championship GS Publications 48–49 Senna would improve on his lap time but only slightly as he finished behind de Angelis on the grid in fourth. On the front row of the grid, Michele Alboreto would claim the first pole position of the season with a time of 1:27.768,https://www.newspapers.com/clip/92267218/brazil-85-qualifying/ Ferrari fastest 7 January 1985 The Observer 35 a full one second ahead of his time on the Friday and 6/10ths faster than the 1984 pole time set by Elio de Angelis. Alboreto's teammate in Rene Arnoux also improve his time by a second, but the Frenchman had to start the race in seventh place, using the spare car after the Ferrari engine was down on power on his main car. Also on the front row of the grid was Keke Rosberg in the Williams-Honda who earlier in the weekend had a blown turbo from their engine on the Saturday morning. But one flying lap secured Rosberg a front row start with teammate Nigel Mansell starting from fifth. McLaren also has engine issues with the TAG-Porsche turbos. The TAG engines were known not to be able to take higher qualifying boost like the BMW, Renault and Honda engines. But in qualifying, try as they may, McLaren just couldn't get the TAG's to run properly at high boost with both Alain Prost and reigning World Champion Niki Lauda struggling to 6th and 9th places respectively. Eighth on the grid was the first of the Pirelli's with Brabham-BMW driver, Nelson Piquet being the quickest. Brabham's long-time Chief Designer and Technical Director Gordon Murray advised that their winter testing had been for the best race tyre and not for taking any pole positions in the first few races of the season (Piquet had taken 9 poles in 1984, but had only finished 7 races). Rounding out the top ten was Renault driver, Derek Warwick who was 2.3 seconds off the pace. His team-mate, Patrick Tambay who started behind him in 11th advised that Renault RE60 was "four seconds behind the pace when we first tested the car here a month ago. Now it had been reduced to two seconds." Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:28.899 1:27.768 — 2 6 FIN Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 1:32.135 1:27.864 +0.096 3 11 ITA Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 1:28.081 +0.313 4 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:28.705 1:28.389 +0.621 5 5 GBR Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:31.211 1:28.848 +1.080 6 2 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:30.253 1:29.117 +1.349 7 28 FRA René Arnoux Ferrari 1:30.813 1:29.612 +1.844 8 7 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:31.364 1:29.855 +2.087 9 1 AUT Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 1:30.716 1:29.984 +2.216 10 16 GBR Derek Warwick Renault 1:31.533 1:30.100 +2.332 11 15 FRA Patrick Tambay Renault 1:30.254 1:30.516 +2.486 12 18 BEL Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:32.207 1:30.593 +2.825 13 25 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 1:33.718 1:31.411 +3.643 14 22 ITA Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 1:32.107 1:31.790 +4.022 15 26 FRA Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 1:37.803 1:32.021 +4.253 16 9 FRG Manfred Winkelhock RAM-Hart 1:36.239 1:32.560 +4.792 17 8 FRA François Hesnault Brabham-BMW 1:34.742 1:32.904 +5.136 18 23 USA Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 1:33.094 1:33.091 +5.323 19 17 AUT Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 1:34.919 1:34.773 +7.005 20 10 FRA Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 1:35.726 1:37.409 +7.958 21 3 GBR Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 1:36.225 1:36.152 +8.384 22 24 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:38.272 1:36.743 +8.975 23 4 SWE Stefan Johansson Tyrrell-Ford 1:37.799 1:37.293 +9.525 24 21 ITA Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart 1:41.330 +13.562 25 29 ITA Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:44.046 +16.278 Race The race temperature for the race was a 34 C F degree day as the driver's had line-up. Before the race, Prost finished fastest in the warm-up session ahead of Alboreto and Lauda rounding out the top three. When the race began, the front row made a perfect start with Rosberg just edging out Alboreto into the first corner with the other Williams car in Mansell also getting off to a great start. He would get behind Alboreto before a bump on the rear wheel would see him go to the outside of the turn and off the racing line. This incident would end his race a few laps later with body damage issues.Roebuck Nigel Townsend John Nigel Roebuck December 1985 Grand Prix World Formula One Championship GS Publications 52–53 This race marked the 17th Grand Prix won by Alain Prost, moving him ahead of Stirling Moss as the Formula 1 driver with most race wins among those without a Drivers' Championship. Four more wins would follow throughout the year and Prost would extend the record to 21, at which point he clinched his first title and handed the record back to Moss. Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 2 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 61 1:41:26.115 6 9 2 27 ITA Michele Alboreto Ferrari 61 + 3.259 1 6 3 11 ITA Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 60 + 1 Lap 3 4 4 28 FRA René Arnoux Ferrari 59 + 2 Laps 7 3 5 15 FRA Patrick Tambay Renault 59 + 2 Laps 11 2 6 26 FRA Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 59 + 2 Laps 15 1 7 4 SWE Stefan Johansson Tyrrell-Ford 58 + 3 Laps 23   8 3 GBR Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 58 + 3 Laps 21   9 10 FRA Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 58 + 3 Laps 20   10 16 GBR Derek Warwick Renault 57 + 4 Laps 10   11 18 BEL Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 57 + 4 Laps 12   12 24 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 57 + 4 Laps 22   13 9 FRG Manfred Winkelhock RAM-Hart 57 + 4 Laps 16   Ret Retired 17 AUT Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 51 Suspension 19   Ret Retired 12 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 48 Electrical 4   Ret Retired 23 USA Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 42 Engine 18   Ret Retired 29 ITA Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 41 Engine 25   Ret Retired 1 AUT Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 27 Fuel System 9   Ret Retired 25 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 26 Accident 13   Ret Retired 22 ITA Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 20 Puncture 14   Ret Retired 6 FIN Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 10 Turbo 2   Ret Retired 8 FRA François Hesnault Brabham-BMW 9 Accident 17   Ret Retired 5 GBR Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 8 Exhaust 5   Ret Retired 21 ITA Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart 7 Turbo 24   Ret Retired 7 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 2 Transmission 8  Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1985/295/ 1985 Brazilian Grand Prix formula1.com 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20140218000539/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1985/295/ 18 February 2014 Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 FRA Alain Prost 9 2 ITA Michele Alboreto 6 3 ITA Elio de Angelis 4 4 FRA René Arnoux 3 5 FRA Patrick Tambay 2Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1985/bresil/championnat.aspx Brazil 1985 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 13 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 UK McLaren-TAG 9 2 ITA Ferrari 9 3 UK Lotus-Renault 4 4 FRA Renault 2 5 FRA Ligier-Renault 1Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. References 30em Brazilian Grand Prix 1985 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix 15 46 19.502 S 47 54 1.115 W title Brazilian Grand Prix Category:Brazilian Grand Prix Grand Prix Brazilian Grand Prix