1987 British Grand Prix

The 1987 British Grand Prix (formally the XL Shell Oils British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 12 July 1987 at the Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone. It was the seventh race of the 1987 FIA Formula One World Championship. It was the 42nd British Grand Prix and the 23rd to be held at Silverstone. The race was held over 65 laps of the 4.78-kilometre (2.97 mi) circuit for race distance of 311 kilometres (193 mi).

1987 British Grand Prix
Race 7 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 12 July 1987
Official name XL Shell Oils British Grand Prix
Location Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.778 km (2.969 mi)
Distance 65 laps, 310.570 km (192.979 mi)
Weather Sunny and warm
Pole position
Driver
Williams-Honda
Time 1:07.110
Fastest lap
Driver Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda
Time 1:09.832 on lap 58
Podium
First
Williams-Honda
Second
Williams-Honda
Third
Lotus-Honda

The race was won by local driver Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda. In one of his most memorable Formula One performances, Mansell hunted down Brazilian team-mate Nelson Piquet, who had started from pole position, with three laps remaining. It was Mansell's third win of the season, and his second consecutive British Grand Prix victory. Ayrton Senna finished third in his Lotus-Honda, one lap behind.

The win moved Mansell into second place in the Drivers' Championship, level on points with Piquet and one point behind Senna.

Race summary

Qualifying

As usual, Honda-powered cars dominated the qualifying sessions, with Nelson Piquet taking pole position and Ayrton Senna third in his Lotus despite being a full second slower than Mansell. Alain Prost was fourth in his McLaren, while the Benettons of Thierry Boutsen and Teo Fabi were fifth and sixth, and the Ferraris of Michele Alboreto and Gerhard Berger seventh and eighth. Completing the top ten were Andrea de Cesaris in the Brabham and Stefan Johansson in the second McLaren.

During qualifying, Piercarlo Ghinzani's Ligier ran out of fuel in front of the pits. His mechanics jumped the pit wall, refuelled him on the track and then push-started him, a clear violation of the rules leading to Ghinzani's exclusion from the remainder of the event. Before the incident, the Italian had set a time which would have put him 19th on the grid.

Race

At the start, Prost was the quickest and took the lead, only to be passed by Piquet at Maggotts; Mansell soon followed his teammate. The race then developed into a battle between the two Williams drivers, with Piquet leading most of the time.

On lap 35, Mansell was around two seconds behind his teammate. Both Williams drivers were scheduled to complete the race without a tyre change, but Mansell and the team elected to make a stop to change tyres. Mansell rejoined the race some 29 seconds behind Piquet, with 28 laps remaining. On fresh rubber, Mansell began an epic charge, breaking the lap record eight times to the delight of the over 100,000 strong British crowd.

By lap 62 Mansell was right on Piquet's tail, and on lap 63 the Englishman overtook his teammate. Shortly after crossing the finish line, Mansell's car slowed down and was engulfed by the crowd. Initially it was thought that he had run out of fuel, but he had actually blown up the engine, out of the stress of running the last 6 laps on "Q" mode (which gives the engine +100hp), and risking running out of fuel at any moment (his fuel display was reading "minus 2.5 laps"). In fact that incident was the last straw for the patience of the Honda management, since it had – again – threatened their easily attainable 1-2 result. Honda would switch their supply of engines from Williams to McLaren for 1988, while Piquet would sign for Lotus – also running Hondas – in the following weeks.[1] Senna finished third, one lap down, with a further lap back to teammate Satoru Nakajima in fourth. Derek Warwick was fifth in the Arrows-Megatron, with Fabi completing the top six.

Classification

Qualifying
Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:07.596 1:07.110 —
2 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:07.725 1:07.180 +0.070
3 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 1:09.255 1:08.181 +1.071
4 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:08.577 1:09.492 +1.467
5 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:09.724 1:08.972 +1.862
6 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 1:10.264 1:09.246 +2.136
7 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:10.441 1:09.274 +2.164
8 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:10.328 1:09.408 +2.298
9 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 1:10.787 1:09.475 +2.365
10 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 1:10.242 1:09.541 +2.431
11 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:10.012 1:10.020 +2.902
12 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:10.619 1:10.998 +3.509
13 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:10.654 1:10.781 +3.544
14 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:11.053 1:11.310 +3.943
15 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:13.737 1:12.293 +5.183
16 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 1:12.503 1:12.402 +5.292
17 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed 1:12.852 1:12.632 +5.522
18 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed 1:15.833 1:13.337 +6.227
19 23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:15.719 1:13.793 +6.683
20 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:18.495 1:15.558 +8.448
21 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:16.770 1:15.868 +8.758
22 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.208 1:16.524 +9.414
23 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:16.644 1:17.105 +9.534
24 16 Ivan Capelli March-Ford 1:17.122 1:16.692 +9.582
25 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 1:19.163 1:18.237 +11.127
EX 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 1:13.381 no time +6.271

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 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 65 1:19:11.780 2 9
2 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 65 + 1.918 1 6
3 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 64 + 1 Lap 3 4
4 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 63 + 2 Laps 12 3
5 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 63 + 2 Laps 13 2
6 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 63 + 2 Laps 6 1
7 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 62 + 3 Laps 5  
8 (1) 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 60 + 5 Laps 23  
9 (2) 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 59 + 6 Laps 25  
Ret 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 57 Engine 22  
NC 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed 54 + 11 Laps 17  
Ret 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 53 Engine 4  
Ret 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 52 Suspension 7  
Ret 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 45 Engine 14  
Ret 23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 34 Fuel System 19  
Ret 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 32 Engine 20  
Ret 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed 32 Gearbox 18  
Ret 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 28 Turbo 11  
Ret 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 18 Engine 10  
Ret 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 10 Engine 15  
Ret 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 8 Turbo 9  
Ret 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 7 Accident 8  
Ret 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 7 Gearbox 21  
Ret 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 3 Electrical 16  
Ret 16 Ivan Capelli March-Ford 3 Accident 24  
EX 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 0 Excluded 19  
Source:[2]
  • ^1 * Piercarlo Ghinzani was excluded from the race due to refuelling his car on the track during qualifying.

Lap leaders

Nelson Piquet 62 (1–62), Nigel Mansell 3 (63–65).

Championship standings after the race
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for all four sets of standings.

References
  1. "Honda engines report" (PDF). Honda. 26 April 2001. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  2. "1987 British Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  3. "Britain 1987 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
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1987 French Grand Prix		 FIA Formula One World Championship
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1987 German Grand Prix
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1988 British Grand Prix
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