1987 British Grand Prix

  1987 British Grand Prix

Race details
Race 7 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One season
Date	12 July 1987
Official name	XL Shell Oils British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Great Britain
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	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda
Time	1:07.110
Fastest lap
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda
Time	1:09.832 on lap 58
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda
Second	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda
Third	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda

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 Formula One season. It was the 42nd British Grand Prix and the 23rd to be held at Silverstone. The race was held over 65 laps of the five kilometre circuit for race distance of 311 kilometres.

British driver Nigel Mansell won his third race for the year in his Williams FW11B. For the second time in eight days Mansell hunted down his more illustrious team mate Brazilian two-time World Champion Nelson Piquet to take victory. This time though Mansell was a lot further back with less time than at the French Grand Prix. In one of the most memorable performances in Formula One, Mansell took the lead from Piquet with two laps remaining. Ayrton Senna finished third in his Lotus 99T.

Mansell's win put him into second place in the championship, tied 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 from Williams team-mate Nigel Mansell by seven-hundredths of a second, 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 team mate. The race then became a close fight between the two Williams drivers, as neither Senna (also Honda powered) nor Prost were a match for them. Lotus were finding that while the active suspension worked well on bumpy street circuits, at smoother tracks like Silverstone finding balance with the car was proving difficult. Piquet led most of the race.

By lap 35 Mansell was around 2 seconds behind his team-mate. Both Williams drivers were scheduled to complete the race without a tyre change, but Mansell and the team elected to make a stop in order to change tyres. Mansell rejoined the race some 29 seconds behind Piquet, with 28 laps remaining. On fresh rubber Mansell began an epic charge which saw the lap record broken 8 times to the delight of the over 100,000 strong British crowd.

By lap 62 the two cars were nose to tail and on lap 63 Mansell performed his now famous 'Silverstone Two Step' move, selling Piquet a dummy on the Hangar Straight and then diving down the inside into Stowe Corner. 2 corners 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 moved to McLaren the following year, leaving Williams with no options but to sign for underpowered Judd V8 units. Nelson Piquet went on to sign with Lotus on the following weeks, a move that kept Honda powering that team in 1988 as well. ^[1] Senna finished a quiet race in third place while his team mate Satoru Nakajima had his best F1 finish by coming home 4th. Rounding out the points were Derek Warwick (Arrows-Megatron) and Teo Fabi (Benetton-Ford).

Classification

Qualifying

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

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	Not Classified	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.

Notes

• Lap leaders: Nelson Piquet 62 (1-62), Nigel Mansell 3 (63-65)

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ayrton Senna 31 2 Nigel Mansell 30 3 Nelson Piquet 30 4 Alain Prost 26 5 Stefan Johansson 13

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Honda 60 2 McLaren-TAG 39 3 Lotus-Honda 37 4 Ferrari 17 5 Arrows-Megatron 6

Jim Clark Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jonathan Palmer 42 2 Pascal Fabre 34 3 Philippe Streiff 30 4 Philippe Alliot 15 5 Ivan Capelli 6

Colin Chapman Trophy standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Tyrrell-Ford 72 2 AGS-Ford 32 3 Lola-Ford 15 4 March-Ford 6

• 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.