1987 San Marino Grand Prix

The 1987 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 3 May 1987 at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola. It was the second race of the 1987 Formula One season. It was the seventh San Marino Grand Prix and it was held over 59 laps of the five kilometre circuit for a race distance of 297 kilometres.

1987 San Marino Grand Prix
Race 2 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	3 May 1987
Official name	7° Gran Premio di San Marino
Location	Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.040 km (3.131 miles)
Distance	59 laps, 297.360 km (184.770 miles)
Weather	Sunny, warm
Pole position
Driver	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda
Time	1:25.826
Fastest lap
Driver	Teo Fabi	Benetton-Ford
Time	1:29.246 on lap 51
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda
Second	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda
Third	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The race was won by British driver Nigel Mansell driving a Williams FW11B. It was Mansell's eighth Grand Prix victory, his first (of two) at the Imola circuit. Mansell finished 27 seconds ahead of Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna driving a Lotus 99T. Third was Italian driver Michele Alboreto driving a Ferrari F1/87. The win gave Mansell a one-point lead in the championship over French McLaren driver Alain Prost.

Race summary

In Friday practice, championship contender Nelson Piquet was eliminated from the race after an accident at the Tamburello corner. A tyre of his Williams FW11B failed, which resulted in a violent impact against the wall (when the car was returned to the pits, Williams designer Patrick Head could not confirm if the crash was a fault with the FW11B as half the rear end had been torn off by the impact, while both Head and Nigel Mansell were seen talking a good look at Piquet's wreck). Whilst in his opinion he had only sustained a sore ankle, he was taken to the nearby Bellaria-Igea Marina hospital, and after medical checks he was forbidden to start by FIA Medical Delegate Sid Watkins. For the remainder of the weekend Piquet worked as a guest commentator on Italian television. Years later he revealed that he was "never quite right" after the accident, suffering headaches and sometimes double vision and for the rest of the 1987 season secretly visited the hospital for treatment. He did this in secret for fear that he would not be allowed to race either by Williams or Watkins.

Alarmed by reports from other drivers of excessive tyre blistering and the suggestion that Piquet's accident may have been caused by a tyre deflation, Goodyear withdrew all the tyres issued to teams (the original compounds taken to Imola were actually different to those supplied for a scheduled test at the circuit the week prior to the race). A replacement selection of the tyres used in the Imola test were flown in from England (with some also brought in from the nearby Ferrari factory in Maranello) and despite the lack of Customs officials due to an Italian public holiday, the new rubber was available for all teams by the Saturday morning practice session.

Saturday's qualifying went on smoothly, with Ayrton Senna claiming pole position on his Lotus 99T, the first ever pole position for an active suspension car and also the last pole position for the original Lotus team, with Mansell alongside him in the front row. The second row was occupied by Teo Fabi in the Benetton B187 and Alain Prost's McLaren MP4/3; "home" team Ferrari took the whole third row with Michele Alboreto ahead of Gerhard Berger.

The race required two starts as Martin Brundle (Zakspeed 871), Thierry Boutsen (Benetton B187) and Eddie Cheever (Arrows A10) stalled on the original grid. Satoru Nakajima started from the pit lane owing to a faulty battery in his Lotus, and René Arnoux failed to take the second start after the suspension of his Ligier JS29B failed.

At the second start, Senna led off the line, but Mansell overtook him on lap two, at the Tosa corner, and went on to dominate the race. Prost took second place by overtaking Senna on lap 6; the Brazilian was then engaged in a battle with the two Ferraris, and took back second when Prost surprisingly retired with an alternator failure on lap 15. Berger retired with turbo boost failure on lap 17, and by that time Alboreto passed Senna to take second place.

On lap 22, Mansell pitted early due to a loose wheel balance weight and for three laps Alboreto led the race to the delight of the Tifosi. Senna retook first position with Alboreto's pit stop, then before Mansell returned to the front when the Brazilian stopped. Riccardo Patrese in his Brabham BT56 was now holding second place but he retired when his alternator failed on lap 57. Simultaneously, Teo Fabi retired with engine problems. Fabi's race had been wrecked by front wing damage sustained on the first lap when he collided with Cheever, although his attempted fightback did produce the fastest lap.

Mansell took a comfortable win with Senna holding second after Alboreto's turbo experienced problems. Alboreto salvaged a 3rd place finish, which would end up being the last podium Enzo Ferrari personally saw his Formula One team score, as he only attended Grand Prix races in Italy, and would die 15 months later. Stefan Johansson (McLaren MP4/3) was in fourth place whilst Derek Warwick's late race retirement after his Arrows A10 ran out of fuel, handed fifth to Brundle for what would the only time in 5 seasons (1985-1989) that a Zakspeed would finish a race in the points. Nakajima rounded off the points in sixth place, which meant he was the first Japanese driver to score a world championship point.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda	1:27.543	1:25.826	—
2	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	1:26.204	1:25.946	+0.120
3	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	1:25.997	—	+0.171
4	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	1:29.317	1:26.135	+0.309
5	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-Ford	1:27.801	1:27.270	+1.444
6	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:28.229	1:27.280	+1.454
7	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:29.653	1:28.074	+2.248
8	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	1:28.447	1:28.421	+2.595
9	2	Stefan Johansson	McLaren-TAG	1:30.416	1:28.708	+2.882
10	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	1:30.379	1:28.848	+3.022
11	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	1:28.887	1:29.236	+3.061
12	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	1:28.929	1:28.908	+3.082
13	11	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	1:29.579	1:30.545	+3.753
14	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Megatron	1:31.078	1:29.861	+4.035
15	8	Andrea de Cesaris	Brabham-BMW	1:30.627	1:30.382	+4.556
16	9	Martin Brundle	Zakspeed	1:31.931	1:31.094	+5.268
17	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1:31.789	—	+5.963
18	23	Adrián Campos	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1:41.520	1:31.818	+5.992
19	10	Christian Danner	Zakspeed	1:32.977	1:31.903	+6.077
20	26	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Ligier-Megatron	1:32.873	1:32.248	+6.422
21	21	Alex Caffi	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:32.308	1:33.298	+6.482
22	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Ford	1:35.001	1:33.155	+7.329
23	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	1:34.458	1:33.846	+8.020
24	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Ford	1:37.463	1:33.872	+8.046
25	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	1:34.632	1:36.127	+8.806
26	14	Pascal Fabre	AGS-Ford	1:39.747	1:36.159	+10.333
27	22	Gabriele Tarquini	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:43.446	—	+17.620
Source:

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	59	1:31:24.076	2	9
2	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda	59	+ 27.545	1	6
3	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	59	+ 39.144	6	4
4	2	Stefan Johansson	McLaren-TAG	59	+ 1:00.588	8	3
5	9	Martin Brundle	Zakspeed	57	+ 2 Laps	14	2
6	11	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	57	+ 2 Laps	12	1
7	10	Christian Danner	Zakspeed	57	+ 2 Laps	17
8 (1)	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Ford	57	+ 2 Laps	20
9	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	57	+ 2 Laps / Alternator	7
10 (2)	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Ford	56	+ 3 Laps	21
11	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	55	+ 4 Laps / Out of fuel	10
12	21	Alex Caffi	Osella-Alfa Romeo	54	+ 5 Laps / Out of fuel	19
13 (3)	14	Pascal Fabre	AGS-Ford	53	+ 6 Laps	24
Ret	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-Ford	51	Turbo	4
Ret	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	48	Engine	11
Ret	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	48	Clutch	9
Ret	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	48	Clutch	23
Ret	8	Andrea de Cesaris	Brabham-BMW	39	Spun off	13
Ret	23	Adrián Campos	Minardi-Motori Moderni	30	Gearbox	16
Ret	22	Gabriele Tarquini	Osella-Alfa Romeo	26	Gearbox	25
Ret	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	25	Turbo	15
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Ford	18	Engine	22
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	16	Electrical	5
Ret	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	14	Electrical	3
Ret	26	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Ligier-Megatron	7	Handling	18
DNS	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Megatron	0	Suspension
DNS	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda		Injury
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Nigel Mansell	10
2	Alain Prost	9
3	Stefan Johansson	7
4	Nelson Piquet	6
5	Ayrton Senna	6
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Williams-Honda	16
2	McLaren-TAG	16
3	Lotus-Honda	7
4	Ferrari	7
5	Benetton-Ford	2
Source:

Jim Clark Trophy standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Philippe Streiff	15
2	Jonathan Palmer	9
3	Pascal Fabre	8
4	Philippe Alliot	6

Colin Chapman Trophy standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Tyrrell-Ford	24
2	AGS-Ford	8
3	Lola-Ford	6

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