1987 Spanish Grand Prix

The 1987 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Jerez on September 27, 1987. It was the thirteenth round of the 1987 Formula One season. It was the 29th Spanish Grand Prix and the second to be held at Jerez. The race was held over 72 laps of the four kilometre venue for a race distance of 304 kilometres.

The race was won by British driver Nigel Mansell driving a Williams FW11B. Mansell took victory by 22 seconds over Frenchman Alain Prost driving a McLaren MP4/3. Prost's Swedish team mate Stefan Johansson finished third. It was Mansell's fifth victory of the 1987 season. That win, along with Nelson Piquet's fourth place, secured for the WilliamsF1 team their third constructors' championship with three races still remaining in the season. The gap between Williams and McLaren was fifty points.

Mansell's win, the beginning of a late season charge, dragged him back into championship contention. He trimmed the gap to Piquet back to 18 points, passing Ayrton Senna for second in the standings as he did so.

Summary
The race was won fairly comfortably by Nigel Mansell who passed pole-sitter Nelson Piquet at the end of the first lap and was never headed. The most memorable aspect of the race was the battle for third (then second) which was held for much of the time by Ayrton Senna, who like the previous year tried to complete the race without changing tyres.

Senna had a queue of both Ferraris, Prost's McLaren and Thierry Boutsen's Benetton behind him, which was joined by Piquet after a long pit-stop. For lap after lap, Senna held off all-comers, similar to Gilles Villeneuve's performance at Jarama in 1981. However, Piquet's similarly powered Williams was able to get by (not before having a spin) followed by Boutsen and Prost. Senna faded to finish fifth, but the battle for second continued between Boutsen and Piquet - Boutsen went out avoiding Piquet who was rejoining the track after having gone off - and then between Piquet and Prost, which Prost won. Both Ferraris blew their engines (in Alboreto's case, spectacularly).

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Constructors' Championship standings


 * Jim Clark Trophy standings


 * Colin Chapman Trophy standings


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