1985 Austrian Grand Prix

The 1985 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Österreichring on August 18, 1985. It was the tenth round of the 1985 Formula One season. It was the 25th Austrian Grand Prix and the 24th to be held at Österreichring. The race was held over 52 laps of the six-kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 309 kilometres.

The race was won by French driver Alain Prost driving a McLaren MP4/2B. It was Prost's fourth victory of his championship-winning season. Prost won by 30 seconds over Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna driving a Lotus 97T. Italian driver Michele Alboreto driving a Ferrari 156/85 finished third, tying Alboreto and Prost in the championship.

In what was to be the last race for the venerable Cosworth DFV V8 engine until, Tyrrell's Martin Brundle failed to qualify giving the race the distinction of being the first ever all-turbo Formula One Grand Prix starting a string of 22 races where all cars would be powered by turbocharged engines.

Race summary
Missing from the grid was RAM driver Manfred Winkelhock who had been killed in a sportscar race in Canada just a week before. His place was taken in the team by Kenny Acheson for his first Formula One race since the 1983 South African Grand Prix.

Before Saturday morning practice triple (and defending) World Champion (and 1984 race winner) Niki Lauda announced to the media, flanked by a very unhappy McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, that he would be retiring for good from Formula One following the to concentrate on running his airline Lauda Air. A now-relaxed Lauda gave his home fans something to cheer about when he qualified a season-high third. Lauda's teammate Alain Prost captured pole position, averaging 155.478 mph (250.219  km/h), followed by Nigel Mansell, Lauda, Keke Rosberg and Nelson Piquet. Senna qualified 14th on the grid.

The race was restarted after one lap (with Niki Lauda having made a great start from third on the grid to lead Prost as the race was stopped). Mansell had got away very slowly in his Williams FW10 but behind him Teo Fabi in the Toleman TG185 barely moved. Elio de Angelis dived left to avoid Fabi and was hit by Alboreto. Fabi suffered damage as did the Arrows A8 of Austria's "other" driver in the race Gerhard Berger. Luckily for those with damaged cars (especially championship leader Alboreto) the first lap was declared null and void and the race was completely restarted meaning those with damaged cars were permitted to start in the team spares. Lucky too was Prost who was able to change cars after his McLaren had developed a misfire. Piercarlo Ghinzani became a non-starter in his Toleman TG185 after team mate Fabi took over the only remaining Toleman for the race which was Ghinzani's car leaving him without a drive.

On lap 13 Andrea de Cesaris survived one of the biggest crashes ever seen in Formula One when his Ligier JS25 got sideways at the left hand Texaco chicane and onto the outside grass at high speed. The grass, wet from overnight rain caused the Ligier to initially slide sideways before his right rear hit a slight bank launching the car into a series of rolls with de Cesaris's head bouncing around freely in the cockpit. Somehow as soon as the Ligier came to a rest (thankfully the right way up) de Cesaris undid his seat belts and walked away with nothing more than a mud-splattered helmet and driving suit. The crash was the end for de Cesaris at Ligier, with team principal Guy Ligier firing the Italian after he saw a replay of the crash stating "I can no longer afford to keep employing this man" referring to the constant repair bills from de Cesaris's crashes since he joined the team in.

With his 20th career victory, Prost moved into a shared lead in the World Drivers' Championship alongside Alboreto, with each having 50 points. After a string of non-finishes since his win in the second race of the season in Portugal, Senna drove a great race into second from a lowly (for him) 14th on the grid, with Alboreto finishing third in the spare Ferrari 156/85 to retain his lead in the World Championship (now shared with Prost). Rosberg (Williams FW10), Piquet (Brabham BT54) and Fabi (Toleman TG185) completed the points-scoring finishers.

Lap leaders

 * Lap Leaders: Alain Prost (1–26, 40–52), Niki Lauda (27–39)

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Constructors' Championship standings


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