1985 Australian Grand Prix

  1985 Australian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 16 of 16 in the 1985 Formula One season
Date	3 November 1985
Official name	L Mitsubishi Australian Grand Prix
Location	Adelaide Street Circuit Adelaide, South Australia
Course	Temporary street circuit 3.780 km (2.362 mi)
Distance	82 laps, 309.960 km (193.684 mi)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault
Time	1:19.843
Fastest lap
Driver	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda
Time	1:23.758
Podium
First	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda
Second	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault
Third	Philippe Streiff	Ligier-Renault

The 1985 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held in Adelaide on 3 November 1985. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1985 Formula One season. It was the 50th Australian Grand Prix and the first to be held on the streets of Adelaide on a layout specifically designed for the debut of the World Championship in Australia. The race was held over 82 laps of the four kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 310 kilometres.

The new circuit was received extremely positively with glowing reviews from those within the paddock despite the circuit's temporary nature as it wound through streets, parkland and across horse racing venue Victoria Park Racecourse immediately adjacent to the Adelaide central business district, with the drivers enjoying a street circuit that was unlike Monaco and Detroit with their endless short straights, narrow roads and hairpin or right angle corners. The Adelaide circuit was wide and fast in places, and included an 890 metre long straight (named the "Brabham Straight" for Australia's three-time World Champion Sir Jack Brabham) where the faster cars reached over 200 mph (322 km/h). The reception was sufficiently positive to see the promoters awarded the Formula One Promotional Trophy.

Dual World Champion Nelson Piquet confirmed the drivers' positive view on the circuit when he said early in race week "After Detroit and Dallas, we all expected another bad street circuit" while his Brabham team boss (and the head of the Formula One Constructors Association) Bernie Ecclestone told the assembled media that he believed that the standard the of the organisation and the circuit itself was bad news for Formula One, explaining that the Adelaide GP had raised the standards of what would be expected in the future and that several tracks in Europe already on the calender, or hoping to be, would have to lift their own games in order to match it.

The only Australian driver in the field, 1980 World Drivers' Champion Alan Jones who was driving the Haas Lola team's Lola THL1-Hart, was given the honor of driving the first Formula One car out onto the new circuit when first practice opened on the Friday morning. Jones also had the honor of having a section of track named after him, with the Rundle Road section of the track renamed as the "Jones Straight" when the circuit was in use.

Qualifying

Official qualifying became a battle royal between the Williams' of Rosberg and Nigel Mansell, and the Lotus of Ayrton Senna. Rosberg took the honors on Friday with a lap of 1:22.402, only 0.001 faster then Senna, with Mansell a further 0.161 back in 3rd. During final qualifying, Mansell looked to have pole position wrapped up with a lap of 1:20.537 in his Williams-Honda, with Senna second and Rosberg another three-tenths further back in third. Senna was out on his third run with only minutes left before the end of qualifying in his black and gold Lotus-Renault, powered by a special qualifying engine rumored to be putting out some 1,150 bhp (858 kW; 1,166 PS), and stunned everyone with a time of 1:19.843, seven-tenths faster than Mansell to grab his 7th pole position of the season.

Nelson Piquet was 4th on the grid in his Brabham-BMW, World Champion elect Alain Prost was 5th in his McLaren-TAG Porsche, with the Ferrari of 1985 World Championship runner up Michele Alboreto rounding out the top six qualifiers. Outgoing World Champion Niki Lauda was 16th on the grid in his McLaren, while Alan Jones was 19th in his Lola.

The slowest qualifier for the race, Huub Rothengatter in the Osella-Alfa Romeo, was 10.473 seconds slower than Senna with a time of 1:30.319.

Race

The race of high attrition was won by the 1982 World Champion, Finnish driver Keke Rosberg driving the Williams-Honda; it would turn out to be the last victory (and fastest lap) of his Formula One career. Rosberg was the only front running driver to finish strongly and one of only eight cars to be classified.

On the penultimate lap, Ligier-Renault driver Philippe Streiff tried to overtake his team-mate Jacques Laffite for second place and, as result of this manoeuvre, Streiff's front wheel axle was severely damaged. With fourth placed Ivan Capelli a lap down in his Tyrrell-Renault, Streiff managed to limp his Ligier JS25 home and retain third place despite only have three wheels firmly attached to the car, with the front left wheel bouncing up and down over the course of the last lap, but somehow remaining attached to the car. It would remain a career best finish for Streiff.

A delayed Stefan Johansson finished fifth in his Ferrari ahead of Gerhard Berger in his Arrows-BMW (Berger performed double duty during the weekend, also driving a BMW 635 CSi during the Group A touring car support races). The only other finishers were Huub Rothengatter (Osella) and Pierluigi Martini (Minardi), both of whom were four laps behind Rosberg. Martin Brundle's Tyrrell was running at the end, but Brundle was 33 laps down on Rosberg and was not classified as a finisher.

Every car qualified for the race. With RAM Racing and Zakspeed not making the journey to Australia, there would not be a cut-off based on grid numbers. Early in the race Elio de Angelis, driving in his last race for Lotus, was excluded for regaining his original grid position after being delayed on the parade lap. The race was the 100th World Championship start for 1980 World Champion Alan Jones. Jones (along with Alain Prost) was one of two drivers to have won the Australian Grand Prix previously (Jones in 1980 and Prost in 1982). Jones' Lola retired on lap 20 with a failed electrics following a typically fiery drive through to the top 10 after stalling at the start, while Prost retired with engine failure on lap 26. It was also the last race for outgoing world champion Niki Lauda. His McLaren ended in the fence with damage to the front left after a brake failure at the end of the long Brabham Straight while in the lead.

Both Alfa Romeo and Renault had their last Grand Prix as a constructor in the turbo era. As of 2012 Alfa have never returned to Grand Prix racing (Alfa was purchased by Fiat from the Italian government in 1986, which is the same company that owns Ferrari) while Renault would return in 2002 following their purchase the Benetton team. It was also the last Grand Prix for the Toleman team as Toleman. The team would continue in 1986 but would be renamed Benetton after being purchased by their main sponsors, the Italian fashion brand Benetton. All six cars (the Alfa Romeo 184TB's of Riccardo Patrese and Eddie Cheever, the Renault RE60's of Patrick Tambay and Derek Warwick and the Toleman TG185's of Teo Fabi and Piercarlo Ghinzani) failed to finish the last F1 race for their teams.

Championship permutations

McLaren-TAG Porsche and Ferrari came into this race fighting for the Constructor's Championship

• McLaren-TAG Porsche (90pts) needed either
  • 2nd (or 3rd and 6th) or better
  • 4th (or 5th and 6th) with the Ferraris 1st and 3rd or lower
  • 5th with the Ferraris 1st and 4th or lower
  • 6th with the Ferraris 1st and 5th or lower
  • the Ferraris scoring 1st and 6th or lower
• Ferrari (80pts) needed either
  • 1st and 2nd with the McLarens scoring fewer than 5pts
  • 1st and 3rd with the McLarens scoring fewer than 3pts
  • 1st and 4th with the McLarens 6th or lower
  • 1st and 5th with the McLaren 7th or lower

The race was also the last race for Niki Lauda and for Alfa Romeo team.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	1:22.403	1:19.833	—
2	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	1:22.564	1:20.537	+0.704
3	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	1:22.402	1:21.877	+2.044
4	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	1:23.943	1:21.889	+2.056
5	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:24.666	1:22.337	+2.504
6	8	Marc Surer	Brabham-BMW	1:24.404	1:22.561	+2.728
7	17	Gerhard Berger	Arrows-BMW	1:25.362	1:22.592	+2.759
8	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	1:25.173	1:22.683	+2.850
9	7	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	1:23.018	1:22.718	+2.885
10	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	1:24.543	1:23.077	+3.244
11	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	1:23.943	1:23.196	+3.363
12	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	1:24.372	1:23.426	+3.593
13	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	1:23.597	1:24.295	+3.764
14	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	1:23.758	1:24.128	+3.925
15	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	1:24.732	1:23.902	+4.069
16	1	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	1:24.691	1:23.941	+4.108
17	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Renault	1:25.646	1:24.241	+4.408
18	25	Philippe Streiff	Ligier-Renault	1:26.618	1:24.266	+4.433
19	33	Alan Jones	Lola-Hart	1:25.780	1:24.369	+4.536
20	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault	1:26.972	1:24.830	+4.997
21	20	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Toleman-Hart	1:25.021	1:26.630	+5.188
22	4	Ivan Capelli	Tyrrell-Renault	1:27.120		+7.287
23	29	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1:27.196	1:27.402	+7.363
24	19	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	1:28.261	1:28.110	+8.277
25	24	Huub Rothengatter	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:30.319		+10.486

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	82	2:00:40.473	3	9
2	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault	82	+ 43.130	20	6
3	25	Philippe Streiff	Ligier-Renault	82	+ 1:28.536	18	4
4	4	Ivan Capelli	Tyrrell-Renault	81	+ 1 Lap	22	3
5	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	81	+ 1 Lap	15	2
6	17	Gerhard Berger	Arrows-BMW	81	+ 1 Lap	7	1
7	24	Huub Rothengatter	Osella-Alfa Romeo	78	+ 4 Laps	25
8	29	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	78	+ 4 Laps	23
Ret	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	62	Engine	1
Ret	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	61	Transmission	5
Ret	1	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	57	Brakes	16
Ret	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	57	Transmission	12
Ret	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Renault	49	Not Classified	17
Ret	8	Marc Surer	Brabham-BMW	42	Engine	6
Ret	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	42	Exhaust	14
Ret	19	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	40	Engine	24
Ret	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	37	Oil Leak	11
Ret	20	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Toleman-Hart	28	Clutch	21
Ret	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	26	Engine	4
Ret	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	20	Transmission	8
Ret	33	Alan Jones	Lola-Hart	20	Electrical	19
DSQ	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	18	Disqualified	10
Ret	7	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	14	Fire	9
Ret	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	5	Engine	13
Ret	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	1	Transmission	2

Notes

• Elio de Angelis - Was excluded for regaining his original grid position after being delayed on the parade lap.
• Milestone - Alan Jones; 100th Race Start.
• On the second to last lap, Ligier driver Philippe Streiff tried to overtake his team-mate Jacques Laffite for 2nd place and, as result of this maneuver, Streiff's front wheel axis was severely damaged, but the driver still managed to finish in 3rd place despite driving on "three wheels".
• Last win for Keke Rosberg
• Last Fastest lap for Keke Rosberg

Lap leaders

• Lap Leaders: Keke Rosberg 71 (1-41, 44-52, 62-82); Ayrton Senna 9 (42-43, 53-55, 58-61); Niki Lauda 2 (56-57)

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alain Prost 73 (76) 2 Michele Alboreto 53 3 Keke Rosberg 40 4 Ayrton Senna 38 5 Elio de Angelis 33

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-TAG 90 2 Ferrari 82 3 Williams-Honda 71 4 Lotus-Renault 71 5 Brabham-BMW 26

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 11 results counted towards the Drivers' Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References

Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1985/309/. Retrieved 2007-06-17. 

Previous race: 1985 South African Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1985 season	Next race: 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix
Previous race: 1984 Australian Grand Prix	Australian Grand Prix	Next race: 1986 Australian Grand Prix
Awards
Preceded by 1984 Detroit Grand Prix	Formula One Promotional Trophy for Race Promoter 1985	Succeeded by 1986 Mexican Grand Prix

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