| Race details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 10 of 16 in the 1985 Formula One season | ||
 The Österreichring (last modified in 1977) | ||
| Date | August 18, 1985 | |
| Official name | XVIII Holiday Großer Preis von Osterreich | |
| Location | Österreichring, Spielberg, Styria, Austria | |
| Course | Permanent racing facility 5.942 km (3.692 mi) | |
| Distance | 52 laps, 308.984 km (191.984 mi) | |
| Weather | Dry | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver |  Alain Prost
|
McLaren-TAG |
| Time | 1:25.490 | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver | Alain Prost
|
McLaren-TAG |
| Time | 1:29.241 on lap 39 | |
| Podium | ||
| First | Alain Prost
|
McLaren-TAG |
| Second |  Ayrton Senna
|
Lotus-Renault |
| Third |  Michele Alboreto
|
Ferrari |
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 1987, 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 1985 Australian Grand Prix 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 1984.[1]
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.
Classification[]
Qualifying[]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Alain Prost
|
McLaren-TAG | 1:25.490 | — | |
| 2 | 5 |  Nigel Mansell
|
Williams-Honda | 1:26.453 | 1:26.052 | +0.562 |
| 3 | 1 |  Niki Lauda
|
McLaren-TAG | 1:26.250 | 1:26.727 | +1.237 |
| 4 | 6 |  Keke Rosberg
|
Williams-Honda | 1:26.333 | 1:26.762 | +0.843 |
| 5 | 7 | Nelson Piquet
|
Brabham-BMW | 1:26.568 | 1:26.404 | +0.914 |
| 6 | 19 | Teo Fabi
|
Toleman-Hart | 1:26.664 | 11:12.639 | +1.174 |
| 7 | 11 | Elio de Angelis
|
Lotus-Renault | 1:26.799 | +1.309 | |
| 8 | 15 | Patrick Tambay
|
Renault | 1:27.722 | 1:27.502 | +2.012 |
| 9 | 27 | Michele Alboreto
|
Ferrari | 1:29.774 | 1:27.516 | +2.026 |
| 10 | 22 | Riccardo Patrese
|
Alfa Romeo | 1:29.485 | 1:27.851 | +2.361 |
| 11 | 8 |  Marc Surer
|
Brabham-BMW | 1:27.954 | 1:50.796 | +2.464 |
| 12 | 28 |  Stefan Johansson
|
Ferrari | 1:28.134 | 1:27.961 | +2.471 |
| 13 | 16 | Derek Warwick
|
Renault | 1:30.602 | 1:28.006 | +2.516 |
| 14 | 12 | Ayrton Senna
|
Lotus-Renault | 1:28.123 | 3:04.856 | +2.633 |
| 15 | 26 | Jacques Laffite
|
Ligier-Renault | 1:29.181 | 1:28.249 | +2.759 |
| 16 | 18 |  Thierry Boutsen
|
Arrows-BMW | 1:28.617 | 1:28.262 | +2.772 |
| 17 | 17 | Gerhard Berger
|
Arrows-BMW | 1:28.566 | 1:28.762 | +3.076 |
| 18 | 25 | Andrea de Cesaris
|
Ligier-Renault | 1:28.666 | +3.176 | |
| 19 | 20 | Piercarlo Ghinzani
|
Toleman-Hart | 1:28.894 | +3.404 | |
| 20 | 23 |  Eddie Cheever
|
Alfa Romeo | 1:29.031 | 1:29.608 | +3.541 |
| 21 | 10 | Philippe Alliot
|
RAM-Hart | 1:32.766 | 1:29.827 | +4.337 |
| 22 | 3 |  Stefan Bellof
|
Tyrrell-Renault | 1:31.022 | 1:30.514 | +5.024 |
| 23 | 9 | Kenny Acheson
|
RAM-Hart | 1:35.072 | +9.582 | |
| 24 | 24 |  Huub Rothengatter
|
Osella-Alfa Romeo | 1:35.329 | 1:58.090 | +9.839 |
| 25 | 30 | Jonathan Palmer
|
Zakspeed | 1:36.060 | 1:35.787 | +10.297 |
| 26 | 29 | Pierluigi Martini
|
Minardi-Motori Moderni | 10:36.417 | 1:36.765 | +11.275 |
| DNQ | 4 | Martin Brundle
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 1:39.247 | 1:37.317 | +11.827 |
Race[]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Alain Prost
|
McLaren-TAG | 52 | 1:20:12.583 | 1 | 9 |
| 2 | 12 | Ayrton Senna
|
Lotus-Renault | 52 | + 30.002 | 14 | 6 |
| 3 | 27 | Michele Alboreto
|
Ferrari | 52 | + 34.356 | 9 | 4 |
| 4 | 28 | Stefan Johansson
|
Ferrari | 52 | + 39.073 | 12 | 3 |
| 5 | 11 | Elio de Angelis
|
Lotus-Renault | 52 | + 1:22.092 | 7 | 2 |
| 6 | 8 | Marc Surer
|
Brabham-BMW | 51 | +1 Lap | 11 | 1 |
| 7 | 3 | Stefan Bellof
|
Tyrrell-Renault | 49 | Out of Fuel | 22 | |
| 8 | 18 | Thierry Boutsen
|
Arrows-BMW | 49 | +3 Laps | 16 | |
| 9 | 24 | Huub Rothengatter
|
Osella-Alfa Romeo | 48 | +4 Laps | 24 | |
| 10 | 15 | Patrick Tambay
|
Renault | 46 | Engine | 8 | |
| Ret | 26 | Jacques Laffite
|
Ligier-Renault | 43 | Accident | 15 | |
| Ret | 29 | Pierluigi Martini
|
Minardi-Motori Moderni | 40 | Suspension | 26 | |
| Ret | 1 | Niki Lauda
|
McLaren-TAG | 39 | Engine | 3 | |
| Ret | 17 | Gerhard Berger
|
Arrows-BMW | 33 | Turbo | 17 | |
| Ret | 19 | Teo Fabi
|
Toleman-Hart | 31 | Electrical | 6 | |
| Ret | 16 | Derek Warwick
|
Renault | 29 | Engine | 13 | |
| Ret | 10 | Kenny Acheson
|
RAM-Hart | 28 | Engine | 23 | |
| Ret | 7 | Nelson Piquet
|
Brabham-BMW | 26 | Exhaust | 5 | |
| Ret | 5 | Nigel Mansell
|
Williams-Honda | 25 | Engine | 2 | |
| Ret | 22 | Riccardo Patrese
|
Alfa Romeo | 25 | Engine | 10 | |
| Ret | 30 | Jonathan Palmer
|
Zakspeed | 17 | Engine | 25 | |
| Ret | 9 | Philippe Alliot
|
RAM-Hart | 16 | Turbo | 21 | |
| Ret | 25 | Andrea de Cesaris
|
Ligier-Renault | 13 | Accident | 18 | |
| Ret | 23 | Eddie Cheever
|
Alfa Romeo | 6 | Turbo | 20 | |
| Ret | 6 | Keke Rosberg
|
Williams-Honda | 4 | Oil Pressure | 4 | |
| DNS | 20 | Piercarlo Ghinzani
|
Toleman-Hart | 0 | Non Starter | 19 | |
| DNQ | 4 | Martin Brundle
|
Tyrrell-Ford |
Lap leaders[]
- Lap Leaders: Alain Prost (1–26, 40–52), Niki Lauda (27–39)
Standings after the race[]
|
|
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References[]
Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1985/304/. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
| Previous race: 1985 German Grand Prix |
FIA Formula One World Championship 1985 season |
Next race: 1985 Dutch Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1984 Austrian Grand Prix |
Austrian Grand Prix | Next race: 1986 Austrian Grand Prix |
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This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1985 Austrian Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |