1986 Australian Grand Prix

Background

Going into the race, three drivers were in contention for the World Championship. Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda, led with 70 points, while reigning champion Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-TAG, was second on 64 and Mansell's teammate Nelson Piquet was third on 63.

The Williams-Honda was superior in speed to the McLaren-TAG, with Mansell and Piquet having won nine of the previous fifteen races between them, and the team sealing the Constructors' Championship at the Portuguese Grand Prix in late September. However, Mansell and Piquet had been battling with one another and had taken points from each other on a number of occasions, while Prost's consistency had seen him accumulate points all year and thus remain in touch with the Williams drivers.

Championship permutations

After being outscored by Piquet and Prost at the preceding Mexican Grand Prix, Mansell therefore failed to prematurely secure the Drivers' Championship. Nonetheless, he went into the race in the strongest position among the three title contenders. It was the first time in two years that the championship was decided at the final round and the first time since that three drivers were still in contention for the Drivers' Championship at the season finale. Mansell had the opportunity to both winning his first Drivers' Championship overall and becoming Britain's first World Drivers' Champion since James Hunt in . If Prost won, he would have successfully defended his title, while Piquet had the chance to win his third world championship overall, becoming Brazil's most successful Formula One driver by the number of Drivers' Championships in the process, as he was tied with Emerson Fittipaldi, who won the drivers' title in and .

The championship would have been won by either of the top three drivers in the following manner:

Qualifying report

Qualifying saw Mansell take pole position from teammate Piquet by 0.3 seconds, with Ayrton Senna third in his Lotus, a further 0.2 seconds back. Prost was fourth but 1.2 seconds behind Mansell, followed by René Arnoux in the Ligier and Gerhard Berger in the Benetton. Completing the top ten were Keke Rosberg in the second McLaren, Philippe Alliot in the second Ligier, Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari and Philippe Streiff in the Tyrrell. Andrea de Cesaris surprised by taking eleventh, the best grid position for the Minardi team up to this point, ahead of Stefan Johansson in the second Ferrari, Teo Fabi in the second Benetton and Johnny Dumfries in the second Lotus.

Friday's qualifying was interrupted about halfway through by a sudden and heavy downpour which caught out both Patrick Tambay (Haas Lola) and Johansson who (in separate accidents) slid off the road behind the pits and across the wet, muddy grass of the Victoria Park Racecourse infield before hitting an unprotected concrete wall side on with both the Lola-Ford and the Ferrari wrecked upon impact. The wall, not previously seen as a problem as it was well off the track, had 2 rows of tyres protecting it by Saturday morning. Both drivers were OK other than general soreness and bruising.

Both McLaren drivers had a mystifying 2nd qualifying session. During the morning practice, Prost had been the fastest with a 1:19.121, 4 seconds inside the lap record, faster than Mansell's Friday qualifying time, 7/10ths faster than his own Friday time and faster even than Senna's 1985 pole time. However, while others around them improved on their Friday times, neither the reigning World Champion nor his soon to be retired team mate Rosberg (who was 2nd in the morning session) could get near the morning times in the afternoon, reporting a distinct lack of grip even before Streiff's Renault blew-up and all but ruined the last 20 minutes of qualifying after he coated the racing line down the Brabham Straight and around the right hand hairpin with a good amount of Elf's finest before parking his Tyrrell off to the inside of the hairpin exit.

Home country hero Alan Jones in his last drive in Formula One was, for a rare time, ahead of his team mate Tambay on the grid. Using a revised Ford engine, the Lola's qualified 15th and 17th, though both were over 4.3 seconds slower than Mansell's pole time.

The Australian Grand Prix also saw Tambay's Lola and the Lotus of Johnny Dumfries each carrying an onboard camera for television use. During qualifying, Martin Brundle's Tyrrell-Renault was timed at a fastest of all 205 mph on the 900 metre long Brabham Straight. Due to the FISA mandated turbo boost restrictions in (4.0 Bar) and (2.5 Bar), plus the cars having Naturally aspirated engines from , Brundle's speed would be the fastest ever recorded on the Adelaide Street Circuit.

Qualifying classification

Race report

The prospect of a three-way battle for the Drivers' Championship crown attracted a capacity crowd of 150,000 to the Adelaide circuit.

Mansell yielded the lead to Senna's Lotus at the second corner on lap 1 and fell behind both Piquet and Rosberg on the same lap. Piquet also overtook Senna on lap 1 to take the lead but it would last only six laps as on lap 7, Rosberg took the lead from Piquet and began to build a sizeable gap between himself and the rest of the field.

On lap 23 Piquet spun, although no damage was sustained to the car, and he continued the race despite dropping back several places. Prost suffered a puncture a few laps later and he dropped to fourth position after having to pit. Piquet charged back through the field, passing Mansell for second place on lap 44, but Prost closed on the two Williams cars and, with 25 laps to go, all three championship contenders were running together in positions 2, 3 and 4.

The battle became one for the lead on lap 63 when Rosberg suffered a right rear tyre failure and retired from the race. Rosberg later revealed that he would never have won the race anyway unless Prost failed to finish or had sufficient problem not to be able to challenge, as he had promised Prost and the team that he would give best to his teammate to help his bid to win back-to-back championships. Prost had just passed Mansell for third which became second when Rosberg retired, with Piquet now leading. Mansell only needed a third-place finish to win the championship.

Mansell was still in third position when, on lap 64, his left rear tyre exploded at 180 mph on the high-speed Brabham Straight as he was lapping Alliot's Ligier, sending a shower of sparks flying behind him and severely damaging his left rear suspension. The Williams coasted to a stop in the run-off area at the end of the straight, Mansell managing to avoid hitting anything. Fearing the same happening to the second car, Williams called Piquet to the pits and Prost took the lead. Piquet would make a late charge, closing the gap from 15.484 seconds with 2 laps remaining to just 4.205 at the finish and Prost claimed both the race and the World Championship. Prost had so little fuel left that he pulled up only metres past the finish line.

In his last race for Ferrari, Johansson completed the podium in third place, albeit a lap down on Prost and Piquet. Martin Brundle ran out of fuel as he crossed the line in fourth place in his Tyrrell. His teammate Streiff was classified fifth, two laps down, with Dumfries taking the final point in his Lotus.

By winning, Prost became the first and so far only driver to ever win the Australian Grand Prix in both non-championship and World Championship form, having won the non-championship 1982 Australian Grand Prix run for Formula Pacific cars at the Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne.

This was the last race for the Renault turbo engine, the French company being the pioneers in Formula One turbocharging back in , as well as Renault's last F1 race as an engine supplier until their return with Williams in . It was also the last F1 race for two former World Champions, champion Alan Jones and champion Rosberg, as well as the last race for Patrick Tambay, Dumfries, Allen Berg and Huub Rothengatter, and for Team Haas, whom both Jones and Tambay drove for.

Race classification

Championship standings after the race

• Bold text indicates the World Champions. ;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

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

References

|Previous_year's_race = 1985 Australian Grand Prix |Next_year's_race = 1987 Australian Grand Prix

References

1. "Australia 1986".
2. Contemporary race broadcast recordings confirm the lap length of 3779 m (via best lap time/speed combinations shown during the race).
3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_AipMw4Ox0 1986 Australian Grand Prix - Tambay practice crash]
4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmmzVsWFDs0 1986 Australian Grand Prix - Johansson practice crash]
5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfkmjNpmQaM 1986 Australian Grand Prix - 2nd Qualifying (Ch.9/BBC)]
6. (1986). "Grand Prix - 1986 Formula One World Championship". Garry Sparke & Associates.
7. (31 March 2006). "Australian classic – Adelaide, 1986". Official Formula One website.
8. (23 May 2001). "Ask Nigel: May 23". AutoSport.
9. (18 October 2007). "Heartbreak for Mansell in dramatic Adelaide finale". F1Fanatic.
10. (December 1986). "Prost's end of term surprise!".
11. "1986 Australian Grand Prix". Formula1.com.
12. (26 October 1986). "1986 Australian Grand Prix – Race Results & History – GP Archive".
13. "Australia 1986 – Championship".