1987 Belgian Grand Prix

Background

The event, officially called the Grand Prix de Belgique, was held at the 6.940 km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps outside the Belgian village of Francorchamps. Untimed free practice sessions were held on the mornings of Friday 15 May, Saturday 16 May, and Sunday 17 May 1987, with timed qualifying practice sessions held on the Friday and Saturday afternoons and the main Grand Prix race itself held on the Sunday afternoon. Twenty-six cars were entered by fifteen constructors. All teams used Goodyear tyres. Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS), Arrows, Benetton Formula, Scuderia Ferrari, Ligier, Team Lotus, McLaren, Minardi, Tyrrell Racing, Williams, and Zakspeed had all modified their cars to varying extents ahead of this event. Friday practice was wet with temperatures below 7 C. The race was held in dry conditions with temperatures around 11 C.

Race summary

Qualifying runs saw the two Williams FW11Bs take the front row, with Nigel Mansell on the pole, nearly 1.5 seconds faster than Nelson Piquet. Certainly, Piquet was still suffering the results of his accident at Imola. Ayrton Senna took the third place in his Lotus 99T ahead of the two Ferrari F1/87s of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto.

The race required two starts. On the first start Mansell took the lead ahead of Senna, Piquet and Alboreto. At the back of the grid René Arnoux (Ligier JS29B) and Andrea de Cesaris (Brabham BT56) tangled, whilst Thierry Boutsen (Benetton B187) hit Berger's spinning Ferrari F1/87. A more serious accident befell Philippe Streiff who crashed heavily at the Eau Rouge before the wreckage was hit by Tyrrell teammate Jonathan Palmer; both were unhurt but their Tyrrell DG016s were reduced to scrap. By virtue of qualifying 23rd to his teammate's 24th, and ironically by crashing first, Streiff was given the spare car for the restart forcing Palmer out of the race.

On the second start, Senna led Mansell away, but during lap one the Briton tried to overtake the Brazilian. The two controversially tangled, leading to the retirement of the Lotus 99T. Mansell rejoined the race at the back, until the damage sustained in the collision finally forced him to retire on lap 17. Mansell subsequently visited the Lotus garage where harsh words were exchanged and punches were thrown.

Berger retired on lap three with a broken piston whilst on lap 10 second place Michele Alboreto's wheel bearing broke and Nelson Piquet retired with a broken turbo pipe, handing the lead to Alain Prost from Teo Fabi and Stefan Johansson. The pitstops changed little in the situation, and he maintained this to win easily by 25 seconds, despite concerns with his fuel consumption due to a faulty gauge.

This was Prost's 27th win, equalling Jackie Stewart's record with team-mate Johansson making it a McLaren 1-2. Andrea de Cesaris drove superbly to finish third for Brabham despite having to push his car over the line with Eddie Cheever (Arrows A10), Satoru Nakajima (Lotus 99T) and Arnoux taking the remaining points. With the setbacks to the Tyrrell drivers, the Jim Clark points were won by the Lola LC87 of Philippe Alliot. , this was also the last time that the Belgian Grand Prix was held at the beginning of the season; since 1988, it has always been held in July, August or September.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

Numbers in brackets refer to positions of normally aspirated entrants competing for the Jim Clark Trophy.

Championship 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.

References

| Previous_year's_race = 1986 Belgian Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 1988 Belgian Grand Prix

References

1. "1987 Belgian GP". [[Motor Sport (magazine).
2. (1987). "Autocourse 1987-88". Hazleton Publishing.
3. "1987 Belgian Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1".
4. "1987 Belgian Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2".
5. "1987 Belgian Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING".
6. "1987 Belgian Grand Prix - STARTING GRID".
7. "1987 Belgian Grand Prix". formula1.com.
8. "Belgium 1987 - Championship • STATS F1".