1987 Spanish Grand Prix

Summary

Nelson Piquet secured his 24th and final F1 pole position in his Williams-Honda with Nigel Mansell completing an all-Williams front row. The race was comfortably won by Mansell who passed Piquet at the end of the first lap and was never headed. The battle for third (then second) was led for much of the time by Ayrton Senna, who like the previous year tried to complete the race without changing tyres. Both Senna and Lotus were of the opinion that the 99T's computerised active suspension system would help preserve his tyres throughout the race.

Senna had a queue of both Ferraris, Prost's McLaren and Thierry Boutsen's Benetton behind him, which was joined by Piquet after a long pit-stop. For lap after lap, Senna held off all-comers, similar to Gilles Villeneuve's performance in his Ferrari at Jarama for the 1981 Spanish Grand Prix. The Lotus-Honda was very fast in a straight line with a low downforce setup, but was slow through Jerez's many twists and turns as a result. Senna's pursuers could not pass him on the long pit straight, and with Jerez generally having a lot of dust and sand off the racing line, they were not able pass him through the corners without losing grip.

However, Piquet's similarly powered Williams was able to get by (not before having a spin) followed eventually by Boutsen and Prost as the Brazilian's tyres finally went off. Senna faded to finish fifth, but the battle for second continued between Boutsen and Piquet - Boutsen went out avoiding Piquet who was rejoining the track after having gone off - and then between Piquet and Prost, with Prost getting the better of the Williams driver who also lost third place to McLaren's Stefan Johansson who put in another strong drive. Both Ferraris blew their engines.

Martin Brundle, who finished 11th in his Zakspeed, described his drive as "the time I got out the car thinking no human could have done [any] better".

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 Spanish Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 1988 Spanish Grand Prix

References

1. [[F1 Racing]], October 2009, ''You Ask The Questions''
2. "1987 Tio Pepe Spanish Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1".
3. "1987 Tio Pepe Spanish Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2".
4. "1987 Tio Pepe Spanish Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING".
5. "1987 Spanish Grand Prix". formula1.com.
6. "Spain 1987 - Championship • STATS F1".