Brazilian GP 1985

Brazilian GP, 1985

Over the winter months there were only a few changes with McLaren (Alain Prost and Niki Lauda), Renault (Patrick Tambay and Derek Warwick), Ferrari (Michele Alboreto and Rene Arnoux) and Alfa Romeo (Riccardo Patrese and Eddie Cheever) unchanged. Tyrrell was due to run Martin Brundle and Stefan Bellof but the German had a falling out with the team boss and so Tyrrell put Stefan Johansson in for the event, Toleman being unable to compete because it could not find tires, having fallen out with Pirelli and Goodyear refusing to supply more than eight teams. At Williams Keke Rosberg was joined by Nigel Mansell, while Jacques Laffite went back to Ligier as team mate to Andrea de Cesaris. This meant that Francois Hesnault moved to the second Brabham. ATS had closed down and so Gerhard Berger went to Arrows as partner to Thierry Boutsen while Lotus had hired Ayrton Senna to partner Elio de Angelis. Manfred Winkelhock joined Philippe Alliot at RAM, Jonathan Palmer having signed a deal with the new Zakspeed team (which would not appear until later in the year). Osella and Spirit struggled on with one car each: Piercarlo Ghinzani driving for the Italians and Mauro Baldi for Spirit. In addition there was the new Cosworth-engined Minardi driven by Pierluigi Martini. A Motori-Moderni turbo engine would follow later.

With only 25 cars everyone qualified in Brazil and Alboreto put one of the new Ferrari 156/85s on pole ahead of Rosberg, de Angelis, Senna, Mansell, Prost, Arnoux, Piquet, Lauda and Warwick. Fuel economy remained an important issue but the development of electronic engine management systems meant that there were fewer problems than in 1984.

Rosberg took the lead at the first corner while Alboreto had to fend off Mansell. The Englishman tried to go around the outside of the Ferrari and ended up in the catchfencing. Mansell did get going again but retired early. Alboreto's car did not handle well after the incident. Rosberg led for the first nine laps but on the tenth he suffered a turbocharger failure and Alboreto was left in the lead with Prost being him and Senna third until Lauda appeared as usual. On lap 19 Prost took the lead and motored away. Lauda disappeared with electronic problems and so Prost and Alboreto ended up being shadowed by the two Lotuses: Senna ahead of de Angelis, until Senna went out with electronic trouble in the closing laps. That left third place to de Angelis and fourth to Arnoux with Tambay and Laffite completing the points scorers.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  61 1h41m26.115s  
27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  61 1h41m29.374s  
11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault  60  
28 Rene Arnoux Ferrari  59  
15 Patrick Tambay Renault  59  11 
26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault  59  15 
Stefan Johansson Tyrrell-Cosworth  58  23 
Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Cosworth  58  21 
10 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart  58  20 
10 16 Derek Warwick Renault  57  10 
11 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW  57  12 
12 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo  57  22 
13 Manfred Winkelhock RAM-Hart  57  16 
17 Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW  51 Suspension 19 
12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault  48 Electrics 
23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo  42 Engine 18 
29 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Cosworth  41 Engine 25 
Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG Porsche  27 Fuel Metering Unit 
25 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault  26 Accident Damage 13 
22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo  20 Puncture 14 
Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda  10 Turbo 
Francois Hesnault Brabham-BMW  Accident Damage 13 
Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda  Accident/exhaust 
21 Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart  Turbo/misfire 24 
Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW  Accident