Italian GP 1987

SEPTEMBER 6, 1987

Italian GP, 1987

The field was expanded at Monza by the arrival of the new Coloni team, fielding Nicola Larini. The Osella team expanded to two cars with Franco Forini joining Alex Caffi. Honda had announced that it would not be supplying Williams with engines in 1988, despite the fact the Japanese company still had one year to go on its contract. Honda had decided that it wanted to be with McLaren. This led to questions over whether Honda would treat the two Williams drivers fairly in the battle for the World Championship as Nelson Piquet would be a Honda driver in 1988 and Mansell would not. The Honda men said that it made no difference but few believed them.

The Williams team had its new active-suspension system ready and Nelson Piquet used it, while Nigel Mansell stayed with a conventional car.

Piquet took pole position with Mansell a tenth behind him but Ayrton Senna was beaten the third place by Gerhard Berger's Ferrari. Then came Thierry Boutsen (Benetton-Ford), Alain Prost's McLaren-TAG, Michele Alboreto's Ferrari and Teo Fabi's Benetton. The top 10 was completed by the two Brabhams of Andrea de Cesaris and Riccardo Patrese.

At the start of the race Mansell made a good start but then missed a gearchange and so Piquet went into the lead at the first corner with Berger third ahead of Boutsen, Prost and Senna. At the start of the second lap Berger challenged for second place and Mansell closed the door so the tow cars collided and Boutsen moved to second place with Berger third and Mansell fourth. The order then remained the same until Mansell was finally able to pass Berger on lap 17. he then overtook Boutsen as well.

The mid-race pit stops put Senna into the lead and it looked as though he might be able to go without a pit stop as he had done in Monaco and Detroit. The two Williams-Hondas were second and third with Boutsen behind them. Senna looked fine until lap 43 when he was lapping Piercarlo Ghinzani's Ligier and went off across a sand trap at the Parabolica. By the time he was back on the track Piquet was in the lead. Senna tried to regain the place but his tires would not allow him to challenge and so they finished with Piquet two seconds ahead. Mansell was third with Berger fourth, Boutsen fifth and Stefan Johansson (McLaren) sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda  50 1h14m47.707s  
12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda  50 1h14m49.513s  
Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda  50 1h15m36.743s  
28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari  50 1h15m45.686s  
20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Cosworth  50 1h16m09.026s  
Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG Porsche  50 1h16m16.494s  11 
19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Cosworth  49  
26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron  48  19 
10 Christian Danner Zakspeed  48  16 
10 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Megatron  48  15 
11 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda  47  14 
12 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Cosworth  47  24 
13 16 Ivan Capelli March-Cosworth  47  25 
14 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Cosworth  47  22 
15 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  46  
16r 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni  45 Out Of Fuel 18 
Martin Brundle Zakspeed  43 Gearbox 17 
30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Cosworth  37 Accident 23 
23 Adrian Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni  34 Fuel Filter/fire 20 
18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron  27 Cv Joint 13 
22 Franco Forini Osella-Alfa Romeo  27 Turbo 26 
21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo  16 Suspension 21 
27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  13 Turbo 
17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron  Fuel Metering Unit 12 
Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW  Suspension 10 
Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  Engine 
nq 32 Nicola Larini Coloni-Cosworth    27 
nq 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Cosworth    28