1987 German Grand Prix

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1987 German Grand Prix
Race 8 of 16 in the 1987 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 26 July 1987
Official name Mobil Grosser Preis von Deutschland
Location Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, West Germany
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 6.802 km (4.227[1] miles)
Distance 44 laps, 299.068 km (185.832 miles)
Pole position
Driver Williams-Honda
Time 1:42.616[2]
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda
Time 1:45.716[2] on lap 24
Podium
First Williams-Honda
Second McLaren-TAG
Third Lotus-Honda
Lap leaders

The 1987 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Hockenheimring on 26 July 1987. It was the eighth round of the 1987 Formula One season. It was the 49th German Grand Prix and the eleventh to be held at the Hockenheimring. It was held over 44 laps of the seven kilometre circuit for a race distance of 298.760 km (185.812 mi).

Pre-race[edit]

In the week leading up to the German Grand Prix a number of teams tested at the Hockenheim circuit. During testing Ayrton Senna had a very lucky escape when he had a rear tyre failure at over 300 km/h (186 mph) on the long straight leading to the Bremsschikane. The rear corner of his Lotus 99T was destroyed and parts were reported to be hard to find as most ended up flying off into the forest. As a result of the crash Goodyear took the precaution of immediately flying in new compound tyres from their plant in Akron in the United States in time for the Grand Prix weekend.

The tyre failure was determined to be the result of Senna picking up a puncture late on his previous lap. However the Lotus' active suspension system compensated for that and kept the car at its correct ride height, masking the problem from Senna. This caused many to question the system as the general belief was that with a passively suspended car Senna would have known he had a puncture and would not have continued to drive at high speed.

Race[edit]

The race was won by eventual 1987 World Champion, Nelson Piquet driving a Williams FW11B. It was his first win of the season and his third win in the German Grand Prix having previously won for Brabham in 1981, and Williams in the previous year. Piquet won by over a minute and a half from Swedish driver Stefan Johansson driving a McLaren MP4/3, who coasted over the finish line on three wheels due to a tyre puncture suffered just past the pits on his last lap. The Swede's second place was the 50th podium finish for the Porsche-designed TAG turbo engine. Piquet inherited the win after engine failure claimed his team-mate, Briton Nigel Mansell, and reigning champion, Frenchman Alain Prost (McLaren MP4/3). Ayrton Senna finished third in his Lotus 99T.

Just seven cars were classified at the end of the race, as the long straights took their toll on engine reliability. Naturally aspirated cars finished as high as fourth place with Frenchman Philippe Streiff leading home a team one-two in the Jim Clark/Colin Chapman Trophy standings for Tyrrell as Jonathan Palmer finished in fifth place. In sixth was French driver Philippe Alliot driving a Lola LC87 for the new Larrousse team. It was Alliot's second top six finish in Formula One and Larrousse's first world championship point, although the Constructor's Championship point would be credited to the chassis designers, Lola Cars.

Piquet's win vaulted him into the championship lead for the first time in 1987, putting him four points ahead of Senna and nine ahead of Mansell.

Classification[edit]

Qualifying[edit]

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:42.616 2:00.832
2 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 1:42.873 1:01:19.245 +0.257
3 1 France Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:43.202 no time +0.586
4 6 Brazil Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:43.705 no time +1.089
5 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:43.921 2:05.139 +1.305
6 20 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:45.066 2:02.981 +2.450
7 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 1:45.411 no time +2.795
8 2 Sweden Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 1:45.428 no time +2.812
9 19 Italy Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 1:45.497 2:06.857 +2.881
10 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:45.902 2:03.172 +3.286
11 7 Italy Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:46.096 no time +3.480
12 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 1:46.323 no time +3.707
13 17 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:46.525 no time +3.909
14 11 Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:46.760 no time +4.144
15 18 United States Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:47.780 2:04.003 +5.164
16 24 Italy Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:47.887 no time +5.271
17 26 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 1:49.236 2:09.440 +6.620
18 23 Spain Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:49.668 no time +7.052
19 9 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Zakspeed 1:51.062 2:12.913 +8.446
20 10 West Germany Christian Danner Zakspeed 1:51.448 2:11.115 +8.832
21 30 France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:52.760 2:11.588 +10.144
22 4 France Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 1:53.528 2:10.404 +10.912
23 3 United Kingdom Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:54.491 2:06.769 +11.875
24 16 Italy Ivan Capelli March-Ford 1:54.616 2:09.992 +12.000
25 14 France Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 1:54.997 no time +12.381
26 21 Italy Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 6:04.561 2:07.753 +25.137
Source:[3][4][5]

Race[edit]

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 6 Brazil Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 44 1:21:25.091 4 9
2 2 Sweden Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 44 + 1:39.591 8 6
3 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 43 + 1 Lap 2 4
4 (1) 4 France Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 22 3
5 (2) 3 United Kingdom Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 23 2
6 (3) 30 France Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 42 + 2 Laps 21 1
7 1 France Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 39 Electrical 3  
NC 9 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Zakspeed 34 + 10 Laps 19  
Ret 26 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 32 Engine 17  
Ret 23 Spain Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 28 Engine 18  
Ret 20 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 26 Engine 6  
Ret 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 25 Engine 1  
Ret 24 Italy Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 25 Engine 16  
Ret 17 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 23 Turbo 13  
Ret 10 West Germany Christian Danner Zakspeed 21 Halfshaft 20  
Ret 28 Austria Gerhard Berger Ferrari 19 Turbo 10  
Ret 19 Italy Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 18 Engine 9  
Ret 21 Italy Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 17 Engine 26  
Ret 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 12 Engine 7  
Ret 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 10 Turbo 5  
Ret 14 France Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 10 Engine 25  
Ret 18 United States Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 9 Throttle 15  
Ret 11 Japan Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 9 Turbo[6] 14  
Ret 16 Italy Ivan Capelli March-Ford 7 Engine 24  
Ret 25 France René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 6 Ignition 12  
Ret 7 Italy Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 5 Ignition 11  
Source:[7]

Championship standings after the race[edit]

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

References[edit]

  1. ^ "1987 German Grand Prix | Motorsport Database".
  2. ^ a b Hamilton, Maurice (1987). AUTOCOURSE 1987-88. Hazleton Publishing. p. 157. ISBN 0-905138-47-3.
  3. ^ "Mobil German Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  4. ^ "Mobil German Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2". formula1.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  5. ^ "Mobil German Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING". formula1.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  6. ^ Pritchard, Anthony (March 2006). Lotus: The Competition Cars. Haynes Publishing. p. 246. ISBN 1-84425-006-7.
  7. ^ "1987 German Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  8. ^ a b "Germany 1987 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.


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