Race
Originally scheduled to take place on 2 June 1985, the Grand Prix was rescheduled for September after the recently resurfaced track became damaged during the race weekend. Missing from the grid was an injured Niki Lauda. At the end of Friday's practice session before qualifying proper, his McLaren MP4/2B's throttle stuck open while he was only touring back to the pits. The car slid off the track on the newer section of track and the three time and defending World Champion hit a guardrail and on impact the steering wheel whipped around wrenching his wrist as it did so. X-rays revealed no break but Lauda was not fit to race so he returned home to Austria for further... Prost took pole position, averaging 135.929 mph (218.756 km/h) from Senna with Nelson Piquet qualifying third in his Brabham BT54 , with Alboreto fourth in his Ferrari 156/85 . Rain fell before the race leaving the grid to form on a damp track with wet-weather tyres for the first time since Senna won in Portugal . Senna won the start from Piquet but the Brabham spun at the first corner. Senna led from Prost, Mansell and the two Ferraris of Alboreto and Stefan Johansson . The Ferraris were soon o... Although the marshals led the cars directly into the pits after finish, Ayrton Senna drove around them and took a lap of honour.
Track surface and postponement
This was the second Belgian Grand Prix to occur at a reconfigured Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps , with the first being the 1983 race . Race organisers opted to resurface the track with a material called Stress Absorbing Membrane Interlayer that intended to provide improved grip in wet-weather conditions at a cost of £3 million. Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA), the governing body of Formula One, was queried about the resurfacing work and replied it would approve if... Warm weather, the powerful turbocharged cars of the time, and their wide, slick tyres, damaged the track during the Friday practice session. Repairs to the circuit were conducted overnight and undamaged turns were also addressed. After around 25 minutes into the Saturday practice session, all on-track activity stopped, since drivers noticed the damage and held a series of meetings. One suggestion was to cancel the remainder of the day's activities, the Sunday morning warm-up se...
Race Result
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 27 | Michele Alboreto | Ferrari | 1:56.046 |
| 2.0 | 11 | Elio de Angelis | Lotus-Renault | 1:56.273 |
| 3.0 | 12 | Ayrton Senna | Lotus-Renault | 1:56.473 |
| 4.0 | 15 | Patrick Tambay | Renault | 1:56.586 |
| 5.0 | 28 | Stefan Johansson | Ferrari | 1:57.506 |
| 6.0 | 6 | Keke Rosberg | Williams-Honda | 1:57.705 |
| 7.0 | 7 | Nelson Piquet | Brabham-BMW | 1:58.122 |
| 8.0 | 25 | Andrea de Cesaris | Ligier-Renault | 1:58.302 |
| 9.0 | 17 | Gerhard Berger | Arrows-BMW | 1:58.343 |
| 10.0 | 1 | Niki Lauda | McLaren-TAG | 1:58.374 |
Qualifying
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Alain Prost | McLaren-TAG | 1:56.563 | 1:55.306 |
| 2 | 12 | Ayrton Senna | Lotus-Renault | 2:00.710 | 1:55.403 |
| 3 | 7 | Nelson Piquet | Brabham-BMW | 1:56.643 | 1:55.648 |
| 4 | 27 | Michele Alboreto | Ferrari | 1:56.999 | 1:56.021 |
| 5 | 28 | Stefan Johansson | Ferrari | 1:56.585 | 1:56.746 |
| 6 | 18 | Thierry Boutsen | Arrows-BMW | 1:59.046 | 1:56.697 |
| 7 | 5 | Nigel Mansell | Williams-Honda | 1:56.727 | 1:56.996 |
| 8 | 17 | Gerhard Berger | Arrows-BMW | 1:56.770 | |
| 9 | 11 | Elio de Angelis | Lotus-Renault | 1:58.852 | 1:57.322 |
| 10 | 6 | Keke Rosberg | Williams-Honda | 1:57.582 | 1:57.465 |
The Paddock Breakdown
Barry · Gary · KatGary — 33 · Three Fantasy F1 leagues
The rain, a bruised purple against the asphalt, seemed to mirror the tension clinging to Spa. Alain Prost, tucked behind Mansell in the Williams, wrestled with the Renault engine – a notoriously temperamental beast even on a dry day, its 2. 0-liter displacement struggling to find purchase through the slick curves. A subtle shift in throttle application, almost imperceptible, betrayed Prost's calculated risk; a desperate attempt to coax an extra 30 horsepower from the engine's heart. The Lotus 97T, meanwhile, remained a study in elegant aggression, Senna's touch seemingly anticipating the track's every nuance.
The rain, a bruised grey slick across Spa's asphalt, seemed to mirror the tension coiled around the pit wall. Ayrton, a young man sculpted from ambition and a fierce, almost unsettling, focus, wrestled the Lotus 97T through Blanchimont, a ghost of a smile flickering across his face – a momentary release before the brutal calculus of the track demanded his full attention. Twenty-eight seconds. That's all it took to cement his position, a gap that, considering the inherent volatility of this circuit and the raw speed of Mansell's Williams, felt less like a triumph and more like a carefully constructed fortress. The statistical anomaly here wasn't simply Senna's win; it was the almost glacial pace of Prost's Ferrari – a stark contrast to the Frenchman's usual dominance.
Kat — 30 · Technical journalist
The rain, a venomous grey slick, had seized the track, mirroring the turmoil in Senna's eyes. A fractured radio transmission – a strangled plea from his engineer – had vanished into the storm's howl. Twenty-eight seconds. That was all that separated him from a second victory here, a brutal testament to the fragility of control. He wrestled with the Lotus, a machine suddenly a capricious beast, feeling the raw, unforgiving power beneath his fingertips. Mansell, a relentless shadow, was closing, the Williams a predator in the deluge. Prost, predictably, remained a silent, calculating presence, a master sculptor shaping the race from the periphery. This wasn't merely a victory; it was a battle against the very elements, a desperate assertion of will against the capricious heart of Spa.
The rain, a bruised grey slick, clung to the asphalt, mirroring the apprehension tightening around Nigel Mansell's jaw. He adjusted his gloves, a restless fidget, a familiar habit born of pressure, of knowing the margin by which he'd been denied victory just moments before. Senna, a cool, almost detached presence in his cockpit, had simply… slipped through, a ghost in the mist. Mansell felt the familiar burn of frustration, a potent cocktail of speed and circumstance. It wasn't the car's fault, not entirely, but the weight of expectation, the relentless pursuit of perfection, threatened to crush him. Prost, predictably, was a shadow in P3, the master strategist already calculating the ripple effect on the championship standings. The Spa rain, it seemed, wasn't just dampening the track, but amplifying the simmering tensions of the season.