1986 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

Background

Going into the race, three drivers were in contention for the World Championship. Nigel Mansell , driving a Williams - Honda , led with 70 points, while reigning champion Alain Prost , driving a McLaren - TAG , was second on 64 and Mansell's teammate Nelson Piquet was third on 63. The Williams-Honda was superior in speed to the McLaren-TAG, with Mansell and Piquet having won nine of the previous fifteen races between them, and the team sealing the Constructors' Championship at the Portuguese Grand Prix in late September. However, Mansell and Piquet had been battling with one another and had taken points from each other on a number of occasions, while Prost's consistency had seen him accumulate points all year and thus remain in touch with the Williams drivers. Nonetheless, Mansell went into the race in the strongest position among the three drivers, needing only to finish third or higher to take the title, while Prost and Piquet both needed to win to have any chance.

Qualifying report

Qualifying saw Mansell take pole position from teammate Piquet by 0.3 seconds, with Ayrton Senna third in his Lotus , a further 0.2 seconds back. Prost was fourth but 1.2 seconds behind Mansell, followed by René Arnoux in the Ligier and Gerhard Berger in the Benetton . Completing the top ten were Keke Rosberg in the second McLaren, Philippe Alliot in the second Ligier, Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari and Philippe Streiff in the Tyrrell . Andrea de Cesaris surprised by taking eleventh, the best g... Friday's qualifying was interrupted about halfway through by a sudden and heavy downpour which caught out both Patrick Tambay ( Haas Lola ) and Johansson who (in separate accidents) slid off the road behind the pits and across the wet, muddy grass of the Victoria Park Racecourse infield before hitting an unprotected concrete wall side on with both the Lola - Ford and the Ferrari wrecked upon impact. The wall, not previously seen as a problem as it was well off the track, had 2 rows o... Both McLaren drivers had a mystifying 2nd qualifying session. During the morning practice, Prost had been the fastest with a 1:19.121, 4 seconds inside the lap record, faster than Mansell's Friday qualifying time, 7/10ths faster than his own Friday time and faster even than Senna's 1985 pole time. However, while others around them improved on their Friday times, neither the reigning World Champion nor his soon to be retired team mate Rosberg (who was 2nd in the morning session) could get near th... Home country hero Alan Jones in his last drive in Formula One was, for a rare time, ahead of his team mate Tambay on the grid. Using a revised Ford engine, the Lola's qualified 15th and 17th, though both were over 4.3 seconds slower than Mansell's pole time. The Australian Grand Prix also saw Tambay's Lola and the Lotus of Johnny Dumfries each carrying an onboard camera for television use. During qualifying, Martin Brundle 's Tyrrell-Renault was timed at a fastest of all 205 mph (330 km/h) on the 900 metre long Brabham Straight. Due to the FISA mandated turbo boost restrictions in 1987 (4.0 Bar) and 1988 (2.5 Bar), plus the cars having Naturally aspirated engines from 1989 , Brundle's speed would be the fastest ever recorded on the Adelaide Street C...

Race report

The prospect of a three-way battle for the Drivers' Championship crown attracted a capacity crowd of 150,000 to the Adelaide circuit. Mansell yielded the lead to Senna's Lotus at the second corner on lap 1 and fell behind both Piquet and Rosberg on the same lap. Piquet also overtook Senna on lap 1 to take the lead but it would last only six laps as on lap 7, Rosberg took the lead from Piquet and began to build a sizeable gap between himself and the rest of the field. On lap 23 Piquet spun, although no damage was sustained to the car, and he continued the race despite dropping back several places. Prost suffered a puncture a few laps later and he dropped to fourth position after having to pit. Piquet charged back through the field, passing Mansell for second place on lap 44, but Prost closed on the two Williams cars and, with 25 laps to go, all three championship contenders were running together in positions 2, 3 and 4. The battle became one for the lead on lap 63 when Rosberg suffered a right rear tyre failure and retired from the race. Rosberg later revealed that he would never have won the race anyway unless Prost failed to finish or had sufficient problem not to be able to challenge, as he had promised Prost and the team that he would give best to his teammate to help his bid to win back-to-back championships. Prost had just passed Mansell for third which became second when Rosberg retired, wi... Mansell was still in third position when, on lap 64, his left rear tyre exploded at 290 km/h (180 mph) on the high-speed Brabham Straight as he was lapping Alliot's Ligier, sending a shower of sparks flying behind him and severely damaging his left rear suspension. The Williams coasted to a stop in the run-off area at the end of the straight, Mansell managing to avoid hitting anything. Fearing the same happening to the second car, Williams called Piquet to the pits and Prost took the lead. Pique...